Disc 1 | ||||||
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1. |
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The roll of distant thunder breaks, the afternoon of silence wakes
They hurry through from Petergate as if they know this dance In fury blind, I drive at night across the moors, the open roads Beneath the freezing starry skies, racing in some trance These cities are illusions of some triumph over Nature's laws We've seen the iron carcass rust and buildings topple into dust And as the waters rise, it seems we cling to all the rootless things The Christian lies, technology, while spirits scream and sing Oh God I love the world Well I never said I was a clever man but I know enough to understand That the endless leaps and forward plans will someday have to cease You blind yourselves with comfort lies like lightning never strikes you twice And we laugh at your amazed surprise as the Ark begins to sink This temple that is built so well to separate us from ourselves Is a power grown beyond control, a will without a face And watching from outside I wish that I could wash my hands of this But we are locked together here, this bittersweet embrace Oh God I love the world And if one day the final fire explodes across the whitened sky I know you've said you'd rather die and make it over fast With courage from your bravest friends, waiting outside for the end With no bitterness but an innocence that I can't seem to grasp I know somehow I will survive - this fury just to stay alive So drunk with sickness, weak with pain, I can walk the hills one last time Scarred and smiling, dying slow, I'll scream to no one left at all I told you so, I told you so, I told you so . . Oh God I love the world |
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2. |
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It's not a crime to be innocent, these things we have not done
But you're not some little child, spring is past and gone Well I know my craving heart and I've seen your vicious eyes And I think we know the truth, both you and I Don't flutter your lashes like a little girl And ask me why it's such a cruel, cruel world, no Ch: Don't ask any more stupid questions You already know the answers to Well you can kill with the best of them but your smile remains so sweet When someone comes to eat me alive, I like to see their teeth If you really want I can name the names Be an angel of death at the children's games, so Ch: Don't ask any more stupid questions You already know the answers to - I know that you do There comes a time in your life you've got to grow up fast And I think that your time is coming now here at last It's not a crime to be innocent , these things we have not done But you cannot run forever, spring is past and gone Waiting in line at the fortune teller Waiting to hear some more pretty lies, he says Ch: Don't ask any more stupid questions You already know the answers to |
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3. |
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She stares at the screen
At the little words of green Tries to remember what to do next There's a trace of frustration That across her face Searching for the key she should press And I would help her If I only know how But these things are a mystery to me too And it seems that the corporate Eyes they are watching She fears for her job And the moments are passing I stare at her nametag And think to myself Both you and I, we never asked For any of this So let's take a walk Up past the chemical works Where the sky turns green at night And we'll talk about Getting away from here Some difference kind of life But even in the freshest mountain air The jet fighters practise overhead And they're drilling these hills For uranium deposits And they'll bury the waste For our children to inherit And though this is all done For our town benefit, I swear We never asked for any of this This golden age of communication Means everyone talks at the same time And liberty just means Some freedom to exploit Any weakness that you can find Well turn off the TV just for a while Let us whisper to eachother instead And we'll hope that the Corporate ears Do not listen Lest we find ourselves committing Some kind of treason And filed in the tapes Without rhyme, without reason While they tell us that it's all For our own protection, I swear We never asked for any of this |
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4. |
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Mother, Father, I'm doing OK
On the other side of the country, far away And though I know the things that you want to hear me say Sometimes these things are hard Mother, Father, I am your son Right down to the long thin pointed face And this muddled up and twisted tongue And now I find that I'm doing All those things you would have done Sometimes these things are hard Ch: So do I thank you? Do I curse you? These tracks stretch out before me - the ones you left behind What I want and what I feel - it's yours, yours, not mine Mother, Father, all those battles that have been And the long, long silences that lay in between Please don't try to tell me all those were in vain Sometimes these things are hard We line up at the wedding in rows of deep set eyes In our finest formal dresses and proper suits and ties Like a family of Munsters in a really bad disguise Ch: So do I thank you? Do I curse you? These tracks stretch out before me - the ones you left behind What I want and what I feel - it's yours, yours, not mine |
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5. |
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The time I think most clearly The time I drift away Is on the busride that meanders Up these valleys of green and grey I get to think about what might have been And what may yet come true And I get to pass a rainy mile Thinking of you And all the while, all the while I still hear that call To the land of gold and poison That beckons to us all Nothing changes here very much I guess you'd say it never will The pubs are all full on Friday nights And things get started still We spent hours last week with Billy boy Bleeding, yeah queueing in casualty Staring at those posters we used to laugh at Never never land, palm trees by the sea Well there was no need for those guys To hurt him so bad When all they had to do Was knock him down But noone asks to many questions like that Since you left this town Ch: And tomorrow brings another train Another young brave steals away But you're the one I remember From these valleys of green and the grey You used to talk about winners and losers All the time - as if that was all there was As if we were not of the same blood family As if we live by different laws Do you owe so much less to these rain swept hills Than you owe to your good self Is it true that the world has always got to be something that always seems to happen - somewhere else For God's sake don't you realise That I still hear that call Do you think you're so brave Just to go running To that which beckons to us all Ch No, not for one second Did you look behind you As you were walking away Never once did you wish any of us well Those who had chosen to stay And if that's what it takes to make it In the place that you live today Then I guess you'll never read these letters that I send From the valleys of the green and the grey |
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6. |
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7. |
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Joey puts her make-up on really well
She looks cool in the flashing lights And all the boys gossip about the shape of her legs On these muddled up and drunken nights And if it's all got to end up between the sheets She can coo like a virgin dove But really she just doesn't want to be alone And if you want you can call that love M6 southbound roadside cafe on a wild wet and windy night There's a kid in a sleeping bag huddled in a corner, trying to beg a light He's got mum and dad tattooed on his arm From when he thought that that would make it alright He's got hope and fear on his young boy's face Another innocent taking flight, saying Ch: Give me some place that I can go Where I don't have to justify myself Swimming out alone against this tide Looking for family looking for tribe They said go, get out, we've got our own lives to lead Now that water is thicker than blood And every house is divided into single flats With their very own little welcome rug The shopping mall it is teeming with life Fighting for the goodies on the shelf But there's those funny old people on the escalators Talking to themselves, saying Ch: Give me some place that I can go Where I don't have to justify myself Swimming out alone against this tide Looking for family looking for tribe Well I survive on my own for a while or so Upon a whim or a bottle of wine Just trying to make sense of these new surroundings I only changed my name a couple of times Please take me back Joey, I'm really sorry Can we try to make a happy home? But she's gone with someone else and they're starting a family Trying for a clan of their own, so Ch: Give me some place that I can go Where I don't have to justify myself Swimming out alone against this tide Looking for family looking for tribe |
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8. |
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How did they do this to you?
How did they do this to you? Were you the weapon that they used As they tore apart the family Did they bring you here as they were passing through? How did they do this to you? And now you don't want to go home And now you say that you never will go home Take a tram across the city Past the places where your brother died Of the comfort for the girls who work alone And I can't tell you that you're not alone In the cities of the far north, the skies are cold and clear The loneliness is aching And after all this time and after all these words Your hands are still shaking Why did they do this to you? Why did they do this to you? Were they cut off from their past? Did they try to kill the future? Do we all forget the things that we once knew? Why did they do this to you? Who was it that did this to you? Who was it that did this to you? Well if I could have my way I would line them up against a wall Do unto them as they have done to you Who was it that did this? Who was it that did this to you? |
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9. |
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We follow the taillights out of the city Moving in a river of red As the colours fade away from the dusky sunset We roll for the darkness ahead Ch: We are old, we are young We are in this together Vagabonds and children Prisoners forever With pulses a-raging And eyes full of wonder Kicking out behind us again Nighttime City Beat the radio is calling The lost and lonely in vain Out here we are running for the wide open spaces The roadsmell after the rain Ch And watching as a boy alone at the keyside The ships loading cargo in the night Their names all calling to faraway places The years go past, the miles go by And still this childhood romance will not die |
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10. |
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I'm heading north I'm heading home Doing 125 I close my eyes and count to ten Ha ha yeah I'm still alive Perfect perfect tunnel vision Razor sharp and racing racing These moments, immortal No one touches this Ch: These things they flow as blood must flow Dust to dust and wind must blow Nothing that I need to know Or ever understand These things they flow as blood must flow Dust to dust and wind must blow You can die before you get old But me, I'm going to live forever The music plays, the party swings The gaiety walls come closing in I catch your eye, you take my hand Out into the night we run Dancing down those deadend streets Howling at the moon like little kids Out on the grass at the top of the hill Your breath tastes sw . . . Ch And if I say I hate this place Don't take it as personal And just cos I want to kill somebody Doesn't mean to say that I will And I don't think that that makes me crazy And anyway I'm way past caring There's a ride leaves out of here at 9.00 What do you say, what do you say Ch: Tonight we'll flow . . . |
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11. |
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Rolling up tab ends that the baby's collected Waiting for the number that clicks on the wall It's open season on the weak and the feeble Their meagre ambitions their impotent fury There's bullet proof glass in case there is trouble No doors in the building between this side and that side I've tried to wrestle some unbalanced nightmare Tell myself over that I don't really live here But the boys run away leaving blood on the pavement And a little crowd gathered to watch you pick yourself up Joining the queue at the video library To watch ninety five minutes of simulated torture The conference hall rings to the standing ovation The people in blue ties rise from the podium Crazy with power, blinded by vision The mass-chosen leaders for a brutalized nation |
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12. |
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Our history speaks in thunder
From a thousand village halls In blood and sweat and sacrifice In honouring every call So the forces gathered against the thorn A- piercing in their side The brave new world is beckoning So the olden world must die In the offices of the city At all the tables of oak and power The snares are laid and baited For the approaching of the hour A hundred justifications And the presses are ready to roll The gateways to the nation They are firmly under control Ch: On on on, cried the leaders at the back We went galloping down the blackened hills And into the gaping trap The bridges are burnt behind us And there's waiting guns ahead Into the valley of death Rode the brave hundreds Well we called for some assistance From the friends that we had known But this is the 1980s And we were on our own We never felt like heroes Or martyrs to a cause Just battleweary soldiers In a bloody civil war Ch The massacre now is over And the order new enshrined While a quarter of the nation Are abandoned far behind Their leaders offer the cliché words So righteous in defeat But noone needs morality When there isn't enough to eat The unity bond is broken And the loyalty songs are fake I'll screw my only brother For even a glimpse at a piece of the cake We only cry in private here Behind the shuttered glass When we think of the charge of this brigade The severing of the past Ch |
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13. |
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Such a sensitive opinion in one so young
Would you like to know about everything that we've done You believe what you read in the printed lies But you won't believe the evidence of your own eyes And yes I've done a lot of things that you'd probably call a crime But I don't feel guilty for anything All the tongues waggle but we just smile That'll keep the little buggers going for a while I live within natural justice, I understand nature's law But as for your Christian morals . . . Oh, how you love this, how you love it You go out and you find it How you love it, how you love it Such horror, oh such a farce, a little bit of broken glass You should think yourself lucky that this was done You'll have something you can whine about for years to come EP: White Coats |
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14. |
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We drive in silence beneath the grey dawning skies
Past the cooling towers where the white clouds slowly rise I watch the world through motionless eyes Nothing touches . . nothing ever touches Raised as son of Empire, hardened like a piece of steel I am the master now of all that I can see This means so much to you but nothing much to me Nothing touches . . nothing ever touches Please take me home - I am very young. Please take me home. And yes I heard you screaming as you walked out of my door And yes I've seen those bloody faces picked up from the floor I feel nothing and yet I understand it all Nothing touches . . nothing ever touches |
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15. |
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Well we know what makes the flowers grow But we don't know why And we all have the knowledge of DNA But we still die We perch so thin and fragile here Upon the land And the earth that moves beneath us We don't understand So we rush towards the judgment day When She reclaims A toast to the Luddite martyrs then Who died in vain Down at the lab they're working still Finishing off How do we tell the people in the white coats Enough is enough is enough is enough? Ch: Hey, hey I listen to you pray As if some help will come Hey, hey She will dance on our graves When we are dead and gone When we are dead and gone You and I we made no suicide pact We didn't want to die But we watch the wall, little darling While the chemical trucks go by This desperate initiation now Of innocence Those last few days at Jonestown Ain't got nothing on this Ch Now beneath the fitted carpets Beyond the padded cells Within these crimes of passion The naked truth She dwells And this fury's just a part And this thunder's just a part Desire is just a part The cracking ice, the splitting rock Ch Hey, hey to the suicide day The blind man blunders on Hey, hey She will dance on our graves When we are dead and gone As children learn about the world We built that wall of sand Along the beach we laboured hard With our brave hands We worked until the sun went down Beneath the waves And the tide came rolling splashing in Washed the wall away How do we tell the people in the white coats Enough is enough? |