DANCING TO THE DEVIL'S BEAT - LYRICS
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Revenge (Can Be So Sweet)
(Cousins/Cronk)
Sony ATV Music
A confluence of rivers
Once flowed out to the sea
Where forests grew abundant
And nature's gifts were free
Man built his mighty temples
And prayed at his own feet
But the desert sands were shifting
Revenge can be so sweet
We shall us all rise up
March to the beat
We shall all rise up
Revenge can be so sweet
Beneath the Tower of Babel
Crowds began to form
Gathering in defiance
In the forefront of the storm
Machinery breathed fire
Melting with the heat
Flames lit up the night sky
Revenge can be so sweet
The culture of possession
Is both perilous and plain
Man shows no inhibition
In the conquests that remain
Those who breed corruption
Should sleep out in the street
Life is meant for living
Revenge can be so sweet
We shall us all rise up
March to the beat
We shall all rise up
Revenge can be so sweet
Beneath The Angry Sky
(Cousins/Cronk/Lambert)
Sony ATV Music
Warplanes fly in terror waves
Orders are withdrawn
Horses rear with nostrils flared
A child is stillborn
All afternoon as hell pours down
Families stand like rock
Holding hands in fear and rage
Reeling with the shock
Who will answer to themselves
The simple question why
We must search within ourselves
Beneath the angry sky
Nothing moves, the town lies still
Behind its ruined face
A single oak defiant
In the silent marketplace
A school of shattered lives
Inside the broken window panes
The hope of all those burned inside
Is all that still remains
Who will answer to themselves
The simple question why
We must search within ourselves
Beneath the angry sky
A light of hope still burns behind
A single shuttered door
Despite its broken heart
The town is stronger than before
Who will answer to themselves
The simple question why
We must search within ourselves
Beneath the angry sky
Copenhagen
(Cousins/Cronk)
Sony ATV Music
Several years ago
A day in early spring
In a Copehagen bar
I heard a skylark sing
In a slow speed silent movie
There's a snow kissed winter scene
Your pretty face is glistening with tears
In that half remembered moment
Silent and serene
The town hall bells
Are chiming down the years
A simple pack of crayons
A pavement master class
On a city centre street
Our fortunes came to pass
They washed away your cartoons
In the Copenhagen rain
You were drifting
In the mull of broken dreams
A thin veneer of laughter
Hid the tantrums and the pain
A photograph is seldom what it seems
Magic as in lantern
Pastel colours bright
Treading through the blossom
In the softly fading light
A cutting from a paper
On the entertainment page
It's good to catch the ink
Before it dries
The audience was drawn
To a Tivoli Garden stage
Our future passed before us
Through their eyes
Pro Patria Suite
Back Along (We Were Young)
(Cousins)
Sony ATV Music
It was the final summer
Nightingales still sung
Young girls' making daisy chains
Back along we were young
Kissing her for the first time
Finding her tongue
Brushing her chest by accident
Back along we were young
Meeting her brother Billy
All highly-strung
Sensitive, rather quiet
Back along we were young
Making hay by day
Making love by night
Watching as the storm clouds gathered
All For Each Other
(Cousins)
Sony ATV Music
Then war broke out
Lads had no doubt
Billy was right
Whatever
All stood in line
What's yours is mine
One final night
Together
Basic training for a week
Crap in Sergeant Major speak
Hell was no place for the weak
All for each other
Christ, the battlefield was sparse
No place to go to wipe your arse
Weeks when nothing came to pass
All for each other
Bright burning flares
Padre said prayers
Billy broke down
Whatever
Shell fire immense
Smoke red and dense
One last showdown
Together
Rain turned rivers into flood
Shattered bones, pools of blood
We knelt together in the mud
All for each other
I'm not ashamed to say I cried
The day the lads were crucified
We fought together side by side
All for each other
Billy caught one in the eye
He took at least an hour to die
I held his hand, just him and I
All for each other
Life was never meant like this
I'd love to give my girl a kiss
The last words Billy said were
I miss her
Home Is Where The Heart Was Ever
(Cousins/Wakeman)
Sony ATV Music
Home is where the heart was ever
Hallowed ground where thousands lie
Buried in the fields of honour
Whichever country's flag may fly
Home is where the heart was ever
Where a single church bell tolls
Bounded by a field of poppies
Each one bears a thousand souls
Home is where the heart was ever
City, town or countryside
Where the spirits of the fallen
Live forever, named with pride
Where Silent Shadows Fall
(Cousins)
Sony ATV Music
The valiant soldier smiles
The lady lowers her eyes
The battle has been won
With no sense of surprise
She questions not at all
The valiant soldier's prize
The valiant soldier's prize
For all of those who fail to hear
The silent hero's call
We honour those who face themselves
Where silent shadows fall
The valiant soldier hears
From far and distant lands
The piper's sad lament
He feels his mother's hands
When all are in retreat
The valiant soldier stands
The valiant soldier stands
For all of those who fail to hear
The silent hero's call
We honour those who face themselves
Where silent shadows fall
The valiant soldier calls
The public purse denies
He sadly shakes his head
Weary of the lies
Who never knows his child
The valiant soldier dies
The valiant soldier dies
For all of those who fail to hear
The silent hero's call
We honour those who face themselves
Where silent shadows fall.
The Man Who Would Never Leave Grimsby
(Lambert)
Sony ATV Music
I was told about a man
Who would never leave Grimsby
And that may sound strange
But his heart was in that town
With his friends and his family
And to make him leave
Would be pain indeed
Now he could have toured the world
He was highly respected
But to make him go
Would be ripping out his heart
And leaving him restless
So to see him play
Go the Grimsby way
'Cos he has a little love
But he gives a lot of love
It doesn't matter where he is
If you've got a little love
And you give a lot of love
It doesn't matter where you are
It's up to you
You could be in Grimsby too
Got a letter from a boy
From a village in Kenya
He was such a fan
So smitten by the band
They called him the Strawbs Boy
And that made him proud
He would play us loud
In the letter Lucky wrote
That he'd been to Nairobi
Which I found quite sad
Because he said he looked around
But he couldn't see me
With a faith like that
How I wish he had
Lucky had a little love
And he gave a lot of love
Didn't matter where he was
If you ever meet the man
Who would never leave Grimsby
Try to make him see
That the home is in the heart
And you carry it with you
You may never leave
And your spirit's free
The Ballad Of Jay And Rose Mary
(Cousins)
Sony ATV Music
The sun was rising slowly
Furnace hot at dawn
Jay was in his hammock
Whittling on a horn
I was in the kitchen
Munching stale cakes
Thinking about Rose Mary
And how the cookie breaks
All in all
It's just another down-home day
Rose Mary was nineteen
Slender as a wand
Jay was something else
A bullfrog in a pond
A viper in disguise
A rattler in a sack
If you cared to call it
He would double slap you back
Rose Mary was smitten
She fell for Jay in style
Just like Robert Mitchum
Full of menace with a smile
Fluttered her eye lashes
Half an inch of hunch
Jay was like a school-boy
A kid in need of lunch
Jay took her to a diner
And told her of his power
He checked into a hotel room
But only booked an hour
Rose Mary was no mug
She didn't miss a thing
When Jay stepped on the gas
Whipping off his ring
His wedding ring was buried
In the pocket of his pants
Which Rose Mary was going through
While Jay was scratching ants
He opened up the bathroom door
Feeling ill at ease
But Rose Mary was long gone
With his clothing and his keys
I was getting ready
To round up missing steers
When Rose Mary came knocking
In a crocodile of tears
She asked me what my name was
I said my name was Jay
She asked me did I sleep well
I said most every day
They say that money talks
Mine just said goodbye
Dancing To The Devil's Beat
(Cousins)
Sony ATV Music
The banker told the blind man
I've been watching you for weeks
Smiling when you cross the road
The blind man to his credit
Was both generous and kind
He never heard the bomb explode
They found his wounded wallet
Hanging from the banker's sign
His white stick was a crumpled mess
Remains of him were vaporised
Apart from one big fist
The banker never did confess
He sailed into the sunrise
With a crew of lady boys
Howling like a dog on heat
Money is the root of evil
Join him on the deck
Dancing to the devil's beat
The Minister for Pleasure
With a flick of his own wrist
Tossed a story to the waiting press
In truth we are determined
He said through gritted teeth
Government is handling the mess
The press reported little
There was little to report
Sickness spreading through the ranks
Disease was not contagious
It paralysed the tongue
The banker spat at them with thanks
The blind man showed remorse
With his bent and twisted stick
Wading in the blood around his feet
The Minister for Pleasure
Was first up on the floor
Dancing to the devil's beat
A lean and hungry colleague
Asked me just the other day
Who are you to criticise excess
I told him to his face
He was hiding in a bubble
Living out the dream of his success
Without his old white stick
He was walking the plank
Pirates to his left and right
While his heavy burden
Had been lifted for a while
His pot of gold was out of sight
No-one gives him space
In these twisted tangled times
Contempt they say is bitter sweet
You will always find him
Seething in the shadows
Dancing to the devil's beat
Oh How She Changed
(Cousins/Hooper)
Sony ATV Music
She leaned forward in the lamplight
In her eyes an amber glow
She was promising the earth
And yet somehow saying no
We talked of pleasant summer days
Kew Gardens
Hampton Court
The jewellers
Where we bought
The ring that bound us close together
Oh how she changed
With every passing day
In the swirling misty morning
As the day begins to break
In the heavy dew her footsteps
I am floundering in her wake
Oh how she changed
With every passing day
The shutters of indifference
Have closed to bar the view
The person I once knew
Oh how she changed
With every passing day