The Love of Hopeless Causes

Today, as you listen to this song
Another 394,000 children were born into this world
They break like waves of hunger and desire upon these eroded shores
Carrying the curses of history and a history yet unwritten
The oil burns in thick black columns, the buzz saws echo through the forest floor
They shout give us our fair share, give us justice
Here comes the war

On a grey morning to the south of here
Two young men in makeshift uniforms peer into the misty light
And figures dart behind the trees
As a snap of rifle rounds echoes out across the fields
They hardly know their sacred mother tongue but they know their duty
To defend the flag hanging limp and bloody above the village church
While a thousand miles away, in a warehouse complex down by the river,
Young money men play paintball games
Here comes the war - put out the lights on the Age of Reason

So blow out the candle and tell us another of those great stories,
the ones about serial killers. Let dreams flow into savage times.
Do you hear the sirens scream across the city?
We've had three hot nights in succession - the riot season is here again
Dear Lord, lead us back into the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
Here comes the war. Did you think we were born in peaceful times?

Faster, faster, like a whirling dervish spinning round
Faster, faster, until the Centre cannot Hold
You screamed give us Liberty or give us Death
Now you've got both, what do you want next ?
Here comes the war - put out the lights on the Age of Reason.

I put my hands into the roaring flames
I felt the pain as it started to burn
I've done the same thing over again and again
As if I never ever wanted to learn
Moving through the world at obsession speed
Leave a dust trail crossing the land
I'm crying out in fury to the gods of fate
Come on, get me if you can

I'm a master at the art of how to kill
I've killed the things that I love the best
There's blood on the walls of my home
Patterned with the coward's kiss
And love it is the key that unlocks the door
But you never know what's waiting behind
Crying out in fury to the gods of fate
Come and get me if you can

I'm screaming in the wind, screaming in the rain
Screaming in the face of the storm
Howling in out in the roaring surf
With the waves crashing down into foam
To feel something without a weakness
As She batters me down into the sand
Crying out in fury to the gods of fate
Come on and get me if you can

Now I understand what they told me years ago
How the stakes get higher and higher the further that you go
It's a bad time to look for forgiveness
It's a bad time for searching for home
The Wall came down in a thousand pieces
Now everybody's building their own
Disillusioned little children of the Western World
Time hangs heavy in our hands
We cry out in our fury to the gods of fate
Come on and get us if you can
We're crying out in our pride to the gods of fate
Come on and get us if you can
I'm crying out to the gods who couldn't care less
Come and get me if you can

The lovers they kiss and slowly they turn
for drawing a breath there is nothing but time
A thousand million years before we crash in the sun
And I know we will be still here in Her arms
In the thick black night we could lie in the grass
And gaze at the sky and watch the satellites pass
A thousand million miles, the earth She will turn
Then still we will be here in Her arms
And if we can float away in our dreams
There's a city that waits under the sea
The days to pass living in the rose
The seeded land slow and old
The scented air heavy and warm
Whispers, touches . . .

I'm riding on the Great North Road
Coiled and tensed in wonder
As the land turns burning gold
Ch: Out in the sun, out in the wind
I'm nearly ready now to come back again

We are silent in this worship
Beneath the breathing of the summer trees
They sparkle in a dance of silver
As the light falls through the leaves
Ch: Out in the sun, out in the wind
I'm nearly ready now to come back again

So from the wisdom of trances, the armies of Jesus
To the Voodoo possessions, the different disguises
At dusk in the mountains, all bowed in surrender
A thousand voices calling out a million names
We knelt as we lit the candles
Around the little shrine
Take me back to the white light
I want to go there again
Ch: Out in the sun, out in the wind
I'm nearly ready now to come back again 

In the unlit room with my head in my hands
The walls between us now seem unscalable
I cannot control anything
There are weapons down beside your bed
And every night I count them all

Ch: Is this where we've come to? I don't believe it
After everything that we've been through - I don't believe it
Take a look around here - I don't believe it
I look into my own sweet heart - I don't believe it

Oh how they talk about us when we're far away
Behind their frigid eyes they know more than they ever say
They only tell you the truth when they get drunk enough
It's a town of cornered animals, teeth bared - out of control

Ch: Is this where we've come to? I don't believe it
After everything that we've been through - I don't believe it
Take a look around here - I don't believe it
I look into my own sweet heart - I don't believe it
And every night I clench my teeth and fail to get to sleep
I cannot bear the stillness drawn across the surface of the world

I have never learned to throw the first punch
Perhaps the more you know the more you get scared
In the end you left on your mission to find a reason for all this pain
And how I wish I'd gone with you over and over and over again

Ch: Is this where we've come to? I don't believe it
After everything that we've been through - I don't believe it
Take a look around here - I don't believe it
I look into my own sweet heart - I don't believe it

Ch: They don't understand you
None of them understand you

Tonight, as you stare at the ceiling again
With you lover turning away
Disappointment closing in like the walls
And you try, you try to talk about love
And they put their arms around you
But still you feel all alone - wonder why
Ch: They don't understand you
None of them understand you
And it doesn't have to be this way
I know you try to do the things they say

Just because you don't know what it is that you feel
Doesn't mean you can hide it away
Well you try to be less than you are but they know
Yes they know - and silence is a dangerous game
And words are dangerous too
And you've spoken the best that you can
Ch: They don't understand you
None of them understand you
And it doesn't have to be this way
I know you've tried to do everything that they say . . .

Stare across the crowd, the fear and love in their faces
The children of the tribes, prisoners of the flags unfurling
Protect us in these changing times,
The warm embrace, the killing price . . .
My people right or wrong
Remember running from the hall as the voices screamed behind us
I felt I'd die for you in the sunlit hills of our home
The moments come then recede away
The empty words, the hollow light of day . . .
My people right or wrong
And outside is cold, staring up at the lighted window
And in the bitter home, the thicker the blood the faster it keeps on flowing
Get in your place, boy
Let's take what's ours, boy
Understand the price, boy

I've seen those who try to make a life without kin for ever
So I've taken my place uncertain at your shoulder
The last few prayers, the whistle blow,
And into the fray once more we go
My people right or wrong 

Through the years of decay we walk like tigers in cages
With each passing turn the smaller and smaller the circles
Every weapon and word legitimate now as protection
But these things should never be spoken
These things should never be spoken

I stand undefeated alone in the ring just pacing
The sweat and the blood dried on my hands all wasted
I'm shouting "come back and fight for I am the king"
But the lights are all out and the people are gone
We always burned brightest when no one was watching
Now I kiss the lines on your beautiful face
But these things should never be spoken
These things should never be spoken

And sometimes your hunger for life seems like desperation
And when I read about the world these days all I can feel is hatred
The fortune teller is closing her doors
She looked into the crystal and saw nothing at all
They're waiting round here for something to happen
They won't really want it when it rolls out to greet them
But these things should never be spoken
These things should never be spoken

Time passes slow - fields stretch out across open acres
Time passes slow - the giant steps of mankind touch us so little in the great lands
Our little storm whirls away out across calm wide oceans
In this sacred breath, you and I falling for ever and ever and ever
The news peoples' dull voices bring the distant tidings of great disasters,

Politicians speaking in some solemn tone, the crisis of a different world,

The panic of the thousands, the destiny of millions - so far away
Time passes slow - sunlight sparkles on rippling waters
And the trees they sway - I don't believe in the things that I can't see
Our little storm whirls away out across calm wide oceans
In this sacred breath, you and I falling for ever and ever and ever

Dear Justin, I know it's been a long time
Remember all those nights we spent sitting up talking in your front room
About leaving this worn out world and starting again far away in a better place
Well that's where I am now - but still thinking about you

Ch: I'm never going back there
I'm never going back to the bad old world

I was travelling with Laurel way up on the north coast
She's got family living up here in a nearby town
We found a piece of land that looks out towards
the north sea islands across the bay
And the sun is shining on the water today as I look out of our front door

Ch: I'm never going back there
I'm never going back to the bad old world

Are you still scared of the future? Well, that doesn't surprise me
You could come up and stay here a while, back off from the killing wheel
I used to think it was me who'd somehow sold out
or given in on some almighty cause,
But what difference would it make? It feels good to be out here.