[Intro – warm Fender Rhodes dripping like liquid gold, fingerstyle acoustic guitar, soft electric bass pulse, distant waves lapping the shore at dusk] Mmm… velvet fire… on the waterline… [Verse 1] Sun’s going down on the Pacific again Painting the water like it’s burning from within We walk that same stretch of sand we knew Where everything started back in ’72 Your hand brushes mine like we’re still afraid To let the whole world see what we made [Pre-Chorus] The fog rolls in, but the heat stays behind your eyes [Chorus] Velvet fire on the waterline Burning slow between your heart and mine No one sees it when the daylight dies Just you and me and the California sky Velvet fire… mystical and true This love we hide is the only thing we can’t undo [Verse 2] We sing our secrets under stage lights every night Two voices blending till they feel like one light They clap and cheer but they don’t understand How the real show starts when we leave the bandstand That July secret we still carry in our chest The one we almost named… the one we never confessed [Chorus] Velvet fire on the waterline Burning slow between your heart and mine No one sees it when the daylight dies Just you and me and the California sky Velvet fire… mystical and true This love we hide is the only thing we can’t undo [Bridge – intimate, almost whispered over sparse piano and faint ocean phosphorescence shimmer] They’ll analyze the lyrics looking for clues The way you look at me in the final verse of “Pierlight” The way my harmony always trembles on your name Some say the baby lives in every love song we play Some say we died on that boardwalk night and came back anyway Mystics call it fate… we just call it flame [Extended Chorus – layered harmonies swell, slow and aching] Velvet fire on the waterline Even when the tide tries to take what’s mine It keeps returning like the moon pulls the sea This quiet religion between you and me Velvet fire… too real to ever name Velvet fire… forever in the flame [Outro – long atmospheric fade, ocean waves and echoing harmonies, voices almost disappearing into the dusk] On the waterline… velvet fire… (whispered, barely audible) Tara… Cal… only we know why… Velvet fire… on the waterline…
