The Green Light Across the Bay

A mansion built beside the shore,
An open gate, an endless door.
They come to drink beneath his sky,
But never ask the reason why.

Across the water, through the night,
A distant green and fading light.
A thousand dreams, a single name,
A past he wishes to reclaim.

Oh, that green light across the bay,
A thousand miles that fade away.
He built a world of gold and dreams,
But nothing was quite what it seemed.
And though the years have come and gone,
He still believes the past lives on.
Reaching for a distant light,
He loses everything in sight.

A boy named Gatz beneath the stars,
A borrowed name, a thousand scars.
He crossed the ocean, crossed the years,
And dressed his longing up as wealth.

An old love dressed in summer rain,
A voice that sounded just the same.
But time had moved, the world had changed,
And love could never be arranged.

East Egg looks down on West Egg's gold,
Some doors remain beyond control.
And all the riches he could claim
Could never make her stay the same.

Oh, that green light across the bay,
A thousand miles that fade away.
He built a world of gold and dreams,
But nothing was quite what it seemed.
And though the years have come and gone,
He still believes the past lives on.
Reaching for a distant light,
He loses everything in sight.

Develop the opening piano melody.
Trumpet answers with a beautiful, nostalgic phrase.
Strings gradually introduce a darker harmony.

A yellow car, a summer night,
A broken road beneath the light.
The truth was buried, blame was passed,
And all his dreams dissolved at last.

The guests who filled his halls with wine,
Were nowhere near when came the time.
One man remembered, one man stayed,
While flowers slowly turned to gray.

Perhaps he loved a memory,
A perfect world that could not be.
Perhaps the dream was never there,
But still he reached as though it cared.

And somewhere in the evening air,
The green light glimmers, unaware.
Of all the lives that came undone,
Of all the things that can't be won.

The opening melody returns, slower and more emotional.

Oh, that green light across the bay,
Still shining where the dream once lay.
He built a world of gold and dreams,
And lost himself in what it seemed.

And though the years keep pulling on,
We reach for what is already gone.
Still toward the light, through time and tide,
We chase the dreams we leave behind.

So many came, so few remained,
The music fades, the lights grow pale.
And somewhere on that distant shore,
A dream keeps reaching evermore.