Twilight on the Moon (1985 An improvisation)

The fortress was broken
And our lives saw the light
When we all found our Masters
And life sublime
We went on
We went on
Oh we went on

The fortress was fallen
And we became what we did after
Father Time
Father Time
Father Time we call you

It went on and on and on and on and on
On and on and on and on and on
On and on and on and on and on
All together
On and on and on and on and on
It went on and on and on

Coping with the Runs in Mexico Blues (1983)

Woke up this morning
Was walking down the street
Traces of vomit over my feet
I'm so sick man, couldn't take my eats
So damn lonely I couldn't stand the heat

Later that bad day I took a trip
Someone spiked my drink
With some darn 'lips'
And when I woke up I was sick
So smashed man that I needed a kip

And by the evening I'd had my fill
Lunch had been not a thrill
Thousands of gallons of pigswill
Felt so bad and pukey
That I took some pills

By three in the morning
Things were getting dire
My whole body was on fire
Seems I'm always burning burning burning
Like a funeral pyre
It was so damn hot in there
That I got the piles

Breakfast time once more
It was bangers and mash
I finished the barbs that give you a bash
Head was spinning going round
I crashed out onto ground
I was so down man
Freedom hadn't been found

Round dinner time again
The bacon pan sizzled
Lost so much blood
My liver was frizzled
And now I'm an angel
Died of the whistles
Looked in the pan again
The meat was grizzled

Crazy Mandy (1985)

If you have flown too far from the nest
If they got you under sedation
Come rest in here come meet your fears
Come meet some human relation
And we will wait and say the words
That cool you like a breeze
Becoming part of the clothes that you wear
Becoming whole it's easy

It's all in the plan Crazy Mandy
It's all as it should be
It's all in the winds of change my love
And it weighs out like sand

Add two and two it's all you need do
You already have done that
No sign on the line everything's fine
Everyone's here from the start
And to take a bet and jape and jest
Is all you might have done
This matters not because what you have got
Is very much more than that

It's all in the plan...

Silently she has to wait
In the long halls of stone
Red drops the blood
From her finger to the floor
Will she know?
Will her children grow?
Will she hear?
Is she near?
Watch her glow
Mind-fire glow
She is seeking

Mandy a bird of some sort she soared
High above civilization
And looking down she gulped and frown
Says "This is not my inclination
To bank and shop the streets and follow
All these rules I see
Something else must I do
Or am I really being me?"

It's all in the plan...

Don't let it pass you by (1983)

Don't get the blues, go slow mamma
Just let them pass you by
It's happening, it's happening
Don't let those blues fool ya mamma
Just let them pass you by
That's what they're there for
That's what they're there for
Open up your heart and let it all flow
Because you know sometimes you just got to let it all go
All those times spent in your brain
Was only there to compensate
'Cos all the time the way was waiting
You just have to grab a hold
Of the way, of the way
The sway, yes today
What is today is never tomorrow
And who is gone may only follow
Take hold of my hand till the morning comes
New age come before you wake up
When you wake up
When you wake

Johnny Wake Up (1983)

Johnny wake up and go to school
You'll be late and made a fool
Some day soon you'll be a big towering man
You can walk all over this aching town

The others used to say it would be all right
If we all put our feet into the grave

Get your books or get your gun
I don't mind which, it's either one
Taught to be strangled, beauty obscured
Difficult natures are not preferred

And what we gained was what we thought we'd lost
And who came after were beyond the cost
Saints and sinners, lovers and friends
When shall we be back together again?

And what we gained was what we thought we'd lost
And who came after were beyond the cost
Saints and sinners, lovers and friends
When shall we be back together again?

Young Light (1983)

When I'm close to you like this
What is it that I miss?
Always takes so many years
Meanwhile your conscience sneers
To be always here
Always here

Silver dust is in your hair
You can become aware
You can tell a sunset by the way she moves her eyes
You can't catch the wind but you sure can try
You can try
Try
Try

Young Light
Young Light
You will always be turned on for me
Young Light
I hear you calling me
You will always be turned on for us

The Dark, the Ring, the Knowledge (1985)

How can you tell if it's friend or if it's foe?
You can never be sure in the dark
Reminding you of horrors read on someone's older knee
Keep you tucked well in your sheets
A crack of light from out the sky
The door swings to and fro
Middle of night and what a fright
A figure moving slow

Yes this is a world full of portals and windows
We don't know what lies beyond
Stuck in a room you'll play a sick tune
If you don't breathe the air outside
Should you but one day walk on out
See what you can find
The darkness is a friend you know
Though it seems to make us blind

It's been a long time since I took a walk
With you by the stream
So if you like we'll go down there
And talk of where we've been
Lying in the water clear
I found an ancient ring
Gave it to you I felt I ought
I'm sure you've worn that one before

Then you spoke to me about the fear
That lies hidden in the dark
You want to know just what to do
As if I held some clue
Look within yourself my love
Within will rule without
But while you're chasing phantoms round
Make sure you give 'em something to laugh about

You told me about a month on
You woke in the dark of night
A man was there in your room all right
You shuddered but it seemed all right
He took hold of the ring
That was lying there on the desk
And said" Oh child you're one of us
But you must just wait a while"

And so we talked about this for a while
How she coped with her mind
She seems so much better now
She faced the fear as it came to her
She understands the ways and means
Of fear of the unknown
She found the way to all our hearts
Is the way to her own

Thanksgivings (1985)

Have you ever been out in the cold light of dawn
And been left floundering?
I have tried in my time to get next to you
I was like a freight train
It was like a hurricane
All trussed up and wondering which way to go
Which way do I go from here?

Thanksgiving time

The mind at large that lives in us
Oh how it is so patient
There comes a time when it broadens
And we see what we have done
And we gasp to see how sore it is
So picked and distant
What is more is it is ourselves our bodies
But the healing comes shining through

Thanksgiving time

Round the year the seasons change
People die or get older
Sometimes I have felt a yearning to be nearer
Oh, that I am
Nearer to nature's bosom
Nearer to my my true friends and family
There's so much I owe them
Thanksgiving time

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving time

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving time

Superboy

I didn't know Humpty Dumpty was a cannon on a wall
Or why it was Jack and Jill had such a dreadful fall
What was the Red Queen up to shouting "Off with their heads"
For this had all been sung to me whilst in my nursery bed

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the Kings Horses and all the Kings Men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

Then all the jelly babies and candy coloured words
Came out of spots upon the backs of little lady birds
And all of us pretended that they were not cluster bombs
But as we sang a bell it rang and we knew something was wrong

The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown
The Lion beat the Unicorn all over town
Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown
Some gave them plum cake and drummed them out of town

Now the war is over we have uneasy peace
And all the little children sleep uneasy sleep
With lullabies and nursery rhymes to keep us safe at night
For heavens and for goodness' sake we must not give them fright

Mary Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells and pretty maids all in a row
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head

I am but a poor boy
Spending time when I can
By the banks of a lake where I come
To get away from all the others
Who think me rather strange
But I don't mind
I come here often
And when people are unkind

I'm a Superboy
I got atomic toys
I'm going crazy

I make a noise
I can annoy
But you won't phase me

I'm coming to you through the mirror
Are you getting a little glimmer

I got the time
To unwind
I am becoming

I'm on the line
Another kind
My motors running

But I got nowhere to go today
And the visions I see
They do dismay

I saw a world where
We could share
Inside this world where
We don't care
A world full of vacant stares
Don't tell me there's nothing there
Don't tell me there's nothing here

I know it's as real as you feel
I know it's not a bum deal
It's something that can be revealed
I know it has to be real
I know it must be real

Hansel and Gretel
In a gingerbread house
With gobstopper servants
And a sherbet mouse

Little Red Riding Hood
Old Mother Goose
Oranges and Lemons
All on the loose

Watch out! Beware!
There are Monsters hiding there

The Owl and the Pussycat
Little Bo Peep
Cat's in the cradle
Counting sheep

Ring o' ring a roses
London Bridge is falling down
Give me criss cross Lollipop
Let's get out this town!

Watch out! beware!
There are people hiding there

Watch out! Beware!
There are children hiding there

Won't you listen to my story
Won't you listen to my story
Won't you listen to my story

Won't you listen to my story
There's a man in the crowd
Who don't know his own name
And if you listen to my story
You'll find he ain't proud
Of his social game
He sees his life unfold
Like the moon in a pool
And if you listen to my story
You'll find which is which
And who is the fool

My life is very small
But I don't mind
I can stretch to the end of the bed
It's a new horizon
I feel OK
When I breathe deeply
And if you meet me
I would love to say hello
It keeps me going
To know there are others

I'm a regular man
I laugh when I can
I'm not crazy

Childhood's gone
Ever so long
My memory's hazy

In the playground we used to play games
Until the bell brought us back again

On two buckle my shoe
Jack and Jill ran up the hill
Baa baa black sheep have you any wool?
Three four knock at my door
I saw Esau sitting on a see-saw
She sells seashells on the seashore
Five six pick up sticks
Jack be nimble Jack be quick
Half a pound of tuppenny rice
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie
Pop goes the weasel a pocket full of rye
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Seven eight lay them straight
It's raining it's pouring the old man's snoring
I'm a little teapot short and stout
Incy wincy spider climbing up the spout
Nine ten big fat hen
With a nick nack paddy whack give a dog a bone
She lays eggs for gentlemen
Eleven twelve dig and delve
Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle
There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile
Thirteen fourteen maids a courting
Higgeldy piggeldy my black hen
All the Kings horses and all the Kings men
Fifteen sixteen maids in the kitchen
Simple Simon met a pieman
The mouse ran up the clock
Seventeen eighteen maids in waiting
The Queen of Hearts made some tarts all on a summer's day
Nineteen twenty my plate's empty
Cackle cackle Mother Goose
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross

Rock-a-by baby on the tree top
When the bough bends the cradle will rock
When the bough bends the cradle will fall
Down will come cradle baby and all

Hang on my darling
Hang on my darling
Hang on my darling
It's nearly time to go

With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes

Wear a Feather in your Hat (1985)

Well we came across some Indians they were sitting in our road
And with careful words we offered peace and them our weapons showed
They made it and said they sought a man with such purple skin
If we had him there on board they'd scalp and do us in
It's a long time since I saw such a man I said and they replied
"OK go on you tell the truth I can see it in your eyes"

Later on our road there was a boulder in our path
Meg the man said "What shall we do no way can we get past"
I steamed a bit and thought a bit, said this man tells the truth
So I gave up being leader and sat down to pick my tooth
Meg took on the role and quickly had it sussed
With forty pounds of dynamite the rock we did bust

Soon the cook was heard to cry "There is no more water left in here.
I am making a casserole and the pot is burning dry"
So I threw a coin into the air, said "This one I'll try" A few words from the good old book and rain fell from the sky
"What was the other choice you had" they asked, and I replied:
"I don't want to answer that now, let me out I want to pass"

Faintly nightfall does it's bit and we rattle on in dark
Tootsie starts a singing he says "It's for a lark"
Unfortunate for him it wakes something to cause his demise
A stowaway that was on board who pokes his head outside
Tootsie gets a fright and falls down and dies
But what was more was still to come. At night, colour lies

Of the four of us left on the bus, Mook, Meg, Mos and I
Not one of us did realise till the sun it did rise
That the new man who spent the night explaining who he was and where he'd been
Had a case of the most purple skin we'd ever seen
We whistled nervously till mid afternoon
Then Meg saw a bunch of Redskins, I feel down in a swoon

Round about that time an eagle flies on down
Says "We got to wrap it up here before we reach the next town"
So he does a bit of act shifting, messes round with our scene
The Indians become a film projection on a Hollywood film screen
"What a pity they had to go like that, we could have made some friends"
Purple man smiles, disappears and leaves a feather where he'd been

GET UP STAND UP BE YOURSELF, WEAR A FEATHER IN YOUR HAT
IF YOU TRULY BELIEVE IN YOURSELF YOU WILL REMEMBER THAT
WHEN YOU SEE YOUR LIGHT A COMING, COME TO YOU IT WILL
EXPOSE YOURSELF TO IT'S FULL RAYS AND JUST SOAK UP YOUR FILL
TAKE MY ADVICE MY FRIEND AND WEAR A FEATHER ABOVE YOUR FACE

last time:
(YOU CAN BE A MAN OF WUD OR YOU CAN GO INSANE
TAKE OUR ADVICE MY FRIEND AND WEAR A FEATHER IN YOUR MANE)

(Why are we) Fighting in Afghanistan?

I don't pretend to know much about 'just what's going on'
But have a burning feeling so I wrote it down in song
What is plain to see is that we are in a war
But what I do not get is what we are there for
I guess you could brand it all as conspiracy theories
But I simply want to know what the truth is

Politician, politician please tell me if you can
Why are we fighting in Afghanistan?

I don't want to dis the soldiers they have enough on their plate
But just what is the reason will someone please relate
Is it Osama Bin Laden hiding in a cave?
Threatening our shopping malls in messages he gave
But are we sure it was the Taliban that did the 9/11 show?
Come on now somebody, I really want to know

Politician, politician please tell me if you can
Why are we fighting in Afghanistan?

Talk is of a pipeline to run oil through Afganistan
A conspiratorial theorum that is not hard to understand
As oil can make you rich and some people like that
If you control the oil fields then you are a Top Cat
But politicians deny this it is made so clear
Soldiers fight to let us keep on shopping without fear

Politician, politician please tell me if you can
Why are we fighting in Afghanistan?

Or is it that we want lots of poppy and the herb?
Some people would want me to eat my words
Heroin and hashish are often traded for arms
It couldn't be our government would want to cause us harm
But the flower on your lapel is red with people's blood
And that flower is opium which is traded here in floods

Politician, politician please tell me if you can
Why are we fighting in Afghanistan?

The cause of our regrets they call the Terrorist threat
This is something we are told never to forget
But do you remember what clear Hans Blik said?
Weapons of Mass Destruction were not in Saddam's shed
The Axis of Evil it covers a large cache
Of different coloured people we're told we have to blast

Politician, politician please tell me if you can
Why are we fighting in Afghanistan?

It's a threat to democracy from several other lands
A largely Muslim people, mountains and lots of sand
Terrorists everywhere who hate whites to the core
And want to start up a Jihad Holy War
Koran against the Bible oh no not again
We burn all the bridges and bomb them like rain

Politician, politician please tell me if you can
Why are we fighting in Afghanistan?

It's like the Crusaders in the times Medieval
Who went out to overthrow the Saracen infidel
In Jerusalem in Palestine and through the Levantine
Looks like it's going on still in these times
We didn't learn our lesson we couldn't win it then
They know one thing and that is how to fight us to a man

Politician, politician please tell me if you can
Why are we fighting in Afghanistan?

Could it be the immense revenue that made out of wars
Especially ones that stretch out and never seem to pause
But roll and roll till the cities are quite flat
Truly the arms trade can rake it in with that
But that is not the reason that was said on the TV
Does terrorism wool our eyes and cause us not to see?

Politician, politician please tell me if you can
Why are we fighting in Afghanistan?

Is this some stupid theory I have voices in my head
That tell me not to think that but to think this instead
And why did we go in there and why are we there now?
All our soldiers are dying it is too much to allow
None of it seems right I think I smell a rat
Alistair and Tony, can you answer that?

Politician, politician I don't believe you can
Tell me why we are fighting in Afghanistan.

Set the Marks (1985)

Just a little bit over the mark
Just a little bit in time
Whole pillar of people all frozen in slime
And you know all they need is some comfort
You know all they need is a hand to guide
Of course we're all listening so intent now
It makes the world go round

We all got out around summertime again
Julie says to me "I'll give you three points for style
One for the other, two for the same, five for remainder
Six if your with me and as Androcles said
Don't you ever offend her"

And back in school we jumped the gates and moved on again
Teacher bid us begone with banners grey and pale
If only he knew the problem
He'd probably go grow roses instead
What with his beard and his anthems
We'd be better off red instead

Just for a joke for a bit of a poke we lit up the moon
Showered silver fishes on New York City from a paper spoon
Man-Trout says "Can anyone here remember what we are doing here?"
Set out the marks tell the winner she's won, speed on Tuesday
Will he won't he December?

Jack Cade

Ol' Jack Cade was a revolution man
In 1450 he made his stand
Wars of the Roses bled the country dry
The common people made a cry
Saying "Fie opon your taxes King Henry
Fie opon your lawyers and your ministry
You lost us France and have got debts
To hell with your bribery and favorites"

The King went to Warwickshire to take refuge
The people to Southwark in revolution mood
Five thousand rebels all came up through Kent
To take their grievance to the government
It wasn't just the peasant but Lord and Magnate too
They made a manifesto demanding what was due
Saying that the King is not above the Law
But that the Law is what he's put there for

They paused at the London Boundary stone
Which Cade he then struck with his sword
This by tradition made him Lord Mayor
He said he was related to the Mortimers
Then they all marched over London Bridge
To the Guildhall then the Tower their demands to give
They captured and beheaded the Lord Treasurer
Displayed his head on a spike with several others

Then Cade and some rebels had a looting spree
Which he had often said was not going to be
Officials gathered forces down at the Bridge
To stop them in their riot of violent rage
Bloodshed lasted there all through the next day
Insurgents taking heavy casualties
Till Archbishop and Chancellor Lord John Kemp
Persuaded Jack Cade to make it end

Promises were made to grant demands in full
Official pardons were given round as well
Yet very soon many were made to die
Cade was killed and quartered on the Twelfth of July
Does this history a moral tell?
That violence breeds the same very well
Remember now that these were brutal times
And today does seem to work on similar lines