Music & Lyrics: M.L. Hammond

he sits in front of the radar screen
watching the signal, watching the planes
go pulsing across, leaving their tracks of light
there’s a buddy on the line now from Byron Bay
he’s probably lonely but he’d never say
he’s just looking for some kind of comfort
in this twenty-four hour night

they call it defending the country
he calls it saving up money
don’t quite know what he’s saving for
but as soon as he’s got just a little bit more
he’ll be going outside for good

but look out that you don’t get caught now
’cause some find their way back but some do not
you gotta watch for the warning signs
on the Distant Early Warning Line

oh he hasn’t seen a woman in five or six months
not since that night down in Cambridge Bay
she took him by surprise but
oh lord it was all right
well it’s not the getting laid
that you miss so much
it’s just someone to hold you,
someone to touch you
ah what he’d give to be held now
in this black and frozen night

well there’s always the telephone
but what’s the use, he’d still be alone
he tries to focus on the screen, only to find
that girl is moving like a track of light
across his mind, leaving him blind

chorus

and on leave he heads for the west coast
to the rolling blue Pacific
he lets the waves crash over his body
under a burning summer sky
but at night he dreams of silence
and a vast and frozen ocean
stretching white to the horizon
and he don’t know why

and he’s scared that he might be caught now
’cause some find their way back but some do not
they say dreams are a warning sign
on the Distant Early Warning Line
you gotta watch for the warning signs
on the Distant Early Warning Line