1. |
Privilege
02:51
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Privilege
The years of abuse, manufacturing of ‘truth’
The ossification of rich, straight, white male power
An age-old master plan to keep control in the hands
Of white men in white ivory towers
To preserve their authority through acts of cruel brutality:
Lynchings, rapes and murders they’ve endorsed and induced
But you know there’ll come a time when they’ll pay for their crimes:
Some fucking angry chickens are coming home to roost
As I write, I’m well aware of the privilege I share
With the exploiters, the murderers and rapists
Do I take on the guilt for the oceans of blood spilt?
Or is that just another way for us privileged not to face it?
Face the fact that guilt’s no use: it doesn’t stop the abuse
It just ‘justifies’ a total lack of engagement
With power we hold today and blatant part we play
In contemporary exploitation and enslavement
We must acknowledge our privileges
Before we can denounce all power
We must each undermine the foundations
Of our castles, our ivory towers
And become traitors
To our privileged positions
Become traitors
To hegemonic ambitions
And become traitors, traitors, traitors, traitors, traitors...
Opposing our castles and our towers
I was born entitled and empowered and conditioned to devour
The lives of those this culture marks as objects
I benefit and gain from their punishment and pain
But I will raise my voice to resist and reject
To reject white supremacy, ableism, plutocracy
To reject transphobia, heterosexism and misogyny
I will not deny the violence that stems from my selfish silence
This blue eyed devil’s standing up for liberty
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2. |
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Sing a Song of Civilisation
To sing a song of civilisation
Is to sing a song of suffering, sing a song of hate
Verses filled with violence
And a chorus of control
Then a sudden burst of silence as it’s smothered by the state
Any song of civilisation
Will be a song of slavery, will be a song of rape,
A song of occupation and colonisation
A song of exploitation it seems you can’t escape
Sing a song of silence for each life that’s dead and done
Sing a song of violence at the wrong end of the gun
Sing of all their power and their cruelty and their lies
Sing a song of civilisation’s swift demise
Can you hear the song of civilisation?
In the roaring of the chainsaw, in the beat of marching feet
In the wailing of the wind across a desolate dustbowl
In the silent scream of nature drowning in a sea of wheat
Hear the song of civilisation
It echoes in the alleyways, sung in brick and steel
As Blake saw it run in blood down London’s palace walls
I sense it in each wheeze of breeze my cold skin ever feels
Sing a song of silence for each life that’s dead and done
Sing a song of violence at the wrong end of a gun
Sing of all their power and their cruelty and their lies
Sing a song of civilisation’s swift demise
Sing a song against civilisation
Song of insurrection, of anger, fear and rage
Percussion is provided by the batons, bricks and bottles
A crescendo at the end: the smashing of our cage
Then we’ll sing a song of real fucking living
A song of joy and love, of harmony and peace
A song not sung by human tongue but dreamt by all that lives
The first song that there ever was, the last we’ll ever need
Sing a song of silence for each life that’s dead and done
Sing a song of violence at the wrong end of a gun
Sing of all their power and their cruelty and their lies
Sing a song of civilisation’s swift demise
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3. |
Off to be a Solider
03:52
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Off to be a Soldier
When I was young the world taught me
That it’s right to fight for your country
And to serve in her majesty’s military
Is the best service you can give
So I’m off to answer the marching drum
And they’ll give me a number and they’ll give me a gun
Like the propagandic pictures in the pages of the Sun
I’m off to be a soldier
You’ll talk of duty and you’ll talk of right
You’ll fill me up with national pride
And stories of glory and the noble fight
‘till I’m ready to kill for you
Oh wind the key up in my back
Keep me jacking up the union jack
I’m leaving now and never coming back
For I’m off to be a soldier
Now I stand on a foreign land
Blood is falling on foreign sand
And I look at the rifle in my hand:
You want me to kill for you
But the enemy is just a man like me
Trained to die for his country
A pawn in the palm of the social-elite
He’s off to be a soldier
Once upon a time in the days of yore
When they needed more bodies for the empire’s war
Men trained up stabbing sacks of straw
With bayonet, pike and sword
The result of this exercise:
The enemy’s dehumanised
Once you believe all men are just straw inside
You’re off to be a soldier
Heave away, oh heave away
I’m off to fight on foreign soil
Heave away, oh heave away
Heave away oh heave away
Fight and die for foreign oil
Heave away, oh heave away
The same process still takes place
Each enemy stripped of their human face
Except the straw men have now been replaced
With bigoted media hype:
Racist propaganda and imperialist lies
Now render the enemy dehumanised
Once they’re just murdering extremist stereotypes
You’re off to be a soldier
Heave away, oh heave away
I’m off to fight on foreign soil
Heave away, oh heave away
Heave away oh heave away
Fight and die for foreign oil
Heave away, oh heave away
So, listen politician and you fat-cats too
I’m not gonna fight and die for you
To spread the cancer of your warped world-view
To far-off foreign shores
I will fight to bring your system down
To topple the government, church and crown
Burn your fortress down to the ground
‘cause I’m never gonna be a soldier
Heave away, oh heave away
I’m off to fight on foreign soil
Heave away, oh heave away
Heave away oh heave away
Fight and die for foreign oil
Heave away, oh heave away
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4. |
This Septic Isle
04:45
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This Septic Isle
There was a forest on this land
Just where these buildings stand
It spread for miles around
Humans lived here, laughed and cried
We fucked and fought, were born and died
All on this fertile ground
And we fished in the streams
Gathered fruits and nuts from trees
Ate the flesh of beasts and birds
And were eaten in return
Life was the product of our deaths
The beasts grew strong on human flesh
Now our children eat their meat
Our flesh and blood did rot in peace
And fed the soil which feeds the trees
Which grew the fruit our children eat
Industrial civilization
Monoculture occupation
Our landbase degradation has one result:
A slow death from starvation
And then we began to learn:
The spark that made the landscape burn
We learnt the power of theft and rape
Learnt enslavement, learnt oppression
Ownership, private possession
Learnt the world was something we could shape
We shaped the world to our desires
The darkness pierced by roaring fires
Sanctified and sanitized
We purged the world through ecocide
As our population soared
And we required more and more
We cleared habitats for farms and mills
Now there’s a pound of flesh behind each bite
Meat eater and vegan alike:
Our food production kills
Industrial civilization
Monoculture occupation
Our landbase degradation has one result:
A slow death from starvation
When you look back at what we left behind
Clearcuts and concrete and barren mines
When you look back at what we left behind
When you back at what we left behind
The blight that is the legacy of mankind
When you look back at what we left behind
The right that we’ve presumed over life that we’ve consumed to feed our appetites
The Earth has been coerced to feed our never-ending thirst: we’re just parasites
The grey expanse of parking lots, factory farms and tower blocks: we’re parasites
The rolling fields of monocrops, the multi-national mono-shops: we’re parasites
The sweatshops and the factories, pollutants and man-made disease: we’re parasites
The dying plants, the starving soil, the desperate quest for toxic oil: we’re parasites
There was a city on this land
Just where this forest stands
It spread for miles around
And humans lived here worked and slaved
Enslaved and killed, filled endless graves
In the once-fertile ground
And then the world reclaimed its own
Built towering trees from flesh and bones
Creepers cover concrete shells
Fresh growth has strangled out this hell
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5. |
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Lay Me Down in the Potter’s Field
When I die and cold I lie don’t pray the lord my soul to save
Don’t lay me down in the hallowed ground with a preacher at my grave
For if it’s there I’m interred I’ll just up and return with a plague and a pox on you all
So lay me down in the potter’s field beyond the churchyard walls
Lay me down in the potter’s field to rest forever more
Far from the place of holy grace, from the cold hand of the Lord
Bury me shallow or bury me deep, far from the place where angels weep
Lay me down in the potter’s field to rest forever more
If I was a Christian soldier or at least a Christian mercenary
You could bury me in the blessed ground of your bloody colony
And if I was a sailor you could bury me at sea
But I am dreadful sinner so it’s the potter’s field for me
If I was a pious preacher and a petty pilfering priest
I’d accept nothing but sacred earth to be buried beneath
But I supose you’ll have to lay me out like a common whore or thief
For I am fallen sinner and it’s the potter’s field for me
Lay me down in the potter’s field to rest forever more
Far from the place of holy grace and the cold hand of the Lord
Bury me shallow or bury me deep, far from the place where angels weep
Lay me down in the potter’s field to rest forever more
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ri-aye
When the angels come a-knocking I will face my judgement day
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ri-i
I was born a dirty sinner and a sinner I will die
If I was a landlord, boss or politician or another blood sucking flea
You could place in me a pristine pitch in a high-class cemetery
And send me to parasite’s paradise with intact dignity
But I am a lowly sinner so it’s the potter’s field for me
If I was a fat old drunken lord or even royalty
I’d need a place of honour and grace to befit my nobility
Though you place the lords beneath the sward with a grand ceremony
I am a common sinner so it’s the potter’s field for me
Lay me down in the potter’s field to rest forever more
Far from the place of holy grace and the cold hand of the Lord
Bury me shallow or bury me deep, far from the place where angels weep
Just lay me down in the potter’s field to rest forever more
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ri-aye
When the angels come a-knocking I will face my judgement day
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ri-i
I was born a dirty sinner and a sinner I will die
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6. |
Lament
04:57
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Lament
Oh my friend, you are lost to the midnight
To the firelight, the wood-smoke and tears
We’ll mourn your passing for the rest of our lives
Sing your memory down all the years
We’ll sing of your joys and your sorrows
Of your passion, your anger and glee
Of how you struggled and strived, never gave up the fight:
Life never brought you to your knees
I just hope you knew that we cared for you
That our love for you will never end
It was a pleasure and privilege to call you my friend
And although life is rough, and you’re gone from us
And your passing has torn us apart
My friend, my brother, you’ll never be gone from our hearts
Every time I stand watching the ocean
I see you down at old Welcombe Bay
I see you happy and wasted and smiling
Like you were on those drunk, sunny days
I hear your laugh in the cries of the seagulls
Feel my tears join the salt spray of surf
My friend, this is how you’re remembered:
As at one with the living earth
I just hope you knew that we cared for you
That our love for you will never end
It was a pleasure and privilege to call you my friend
And although life is rough, and you’re gone from us
And your passing has torn us apart
My friend, my brother, you’ll never be gone from our hearts
I don’t believe in ghosts, I don’t believe in the immortal soul
I think the concept of hell is just blackmail, the concept of heaven just social control
I don’t believe that somewhere up above your Cheshire cat grin is still grinning
And it’s not enough to say that each end is a new beginning
There’s nothing that can make it less fucked up ‘cause it’s so fucked up
That one so full of love could be taken so soon
And all the impotent anger, all the innocent pain
Won’t change the fact that you’ll never see another sunrise again
And the only consolation in this pitiful situation
Is that the body that once bore you will enter the cycle of regeneration
And you’ll become just another part of the world that you loved so much
But it’s the slightest sugar-coating on the bitterest pill
I wish I’d had chance to say thank you
For the good times and love that we shared
I just want one last chance to tell you
Quite how much we all fucking cared
This won’t be the last time I say it
And it won’t be the last time I cry
But I’m taking this moment to tell you:
I love you. I miss you. Goodbye.
I just hope you knew that we cared for you
That our love for you will never end
It was a pleasure and privilege to call you my friend
And although life is rough, and you’re gone from us
And your passing has torn us apart
My friend, my brother, you’ll never be gone from our hearts
I just hope you knew that we cared for you
That our love for you will never end
It was a pleasure and privilege to call you my friend
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Anarcho Folko England, UK
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