The Bridge

[Intro: slow whistled melody, minor key, clean guitar] [Verse 1] Bornholmer Strasse, November and cold, Twenty thousand at the fence And nobody told. A boy at a desk With a radio on Set his keys on the table, And then he was gone. [Verse 2] A colonel at the gate And a phone that won't ring, He looked into our faces And he opened everything. [Pre-Chorus] They said it on the television, A tired man who lost his place. He couldn't find the hour, So he said it to our face: [Chorus: big drums, crowd chant] Immediately! Without delay! Tor auf, tor auf, Open the gate! Everybody said it that night With champagne running down the Wall. Everybody said it that night, And I said nothing at all. [Verse 3] A man in a fur hat On the far side of the wire Watched his whole world walking out Through the smoke of the file fire. I raised my hand to him. I can't tell you why. He turned into the dark, And the dark let him by. [Verse 4] Up on the Wall at three, The hammers on the stone, She held my broken hand Like something of her own. [Guitar Solo] [Bridge: quiet, half-spoken] Gray light in the kitchen, She's wearing my shirt, Turning her cup a full turn round, Waiting on a word. Sag es. Sag es jetzt. The radio's still talking For the whole world to hear, And she's writing to a man Who asks her every year. [Final Chorus: full band, crowd chant] Immediately! Without delay! Tor auf, tor auf, Open the gate! Everybody said it that night With champagne running down the Wall. Everybody said it that night, And I never said it at all. [Outro: whistled melody, faster, major key] [Fade out] [End]