Out of This World

A tribute to a childhood hero of mine.
This is a song about Donald Campbell's attempt to set a water speed record of over 300 mph on 4th January 1967. The song was composed in 1995 and inspired the effort to recover both Campbell's body and the Bluebird K7 jet boat in which Campbell crashed, from the water. The recovery was finally undertaken in 2001, and both Steve Hogarth and Steve Rothery of Marillion were invited. The video is made up of clips from the BBC TV film Across the Lake from 1988, staring Anthony Hopkins. The film used a reconstruction of Bluebird K7 plus archive footage of the real boat in 1966 and 1967, both of which can be seen here.

Acknowledgment:
I am deeply indebted to AmarokUK whose original attempt at combining the two is so beautiful and inspired me to do likewise.

"Three hundred miles an hour on water
In your purpose-built machine
No one dared to call a boat
Screaming blue
Out of this world
Make history
This is your day
Bluebird"

"At such speeds, things fly"

"What did she say?
I know the pain of too much tenderness
Wondering when or if you'll come back again
Wanting to live for you
And being banned from giving"

"But only love will turn you around
Only love will turn you around
Only love
Only love will turn you around
So we live you and I
Either side of the edge
And we run and we scream
With the dilated stare
Of obsession and dreaming
What the hell do we want
Is it only to go
Where nobody has gone
A better way than the herd
Sing a different song
Till you're running the ledge
To the gasp from the crowd
Spinning round in your head
Everything that she said"