The King Crimson principle of “New music - whenever it was written,” seems also to apply to the words to this item of classic Crim. Although written in 1969, Peter Sinfield’s darkly pessimistic lyric always has a knack of sounding like it might be offering a comment on the declining international situation of any given day. Alongside the chilly mellotron lines, the guitar intro and bridging section seems particularly mournful on this reading.