There's a certain quiet honour in a failure It's a subtle thing and subtle things are rare But to know it you've got to be it, you've got to know the quiet shame Of a life, wasted We are all broken-necked Dreiser got it right the west's a tragedy And they get you in a boat out on a lake It's to know your hopes and be tied by ropes on a bridge above a river With dreams of a future, with dreams of escape. We are all broken-necked There's something evil in the night It's creeping across the atlantic It makes you think you've got a right To happiness and then it's tragic when you're proved wrong We are all broken-necked Swinging from the timbers at owl creek bridge