1. BROTHER _{(Sullivan/Heaton/Nelson 1995)}

It's been a long dry season in tinderbox town
And the ghetto cars go cruising up and down and round and round
With tinted windows and the screech of tires
Poverty likes to ride in the best disguise
The boys get bored, set fire to the sheds at the end of my street
The thick black smoke rises up into the dusk
Sirens scream out across the hills
Turn into the close as the boys all swagger.
I've got no quarrel with you brother
But the war is getting closer
Down at the Union there we stood
And embraced like brothers should
The fire catches when your back is turned
And now we watch as the city burns
And now we watch as the city burns

We used to joke about the colour of our skins
We used to joke about the names of God
But now the racist cops come round
Put your cousin up against the wall
A little crowd gathers round and takes up sides
The white trash come out of their doorways and mutter
There's a macho stand off with sullen faces all around
And all the middle ground is washing away
And no one really wants it there anyway
It's a time of pack dogs brother
And the war's getting closer
Down at the Union there we stood
And embraced like brothers should
The fire catches when your back is turned
And now we watch as the city burns
And now we watch as the city burns

And I, I accuse you, you want so much
But you give nothing of yourself
And I, I believe you, you want so much
But you keep nothing of yourself

Source: LS Booklet

Source: The Complete NMA Lyrics Pages

Wherefore feed and clothe and save
From the cradle to the grave
Those ungrateful drones who
Drain your sweat - nay, drink your blood

Have ye leisure, comfort, calm
Shelter, food, love's gentle balm?
Or what is ye buy so dear
With your pain and with your fear

The seed ye sow another reaps
The wealth ye find, another keeps
The robes ye weave, another wears
The arm ye forge, another bears

Sow seed - but no tyrants reap
Find wealth - let no imposter heap
Weave robes - let no the idle wear
Forge arms - in your defense to bear

With plough and spade and hoe and loom
Trace your grave and build your tomb
And weave your winding sheet till fair
England be your sepulture

Source: LS Booklet

6. HIGHER WALL _{(Sullivan/Harris 1987)}

We're out here on the borders with our favourite few possessions
Traded stories whispered round the fire
As shadows in the searchlights, mugshots in the files
Waiting in the camps behind the wire
Kick the door until it opens, what you have you cannot hold
We are young, forever hungry, you are fat and growing old
Still every day you try to build a higher wall

We pick the leaves of coca, we stack the crates of cola
We wait upon the tables where you dine
And learn from you not to accept the little that we're given
To take the piece of silver where we can
Now clutching at these papers in another office line
We're staring from the darkness up at windows filled with light
And every day you try to build a higher wall

In my town we used to pray to idols sent from far away
From out beyond the dusty days, we heard your voices call
And in your town the streets are cleaned
The order stands, the sirens scream
You talk of peace, vacation dreams - and reinforce the wall

Now in the queues at immigration, in the border zone
We are your bastard children, all coming home
And every day you try to build a higher wall
Every day you try to build a higher wall
But your money cannot stop us
And you violence cannot stop us
No you will never stop us with your higher wall

"Released originally for "Thunder and Consolation", but then not included, the topicatility of this song increased each passing year."

Source: LS Booklet

In the white washed cancer ward with my hot blood running wild
I see the pain behind your eyes and the search for a reason
And the knowing and the fear of the passing season
Now please give me strength to cut and to keep our secret
Please give me strange to cut

Ch: That the things we love may remain here still
There is time to wait and there's a time to kill
I see your outstretched hand through the closing door
But it's a far better thing I do than I have done before

And so it seems that murder's not so hard - I've eaten flesh and blood each day
And if I believe the things I write through the passing season
Then with a rifle in my hand and with a thousand reasons
I'll wait, far above the crowd in the summer sunshine
And history changes now, forever
That the things we love may remain here still
There is time to wait and there's a time to kill
From the barren land come the seeds of war
So it's a far better thing that I do than I have done before

"Recorded for "Impurity" but then not included this song was released by EMI without our consent in 1994"

Source: LS Booklet

Release Date:
May 1998

Also appears on vinyl version of Strange Brotherhood."

Source: The Complete NMA Lyrics Pages

Source:LS Booklet

Took a drink from the bottle in my coat
I can smell it now like it was yesterday
The cold November winds biting round those Bradford streets
Going downtown to the club where your band used to play
Well the years go by, and the choices come
We fall by the wayside one by one

Ch: And there's nobody left but you now
There's nobody left but you Stevie he was always just the quiet one

Ch: And there's nobody left but you now . . .
Only you, only you Somehow you survived, well I don't know how

And you still burn the same, maybe a little slower now
You remember the winter of '79 and going down in the rain to the Royal Standard to watch the Ruts play?

Source: LS Booklet

Freedom? I don't hear any more songs of freedom

121th street and rising western dream aspires
The snack kings like to drive German car there's children on for sale
The streets are left scorched and buried
There's twenty-seven channel satellite television
And gang murder Anpa from Tinseltown to sell a movie about Malcolm X

But freedom? I don't hear any more songs of freedom

So pined down and what do we get
A longer piece of rope for our sweet little necks
Sweet liberty and her faithlessness, faithlessness

Freedom? I don't hear any more songs of freedom

Source: LS Booklet

I watched you get the things that you could buy
Raise your arms and try to fly
Face turned up towards the sun
Nothing that you dare deny
Because it's hunger that feeds you hunger that bleeds you
Falling forwards into nothing catching at the air
And everything still out of reach
With the chill of sweat drying on your back

I'm finding, I'm feeling, stretching, falling …

There is nothing that you can resist
But you must deny yourself first to get a fix
Another cure that don't exist - that's all there is
Because it's hunger that bleeds you, hunger that feeds you
Falling forward into nothing catching at the air

I'm wondering, I'm asking, I'm looking, I'm beginning

You and I, we walk these unforgiving streets
We get so desperate sometimes we can barely speak
And through the night the sirens scream
But just like us, they don't fix on anything
And we take our different poisons, the ones half chosen
And first comes the blinding flashing light
Then the wave of the blast and then the watching emptiness
Because it's hunger that feeds us, hunger that bleeds us
There is no end to this
There is no end to this

Source: LS Booklet

Heinrich Kramer, Jacob Sprenger - we're still here
Can you hear us Torquemada - we're still here
The rolling of thunder, there's holes in the sky
We'll meet you again on the opposite side
Outside of the line
Still running - outside of the line

The scent of the datura, the best of the drum
Seven by seven, all the ravens have flown
The crack of the lightning, there's holes in the sky
We'll meet you again on the opposite side
Outside of the line
By the earth and the fire and the water and air
By the blood pouring in my veins I swear
Outside of the line
Still running - outside of the line

In Calitry Hill, the sky turned black
And the wind blew the dust in the plastering heat
But the heavens were empty, no angels come
The only sound I remember was the crying of Mary and the mother's weep
And he cried out you're newer going to save the world
If you can't save me
It's all vanity and you're never going to save the world
If you can't save me

Source:LS Booklet

Remember the things that we said
The faith that we hold, the trees in winter
The things the we said, the faith that we hold
All buried in the earth and earth like stone

Stopped on the way down to the sea on the wide and lonely road
The scene of summer nights and the warm fever of dreams
Beneath the falling stars, with the music loud
We're dancing spinning round in the wild cascading lights
And I fell like a knife

These days to remember where it was that we came from
What it was that we wanted before all the changes
And the hardest part is choosing and watching all the doors closing
No turning back, no turning back

Well the years and the miles don't change a thing
The blood remains the same
It's a dream in a dream in a dream in a dream
With the darkness rushing by again
And I fell like a knife

I don't care what comes any trick that fate can bring
We'll take on any cause, anybody, anything
One day I'll understand what it all was for
But I'm not looking back or thinking too much any more
And tonight out on Black Dyke Ridge
We'll pull the car on the side of the road
And watch the shooting stars and all the city spread below
We'll be check to cheek and all things we missed
I'm not worried now, I'm not worried now
We're coming up in the morning air
We'll cross the bridge just we get there

And all the hours go by and the faces pass
Their secrets held and eyes like glass
And there's always time, there's so little time
For us to be but maybe

And all the hours go by and I'm counting still
And I see her face and I see her smile
And there's so little time, there's so little time
For us to be but maybe
We're coming up in the morning air
We'll cross the bridge just we get there