SKYCLAD LYRICS

1. Still Spinning Shrapnel

All I hear are peace talks and battle cries.

Everyone's losing - nobody's winning,
So run for your lives when the shrapnel's spinning.

Pictures of the crippled - wounded on the frontline
Someone else's problem - you're sitting on a landmine.
When will we see reason? Sometimes I think we'll never
Learn that children have the right to laugh - and dying is forever

All I hear are peace talks and battle cries.

No time for laughter - we're too busy dying,
In this 'Devil's Playground' - bullets are flying.

There's another star in heaven - and footprints on the moon
So ignore the reign of terror - the bloody red monsoon.
Neighbour fighting neighbour - oh see how quick they run
To tear down the white flag and pick up the gun.

Peace talks and battle cries - apathy can kill
Put a price on human life - pay 'the butcher's bill'.
Everybody's losing - nobody's winning,
Run for your lives when the shrapnel's spinning.

Hear my prayer from the Valley of the Shadow -
For a child in an unmarked grave.
Take my hand in the hour of darkness -
While there's someone left to save.

But you can't hear me - all you can hear are...

Peace talks and battle cries - apathy can kill,
Put a price on human life - pay 'the butcher's bill'.
No time for laughter - we're too busy dying,
In this 'Devil's Playground' where bullets are flying.

I think about the children who have no hopes or homes,
Born into a battlfield - war's all they've ever known.
Neighbour loving neighbour - will that day ever come
When we shake hands in friendship and survey the damage done.

All I hear are peace talks and battle cries.

Everyone's losing - nobody's winning,
So run for your lives when the shrapnel's spinning.

Hear my prayer from the Valley of the Shadow -
For a child in an unmarked grave.
Take my hand in the hour of darkness -
While there's someone left to save.

Why won't you help me?
Why can't you hear me?

2. Just What Nobody Wanted

Just what nobody wanted, I'm just what nobody wanted.

I think that life has got it in for me,
Can you please tell me who's to blame?
For all the bills upon my mat -
They breed and grow then eat the cat.
Where they come from I don't know,
I stare at them but they won't go!

It seems that life's a big frustration,
Why is everybody out to bring me down?
There has to be a simple explanation,
Why failure is the fashion every time I come to town.

If life is sweet - then I'm diabetic
The future looks rosy - I just went colourblind.

This all seems to be some mass conspiracy,
So I demand the right to know,
If there's a God up there, how come he seems to care
For every little bird and bee, but couldn't give a damn for me.

It seems that life's a big frustration,
Why is everybody out to bring me down?
There has to be a simple explanation,
Why failure is the fashion every time I come to town.

If high hopes were bank notes,
I'd own all of England
And teardrops were diamonds,
Then I'd be a millionaire.

Just what nobody wanted,
I'm just what nobody wanted.

You say I'm purely being paranoid,
I beg to differ - it's not true.
Shit just seems to hit the fan,
Every time I make a plan.
Grand design to small detail,
All I do is doomed to fail.

It seems that life's a big frustration,
Why is everybody out to bring me down?
There has to be a simple explanation,
Why failure is the fashion every time I come to town.

If life is sweet - then I'm diabetic,
The future looks rosy - I just went colourblind.

I'm just what nobody wanted at all.

3. Art Nazi

Twist the truth - then twist your arm,
It's the Emperor Caligula School of Charm,
Don't take his word 'cause it's not worth having it
(he's an Art-Nazi)
He's a tinpot Hitler gone berserk,
A self-made man from another man's work,
More tonque in cheek than a french kiss from Judas Iscariot.

I've been to a prison - one of my own making,
I sent myself there when I signed on the line.
A pact with the Devil so legally binding -
Now he owns my soul 'til the end of time.

He owns all we eat - all we breathe,
All we take and all we leave,
All we are and all we ever will be.

Think of all the time and the energy we've wasted.
Learning how the sole of a Jack-boot tasted,
Anyone would think that he was doing us a favour -
(he's an Art-Nazi)
His name goes hand in hand with notoriety -
Bigot of the highly illegitimate variety.
I'm sick of eating shit - can I try another flavour.

What you give with one hand you take with the other,
We are your puppets and you pull the strings.
Don't make the fatal mistake of forgetting -
It's never really over 'til the fat lady sings.

He knows all we think - all we do,
Head he wins - and tails we lose.
He's our Fuhrer - he's our Lord and Master.

Twist the truth - then twist your arm,
It's the Emperor Caligula School of Charm,
Don't take his word 'cause it's not worth having it -
(He's an Art-Nazi)
He's a tinpot Hitler gone berserk,
A self-made man from another man's work,
More tonque in cheek than a french kiss from Judas Iscariot.
His name goes hand in hand with notoriety -
Bigot of the highly illegitimate variety.
I'm sick of eating shit - can I try another flavour.

4. Jeopardy

As the daylight starts to fade -
Twisting shadows all around.
Dead soldiers on parade -
The ghosts of Porton Down.

Hidden from the public eye, "A cause for regret"
Wrote the Brigadier-General with the chemistry set.
"Can't be more specific - the matter's confidential,
Links with other incidents are just coincidental."

In jeopardy - welcome to the lion's den,
We skate on thin ice - dice with death.
While young boys drown in seas of poison -
We are the plagiarists of breath.

We go left right left right left -
They're left in the right again.
We go right left right left right -
We've no rights left anymore.

Military science picking the locks
Of a 20th Century Pandora's box.

A father tells a son,
"The army makes a man of you."
Now all vital signs are gone -
Another joins the countless few.

Mentioned in dispatches - they tell the same old story,
'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,"
They listened to him screaming -
They sat and watched him writhe,
Taking turns observing as his body burns alive.

Rifles firing at the sky -
As the "Last Post" starts to play.
Young soldiers often die -
And the truth gets filed away.

Thomas Atkins (Private 20967),
Now reports for duty -
He's been posted up to heaven.
Enlisted by conscription - a participant unwilling.
Who didn't plan to give his life for taking the "King's Shilling".

In jeopardy - welcome to the lion's den,
We skate on thin ice - dice with death,
While young boys drown in seas of poison -
We are the plagiarists of breath.

5. Brimstone Ballet

"Though I may seem callous" cried old Thomas Malthus,
"Paupers are better off dead.
That we have to feed them is something we need
Like a musket shot straight through the head."
Not much of a smiler - our man Wat Tyler
(Died for the working man's fight).
Was daring such a treason a justified reason
For ending his days with his head on a spike?

In order to see pearly factory gates -
We all learn our places (pre-destined fates).
God fearing people with minimal goals,
Led to the slaughter - "tools with souls".

Save us from hellfire -
Save us from dancing the Brimstone Ballet.

When the church and its leaders sought new ways to bleed us -
It didn't take them long to find,
Fear of perdition beats nuclear
Fission at making the mill-wheels grind.
Ban contraception - a shrewd move says I
Plenty of slaves born to suffer and die.
Say "Go forth and multiply" when you want more.
When you've too many just send them to war.

History's wounds will not heal overnight -
They pray for my soul as they set me alight.
Remember the maxim "Arbeit Macht Frei" -
Thought up by a christian with God on his side...

It's a hell made by christians with God on their side.

The work goes on in babylon -
Enslaving us from birth,
With promises of paradise -
They've made a hell on earth.

Save us from hellfire -
Save us from dancing the Brimstone Ballet.

Well I think that Satan was God's best creation -
He's kept him in business for years.
It's not common sense making mankind repent -
But eternal damnation it fears.
They're not slow to realise - they know every trick.
Drive human donkeys with God on a stick.
Tom Torquemada - he sings like a dream,
Lucrecia Borgia plays lead tambourine.

In order to see pearly factory gates -
We all learn our places (pre-destined fates).
God fearing people with minimal goals,
Led to the slaughter - "tools with souls!"

Save us from hellfire -
Save us from dancing the Brimstone Ballet.

6. A Stranger In The Garden

Silently gazing from the window -
My mind detached from space and time.
There is a secret only I know -
A place where the city lights don't shine.

Why don't you come up here with me?
Let Aphrodite take you by the hand,
And we can tell the future how it should be
When we set sail for Alexander's land.

A stranger in the garden 'neath a full moon in the sky,
This is the Old God's country -
You can bring me here to die.
It's a thinking mans Valhalla -
A long weekend in paradise,
Package tour to Eden -
My spirit yearns for freedom.

So leave your troubles far behind you -
Take care not to pack them in your case.
Your jaded spirits lifted - your body born anew,
The minute golden sunlight hits your face.
I'll fly as high as any eagle -
Watch me now I soar above the sand.
I get the strangest sense of deja vu
When I set foot on Alexander's land.

A stranger in the garden 'neath a full moon in the sky
This is the Old God's country -
You can bring me here to die.
It's a thinking mans Valhalla -
A long weekend in paradise,
Package tour to eden -
My spirit yearns for freedom.

Is it reality - is it a dream?
Strangely intangible - somewhere between,
Frankly absurd and naively serene.
My search goes on....

7. Another Fine Mess

A girl read my runes in the warm dressing room,
It was then that I started to think
There has to be something really worth hunting -
I reach for another strong drink.
For ten lonely years - that's my reward.

My ego and I we have faced many dangers.
Fear and self loathing have never been strangers.
Nobody knows of the depths we have been to -
Or all the fine messes we've got ourselves into.
For ten lonely years - that's my reward.

In my world far removed from the actual -
Safe in my small amorality capsule.
I cruise far aloof from the other world's laws-
Hiding behind tinted windows and doors.

I'm so tired of living -
Too weary to cry,
Too stubborn to give in -
Curl up and die.
This whole situation has I must confess,
All the tell-tale signs of another fine mess.

I've been run aground - a ship in a bottle,
Caught in the eye of the storm.
Deep in my strife found the meaning of life -
You're dying the moment you're born.

My heart bears the scars even time can't disguise,
If you only knew what I've seen through these eyes.
Oftimes overwhelmed by the feelings of doubt,
I have crawled in a bottle to shut them all out.

Will I drown in the sweat of this chemical dream,
With far too much blood in my alcohol stream?
When Mr. Jack Daniels has read my last rights -
His friend 'Billy Whizz' comes to turn on the lights.

First we were plastered in Paris,
Then we were frying in Greece.
Caught between heaven and hellfire,
Send for an ambulance - fetch me a priest.

I've been run aground - a ship in a bottle,
Caught in the eye of a storm.
Deep in my strife found the meaning of life -
You're dying the moment you're born.

"A band on ship" the captain cried,
We bought damnation duty-free.
Now we're floating with the tide -
"The silent whales of lunar sea."

I've been run aground - a ship in a bottle,
Caught in the eye of the storm.
Deep in my strife found the meaning of life -
You're dying the moment you're born.

8. Turncoat Rebellion

Drawers of water - hewers of wood,
Biting their tonques as if they know what's good for them.
Floating voters perched high upon fences in flame.

Charmed by pipes - drugged with ale,
Simple minds - born to fail,
Father please tell a tale of turncoat rebellion.

Watch us quietly disappear at the call for volunteers.
Eager to please - keep your noses to the grindstone.
Eager to please - your shoulders to the wheel.

Tuggers of forelocks - doffers of caps,
Blinded by greed they stepped into the traps laid for them.

Given a video - sattelite dish,
National Lottery - Saturday wish,
Simple lives - tropical fish in habitat aquaria.

Mad as hell but afraid to speak,
Our thin red line is a yellow streak.
Eager to please - keep your backs to the plough.
Eager to please - as we grow so we weep.

Charmed by pipes - drugged with ale,
Simple minds - born to fail,
Father please tell a tale of Turncoat Rebellion.

9. Halo Of Flies

All you needed was somebody with a dream,
A fool to crucify or to put upon a pedestal.
Only dead fish float with the stream -
Compared with you I seem like an extra-terrestrial.

I'm not your Robin Hood or Peter Pan,
I won't play Jesus Christ - Santa Claus.
I'll never pass for a superman -
I'm just an effect trying to find a cause.

Tell me who am I, what am I and why am I here.

Is it because I'm flesh and blood
That creature comforts feel so good?
I give my body all it needs -
It sleeps and eats and shits and breeds.

And if I keep my feelings stum,
Hard luck - bibo ergo sum.
Just trying to do the best I can
Is a giant leap for this small man.

All you needed was somebody with a dream,
A fool to crucify or to put upon a pedestal.
Only dead fish float with the stream -
Compared with you I seem like an extra-terrestrial.

You say that life is a miracle -
I don't believe one word.
Forgive me for being so cynical -
From down here you all look absurd.

So are you happy now we all feel the same?
Martyrs to the cause - boredom level nearing terminal.
You're afraid to go against the grain,
Next to you I feel like a shining intellectual.

James T. Kirk - Albert Einstein,
Sitting safe aboard the Enterprise.
If you're out there send me a sign -
I need somebody to sympathise with.

Tell me who am I, what am I and why am I here.

Must I succumb to every urge -
First feast and fast (then binge and purge).
My spirit's strong - my flesh is weak,
I laugh and cry and scream and speak.

And sometimes when i feel confused,
I walk a path I did not choose.
Watch my life on video -
A private homemade horror show.

All you needed was somebody with a dream,
A fool to crucify or to put upon a pedestal.
Only dead fish float with the stream -
Compared with you I seem like an extra-terrestrial.

So are you happy now we all feel the same?
Martyrs to the cause - boredom level nearing terminal.
You're afraid to go against the grain,
Next to you I feel like a shining intellectual.

You say that life is a miracle -
I don't believe one word.
Forgive me for being so cynical -
From down here you all look absurd.

10. Desperanto (A Song For Europe?)

This is our song for Europe,
I thought we saw the borders fall?
Guerre sans Frontiers -
And it seems nothing changed here at all.

They're building a Tower of Babel in Brussels -
It's called the Euromisery,
And once we're inside they'll take us for a ride.

Placing life and death decisions in the hands of politicians,
Poltroons playing judge and jury - like alcoholics in a brewery.

This is our anthem of nations,
Another treaty signed in vain.
It's a knockout! -
Hope falls to the canvas again.

It's an uncommon market - we're all Eurosexual,
I want an E.C. lay, and when I'm inside she'll take me for a ride.

Passing laws on moral issues -
Sticky fingers holding tissues.
Pyromaniacs with fire who light the fuse and then retire.

This is our song for Europe,
I thought we saw the borders fall?
Guerre sans Frontiers -
And it seems nothing changed here at all.

A well cultured vulture feathers his nest,
It's a chalet near Aix-en-Provence,
The Porche he drives has been paid for with lives.

Starve the pure and feed corruption,
Walk the path to self destruction,
Open old wounds - turn them septic,
Save us all from Euro-sceptics.

This is our anthem of nations,
Another treaty signed in vain.
It's a knockout! -
Hope falls to the canvas again.

11. The Present Imperfect

[Chorus "Panis Angelicus" by Cesar Franck]

Unto those who have enough you give more free of charge,
What becomes of those with nothing?
You stand back and let them starve.
Well is your conscience clear safe in your Land of Plenty?
We wait outside your walls - our pockets and our bellies empty.

"Panis angelicus - fit panis hominum,
Dat panis Caelicus - figuris terminum.
O res mirabilis - man ducat dominum,
Dat panis caelicus - figuris terminum."

A systemized autocracy of authorized burocracy
Seems to have our people by the throats,
It's time to make your choices -
Stand up and use your voices,
While you've still legal rights and votes.

Let the wishes of the few outweigh the needs of many -
In this land where money talks we have little chance if any.
Bring the nation back to basics -
Lionize Dickensian dreams,
Hide a heart that's grey and cold behind an image squeaky-clean.

We're fighting to be free - driven by necessity,
She is the mother of invention.
God bless the working men -
Slaves three score years and ten,
Who never beg for divine intervention.

"Panis angelicus - fit panis hominum,
Dat panis Caelicus - figuris terminum.
O res mirabilis - man ducat dominum,
Dat panis caelicus - figuris terminum."







SKYCLAD LYRICS