The Ghost Of Cain

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
'Cause not everybody here is scared of you
Not everybody passes on the other side

Ch: No police, no summons, no courts of law . . .

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

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 need you now

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 fifty-three years and I haven't yet done mine
You're just one of the millions waiting in line

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 need you now

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 . . .

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
Because the corridors of power are an ocean away

We're the 51st state of America

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

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

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 until 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 life, 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 . . .

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 dreams can be won
And with bright flashing lights, the heartaches are gone
With sex and with money and with everything for free
Then 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 and a little bit to spare
And go on promising that more could all be theirs
Ch: All lies, all 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: All lies, all lies, all schemes all schemes
Every winner means a looser in the western dream

It seems to me sometimes there's only two ways to choose
In this whirlpool made of a thousands years
Either live in these ghettos 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 our choice

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, damn their demands
And all the things that they say
'Cause they always play lovesongs
When you're far away

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: You are not our heroes anymore

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
You are not our heroes anymore

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 cache
With rewritten histories and a fictional past
And though some of us still have questions to ask
This ship, she sails without a captain

Ch: Goddamn the Master Race that we're born in
Goddamn the howling wolf that we're serving
I've had it up to here . . .

And 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: Goddamn the Master Race that we're born in
Goddamn the howling wolf that we're serving

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
You mean more to me now than you ever did before
As I try to stay away from their clutches

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