Tracks: (click to view lyrics)

TEN WAR SONGS

2006

Written, performed and produced by me.

Back in 2006 I made Ten War Songs. We were living in the South of France that summer and France was protesting about the Iraq war. I was reminded that I used to write protest songs. So, I wrote and recorded the album in Apples Garageband. Unfortunately all that now remains of the album are these masters, all the track data was lost, that was not a good day! As a songwriter I was in my infancy but I was learning....

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Jesus On His Knees

Who answered the door
Who saw the news
Who'd you tell
Who played the blues
Who came home broken
Who forgot to say please
Who gave me my first fist of love
Jesus on his knees

Who went to work this morning
Who is feeling small
Who bought a new car
Who watched the towers fall
Who lit a candle
Who cut the wood
Who stood on my toe
Prophet be good

Who's going hungry
Who wrote that book
Who's a little different
Whose turn is it to cook
Who got cause for blame
Who's got the new phone
Blood running down my face
Jesus please come home

Who thought about suicide
Who scrumped the money tree
Who gave up smiling
Who thinks they're free
Who believes in something
Who has enough
Who's a mean kid at school
Prophet made of love

Who's feeling angry
Who's drinking milk
Who's making love outside
And who's sharing guilt
Who's wearing elephant
Who raped the tease
Who's got anything to declare
Jesus on his knees

Who wishes they were me
I know I do
Give me something to think
Who has nothing to lose
Who's left to change the world
Who thinks they should
Whose grinding coffee
Prophet be good

Who's got it registered
Who's taking this down
Who's building monoliths
Who's got a plan
Who's got courage left
Who's lost who's found
Who's marketing make believe
Jesus going down

Who's being circumcised
Who's going to war
Who's got less
And who's got more
Who's got hopes alive
And who's afraid
Who's allowed a voice
Who prophets from the energy of slaves

Who's to know
And who's to die
Who's to question
Who's to cry
Who's got money
Who's got the rope
I'm just finding my peace
God help me to cope

Who's been crucial
Who's criticised
Who told the truth
Who went and lied
Who gave me a bed to lie in
When I was in need
Get me on the internet
God help me believe

Bagdad Crusade

It's midnight at the oasis and nobody's here
The light from the night fires makes everything look scared
And a baby cries solo
Nobody hears it but me God and fear

I wake to find dreaming is all that I got
Yesterday is over it's just a bullet hole in the head
And there's no hallelujah
The Baghdad café is dead

The poets all broken their words told as lies
The savants and the storytellers as quiet as they come
This is no revolution
They painted Sinbad on a bomb

The trees of Babylon are burning
This world is turning away
From the Baghdad crusade

The weight of my genius is more than I can bear
Moved out of my mind sanctions bombs books and tears
And there's blood in my eyes
Ten tons of war today

This once ancient city as delicate as prose
Had its books burned by infidels piles of bodies on the side of roads
And my epitaph unknown
There'll be no going home

The hospitals all broken from the policies of the world
Are your prayers any stronger than the ones that we say
And my quarrelsome cry
No children were born today

The trees of Babylon are burning
And this world is turning away
From the Baghdad crusade

Walk libertine back streets no armoured cars can ride
The city of peace all broken and bled
I smell the souk rise
The Baghdad café is dead

The tortured and hunted and hopeless are freed
To go fight a war bring home bountiful greed
And they bomb us at night
For your money we bleed
They bomb us at night
For your money we bleed

The trees of Babylon are burning
And this world is turning away
From the Baghdad crusade

Why We Lie

These are the policies of make believe
Staving children on begging knees
Tell the world why we look away
And I broke the hearts of many men
Women lay down but then again
They all know the reasons why we lie

We can't stand what's gone before
And we can't stand what's coming
So we lie
We can't stand what's gone before
And we can't stand what's coming
So we lie

We look like the devil and we look like god
Born innocent die like dogs
I ask you how we ever got this far
We're nipped and tucked and broken
The vanities got our eyes stolen
For the price of a child you can buy yourself a new car

We can't stand what's gone before
And we can't stand what's coming
Or who we are
We can't stand what's gone before
And we can't stand what's coming
Or who we are

I fear what the speakers are saying
I fear what the prayers are praying
I fear what we want to be and why we lie
I'm scared what the shovellers are shovelling
I'm scared what the people are following
I'm scared what we think we are and why we lie

Sometimes it feels I'm all alone
The poet died business grown
Time of great reform is on my mind
When freedom spoke it broke the law
They turned off the camera when we went to war
They don't want to show the reasons why

We can't stand what's gone before
And we can't stand what's coming
So we lie
We can't stand what's gone before
And we can't stand what's coming
So we lie

I spoke my mind to the firing squad
They reached for my heart and I reached for their god
After Auschwitz there can be no more poetry
The brotherhood of man is low
Money's rich lies are gold
Turned up the silence and watched the night sky

We can't stand what's gone before
And we can't stand what's coming
So we lie
We can't stand what's gone before
And we can't stand what's coming
So we lie

I fear what the speakers are saying
I fear what the prayers are praying
I fear what we want to be and why we lie
I'm scared what the shovellers are shovelling
I'm scared what the people are following
I'm scared what we think we are and why we lie

Beautiful World

Can we make love
Can we wake
Can we dance around the lake
Can this beautiful life not be filled with mistake
Can the people who put bullets in us come take them away

Can I be what I lack
Can we bring the gypsy’s back
Can I kiss the day from the soul of Iraq
Can we see the sun rise on this great big beautiful world

Can I resign my fate
Can it not be too late
Can we make a baby not made in hate
Oh beautiful world help me share my heart

Put the war away boys
It’s a beautiful world

Can we share the night
Can we watch the tide
Can we find our dead were really alive
Can there be peace on earth in this great big beautiful world

I see friends of mine
Cross the line
But can we work together one last time
Can you see from the corners of the world I’m a lot like you

Can you stop the war
Can’t fight anymore
Can we be the people we were before
Before the fight in this great big beautiful world

Put the war away boys
It’s a beautiful world

Devils Eulogy

For those who feed quiet streets with hate
Whose lullaby's a gun bones break
On every corner street society's flawed
I hold my breath god I hope you hold yours
With an attitude of an easy life
It'll touch your children and rape your wife
Intellectual ceilings with a broken ladder
And I don't vote nothing changes nor matters
And these days we need a gun to shut a mouth
Got the culture of bullshit in every house
And we're ruined in dreams of an easy life
Fuck that
We fall for it
Hold on
Hold on

Here the T.V. people wear insipid cloaks
I love babies and weddings and I wanna choke
Bloated in ego soiled of heart
They cleanse you in soap and feed it like art
But the hangman swears in caps and hoods
The devil stands where the critic once stood
Don't we shirk the shackles of the following fool
Don't listen to teachers they never left school
Evolution's dead in the clothes it wears
It keeps us stupid down here so they can stay up there
Don't listen to them
Self-improvement my friend
Think for yourself
And get a life
Oh get a life

Don't respect those who stand in line
It don't taste like cherry don't feel like wine
Any fool can be a king the sodomite
Sublime retribution watch the black nation rise
In the bitterest smile the abused they know
We don't want pretty little words to pretend it ain't so
But it is
And it's there
And one woman helps a million don't care
They vow on the covenant of sin
If you tell the truth you can't get in
Answer the question
Answer the fucking question
I ain't here to make friends
I ain't here to make friends

You look in the mirror so often what do ya see
Are you a joke or some tragedy
Masked in eloquence herded in thought
You're the devil's shit and you don't give a toss
About us or them
You're making rules that only you can bend
In these molested streets have we hurt enough
Do we really need another empty song about love
I'm sad today
And I'm running out of people that I can hate
You should be a privilege
But you're not
I despise you
With a passion
My passion

Now you're covering up desecrated earth
You say no one wants to remember evil's birth
But I do
And you should
There's more to be earned from evil than good
I'm bitter and twisted no one to hear me
See another mindless mother want to slap the bitch silly

And the truth is tough
Suicide bombers are pissing me off
You broke the law the law of love
You're too stupid to rule
If there's a god I don't need this
I'm mortified and mutinous
Tonight it's unsurpassed
It's unsurpassed

Did optimism die of hope
I fear not my friend we're resilient folk
And there's solace alone for society stinks
We've learned to loathe the man that thinks
It's wrong
You scared
Of all the things you never learned or shared
It's the epitome of the human race
The devil's best friend
The potential waste
And I see today
You let the fuckers whore while you look away
And I don't wish you good
Plague
Torment
Go to hell

Pity Me

I did seven tours of duty
My soul thin with all the things it's done
And I'm only following orders like they told me
I know you see me having fun
But pity me
Pity me
The soldier and his gun

And I'm in command of all the boys here
There's no room for comfort when they cry
We came out to die for the cause of something
But even we know now that it's a lie
Oh pity me
Pity me
As I send them out to die

I'm the lover of a dead man
With a little baby inside
My bed empty my pillow wet
Please someone hold me a little while
Oh pity me
Pity me
Mother with his child

I'm the oil lobby of America
And our profits are being sold
I grease the turbine that makes this world turn
On the right side of the world
So pity me
Pity me
How come they got the gold

And I'm the schoolboy
And I don't know what to do
Mama keep crying daddy's still missing
And they're selling how to be cool
Pity me
Pity me
Today they bombed my school

I'm your politician
That you have voted in
And I keep working for the people
But I lose even when we win
Please pity me
Pity me
The tax is wearing thin

We're the media representatives
From the blind and broken bloody streets
But war's not selling any papers
Of a foreign nation on its knees
Oh pity me
Pictures
Of a dead president to please

And this is god you keep calling
Isn't it beautiful enough for you
I made you smart
You act so stupid
What do you want me to do
Oh pity me
Pity me
You keep blaming me for you

Cynicsm Or Truth

And I'm here just trying to find a reason
Why soldiers all believe in what they do
Is it men and boys like to go fighting
Talking cynicism or truth

And we know politics is rotten
Their signature on every dead recruit
And war comes in bullets and it comes in business
Is this cynicism or is it truth

And all we have to say
Are the words I don't know
Who's left to care
What is right in this world
You should be ashamed of your soul

And they say this is a fight full of justice
And I wonder justice for who
And I cry
I see the soldiers laughing
Talking cynicism or truth

And they argue this is not about the money
Dress soldiers in pink if you need proof
War don't make friends it just makes interests
Is this cynicism or is this the truth

And all we find to say
Are the words I don't know
Who's left to care
What is right in this world
You should be ashamed of your soul

War grants itself a long line of heroes
Prejudice is as lethal as your salute
No one knows the real enemy today
Talking cynicism or truth

And so I kiss goodnight my little babies
They don't hear the night bombs some little ones do
War kills first the innocence of our children
Call it cynicism or call it truth

And all we find to say
Are the words I don't know
Who's left to care
What is right with this world
You should be ashamed of your soul

Democratic Revolution

An old man's revolution is philosophy
A young man's philosophy is a revolution
Campus is quiet now but for the sound of tiny plastic phones
When the young are not angry everything stays the same
In a time of war our complacency is the most dangerous tool in their store
Is the world in retreat
And to the guys in bars with guitars
Why aren't you stamping your feet

If a man enters a forest to sit and think about love he is considered a fool
If a man enters a forest and fells the trees for money he is a success
In ten million years a single cell organism will replace us all
Say how important do you think you are today
The Euphrates is full of bodies the air all full of oil
War hunger humiliation defeat
To the guys in bars with guitars
Why aren't you stamping your feet

The news is blinking out its Christian propaganda
All our enemies can do is strap on a bomb and detonate themselves
Is there more dignity in a million pound bomb being dropped from the sky
Conditioned to be proud of our military machine
Manipulated in accepting the killing of innocent people
There are always more bombs
Seldom enough to eat
To the guys in bars with guitars

Why aren't you stamping your feet

How can so much communication have so little left to say
Only when we liberate what we know and accept can we be free
Re-load your meagre attention span in this blind society
Overthrow what it is you have come to believe in
Have a little dignity in what it is you accept

Eventually only lawyers will work
Progress in retreat
And to guys in bars with guitars
Why aren't you stamping your feet

We bury our fathers in peace children in war
We bury our fathers in peace children in war

And these are the actions of our so called civilised societies
We justify murdering more people than the accused just to bring it to justice
Lack of protest just adds to the canon of human misery
Send more bombs and bibles cos we're running out of prayers
Battlefields pushing up poppies
Sand all soaked in blood
Where's the prophet
Where's the poet
Where's the truth in our defeat
And to the guys in bars with guitars
Why aren't you stamping your feet

And I woke this morning to a remote and dreamless sky
Young people say what can we do and they got a point
The alcoholic is someone who drinks as much as you do
That you don't like
Violations of our human rights same rules apply
Bring democracy to the world in lies
We're playing god in an unjustified seat
To the guys in bars with guitars
Why aren't you stamping your feet

War president teach us how to love
Weakness resorts to violence
Strength refers to peace
Anger always the first line of our defence
But we are not angry enough to stop the global racial conflict
And our leaders all pretending that it's not
Grown bored watching people bleed
To the guys in bars with guitars
Why aren't you stamping your feet

And we see what men do to each other all over the world
But the women
The women always get it worse
The real enemy is malaise ignorance I couldn't care less
All religions will eventually become mythology
And the song belongs to a stranger
And in amongst the slaughter my voice so obsolete
And to the guys in bars with guitars
Why aren't you stamping your feet

War Lullaby

Dead men in my scenery
I'm alive and living blind
Childhood over when you know you die
Ain't heroes hard to find

Children on the side of roads
Stock images of war
Mama waits for a little bread
Who you dying for

They send us out with the bottom line
Too young to shave or kill
The truth it don't mean a thing
So many graves to fill

Old men promoting wars for young men to die in
Old men promoting wars for young men to die in

Out here I hate the generals
Back home they're even worse
And I'm dying here like all the boys
But it feels like I'm the first

Now I can't remember what we're fighting for
The principles of who I am
Animal degrading animal
In the prejudice colours of man

Old men promoting wars for young men to die in
Old men promoting wars for young men to die in

So I finished my letter and I sung it
Then sent it last post
And I closed my eyes to find a prayer
Who does god hate the most

They send you out with the bottom line
Too young to shave or kill
The truth it don't mean a thing
So many graves to fill

Old men promoting wars for young men to die in
Old men promoting wars for young men to die in

Unknown Soldier

World if you love me let me go
Known but to god and time
No more the architecture of man
Unknown soldier resign

My flame cold and frail
The ghost of my mother still cryin'
The last old man marched by today
Unknown soldier resign

But my symbol doesn't cover the new bones
The fourth war will be fought with stones

The centuries of men I can no longer bear
Not in my name not on my watch not in my time
The quality of war now divine
Unknown soldier resign

So I stand down as the hero of the dead
My use now only as chastity wine
And my stone heart starved without love
Unknown soldier resign

But my symbol doesn't cover the new bones
The fourth war will be fought with stones

And I am buried here alongside kings
Let me go I've served out my time
Into new wars without me you must ride
Unknown soldier resign