The Ghost of Cain

The Hunt

We went into town on the Tuesday night
Searching all the places that you hang about
We're looking for you
In the back street cellar dive drinking clubs
In the discotheques and the gaming pubs
We're looking for you
You will pay the price for my own sweet brother
And what he has become
And a hundred other boys and girls
And all that you have done . . .

We picked up the trail at the Seven Crowns
One of your cronies - he was doing your rounds
We followed him
Just a silhouette figure up Market Pass
Where the headlamps shine on the broken glass
We followed him
Over the bridge by the old canal
Where the shadows dance on the lighted wall
He stopped to light up a cigarette
And we dived into a doorway

Ch:
No police, no summons, no courts of law
No proper procedure, no rules of war
No mitigating circumstance
No layers fees, no second chance

There are lasses getting trouble on their own home beat
There are old folk battered in the open street
In this city of hours
There are eyes that see but say nothing at all
There are ears that hear but they don't recall
In this city of hours
So we followed your man back to your front door
And we're waiting for you outside
'Cos not everybody here is scared of you
Not everybody passes on the other side

Ch

And we could spend our whole lives waiting
For some thunderbolt to come
And we could spend our whole lives waiting
For some justice to be done
Unless we make our own

Ch

Lights Go Out

I went to my mother,
Said - please make me king
I went to my mother
Said - I've got to be king
She said son - well you've got to wait your turn
Patience is a virtue that you never seemed to learn
You were born with nothing, to nothing you'll return

Ch:
Now, now the lights go out
There's no warning
Now, now the lights go out
There's no reason
Now, now the voices cry
We don't don't need you

I went to my father
Said please make me king
Went to my father
Said - I've got to be king
He said son - you've got to do your time
I've done 53 years and I haven't yet done mine
You're just one of the millions waiting in line

Ch

History gave us meaning, gave us a place
Gave my father reasons for the lines on his face
But we asked for the money and money they gave
And God how that made us easy to enslave
So today at the office we picked up the cheque
The handshake of gold, the stab in the back
The old men went home silent and bowed
The young men went drinking, drowning it out
So in every street, in every town
Comes some young pretender
Just gunning for a crown - take it- take it all

Ch:
But now, now the lights go out . . .

51st State

Look out of your windows, watch the skies
Read all the instructions with bright blue eyes
We're W.A.S.Ps, proud American sons
We know how to clean our teeth and how to strip down a gun
We're the 51st state of America
Our star-spangled Union Jack flutters so proud
Over the dancing heads of the merry patriotic crowd
Tip your hat to the Yankee conqueror
We've got no reds under the bed
With guns under our pillows
We're the 51st state of America
Here in the land of opportunity
Watch us revel in our liberty
You can say what you like
But it doesn't change anything
'Cos the corridors of power
Are an ocean away . . .
We're the 51st state of America

All of This

There's a sentry in a uniform
To watch the VIPs along the hall
Strategical discussions taking place
Behind the steel plated wall
The agents issue the statements
To the waiting press who circulate the words
Justification propaganda
Western foreign policy across the world

Ch:
In the name of the people
All of this is done in the name of the people

They read their books and study hard
Cigarettes lit in the claustrophobic gloom
West of the University Road
The world outside is ghost-like in the room
Frustrated and impatient and
Intelligence sharp and twisted like a child
Death is an aphrodisiac now
The fuses on the table slowly wired

Ch

Hold me tight, hold me fast
Standing here on the wrong side
Of this bullet-proof glass
There are no questions left for us to ask

It's soldiers night at the discotheque
Pick up a girl and drink to home afar
Spending money like water
On the watered drinks available at the bar
The ones who never were given much
Never asked much of anything in recall
But there's a black bag in the corner
And it doesn't belong to anyone here at all

Ch

Poison Street

We were singing in the rain
Like we invented singing
There's a light in the sky
From a million street lights
And we danced all the steps
From all those old time movies
Rolling down the hill
With laughing hearts
In Poison Street they guard the gates
With bitter, bitter tongues
In Poison Street we'll laugh out loud
Till the shadows go melt away

And I love you now
Like I love you always ever
Kissing in the dark
Like a couple of kids
You gave me live
You gave me light and thunder
Like a blind man sees
For the very first time
In Poison Street we'll go crashing
through the walls that history made for us
In Poison Street we'll spring the traps
And race away

Ch:
So just a kick
For this dark damned city of ours
And a kiss
Yeah a kiss for you
And just a drink
A toast to the days to come
Now Poison Street won't break us any more

We were singing in the rain
Like we wrote that song
There's a light in the sky
From the streetlights all around
You gave me life
You gave me light and thunder
Like a man makes fire
For the very first time
In Poison Street . . .

Western Dream

Gather round and listen
And I'll tell you how's it's done
How they manage to make idiots
Out of everyone
Take a human population
With their hunger and their pain
And the weaknesses that cripple them
Again and again
Invent a splendid party
Where the dreams can be won
And with bright flashing lights
The heartaches are gone
With sex and with money
And with everything for free
The show tantalising glimpses
Every night on TV.
Watch the dirty hands
That laboured hard for you
Stretching out like children
For a crumb that they can chew
Give a car and video
A little bit to spare
And go on promising
That more could all be theirs

Ch:
All lies are lies
All schemes all schemes
Every winner means a looser
In the western dream

The producer swears silently
It cannot be heard
And the camera crew are muttering
Those four letter words
Another take is needed
So the show can go on
With a patronising smile
And a popular song
They tell when to laugh
They tell you when to cheer
So the audience at home
Will get the right idea
They watch like children
Left out of a playground gang
Conforming their lives
The way they hope will get them in

Ch

It seems to me sometimes
There's only two ways to choose
In this whirlpool made
Of a thousands years
Either live in these ghettoes
And know your place
Or you trample over everyone
In the human race
I wish we could find
Another way to go
Without the Ghost of Cain
In everything we do
The bitterness in failure
And the dirt in success
This is the choice
This is our choice

Ch

Lovesongs

Under darkening thundering towering skies
We live through these painful days
Walking like strangers in streets of damnation
Under the enemy's gaze
Well we all create monsters
Come back for their masters
The prices the Devil reclaims
It's funny I never thought I'd be the one who would change

Now above and beyond the roofs of our city
The sunset spreads silent and gold
And we passing the time not thinking about you
Lost in our own little world
Well the other night we put the radio on
When we ran out of things we could say
But it always play lovesongs
When you're far away

Forget all the lies, forget all the trouble
Forget all the things that I've done
And please believe like I still believe
The best is yet to come
The truth is yet to come

So damn all the world
And damn their demands
And all the things that they say
Cos they always play lovesongs
When you're far away

Heroes

We are not children any more
The fists you made they are come
Bashing at your door
Your legacy is waiting in the wings
And there's something so familiar
In the hunger that we bring
We don't want to be like you
Don't want to live like you
Learn by our own mistakes, thank you
Forcing time and pushing through

Ch: You are not our heroes anymore

Dim the lights the time is come
Into the ring the father and the son
Sown in sweat and passion long ago
And now the blood on our hands
Is the same as our own . .
And the man has the skill
And the man has the power
But the boy has the will to win
And so much time . . .

Ch

If you knew then
What you know now to be true
You never would have started
This whole chain we're going through
And you love us now
But you hate us still
And we hate you now
But we love you still . . .

Ch:
You are not our heroes anymore
You are not my mother
You are not my father . . .

Ballad

When they look back at us and they write down their history
What will they say about our generation?
We're the ones who knew everything still we did nothing
Harvested everything, planted nothing

Well we live pretty well in the wake of the goldrush
Floating in comfort on waves of our apathy
Quietly knawing away at Her body
Until we mortgage the future, bury our children

Storehouses full with the fruits we've been given
We send off the scragends to suckle the starving
But still we can't feed this strange hunger inside
Greedy, restless and unsatisfied

I was never much one for the great "big bang" theory
Going out in a blaze of suicidal glory
Not foolish and brave, these leaders of ours
Just stupid and petty, unworthy of power . .

Just a little leak here and a small error there
Another square mile poisoned forever
A series of sad and pathetic little fizzles
And out go the lights, never to return

The affair it is over, the passion is dead
She stares at us now with ice in Her eyes
But we turn away from these bitter reproaches
And take up distractions to forget what we're doing
Well I stand on these hills and I watch Her at night
A thousands square miles, a million orange lights
Wounded and scarred, She lies silent in pain
Raped and betrayed in the cold acid rain
And I wish and I wish
We could start over again
Yes I wish and I wish
We could win back Her love once again

Master Race

Well we all learned how to use a fork and a knife
How sometimes we have to wear a suit and tie
And understand these things are what give us the right
To go around the world acting superior

We live with missiles and the armaments cash
With rewritten histories and a fictional past
And though some of us still have questions to ask
The ship she sails without a captain

Ch:
Goddamn this master race that we're born in
Goddamn this howling wolf that we're serving

I've had it up to here . . .
The opposition, we ain't doing so well
Our understanding is weak and our knowledge is small
And though kids scrawl frustration on the back street wall
Most of them can't even spell bastard

Ch

Sometimes all I know is that cold wind blows
Down the valley from the mountain snows
On these muggy nights I lie awake
And wait for the thunder and the skies to break
But they are god and they are strong
And they can name the right and wrong
And they reclaim the things they own
They call us now . . .

So Candy please forgive these things that I've done
When the Master race calls I know sometimes that I run
And you mean more to me now than you ever did before
As I try to stay away from their clutches

Ch