Small Places to 1,000 Faces – 1: Song Lyrics
GIG: 20TH DECEMBER 2016 at Heather Skowood’s jewellery studio, Manchester
DRY THE LIFE
You can dry the life out of me
You can take the salt from the sea
I’m thirsty till the rain
Comes back to me again
You can dry the life out of me
You can pour your poison in the well
You can signal danger with a bell
I’m thirsty till its full
Among the cattle skulls
You can pour your poison in the well
Chorus
You could make it safe for the one in ten
You could bring good health to their children
So when you cash your shares
Or turn the tap upstairs
Think about the danger you put them in
Chorus
GUNS
On a barren moor
In a wilderness
Where rolling land
Greets its guests
Men from cities
Men from afar
Barbour coats and four by fours
With their big guns
Marlborough made
Eton broke
Stalking caps
Beating coats
Glorious Twelfth
On a shooting stick
Bag a brace or two for the sport of the rich
With their big guns
We won’t walk
In peace again
On Otterburn Moor
Or Salisbury Plain
Red flags fly
And sirens sound
Serving up fodder for foreign lands
With their big guns
NIGHT
The hillside shades the setting sun
Firey dance ignites the sky
Till shadow light and harvest moon
Twilight in a darkened room
Silence fractured by a breeze
Endless rippling of a stream
Firewood crackling in the fire
A distant owl, an eerie cry
The cockerel called the breaking day
And waking larks rise through the grey
Weary bones and tired eyes
Back to work. It’s time to rise
THE SMILE
It’s still raining heavily beneath the trees
It’s still raining
It’s still raining
It’s still raining heavily beneath the trees
There’s a life behind the smile upon the face
There’s a life behind the smile
There’s a life behind the smile
There’s a life behind the smile upon the face
There are rays of sun behind the clouds above
There are rays of sun
There are rays of sun
There are rays of sun behind the clouds above
Chorus
There’s a shining in the dark beneath the waves
There’s a shining in the dark
There’s a shining in the dark
There’s a shining in the dark beneath the waves
Chorus
THE BREEDING GROUND OF VILE
You stand there at the Mansion House
Delivering the blows
Stuffed into your shirt and tails
All tied up with a bow
You slash and burn and cut and close
The audience applauds you
Out the room and down the stairs
‘Cos they’re all in accord
It’s who you know not what you know
That helped create your pile
Encouraged by your masters
At the breeding ground of vile
Encouraged by your masters
At the breeding ground of vile
It’s not about a silver spoon
Or a life of privilege
It’s not about the stately home
Or your life peerage
Your mind is wired for personal gain
Whoever’s in the way
De-sensitised, demoralised
It’s the poor and sick that pay
Chorus
And when your day is nearly done
And you’re put out to grass
With servants following in your wake
And you like to call that class?
Chorus
THE MADNESS
Fear in darkness
Fear in the cold
Terror for the young
Despair for the old
Life under windows
Or down in a hole
Trying to survive
In a world without soul
Then the madness returns
As the city burns
And the madness remains
As the city is razed
And the madness may go
But it will come back again
And the madness kills
Generations slain
Silence creeps
From the depths of craters
To shelled facades
And burned out spaces
Barricades rise
From the rubble of night
And dust storms clear
In a world without light
Chorus
© JOHN REED 2016. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.