Guthrie's Machine: the Protest Music Thread

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Music is one of the classic forms of self-expression, and there are a lot of things to express about right now. But many of those things are a bit serious and stressful.

We already have another music thread, devoted to uplifting old tunes without politics. It’s a grand thread; check it out.

This thread is for the other music. Music which describes the world as it is.

Folk, punk, hip-hop, whatever. Post ya songs, and if you feel like it, explain why. Express yourself in music.

That’s another day gone by, son, close your eyes
For the moon is chasing clouds across the skies
Go to sleep and have no fear, son
For your mam and dad are near, son
And the giant is just a shadow on the wall

Go to sleep and when you wake it will be light
There’s no need to fear the darkness of the night
It’s not like the dark you find, son
In the depths of some men’s minds, son
That defies the daily coming of the dawn

Lie easy in your bed and grow up strong
You’ll be needing all your strength before too long
For you’ll soon be on your way, son
Fighting battles every day, son
With an enemy who thinks he owns the world

Stop crying now, let daddy dry your tears
There’s no bogeyman to get you, never fear
There’s no ogres, wicked witches
Only greedy sons-of-bitches
Who are waiting to exploit your life away

Don’t you let 'em buy you out or break your pride
Don’t you let yourself be used then cast aside
If you listen to their lying
They will con you into dying
You won’t even know that you were once alive

No more talking now it’s time to go to sleep
There are answers to your questions but they’ll keep
Go on asking while you grow, son
Go on asking till you know, son
And then send the answers ringing through the world

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Nothing ever changes.

Lyrics

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OK, I’ll post it again

Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next

The future teaches you to be alone
The present to be afraid and cold
So if I can shoot rabbits
Then I can shoot fascists

Bullets for your brain today
But we’ll forget it all again
Monuments put from pen to paper
Turns me into a gutless wonder

And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Will be next

Gravity keeps my head down
Or is it maybe shame
At being so young and being so vain

Holes in your head today
But I’m a pacifist
I’ve walked La Ramblas
But not with real intent

And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Will be next

And on the street tonight an old man plays
With newspaper cuttings of his glory days

And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Will be next

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I want to smash it up for all the workers who spent hours into nothing
I want to smash it up for all my sisters who got caught up in this funky system
I want to smash it up just like a locust, like a satellite shooting rockets
I want to smash it up in every way I can and right now I think I want to be your man
Smash it up when I’m down
I want to smash it up for all the kids who got fucked up just like their parents did
I want to smash it up - the gods and masters who made us die so much faster
Yeah you know I want to smash it up
Smash it up when I’m down
I want to smash it up for all the people and for our right to be treated equal
I want to smash it up for all my friends I hope you stick around until the very end
Yeah you know we gotta smash it up
Smash it up when I’m down

Nowhere is untouched by shame, who said we could get by with our childhood games
Days of innocence all long gone avoid the shock honey and try to live on
Woke up all paralysed all dreams corrupted in front of our eyes cause on every forehead of every little whore there is a sign that says:
Baby don’t come back no more
Distasteful ugly and cheap
This is how you make me feel
Capitalism stole my virginity
Robbed of our bleeding hearts
Smashed our illusions tore them all apart
But now we are unsentimental and unafraid to destroy this culture that we hate
Tired of being nothing when we should be everything
And on every forehead of every little whore there is a sign that says:
Baby we are all born to die
Distasteful ugly and cheap
This is how you make me feel
Capitalism stole my virginity
We are all sluts, cheap products in someone else’s notebook

40 days and 40 nights since I last got in a fight
What have we done?
Money’s on the lookout for number 1
40 days and 40 nights since I last got in a fight
What have we done?
Money’s on the lookout for number 1
40 nights and 40 days that’s how long I’m going to stay
What have become of the children that this culture spawned?
Another word for lack of precision
Another word that fits for me and you
We are up for sale everything that we know is up for sale
40 days and 40 nights since I last saw some light
What have we done sacrificed our kids and loved ones
40 nights and 40 days is this the price we are going to pay?
What have we become, marked up and price-tagged everyone
Another word for the lack of precision
Another word that fits for em and you
We are up for sale everything that we know is up for sale
We are up for sale everything that we know is up for sale

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For those moments when you just want to party.

Chris Liberator - Sick Of Capitalism Want My Money Back!

The Prodigy and Pop Will Eat Itself - Their Law

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Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, run them, fuck the slow mo
Fashion slave, you protestin’ to get in a fuckin’ look book
Everything I scribble’s like The Anarchist Cookbook
(Look good, posing in a centerfold of Crook Book)
Black on black on black with a ski mask, that is my crook look
How you like my stylin’, bruh? Ain’t nobody stylin’, bruh
‘Bout to turn this mothafucka up like Riker’s Island, bruh
Where my thuggers and my cripples and my blooders and my brothers?
When you niggas gon’ unite and kill the police, mothafuckas?
Or take over a jail, give those COs hell
The burnin’ of the sulfur, God damn I love the smell
Blankets and pillow torchin’, where the fuck the warden?
And when you find him, we don’t kill him, we just waterboard him
We killin’ ‘em for freedom cause they tortured us for boredom
And even if some good ones die, fuck it, the Lord’ll sort ‘em
We out of order, your honor, you’re out of order
This whole court is unimportant, you fuckers are walkin’ corpses
I’m a flip wig synonym, livin’ within distortion
I’ll bite into a cyanide molar before you whores win
I’m a New Yorkian, I fuck for the jump
I wear my Yankee so tilted I actually walk with a hunch
Look at Mikey, I think he likey, we are sinister sons
(Aye, we the type to beat the preacher with a grin and a gun)
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
A wise man once said, (“We all dead, fuck it”)
Just spit it disgusting youngin’, and hold your nuts while you’re gunnin’
I listened, tatted a sentence on my dick last summer
Now I’ll never get that phrase off my brain, it’s no wonder
I’m here to buy hearts, I got hundreds, honey
The cheaper the parts, the better buy for the money
I’m trained in vagina whisperin’, glistenin’
Waitin’ for their christenin’, I know the neighbors can’t help but listen in
A dirty boy who come down on a side of dissonance
I can’t even relax without sirens off in the distances
Not shittin’ you, little buddy, this fuckin’ island’s a prison
The only solace I have is the act of conjugal visitin’
My solitary condition’s preventin’ conjugal visits
Go mane and missin’ my misses, they keepin’ me from my children
Conditions create a villain, the villain is givin’ vision
The vision becomes a vow to seek vengeance on all the vicious
Liars and politicians, profiteers of the prisons
The forehead engravers, enslavers of men and women
Includin’ members of clergy that rule on you through religion
(So strippin’ kids to the nude and then tell ‘em God’ll forgive ‘em)
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
It’s De La on the cut, liftin’ 6 on your stitchy crew
I’m miles ahead of you, you can sip my bitches brew
My battle status is burnin’ mansions from Dallas to Malibu
Check my résumé, your residence is residue
Call her a skin job and my honey dip’ll backflip for you
You playin’, God your eye sockets, she gon’ rip in two
We sick of bleedin’ out a trace, spray a victim, you
Done dyin’, Phillip AK Dickin’ you
With clips in the bottom, we dippin’ from Gotham
Yes eclipsed by the shadows, a dark dance to the coffin
I’m a fellow with melanin, suspect of a felony
Ripped like Rakim Allah, feds is checkin’ my melody
Yes aggressively tested we’ll bump stretchers and penalties
Dump cases with face and the cop pleas when we seizing a pump
With reason to dump on you global grand dragons
Still pilin’ fast, plus Afghani toe taggin’
Now they trackin’ me and we bustin’ back, see
The only thing that close quicker than our caskets be the factories
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them

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[Ed: The ‘four degrees’ refers to the projected increase in global temperature by 2050 if current trends remain stable. (In short, if we don’t do anything about it.) By this projection, a mass extinction event would be almost certain.]
–––


It’s only four degrees, it’s only four degrees
It’s only four degrees, it’s only four degrees
It’s only four degrees, it’s only four degrees
It’s only four degrees, it’s only four degrees

I wanna see this world, I wanna see it boil
I wanna see this world, I wanna see it boil

It’s only four degrees, it’s only four degrees
It’s only four degrees, it’s only four degrees

I wanna hear the dogs crying for water
I wanna see fish go belly-up in the sea

All those lemurs and all those tiny creatures
I wanna see them burn, it’s only four degrees

And all those rhinos and all those big mammals
I wanna see them lying, crying in the fields

I wanna see them burn, it’s only four degrees
I wanna see them burn, it’s only four degrees
I wanna see them burn, it’s only four degrees

I wanna burn them, I wanna burn them
I wanna burn them, I wanna burn them

I wanna burn the sky, I wanna burn the breeze
I wanna see the animals die in the trees
Oh let’s go, let’s go it’s only four degrees
Oh let’s go, let’s go it’s only four degrees
Oh let’s go, let’s go it’s only four degrees
Oh let’s go, let’s go it’s only four degrees

I wanna burn them, I wanna burn them
I wanna burn them

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Speaking of climate…

Written for Katrina, but rather appropriate for now.

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There’s a moral to the story that I’m about to tell
When you take a look around you to see that all is well
Just because you’re cozy
Don’t think the world is rosy
Some people in this world are going through hell

And the silent majority stayed silent
While the despots murdered millions world wide
Tyrannical purveyors of injustice
Make the law then claim the law is on their side

In Thirty Three in Germany when Hitler came to play
Liberty was gradually eroded day by day
Till they gassed and shot dissenters
While the decent people cowered
And thought the things they never dared to say

And the silent majority stayed silent
While they rounded up the democrat and Jew
For the Fatherland they murdered children’s fathers
Who’s only crime was saying what was true

In seventy three in Chile workers marched to show their plight
But the fascist few with guns and mortars showed them how to fight
Then in Santiago stadium
They tortured and they killed
Till they’d smashed the opposition out of sight

And the silent majority stayed silent
While democracy was crushed beneath their tanks
They were murdered in the name of western freedom
With the aid of planes donated by the Yanks

Then in Peking a million people gathered in the square
Students workers wives and children, hope was in the air
As they stood in peaceful protest
They were massacred unarmed
They annihilated hundreds that were there

And the silent majority stayed silent
While they executed dozens in their name
And the people’s army turned upon the people
And corruption reigned supremely once again

South Africa, Cambodia, Great Britain and Iran
Every nation state in history since history began
Since the son of man was martyred
To pay the price of sin
I sometimes think our savior died in vain

And the silent majority stayed silent
While they crucified the lamb upon a hill
He was murdered in the name of religion
And if Christ returned they’d crucify him still

Their propaganda twists the facts before your very eyes
And with thin threads of truth they’ll weave their wicked webs of lies
Like Jesus was a heretic
And Caesar was a god
And pity help who’d dare to criticize

If the silent Majority stays silent
Then the evil men will surely have their way
Stem the tide before the deluge; that’s the moral
If we don’t speak up we’ll all be swept away

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Don’t believe them for a moment
For a second, do not believe, my friend
When you are down, them are not coming
With a helping hand
Of course there is no us and them
But them they do not think the same
It’s them who do not think
They never step on spiritual path
They paint their faces so differently from ours
And if you listen closely
That war it never stops
Be them new Romans
Don’t envy them my friend
Be their lives longer
Their longer lives are spent
Without a love or faithful friend
All those things they have to rent
But we who see our destiny
In sound of this same old punk song
Let rest originality for sake of passing it around
Illuminating realization number one:
You are the only light there is
For yourself my friend
There’ll be no saviors any soon coming down
And anyway illuminations
Never come from the crowned
Illuminating realization number one:
You are the only light there is
For yourself my friend

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Indian legislations on the desk of a do-right Congressman
Now, he don’t know much about the issue
So he picks up the phone and he asks advice from the

Senator out in Indian country
A darling of the energy companies who are
Ripping off what’s left of the reservations. Huh.

I learned a safety rule
I don’t know who to thank
Don’t stand between the reservation
And the corporate bank
They’ll send in federal tanks
It isn’t nice but it’s reality

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Deep in the Earth
Cover me with pretty lies
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. Huh.

They got these energy companies who want the land
And they’ve got churches by the dozens
Want to guide our hands
And sign Mother Earth over to pollution, war and greed
Get rich… get rich quick.

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Deep in the Earth
Cover me with pretty lies
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. Huh.

We get the federal marshals
We get the covert spies
We get the liars by the fire
And we get the FBIs
They lie in court and get nailed
And still Peltier goes off to jail

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee (eighth of the reservation)
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee (transferred it secret)
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee (of murder and intimidation)
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee

My girlfriend Annie Mae talked about uranium
Her head was filled with bullets and her body dumped
The FBI cut off her hands and told us she’d died of exposure
Loo loo loo loo loo

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Deep in the Earth
Cover me with pretty lies
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee

We had the Goldrush Wars
Aw, didn’t we learn to crawl
And now our history gets written in a liar’s scrawl
They tell 'ya "Honey, you can still be an Indian
d-d-down at the ‘Y’
on Saturday nights"

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Deep in the Earth
Cover me with pretty lies
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.
Deep in the Earth
Cover me with pretty lies
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee

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On an indigenous rights kick today…

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Gather round people i’ll tell you a story
An eight year long story of power and pride
British Lord Vestey and Vincent Lingiari
Were opposite men on opposite sides

Vestey was fat with money and muscle
Beef was his business, broad was his door
Vincent was lean and spoke very little
He had no bank balance, hard dirt was his floor

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

Gurindji were working for nothing but rations
Where once they had gathered the wealth of the land
Daily the pressure got tighter and tighter
Gurindji decided they must make a stand

They picked up their swags and started off walking
At Wattie Creek they sat themselves down
Now it don’t sound like much but it sure got tongues talking
Back at the homestead and then in the town

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

Vestey man said "I’ll double your wages
Eighteen quid a week you’ll have in your hand"
Vincent said "Uhuh we’re not talking about wages
We’re sitting right here till we get our land"
Vestey man roared and Vestey man thundered
“You don’t stand the chance of a cinder in snow!”
Vince said "If we fall others are rising

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

Then Vincent Lingiari boarded an aeroplane
Landed in Sydney, big city of lights
And daily he went round softly speaking his story
To all kinds of men from all walks of life

And Vincent sat down with big politicians
“This affair”, they told him, "it’s a matter of state
Let us sort it out, your people are hungry"
Vincent said “No thanks, we know how to wait”

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

Then Vincent Lingiari returned in an aeroplane
Back to his country once more to sit down
And he told his people "Let the stars keep on turning
We have friends in the south, in the cities and towns"

Eight years went by, eight long years of waiting
'Til one day a tall stranger appeared in the land
And he came with lawyers and he came with great ceremony
And through Vincent’s fingers poured a handful of sand

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

That was the story of Vincent Lingiari
But this is the story of something much more
How power and privilege cannot move a people
Who know where they stand and stand in the law

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

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I come like a comet new born
Like the sun that arises at morning
I come like the furious tempest
That follows a thundercloud’s warning
I come like the fiery lava
From cloud-covered mountains volcanic
I come like a storm from the north
That the oceans awake to in panic
I come because tyranny planted
My seed in the hot desert sand
I come because masters have kindled
My fury with every command

I come because man cannot murder
The life-giving seed in his veins
I come because liberty cannot
Forever be fettered by chains
I come because tyrants imagine
That mankind is only their throne
I come because peace has been nourished
By bullets and cannon alone
I come because one world is two
And we face one another with rage
I come because guards have been posted
To keep out the hope of the age

From earliest times the oppressed
Have awaked me and called me to lead them
I guided them out of enslavement
And brought them to high roads of freedom
I marched at the head of their legions
And hailed a new world at its birth
And now I shall march with the peoples
Until they unfetter the earth

And you, all you sanctified moneybags
Bandits anointed and crowned
Your counterfeit towers of justice
And ethics will crash to the ground
I’ll send my good sword through your hearts
That have drained the world’s blood in their lust
Smash all your crowns and your sceptres
And trample them into the dust
I’ll rip off your rich purple garments
And tear them to rags and to shreds
Never again will their glitter
Be able to turn people’s heads
At last your cold world will be robbed of
It’s proud hypocritical glow
For we shall dissolve it as surely
As sunlight dissolves the deep snow

I’ll tear down your cobweb morality
Shatter the old chain of lies
Catch all your blackhooded preachers
And choke them as though they were flies
I’ll put a quick end to your heavens
Your gods that are deaf to all prayer
Scatter your futile old spirits
And clean up the earth and the air
And though you may choke me and shoot me
And hang me your toil is in vain
No dungeon, no gallows can scare me
Nor will I be frightened by pain
Each time I’ll arise from the earth
And break through all your weapons of doom
Until you are finished forever
Until you are dust in the tomb

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…and now I’m on a Dick Gaughan kick.

Come all of you workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead

In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines
We’ve often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they’ve streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed

But when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who’s given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
When we’ve never owned one handful of earth?

We’re the first ones to starve the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat’s about

All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We’ve been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can

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Apparently I’m second generation black Caribbean
And half white Scottish whatever that means
See lately I feel confused with the boxes
Cause to me all they do is breed conflict
It’s not that I’ve lost touch with the reality
Racism, sexism and nationality

Just to me it all seems like insanity
Why must I rob you of your humanity
To feel good about mine?
It’s all about crime
Dehumanizing is how I justify it

So I must keep on lying about the history of Africa
So I can live the with massacres
And repeat my mantra of Muslim and terrorist
So I can sleep at night as bombs take flight
Eyes wide but I’m blind to the sight

Too busy chasing the perfect life
And the working class keep them uneducated
Truly educated men could never be racist
To educate is to draw out what is within
Are we not all not the same under the skin?

I got a heart like yours that pumps blood and oxygen
And insecurities are a whole lot of them I’m scared like you deep down
I really do care that world is not fair like you
But I don’t even believe my own prayers like you
Chasing career going nowhere like you

Lost in a fog of my own insecurities
I hold myself up as a image of purity
And I judge everybody else
By the color of their skin or the size of their wealth
But it’s not good for my health
As the only one I ever really judge is myself

The oppressor must suffer like the oppressed
Though I pretend I’m in control of this mess
By inflating my ego, puffing my chest
I see my weakness, and need to show strength
Or what we think strong is because if we’re honest?
True strength is the strength to be honest
And if I’m honest I am just tired
If I’m honest I am just tired

Tired of everyday filling up my car and knowing that
I’m paying for the bombs in Iraq
Tired of pretending like it don’t hurt my heart
Of wanting change but not knowing where to start
Tired of listening to all the conditioning
And all the forms they have me filling in

Next time you see what is a thug and despise him
Please know I was just like him
Cause I was like eight the first time I saw crack
Same time I first smoked weed choking on blowbacks
First time I saw knifes penetrate flesh
It was meat cleavers to the back of the head
As I grew and teenage years passed
Many more knifes pierced and the shots blast
And I not saying I had the worst upbringing
But there’s a million young men just like me in prison

We complain about racism and elevate clowns
With their trousers down swinging their dicks round
Maybe that is not quite literal
But everything they do is just as stereotypical
To my real fans I feel your pain
And I get the messages, but don’t complain
That we ain’t got more fame for paying our part
They can keep the charts all I want is your hearts
They can keep the charts all I want is your hearts
They can keep the charts all I want is your hearts

Calling it black radio, don’t make laugh
So is black music all about tits and arse?
You don’t represent nothing, you’re just pretending
When was the last time you ever played Hendrix?
Or Miles Davis or John Coltrane?
Or Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday?
We can call it urban to me that’s cool
If urban means street, that includes jazz too
And rock for that matter
Go ask Mick Jagger or Jimmy Page what they were listening to - the blues
Not discrediting, love Zeppelin too, just giving credit where credit is due

That blood soaked word rappers still use
All it really shows is that we still self abuse
That was the word that was used to kill Kelso Cochrane and Emmett Till
That was the word that the conscience eased
And made people pleased to hung you from trees
That was the word that let the whips crack
No matter what you say you can’t take it back
And I can say their black so I feel their pain easier
But 1915 look at Armenia

If the whole world is human stupidity
Though we choke ourselves to death quite literally
And I can talk with my comfortable mouth
With my comfortable clothes and my comfortable house
The tables will turn, we can but stall them
Every empire on this earth has fallen
So unless we can find another way
Maybe not today, but it will come one day

It may sound like I’m bitter but in fact truth be told I am quite the opposite
I wake everyday and am overwhelmed
Just to be alive and be like no one else
And the sheer weight of the thought of space
Is enough to keep my little ego in place
All that we chase and try to replace all along it was right in our face

The only way we can ever change anything
Is to look in the mirror and find no enemy
The only way we can ever change anything
Look in the mirror and find no enemy

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September '77
Port Elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
The man is dead
The man is dead
When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
The man is dead
The man is dead
You can blow out a candle
But you can’t blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
The man is dead
The man is dead
And the eyes of the world are watching now, watching now

Generals gathered in their masses,
just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction,
sorcerer of death’s construction.
In the fields the bodies burning,
as the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
poisoning their brainwashed minds…Oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait `till their judgement day comes, yeah!

Now in darkness, world stops turning,
ashes where the bodies burning.
No more war pigs have the power,
hand of god has struck the hour.
Day of judgement, god is calling,
on their knees the war pigs crawling.
Begging mercy for their sins,
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings…Oh lord, yeah!

Once the religious, the hunted and weary
Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
Came to this country to build a new vision
Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope
Like good Christians, some would burn the witches
Later some got slaves to gather riches

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

And once the ties with the crown had been broken
Westward in saddle and wagon it went
And 'til the railroad linked ocean to ocean
Many the lives which had come to an end
While we bullied, stole and bought our a homeland
We began the slaughter of the red man

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

The blue and grey they stomped it
They kicked it just like a dog
And when the war over
They stuffed it just like a hog

And though the past has it’s share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But it’s protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it’s a monster and will not obey

The spirit was freedom and justice
And its keepers seemed generous and kind
Its leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won’t pay it no mind
Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
Now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it’s all just an echo of what they’ve been told

Yeah, there’s a monster on the loose
It’s got our heads into the noose
And it just sits there watchin’

The cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin’ the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can’t understand
We don’t know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole world’s got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who’s the winner we can’t pay the cost

‘Cause there’s a monster on the loose
It’s got our heads into the noose
And it just sits there watchin’

America, where are you now
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters
Don’t you know we need you now
We can’t fight alone against the monster

America, where are you now
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters
Don’t you know we need you now
We can’t fight alone against the monster

Pretty much anything by Tom Morello…

YEAAAH!

The world is my expense
The cost of my desire
Jesus blessed me with its future
And I protect it with fire
So raise your fists and march around
Dont dare take what you need
I’ll jail and bury those committed
And smother the rest in greed
Crawl with me into tomorrow
Or i’ll drag you to your grave
I’m deep inside your children
They’ll betray you in my name

Hey!
Hey!
Sleep now in the fire

Hey!
Hey!
Sleep now in the fire

The lie is my expense
The scope with my desire
The party blessed me with its future
And i protect it with fire
I am the nina, the pinta, the santa maria
The noose and the rapist, the fields overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire

Hey!
Hey!
Sleep now in the fire

Hey!
Hey!
Sleep now in the fire

For it’s the end of history
It’s caged and frozen still
There is no other pill to take
So swallow the one
That makes you ill
The nina, the pinta, the santa maria
The noose and the rapist, the fields’ overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire

YEAAAH!

Sleep now in the fire!
Sleep now in the fire!
Sleep now in the fire!
Sleep now in the fire!

6 Likes
18

Absolute power corrupts absolutely
But absolute powerlessness does the same
It’s not the poverty
It’s the inequality that we live with everyday that will turn us insane

Absolute power corrupts absolutely
But absolute powerlessness does the same
It’s not the poverty
It’s the inequality that we live with everyday that will turn us insane

In a scheme of livin’ my life wasn’t hard
But as far as Britain goes shit I practically starved
Sleeping in a track suit, gas meter runnin’ out
Electric cut off as well, candles lightin’ up the house
Lookin’ in my momma’s eyes I see how she feels
The strain and the pain of just paying bills
It ain’t real, and that’s how I grew like so many more
And it is part of who I am
I am very sure
You wanna know the rage I feel in my stomach
Knowing my mum and dad split up when I was still in her stomach
And not everything that happened I will put in sixteens
But I will tell you enough so you will know what I mean
My boy’s mother got cancer the same time as mine
His mother died, and mine survived
The shit was fucked back then
When I was like ten already had the mental strength
More than many grown men

Absolute power corrupts absolutely
But absolute powerlessness does the same
It’s not the poverty
It’s the inequality that we live with everyday that will turn us insane

This was a couple years after my step-dad left
Did he really know the crazy mess that he left?
‘Cause mum done’ recovered from the lumps in her neck
Being poor and alone just couldn’t cope with the stress
And I earn my big sis for
So much soul that night 'hattan left school
When she left home
I was thirteen by now
Still a little kid, innocent
Next couple years though would turn him 'to a militant
That is the result of no food in the fridge
And every other day being searched by the pigs
Fuck these patronizing teachers
Don’t want my grades ‘slip, trynna’ emasculate me
-Yeah turn me 'to a bitch
And I don’t mean a woman please lemme be clear
I mean a spineless man 'cause what do they fear
Than a working class black male with a brain
When our energy is harnessed, every changed
Look at ‘Pac look at Marley look at Hendrix look at Garvey
This is the potential that is wasted on a daily basis
In this racist, classist world that we live in
Still we comin’ from nothing but we educate millions

Absolute power corrupts absolutely
But absolute powerlessness does the same
It’s not the poverty
It’s the inequality that we live with everyday that will turn us insane

I understand why it scares you
It’s like how dare you
Overcome obstacles that we have been careful to
Place in your way every step of the way
In this so called democracy where kids get sprayed
Blacks and the Asians, Turks and the chavs
Crowded in council flats, living like ants
And who’s more confused than the poor white trash
Spouting the bullshit about they want their country back
It never was yours, you should read more
What they did to brown people they did to their own poor
Peoples memories short, so much that I’m seeing
Black and Asian kids cussing eastern Europeans
No pot to piss in, makes competition
I fail to see how this is an effective system
Cats and dogs in America and Britain
Eat better food then most of humanity
We spend our technology only on killin’
How is this more than sophisticated savagery
It’s like it’s said, the world is a stage
Each person’s just an actor with a part to play
Like the middle class kids, - kids of the rich
Have everything, but yet still they pissed
On coke and ketamine, strung out on heroin
I ain’t generalizing, look at the evidence

Absolute power corrupts absolutely
But absolute powerlessness does the same
It’s not the poverty
It’s the inequality that we live with everyday that will turn us insane

Go to Glastonbury any year
You will see, unlike carnival
It won’t be crawling with police
This is London, the kids on the very next street
Had a very different life experience than me
In my experience they can’t help but be smug
After a lifetime of what they think’s just good luck
They’re still more anxious
And more thankless
Unearned privilege weighs like an anchor
That’s why they copy what we do, tryna’ be what they not
They will grow up though and get better jobs
They will maintain the system they claim that they hated
But they can’t burn it down they got a stake in this matrix
Hip-hop is just a fad to them, you didn’t know?
But to us, this our living breathing soul
And yeah they might backpack in South America
Or even volunteer in an African village
But all said and done, push comes to shove
And shit hits the fan they’re middle class and British
That’s just how it is, most rich brown people are just as full of shit
So more concerned with they cars and jewels
Most of the worlds poor looks just like you
So more concerned with imprivileged few
Most of the worlds poor looks just like you

Absolute power corrupts absolutely
But absolute powerlessness does the same
It’s not the poverty
It’s the inequality that we live with everyday that will turn us insane

3 Likes
19

This one is actually a poem by Shelley New Model Army adapted…

Men of England, wherefore plough
For the Lords who lay you low?
Wherefore weave with toil and care
The rich robes your tyrants wear?

Wherefore feed and clothe and save
From the cradle to the grave
Those ungrateful drones who
Drain your sweat - nay, drink your blood

Have ye Leisure, comfort, calm
Shelter, food, love’s gentle balm?
Or what is ye buy so dear
With your pain and with your fear

The seed ye sow another reaps
The wealth ye find, another keeps
THe robes ye weave, another wears
The arms ye forge, another bears

Sow seed - but let no tyrant reap
Find wealth - let no impostor heap
Weave robes - let not the idle wear
Forge arms - in your defence to bear

With plough and spade and hoe and loom
Trace your grave and build your tome
And weave your winding sheet till fair
England be your sepulchre

2 Likes
20

An Oz classic…

Mum and Dad and Danny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal
It was a long march from cadets
The sixth battalion was the next to tour and it was me who drew the card
We did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left

And Townsville lined the footpaths as we marched down to the quay
This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean
And there’s me in me slouch hat with me SLR and greens
God help me - I was only nineteen

From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat
I’d been in and out of choppers now for months
And we made our tents a home, V.B. and pinups on the lockers
And an Asian orange sunset through the scrub

And can you tell me, doctor, why i still can’t get to sleep?
And night time’s just a jungle dark and a barking M.16?
And what’s this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help me - I was only nineteen

A four week operation, when each step can mean your last one on two legs
It was a war within yourself
But you wouldn’t let your mates down 'til they had you dusted off
So you closed your eyes and thought about somethin’ else

And then someone yelled out “Contact”, and the bloke behind me swore
We hooked in there for hours, then a God almighty roar
And Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon
God help me - he was goin’ home in June

And I can still see Frankie, drinkin’ tinnies in the Grand Hotel
On a thirty-six hour rec. leave in Vung Tau
And I can still hear Frankie, lying screaming in the jungle
'Til the morphine came and killed the bloody row

And the Anzac legends didn’t mention mud and blood and tears
And the stories that my father told me never seemed quite real.
I caught some pieces in my back that I didn’t even feel
God help me, I was only nineteen.

1 Like