Good morning day, how do you do? |
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I wonder - what will you do for me? |
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I should be on my way, I should be earning pay |
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I should be all the things that I'm not |
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And I've tried on my own, now there's nothing to keep me at home |
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Like my Brother has too - gotta leave to get out of this view |
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You see they, tell you to move around |
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If you can't find work in your own town. |
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As I rise from my bed I can hear the old man |
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Blaming Heaven & Mother for this |
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30 Years with one firm, 13 months redundant |
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Yes I'd say that's unlucky for some |
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Now our tears fall like rain, as my Mother walks me to my train |
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With a kiss & a wave - "Come home weekends" - that's if I can save. |
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I swear I'll take it out on the man |
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Who ever devised this economy plan. |
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All the love in the world - can't put |
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Dinner on the table |
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All the hate that I feel no love could put right |
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Good morning day, how do you do |
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I wonder - what will you do for me? |
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I should be on my way, I should be earning pay |
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I should be all the things that I'm not |
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And I've tried on my own, now there's nothing to keep me at home |
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All the love and the strength has been taken by this Government |
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You see they, tell you to move around |
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If you can't find work in your own town. |
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Father's in the kitchen, counting out coins |
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Mother's in the bedroom, looking through pictures of her boys |
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One is in London, looking for a job |
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The other's in Whitehall - Looking for those responsible! |
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The wind blows whispers down the street |
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Having free reign with the town so bleak |
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Like everything else it's - all gone away |
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The Town Hall clock gives forth its chime |
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For no-one there to ask the time |
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Like everything else they've - all gone away |
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The Grocer's shop hangs up its sign |
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The sign say's closed it's a sign of the times |
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Like everything else they've - all gone away |
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But somewhere the party never ends |
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And greedy hands rub together again |
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Shipping out the profits that they've stolen |
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An eerie wail comes from the pit |
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The ghosts of the men take the morning shift |
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Just like clockwork - rusting away |
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Come take a walk upon these hills |
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And see how monetarism kills |
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Whole communities |
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Even families |
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There's nothing left so - They've all gone away |
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May I walk you home tonight |
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On this fine and lovely night tonight - |
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We'll walk past the luscious houses, |
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Through rolling lawns and lovely flowers - |
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Our nice new town where the curtains are drawn |
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Where hope is started and dreams can be borne. |
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Let us share our insanity |
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Go mad together in Community |
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Boys on the corner looking for their supper |
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Boys round the green looking for some slaughter - |
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We used to chase dreams now we chase the dragon |
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Mine is the semi with the Union Jack on. |
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In our paradise lost we'll be finding our sanity |
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In this paradise found we'll be losing our way - |
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For a brave new day. |
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May I slash my wrists tonight, |
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On this fine Conservative night tonight - |
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I was looking for a job so I came to town |
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I easily adopt when the chips are down - |
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I read the ad about the private schemes |
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I liked the idea but now I'm not so Keyne. |
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If you believe you have an equal share |
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In the whole wide world and all it bears |
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An' that your share is no less or more than |
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Your fellow sisters and brother man |
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Then take this knowledge and with it insist |
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Declare yourself - an internationalist! |
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If you lay no blame at the feet of next door |
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An' realise this struggle is also yours |
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An' that without the strength of us altogether |
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The world as it stands will remain forever |
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Then take this challenge and make it exist! |
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Rise up as - an internationalist! |
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If your eyes see deeper than the colour of skin |
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Then you must also see we are the same within |
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An' the rights you expect are the rights of all |
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Now it's up to you to lead the call |
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That liberty must come at the top of the list |
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Stand proud as - an internationalist! |
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If you see the mistake in having bosses at all |
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You will also see how they all must fall |
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For under this system there is no such thing |
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As the Democracy our leaders would have us sing |
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No time for lies now as only truth must persist |
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Rise up now and declare yourself - an internationalist! |
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For liberty there is a cost - its broken skulls and leather cosh |
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From the boys in uniform - now you know whose side their on |
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With backing - with blessing |
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From earthly gods not heaven |
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A stones throw away from it all |
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Whatever pleasures those who get - from stripping skin with rhino whip |
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Are the kind that must be stopped - before their kind take all we've got |
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With loving - with caring |
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They take great pride in working, |
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The stones throw away from it all. |
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Whenever honesty persists - you'll hear the snap of broken ribs, |
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Of anyone who'll take no more - of the lying bastards roar - |
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In Chile - In Poland |
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Johannesburg - South Yorkshire, |
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A stones throw away: Now we're there. |
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Get 'em laughing - keep 'em there, |
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You hold your own and they'll hold their's, |
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Hold their glasses - can't hold their beer |
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Tell 'em the one about the fucking queer. |
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Do the one that always works, |
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'Bout the lazy blacks that don't like work, |
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And once you got 'em, keep 'em there |
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Raise their spirits! Raise their cheer! |
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Do that one that never fails, |
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'Bout the gang of white thugs and the Asian male, |
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And once you got 'em, they'll be with you! |
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See this lot's loyal, through and through. |
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Tell Irish jokes and you can't miss, |
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Do the building site one and how they're all thick. |
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Keep 'em laughing - you'll have it made, |
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We're a friendly lot and you'll be well paid. |
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But keep 'em laughing don't let it stop |
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Or the truth might catch up and spoil the plot. |
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As the rain comes down, upon this sad sweet earth |
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I lie awake at nights and - think about me |
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All those usual things like what a fool I've been |
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I curse the awful way - that I let you slip away |
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For what was forged in love, is now cooling down |
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With only myself to blame for playing that stupid game |
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I thought I need only call and you would run |
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But that day you never showed honey - well I sure learnt - |
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That it seems I need you more each day |
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Heaven knows why that it goes that way - |
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Now it's far too late - an' I've lost this time - |
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Like the Boy who cried Wolf |
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An' yes - I know it's far too late |
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To ever win you back - |
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No tale of nightmare's at my gate - |
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Could make you turn - |
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My lost concern |
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And now the night falls down, upon my selfish soul |
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I sit alone and wonder - where did I go wrong? |
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It always worked before you kept the wolf from my door |
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But one day you never showed and honey - Now I'm not so sure - |
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That is seems I need you more each day |
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Heaven knows why that it goes that way |
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Now it's far too late - an' I've lost this time |
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Like the Boy who cried Wolf |
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I bought the paper yesterday and I saw the obituary |
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And I read of how you died in pain |
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Well I just couldn't understand it |
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If I could of changed that, then Lord knows I'd do it now |
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But there is no going back |
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And what's done is done forever |
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But you were always chained and shackled by the dirt |
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Of every small town institution and every big town flirt |
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And I think of what you might have been, |
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A man of such great promise |
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Oh but, you seem to forget the dream |
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And the more you saw you hated |
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But let's not talk of blame, for what is only natural |
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Like a moth going to a flame |
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You had a dangerous passion |
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But you were always chained and shackled by the dirt |
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Of every small town institution and every big town flirt |
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All the things that you might have been - but who am I to say? |
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Still I wonder |
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If it's the cold earth you prefer to lay |
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If it's the cold earth - you prefer to stay |
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Catch me I'm falling so fast and I can't seem to find |
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All the reasons I had when the purpose was mine |
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Now I stumble so fast rolling into the night |
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Kiss me quick before I land and am broken in two |
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Keep me on the right track, hold my dreams in tact too |
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I get lost in this place - I get lost, yes its true |
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Quand on n'a plus rien en soi - Quand on n'a plus de refuge |
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Quand on ne peut plus fuir - Quand on ne sais on courrir |
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Noir comme la nuit - Oui, noir comme mon ame |
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Noir comme les eaux - Dans les quels je sombre |
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Help me I'm sinking so fast into waters unplanned |
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That I once held onto but have got out of hand |
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Now the things that I loved are the things I can't stand |
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Squeeze me slow before I come to that part of the ground |
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It's a million miles up and a million miles down |
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I get lost in between and I wait to be found |
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Quand on n'a plus rien en soi - Quand on n'a plus de refuge |
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Quand on ne peut plus fuir - Quand on ne sais ou courrir |
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Noir comme la nuit - Oui noir comme mon ame - |
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Noir comme les eaux - Dans les quels je sombre |
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And in the waters I sink and in the waters I drink |
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Until I rise to the top which in truth is not |
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To make you feel your alright, to make you feel there's no fight |
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No peace for the wicked - only war on the poor |
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They're batting on pickets - trying to even the score |
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It's all inclusive - the dirt comes free |
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And you can be all that you want to be |
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Oh an equal chance and an equal pay |
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But equally there's no equal pay |
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There's room on top - if you tow the line |
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And if you believe all this you must be out of your mind |
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There's only room for those the same |
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Those who play the leeches game |
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Don't get settled in this place |
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The lodger's terms are in disgrace |
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Getcha brains blown out - in a captain's mess |
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Stand for the Queen if you can stand the test |
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It's all thrown in and the lies come free |
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And you can be all that they want you to be |
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(Chorus) |
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Oh if you work hard you can be the boss |
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But if you don't work at all then that's nobody's loss |
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There's room on top - if you dig in low |
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And the idea is what they reap you sow |
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With an old school tie and a reference |
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You can cover up crimes in their defence |
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It's all thrown in and the lies come free |
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And you can be all that they want you to be |
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Luck fell in the right place for me |
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The day you happend to come by - |
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You caught me feeling all was useless |
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And left me feeling ten feet high |
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Now nothing again will be quite the same |
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You gathered my fears and threw them away |
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Luck dropped in just at the right time |
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The time when I felt most alone - |
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All my dreams had seemed to vanish |
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Now my nightmares have upped and gone |
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I'm not scared of farewells, nothing's the same twice |
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I stride through the day and I float through the night |
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How much choice do we have in this? |
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Like some almighty hand smashing your life into pieces |
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One day you're washed and drowned - |
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And the next minute you're put back on land |
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Now nothing again can be quite the same |
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I gather my fears and I throw them away |
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Luck - when you hold me closely |
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Ooh - feels like summertime |
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Luck - when you hold my hand |
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I - want it all the time |
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Luck - in your country kisses |
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Ooh - I love your outlook |
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Luck - in your hills and valleys |
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Go on talking my babbling brook! |
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From the playground to the wasteground |
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Hope ends at 17 |
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Sweeping floors and filling shelves |
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Forced into government schemes |
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11 years spent to dig out ditches, |
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Forget your schoolday dreams |
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Guarantees and lie-filled speeches, |
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But nothings what it seems |
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Qualified and patronised and with everything to lose. |
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No choice or chance for the future |
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The rich enjoy less tax |
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Dress the girls in pretty pink |
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The shit goes to the blacks |
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A generation's heart torn out |
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And covered up the facts |
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The only thing they'll understand |
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Is a wall against their backs |
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The only hope now left for those - with everything to lose. |
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In desperation empty eyes, |
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Signed up and thrown away |
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There's drugs replacing dignity, |
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The short sharp shock repaid |
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There'll be no money if you dare to question |
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Working the Tory way |
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The truth is up there carved in stone, |
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Where 21 dead now lay |
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A family's loss for a few pounds saved |
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With everything to lose. |
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You don't have to take this crap |
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You don't have to sit back and relax |
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You can actually try changing it |
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I know we've always been taught to rely |
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Upon those in authority |
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But you never know until you try |
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How things just might be |
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If we came together so strongly |
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Are you gonna try to make this work |
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Or spend your days down in the dirt |
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You see things can change |
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YES an' walls can come tumbling down! |
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Governments crack and systems fall |
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'cause Unity is powerful |
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Lights go out - walls come tumbling down! |
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The competition is a colour TV |
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We're on still pause with the video machine |
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That keep you slave to the H.P. |
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Until the Unity is threatend by |
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Those who have and who have not |
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Those who are with and those who are without |
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And dangle jobs like a donkey's carrot |
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Until you don't know where you are |
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Are you gonna realize |
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The class war's real and not mythologized |
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And like Jericho - You see walls can come tumbling down! |
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Are you gonna be threatend by |
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The public enemies No. 10 |
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Those who play the power game |
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They take the profits - you take the blame - |
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When they tell you there's no rise in pay |
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Are you gonna try an' make this work |
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Or spend your days down in the dirt - |
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You see things CAN change - |
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YES an' walls can come tumbling down! |
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Notes |
(1) | The whole piece is a portrait of Britain at
the time of the Thatcher government (eighties) when heavy restructuring and
the abandonment of economic activities no longer considered strategic,
brought a wave of layoffs and a sharp increase in unemployment in the
industrial regions of the country. Regions which, however, were typical
Labour majority districts, then irrelevant for the purposes of voting for
the conservative prime minister) and a strong weakening of the British Trade
Unions. So the song is about young people who go to other cities in search
of work, the protest against the government and the Parliament (Whitehall)
and fathers suddenly without their jobs. It is the same period described very well in the movies Billy Elliot (in which are used songs as Weller's A Town Called Malice) and Full Monty. |
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© Original Lyrics by Style Council - Polygram / Commercial use not permitted / |