Lyrics:

I wouldn't say I was an old fool yet
But a time arrives in the lives of men
When a kindly mist enshrouds the Holy Past
(We wouldn't make those mistakes again).
The backward glance: always a price to pay
For who has lived that time has not battered?
As we stand at the mercy of the sun-
No longer those whom the daylight flatters.
Sometimes the scent on a drifting breeze
Draws us back to when all of our hands were clean
When all the world seemed comprehensible:
What we had with all those simpler machines
(And still we yearn for all those simpler machines...)

Shell-shocked by the speed of life
And nothing broken we know how to mend
Bewildered by such perpetual delights:
We want to feel the wheels and architraves again.
And preciously; precariously
-Robust as porcelain figurines-
We take a bow and start to say goodnight
Comrades for ever with all those simpler machines
Locked into history with those simpler machines

The Scrapyard Stars are glittering tonight:
The shards and smithereens
No question: it is a sentimental sight
Our toys and tools all of those simpler machines.
They'll break your heart all right, those simpler machines...