Through a Thousand Lives

[Instrumental Intro] [bagpipes, distant war drums, Highland whistle and clean electric guitar] [Verse 1] I woke where the heather lay heavy with rain With blood on my clothes and no mark of the blade The faces around me drew back from my eyes For they buried a man who refused to die The fire went dark and the doorway was closed I walked from the valley with nowhere to go The mountains behind me still called through the night But home was a life I had already outlived [Pre-Chorus] So I followed the road Wherever it ran Learning the world And forgetting the man [Chorus] Through a thousand lives, I wore a thousand names I watched the centuries turn to smoke and flame Every road beneath a different sky Still led to the man who was too young to die Let the borders move, let the old walls fall I have left a piece of me inside them all Through a thousand lives, whatever I became The Highland wind still remembered my name [Verse 2] I stood in the courts where the candlelight burned I crossed fields of cannon smoke while empires turned I followed the rails into cities of steel And learned every language but how not to feel I carried new papers and practiced new lies New coats on my shoulders, old wars in my eyes A merchant, a soldier, a stranger, a friend Each life had a beginning but never an end [Pre-Chorus] Every mirror revealed The same face beneath While the whole world grew older And vanished from me [Chorus] Through a thousand lives, I wore a thousand names I watched the centuries turn to smoke and flame Every road beneath a different sky Still led to the man who was too young to die Let the borders move, let the old walls fall I have left a piece of me inside them all Through a thousand lives, whatever I became The Highland wind still remembered my name [Verse 3] You grew silver beside me while I stayed the same And never once looked at my youth with blame You held to my hand as the winter drew near And taught me forever was something to fear I counted your breaths in the pale morning light Then carried your memory alone through the night Of all of the wounds that the years could provide The deepest was living when you had to die [Breakdown] I have died as a clansman A husband, a king As every lost version The new ages bring But one heart remembers What time leaves behind The names may be borrowed The memories are mine [Orchestral Build] [Choir, rising strings, war drums and ascending electric guitar] [Final Chorus] Through a thousand lives, I wore a thousand names I walked through the darkness and carried every flame Every soul I loved, every last goodbye Lives within the man who was too young to die Let the mountains break, let the heavens fall I will bear the years, I will remember all Through a thousand lives, whatever I became The Highland wind still remembers my name [Final Refrain] A thousand roads A thousand skies A thousand deaths But only one life A thousand masks Consumed by time But every man I left behind Was mine [Outro] [Highland bagpipes repeats the opening melody over fading guitar and strings] The Highland wind still remembers my name