Missing Persons (Alive Forever)

Record: on the 'Missing Persons' CD EP and digital single, released by Esoteric Records on 7 May 2021

Picture sleeve: 

Cover-version: 

Words by Keith Reid

This is a hitherto unheard studio recording, a much-developed treatment of the song first heard closing the 'Beyond the Pale' 40th Anniversary celebrations in London in July 2007, the music having been written a matter of days before the concert.

Its title has been expanded in view of recent events (incidentally, it's the sixth Procol song whose name ends parenthetically). This modification also diminishes the chance of confusion with Missing Person from the Brooker solo repertoire, which Procol have also played onstage.

Green type, on the right, indicates differences between the two edits on the EP

A baby is torn from her mother’s arms
The child that was born to be protected from harm
A river of tears and an ocean of pain
In the briefest of moments the whole world is changed

A friend that you knew that fell on hard times
A voice on the ’phone that got lost between lines
Who slipped in a dark place and fell through the cracks
Got caught in a bad space and couldn’t get back

Missing persons — worlds apart
Missing persons — alive in our heart (missing from Radio Edit)
Here as long as we remember (missing from Radio Edit)
Missing persons — alive forever

The sickness that comes like a thief in the night
The courage to rage ’gainst the dying of the light
The stifling blame — we can’t express
The numbing shame of our helplessness

Missing persons — worlds apart
Missing persons — alive in your heart
Here as long as we remember
Missing persons — alive forever

(guitar solo; shorter version in radio edit)

The passage of time that we read ev’ryday
The face in the paper who just passed away
Music is played for the hero that’s gone
Newspapers fade but the mem’ries live on

Missing persons — worlds apart
Missing persons — alive in our hearts
Here as long as we remember
Missing persons — alive for ever!

(c) Bluebeard Music edition 2021

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