Is it black or is it white?

The Sparrows and the Nightingales

 Is it black or is it white? Let's find another compromise...

This poignant song speaks across the decades and to everybody I think.... touching personally and universally, especially in light of these days' happenings...

The Words

How long have you been free
In this world of ice and greed?

Is it black? Or is it white?
Let's find another compromise

And our future's standing still
We're dancing in the spotlight

Where is the leader who leads me?
I'm still waiting

Leaving home and God is on your side
Dividing sparrows from the nightingales

Watching all the time
Dividing water from the burning fire inside

And god is on your side
Dividing cruelty from tenderness

Watching all the time
Dividing fiction from reality

Move in circles walk on lines
No human being in sight
Calm the winds
And calm the seas

Lets try another kind of peace

Who fights this Holy civil war?
A million men in uniform

Wo ist der führer der mich führt?
Ich warte immer noch

And God is on your side
Dividing presence from the history

Watching all the time
Dividing deaf men from the listening ones

Leave a light on in the night for me
That, I can find you

Remember when we both where young
And reckless and so curious

Now you're hiding from your child
A new day's dawning

Remember that you felt alive
Sometimes

And God is on your side
Dividing soldiers from the fisherman

Watching all the time
Dividing warships from the ferryboats

Songwriters
HEPPNER, PETER/REINHARDT, MARKUS/PERON, CARLOS

Published by
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

Read more: Wolfsheim - The Sparrows And The Nightingales Lyrics | MetroLyrics

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For those interested in further analyzing this masterpiece, go here:

https://thepathslesstravelled.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/a-darkwave-epic-the-sparrows-and-the-nightingales-wolfsheim/

Some noteworthy excerpts from the article:

The Sparrows and the Nightingales is a song about feeling lost, not knowing where your life is heading. The lyrics describe how the narrator is not knowing where life is heading, which path to follow in life, using highly metaphorical language by using contrasts during a lot of stanzas of the over 6 minutes lengthy epic (PS: for TV-friendly reasons, the video cuts a few stanzas and shortens the song to approx. 3.5 minutes only). Examples are "How long have you been free in this world of ice and greed? Is it black or is it white? Let’s find another compromise. And our future’s standing still, we’re dancing in the spotlight" from the first stanza, or "Remember that we both were young and reckless and so curious. Now you’re heading from your child" from the second stanza.
A very important re-occurring line is the end of each stanza, bridging the stanzas to the chorus, "Where’s the leader who leads me? I’m still waiting… Leaving home", emphasizing the despair of the narrator, looking for a person to guide him and show him the way that he cannot find himself.
The chorus uses religious language, therefor probably indicating that the narrator being lost is looking for spiritual answers as in his earthly surroundings he cannot find any way or any person that can put his life back in the right direction. The chorus repeats the line "God is on your side" each time, but again uses highly contradicting language in each repetition of the chorus:

"God is on your side, dividing sparrows from the nightingales
Watching all the time, dividing water from the burning fire… inside"
"God is on your side, dividing presence from our history
Watching all the time, dividing deaf men from the listening ones"
etc.
The contrasts seem to reflect a good side as opposed to something with a negative, more helpless or more dangerous undertone.

The last stanza probably puts the song in its final direction. The narrator still has not found the peace, the security and the path to follow, and has still not found the mentor and the guiding hand to show him the direction. With despair he beholds the cruel reality, again described in highly poetic contradicting style:

"Move in circles, walk in lines
No human being in sight
Calm the winds and calm the seas
Let’s try another kind of peace
And our future’s standing still, we’re dancing in the spotlight"

And further down in the article, and do yourself a favor and read the entire article. It's worth it. And of course don't forget to watch the video! Over and over and over and over again.... like I have over the years... I always come back to this.... ;-)

The video is a masterpiece as much as the song itself and emphasized the atmosphere of the song: emptiness, desolate and gloomy. The combination of the words, the music and the images is just so spot on it is strangely close to perfection, the only bit of critique going to the TV stations forcing the band to cut the song short in order to have the video shown on TV. But don’t let that turn you off to watch the video, as it only makes the emotion of the song even stronger.