Tuesday 19 June 2012

Shaman's Curse


Master of Disguise

The untold Ballade of Percy Toplis

It was at Etaples in Nineteen Seventeen
At the Bullring Base Camp where training was extreem
Behind the Western Front oh boys it was not fun
Yet here it was the British Army‘s mutiny began

The official records do not tell the tale
Yet for those concerned their memories did not fail to
Remember Percy Toplis the outlaw in disguise
Who lead the men in mutiny and broke Brittania‘s pride

Several thousand soldiers all absent without leave
And driven to a hatred by what they had received
From Redcaps and Canaries and Military Police
Who‘d made their lives a misery, yet got their relief

Watch out for the Master of Disguise

You risked a court marshall and firing squad at dawn
For desertion, cowardice or staying home too long
But mutiny was the card that Private Toplis played
And mutiny was had and might just have saved the day

Posing as an officer was something he did well
Though from a colliery town you would never tell
He took on High Command and gave them merry hell
And without any compromise he bent them to his will

Lions led by donkeys had been said of the British
Fighting wars colonial a picture that fitted
Commandante Brigadier General Andrew Graham Thompson
Whose Nemesis was Toplis and so that General failed

Lets hear it for the Master of Disguise

A tiny hump in Flanders known as Passchendaele Ridge
Was where the British Captains planned their next offensive
But from there the Germans proved impossible to wrest
And in the mud one quarter million met their deaths

Storms had blown away all British Hospital tents
When Germans dropped seven bombs which killed some U.S. heads
America went crazy but Britons were dismayed
For they had been dying there for years and never fuss was made

Morale was very low but one thing made it snap
When at the Base Camp a lad talked to a lass
His tunic was unbuttoned, this was improper dress
A Military Policeman shot the soldier dead

So a murder sparked this whole skaboosh

The lad had been a Scotsman, the lass from Aberdeen
This set the Gordon Highlanders up a head of steam
A piper blasted out their Regimental Tune
And to the Bridge the raving rebels moved

Second Lieutenant James Davies Royal Fusiliers
Faced them off under orders and heard their riotous jeers
But many of those behind him were friends of the mutineers
The piper reached his step and made intentions clear

"We got nothing against ye Sir, but I must ask ye tae step aside
But we ll turn the machine guns against ye if you dont comply"
So Davies wisely stepped aside and so was took the bridge
Other officers followed suite, no resistance did they give

So mutineers swept up others like the tide

"Down with the Redcaps! Release the prisoners!"
Shouted a Canadian, echoed by his men
Orders came to fire but obey they would not do
So officers held Three Arch Bridge and fist fights ensued

Advantage was to the officers, two soldiers thrown on the track
That took soldiers daily to the Front Line and back
But this did not last for long, advantage it turned round
And fifteen hundred mutineers crashed into town

Cafes were smashed into, beer and wine rolled to the streets
Soldiers were hunting down terrified Military Police
And those hated Redcaps and Canaries, trainers at the Bull Ring
Hid in peoples houses but still got their heads kicked in.

Mutineers had crashed the town and left police for dead

The centre of Etaples soon became a wreck
With a bonfire of the barrels, soldiers out of check
For New Zealanders, Australians, Scotsmen, Irish, Welsh and English
It must have been a bloody Sunday very much relished

However the report that General Thompson made
Mentions some stones being thrown but little gives away
For soldiers from all round the world who stayed at that Hell Camp
The time had come right there and then to have some of their own back

One hundred mutineers crashed an officers meeting
To give them their ultimatum or else get burned that evening
Thompson and twelve others were stuffed into a truck
And pitched into the river, told to go to ....

From that point mutiny spread like a wild fire

Bolsheviks in Russia, failed mutiny in France,
Deserters in Camiers chalk pits, the Somme and other parts
All now fanned the fires of an insurrections blaze
And so it was the rioting lasted for five days

Not all the actions of the mutineers were on course
Such as gang-raping the women of the WAAC Corps
So a special guard was set up to sentinel their quarters
And a father harpooned a soldier raping his daughter

Many mutineers linked up with the deserters
Living in the woods of nearby Paris Plage
Percy Toplis too had gravitated down there
Where they called him "The General" and so they all fell to

Toplis said get the police not the girls and was obeyed

The second day of mutiny saw Toplis and One Hundred
Marching to Etaples in the late afternoon
Where they met with Thompson touring in his staff car
Trying to get order and pretty desparate too

His vehicle was rocked till Toplis held up his hand
Then the Commandante begged that he stop the riot
Up on the cars running boards Toplis gave conditions
For which General Thompson would soon come to give permission

The Revolt would end when Etaples was thrown open,
Military Police removed, the Bull Ring closed down,
Food and the conditions had to be much better
He stepped down from the running boards and let Thompson go

'Private' Toplis had dressed for the occasion

All the conditions that Toplis made were met
The Bull Ring was closed down and men got better pay
General Graham Thompson was taken out of office
In his place came Field Commander General Haig

Of course this did not stop the War that took some more time
But by all reports soldiers preferred the Front Line
With incompetent leaders that mendacity endorsed
Sure the course of history could have been much worse

Francis Percy Toplis melted into the scenery
Continuing his sublime line in confidence trickery
He was caught one time and put inside a prison
But he easily escaped through a hole he had been digging

Percy Toplis the master of Disguise

After escapades of much audacious skill
The force of High Command moved in for the kill
With his wanted poster everywhere and being framed for murder
The papers had the best fugitive story ever to occur

He was ambushed and shot by a church in Cumbria
But on what authority was never made too clear
His post humus trial passed over much felt not fit or right
And a thorough enquiry did not greet the light

And so I ask you as a jury of your time
Who was it here did the most heinous crime?
Toplis : 23, a racketeer, mutineer, piano player and conman
Or officers who killed by proxy millions in these lands?

(no chorus, just guitar chords)

I say lets hear it for the monacled mutineer
An accessory he wore as a badge of his career
A Master of Disguise so complete as to fool them all
A disguise that he used so well to fool the makers of that war

Percy Toplis Master of Disguise
Percy Toplis Master of Disguise



The Mariners Three





There were Mariners three on the silver sea
On the sea were Mariners three

And one was Greed and one One was Hate
And the other was Destiny oh yes
The other was Destiny

There were Mariners three on the silver sea
On the sea were Mariners Three

And one was Greed and one was Hate
And the other was Destiny

Tell me now my blue eyed son
Why do Mariners sail?
Oh there are two journeys that you take
And one of them is inside you, oh yes
The greatest one is inside you


The ship is all that Life entails
And Death the sea it sails

And Greed and Hate had been fighting of late
And a storm brewed in the air oh yes
A storm brewed in the air

The ship is all that Life entails
And Death the sea it sails

And Greed and Hate had been fighting of late
And a storm brewed in the air

Tell me now my blue eyed son
Why do you Mariners sail?
Oh there are two journeys that you take
And one of them is inside you, oh yes
The greatest one is inside you


Now Destiny says "Listen boys,
Can you hear that thunder sound"

But Greed and Hate preferred to fight
And so they nearly drowned oh yes
So they nearly drowned

Now Destiny says "Listen boys
Can you hear that thunder sound

But Greed and Hate preferred to fight
And so they nearly drowned

Tell me my blue eyed son
Why do Mariners sail?
Oh there are two journeys you can take
And one of them is inside you
The greatest one is inside you


The ship went down with a gurgling sound
Struck by a lightning bolt

And the fueding two had to cling to a raft
All in the sea so cold oh yes
All in the sea so cold

The ship went down with a gurgling sound
Struck by a lightening bolt

And the fueding two had to cling to a raft
All in the sea so cold

Tell me now my blue eyed son
Why do Mariners sail?
Oh there are two journeys you can take
The greatest one is inside you




Dragonseeker





I was a seeker for sacred grail rhymes
In this land of uncertain times
I saught for the Dragon I had heard exists
That could teach us something we'd missed

I went to the country where warriors bold
Guard such treasures that are beyond gold
But to my surprise as their wise one beckoned me
They were Gnomes, but two foot high by our reckoning

Chorus

The Gnome Druid said I must to Annwn go
That's the underworld in case you didn't know
So I set sail with some crew in a ship
Only seven returned that old holy grail gave me the slip

I was plunged into fevers of hot and cold
Saw hallucinations of things never told
Saw a tunnel of madness where in black voids I'd fall
And by these measures I knew it was my call

Chorus

I came to a crossroads and Dragons saw none
And fell to my knees for the bad I had done
The sky rained down doom radiation of fear
I saw death motor pterodactyls flying very near

My prayer reached down to the core of the ground
My mind became it's own holy ground
It was then that I heard that wing beating sound
And there flying high the Dragons I'd found

Chorus

So I went to the East where the Dragons are blue
And electrical breath they breathe it is true
Through the shattered and scarred lands the wastelands we've made
A Dragon breathed and it showed me the way

He took me way high above the city's maze
Where smoke phantoms of toxic haze
Hazard the day and dumb down the night
Pollute the mind and corrode the sight

Chorus

The Dragon pointed with his gleaming claw
And I caught a sight that holds me forever in awe
The broken city it's energy transformed
And there beneath it the Grail's holy form

The Gnomes were working there with their tools and their skills
As they work ever the whole world to fill
With the wonder of real magic of story and truth
Of this here tale I can offer no proof

Chorus:

And I said
"Where do the Dragons come from?"
And they said
"Here in the Land of all Song"
And I said
"What if it all goes wrong?"
And they said
"Just hold on to one, you'll be carried
Just hold onto one, you'll be carried.
Just hold onto one, you'll be carried along
To the Land of all Song
To the Land of all Song
This is the Land of all Song
This is the Land of all Song"

Majestical and mystical a creature supra-physical
People power potent alchemy
Come together and be

(repeat as a looped phrase)






Desecrating Soldier's Hill
(To the tune of 'the rising of the moon')

At Soldier's Hill in '98 was where the Irish fought
Independance from the English was what it was they saught
Adding insult to injury a road has been built there
By the Irish government to show how much they care
Within a mile of Tara an interchange will kill
Any chance of peace there desecrating Soldier's Hill
Desecrating Soldir's Hill desecrating Soldier's Hill
There'll be no peace on Tara desecrating Soldier's Hill

We'd like to know John Gormley why has this had to come
Was it a backhander that persuaded you to turn
The E.U. gave you money but seem to have no clout
With your M3 that's illegal why don't they come and sort you out
Like one baleful moaning banshee the road with noise will fill
All the Gabhra Valley desecrating Soldier's Hill
Desecrating Soldier's Hill desecrating Soldier's Hill
With your M3 that's illegal desecrating Soldier's Hill

So boys and girls put your boots on before the rising of the sun
We'll head on down to Soldier's Hill a battle to be won
No one gives the order but everyone has come
Lou has got the car keys and we have brought a drum
And with a peaceful protest of direct action skills
We expose invaders desecrating Soldier's Hill
Desecrating Soldier's Hill desecrating Soldier's Hill
We expose invaders desecrating Soldier's Hill

Erasing the ancestors is the sneaky game
Of the N.R.A. roadmakers when they stumble on remains
Destroying all the evidence because they fear the truth
Of Irish deep root history and that it could raise the roof
On all the preconceptions with which people's heads are filled
Now everybody knows they're desecrating Soldier's Hill
Desecrating Soldier's Hill Desecrating Soldier's Hill
Now everybody knows they're desecrating Soldier's Hill
Desecrating...
....they're building a great interchange bang on Soldier's Hill
....they swerved their six lane motorway straight through Soldier's Hill

(repeat first verse)







Poison in the Water

Back down the corridor of power
There echoes that ghostly hour
When atomic technology came to this land
Flouride it was used, the essential key
To process the elements
Uranium to Plutonium
For bombs you see

And so the plot was complete and not withstanding hazards
Radiation came in a second rung to flouride's toxic challenge

No one knew what it did so tests were arranged
On unsuspecting citizens of Newburg, New York State

The authorities must have been pleased they kept a secret file
And to allay people's fears they gave them another picture
They said 'essential nutrient', it's so good for your health
You need it in the water, which we will do forthwith

chorus
But what was it that was hid was someone telling lies?
Though people raised their voice to ask they were vilified
The tests they were arranged and certain people paid
It seems that these tests have been going on for decades

Now it is declassified which means we get to know
And it seems someone's motives were stooping very low
They said it was so good for you but that was not the truth
Your teeth fall out your bones just rot
And all with scientific proof

It's poison fumes a toxic waste a corrosive rat-killer
It accumulates slow so tyou don't know
It's bad for brains and livers

The list goes on and on and on but nearly noone knows
And as there's been a cover-up I hope that it's exposed

chorus

So our trust turns to rust
This we must
Tell our
Tell our daughters
There's poison in the water

The nuclear dawn has spawned such a deadly tide
But what shall we do, keep it all inside?
Or sing and dance and act about
Those who lost their teeth
Or children who grow up with bones as brittle sticks
Deformed by toxins in the things we eat and drink
Shall we survive if we accept the lies of this deceit

It may seem stark it may seem mad and that there's no good news
But we can make the world we want only if we choose
Whatever is the cost what could be the regret
To try and live our lives to clean up this hateful mess



And even now respectable responsible people in power
The ones we have grown up to trust keep this flouride myth alive
It's doctors, dentists . statesmen, the ones in the know
Don't ask me why but they conspire to put flouride in the flow
And at what cost this act who do they think they are
If this is good authority then maybe they can go
Because if you poison the people, you'll make them very made
Do we accept docility or decide that we've been had

But that's not all
That was many years ago

Nowadays we get the scrapings from the chimneys
The carbon phosphate fertiliser industry
And this is what kind of flouride that gets to us today

And is it all for the sake of little children's dental care
I think not it is put there to dull and tame our brains
Just think of the e-numbers even you know aspartame is bad
Just think of all the industry making bucks off our complacency
But I know we are the healers I tell you the truth

So if there's any truth in this then maybe someone knows
And if there's been a cover-up then let's make sure that it's exposed

Flouride in the water
Poison in the water




Tony Blair




Tony Blair look good he got the face
Got that smile and social grace
Prime Minister or Prime Suspect
Who or what does he protect?

Someone called him Bomber Blair
'Cos we're such friends to America
George W. Bush said "Let 'em roll"
And on Iraq the bombs took toll

Hey Hey Moma, something's going on around here
It's Yankee Doodle Dandy walking with Tony Blair

Spinnin' script writers they got the story
You just knew it was going to get gory
War on Iraq was a pre-emptive strike
Well have you ever heard the like?

Has anyone ever wondered in the U.K.
About this obsession with the U.S.A.
Is it healthy is it sane?
Or have we all been flushed down the drain?

Hey hey Moma something's going wrong around here
It's Yankee Doodle's poodle, A.K.A Tony Blair

Well now people do you believe
Everything that you receive?
What goes on behind closed doors
Sex it up to justify war

Where was the threat to our national security?
It was a message that lacked a certain purity
Alistair Campbell and his 40 minute scare
Not one jot of truth in there

Hey hey Moma something's going wrong around here
It's Tony's belligerent accomplice; Campbell, Alistair

Tony got ambition, he's taken it far
Likes to be seen with big Rock Stars
He don't mind if they sniff cocaine
See 'em in the papers, he's on top again

Public opinion public opinion
It's a mighty sway-able thing
Watch out all you peoples
What's the next one gonna bring?

Hey hey Moma something's going wrong around here
It's that failed rock-band manager. Presenting; Mr Tony Blair

Tony make a deal with a supermarket
He know his public don't want no more
Tony say one thing and do another
Tony do a trick with a revolving door

His wife bought a flat over in Bristol
Seems they got it on a whistle
The story broke and they got out
That was one law they couldn't flout

All you benefit frauds you better take care
But what you get is such a small share
Tax evasion is the rich man's way
Robin Hood come back today

Hey hey Moma, whose this poking 'round here?
It's our guide to moral virtue, Prime Minister Blair

As a war criminal he could be tried
But Blair tells us he never lied
He acted on what needed to be done
Didn't ya see that smoking gun?

Who pulls the strings? We know who wears the mask
If so, can they be brought to task?
Alistair and Tony are just the ones we see
What is the real identity?

Hey hey Moma, something something's in the air
Is it a bird? A plane? A lizard? Oh, it's only Tony Blair

I saw him in the paper putting down the Blues
Reds and Green-ers and in-betweeners
Will they all take us to the cleaners?

I'm singing about Tony, but would he care?
Off on a yacht with his billionaires
Lecturing all the World on peace
Will these wonders ever cease?

Hey hey Moma, something's gone wrong around here
Is that Jesus Christ our Saviour? I thought it was Tony Blair

Codex Blues

Here he comes and he's dressed so clean
Making the cruelest deal there's ever been
Don't give me them Codex Blues

They take a plant to make the chemical stuff
But they just can't get enough
Hey hey, it's the Codex Blues

Pharmaceuticals
Can be a cure for you
Most or some of the time
Modern medicene
Should not be menacing
Don't make Grandma's remedies a crime!

Legislation, this is the scare
Making plants illicit everywhere
Oh no, it's the Copex Blues

Hey Mr Beecham, Mr Kline
For dealing drugs you should be doing time
Don't give me no Codex Blues





(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.



Shaman's Curse

From deep halls of stone and crystal
That saw no sun since the bronze age
Ancient bones are being torn
By the metal claws of progress
By the M3 road of greed

In souterrain and deep sealed chamber
Kings of Tara still hold Court
Dead but not dead waiting the time
Ancient knowledge come again
Ancient knowledge come again

Astronomic fertility clocks were made
Of stone set square
To the sun's line at the Solstice
In winter when the Lords were born
In summer when the Earth rejoiced

Now these ways are long forgotten
Replaced by a science that will not see
Any notion of another world that lived
Before dissection
World that knew the science before

Ancient mathematics numbered
All the Earth's circumference
Knew the cycles of star systems
Placing stones to mark the path
Kings buried in tumuli

Now the prime and special numbers
Are those that set the stocks and shares
Machines are made to reap resources
Not to fertilise the land no
Not to birth the Royal race

Within a ring in Skryne the Fili
Was dug up his bones they found
Behind his skull the mushroom spores
Took him where no archaeologist does go
Let us listen to him now

His voice comes strongly through the years now
Telling us of what we have lost
Those who desecrate ancestors
Must now pay the Fili's Toll
Will now feel the Shaman's Curse














































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