No Pop, No Style, Strictly Roots

My friend said she could see no way ahead
And i was probably better off without you
She said to face up to the fact that you weren't coming back
And she could make me happy like you used to
But i'm sorry to say i turned her away
Knowing everything she said was true
And that's the price i pay for loving you the way that i do

There's something inside that hurts my foolish pride
To visit the places we used to go together
Not a day goes by that i don't sit and wonder why
Your feelings for me didn't last forever
Girl i love you so much that sometimes it's such
I'd walk a mile with a stone in my shoe
And that's the price i pay for loving you the way that i do
That's the price i pay for loving you the way that i do

So keep that phone out of my way for the things i must say
Are empty if you don't believe they're true
And that's the price i pay for loving you the way that i do
That's the price i pay for loving you the way that i do

I love you so much that baby it's such
I'd walk a mile with a stone in my shoe
And that's the price i pay for loving you the way that i do

You don't need my christmas cards
You already have my heart
This has been a holiday romance
Right from the very start

For we know how to spend the time
Who cares about the weather
We'll dance in the town till the sun goes down
And push our beds together

From the land of the midnight sunglasses
To the mountains of the moon
You could never stay a day too long
Nor never come back too soon

And you know what a fool i am
With my short attention span
Flying in the rainy season too,
Nothing can keep me away from you

There are soldiers marching on the common today
They were there again this evening
They paced up and down like sea birds on the ground
Before the storm clouds gathering

I must buy whatever tinned food is left on the shelves
They are testing the air raid sirens
They've filled up the blood banks and emptied the beds
At the hospital and he asylum

I saw a man build a shelter in his garden today
And we stood there idly chatting
He said: "no, no i don't think war will come"
Yet still he carried on digging

Everything in my life that i love
Could be swept away without warning
Yet the birds still sing and the church bells ring
And the sun came up this morning

Life goes on as it did before
As the country drifts slowly to war

<<<


<<<


<<<
Thinking back now,
I suppose you were just stating your views
What was it all for
For the weather or the battle of agincourt
And the times that we all hoped would last
Like a train they have gone by so fast
And though we stood together
At the edge of the platform
We were not moved by them


With my own hands
When i make love to your memory
It's not the same
I miss the thunder
I miss the rain
And the fact that you don't understand
Casts a shadow over this land
But the sun still shines from behind it.


Thanks all the same
But i just can't bring myself to answer your letters
It's not your fault
But your honesty touches me like a fire
The polaroids that hold us together
Will surely fade away
Like the love that we spoke of forever
On st swithin's day

I went out drinking with thomas paine
He said that all revolutions are not the same
They are as different as the cultures
That give them birth
For no one idea
Can solve every problem on earth

So don't expect it all to happen
In some prophesied political fashion
For people are different
And so are nations
You can borrow ideas
But you can't borrow situations

In leningrad the people say
Perestroika can be explained this way
The people who told us
That two and two is ten
Are now trying to tell us
That two and two is five

We're living in a north sea bubble
We're trying to spend our way out of trouble

You keep buying these things but you don't need them
But as long as you're comfortable it feels like freedom

My american friends don't know what to do
But they'll wait a long time for a beverley hills coup

War! what is it good for
It's good for business

Up in the morning and out to school
Mother says there'll be no work next year
Qualifications once the golden rule
Are now just pieces of paper

Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean i'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean i'm going backwards

If you look the part you'll get the job
In last year's trousers and your old school shoes
The truth is son, it's a buyer's market
They can afford to pick and choose

Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean i'm lazy
Just because i dress like this
Doesn't mean i'm a communist

The factories are closing and the army's full -
I don't know what i'm going to do
But i've come to see in the land of the free
There's only a future for the chosen few

Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean i'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean i'm going backwards

At twenty one you're on to of the scrapheap
At sixteen you were top of the class
All they taught you at school
Was how to be a good worker
The system has failed you, don't fail yourself

Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean i'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean i'm going backwards

Blue velvet america
Half glimpsed in the headlights between the trees
Who punctured the beauty
And invited monsters such as these
The pig faced boy, the corrupted clown
The grotesque figure who never comes into town

Something broken, something stained
Something waiting for the worms to claim
And you can never go there again
Except in nightmares
The voyeur who dares not come near
Knows excitement is merely the beginning of fear

My shadow came this morning
And left some candy in my shoe
They're always watching me
Watching the things i do
Cindy of a thousand lives
Cindy of the stepford wives

I've looked at all the photographs
But cindy, which one of them was you?

It may have been camelot for jack and jacqueline
But on the che guevara highway filling up with gasoline
Fidel castro's brother spies a rich lady who's crying
Over luxury's disappointment
So he walks over and he's trying
To sympathise with her but he thinks that he should warn her
That the third world is just around the corner

In the soviet union a scientist is blinded
By the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded
That dr robert oppenheimer's optimism fell
At the first hurdle

In the cheese pavilion and the only noise i hear
Is the sound of someone stacking chairs
And mopping up spilt beer
And someone asking questions and basking in the light
Of the fifteen fame filled minutes of the fanzine writer

Mixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is
I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses
While looking down the corridor
Out to where the van is waiting
I'm looking for the great leap forwards

Jumble sales are organised and pamphlets have been posted
Even after closing time there's still parties to be hosted
You can be active with the activists
Or sleep in with the sleepers
While you're waiting for the great leap forwards

One leap forward, two leaps back
Will politics get me the sack?

Here comes the future and you can't run from it
If you've got a blacklist i want to be on it

It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll
From top of the pops to drawing the dole

If no one seems to understand
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman

In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room

So join the struggle while you may
The revolution is just a t-shirt away
Waiting for the great leap forwards