New York Song lyrics - Chumbawamba

First time in New York, just seventeen
in a motel full of poets, drunks and
queens. I walk the city streets into the
night to see Manhattan in the early
morning light. On the corner of a
street they laugh and talk, the young
men watch me coming, block my walk;
they see me slow right down - they
know I don't belong. Then all at once
... they all break into song.

Dance, Idiot, Dance - Chumbawamba

Here comes Nicholas, fiddle in hand,
into a world that he can't understand.
You can't keep pace with the master
race, his feet they're going all over
the place - he can't see his moves cos
there's egg on his face. Dance, idiot,
dance! His body's as stiff as
a cold lasagne, 'cos all he knows is
'Rule Brittannia'. His rhythm's so bad
that we're supposin' - maybe it's cos
his legs are frozen? Shouldn't be
wearing lederhosen! Dance, idiot,
dance! Messianical look in his eye,
arms akimbo, slapping his thigh. He
wrinkles his snout at a likely wench
(we've censored her answer and
pardoned her French) - it's hard for
your average Ubermensch. Dance,
idiot, dance! Poor old Nicholas got
up today, to Cecil Sharpe House he
made his way. Wore his uniform just
to impress and said, "this must be the
place, I guess, for joining the EFD-SS?"
Dance, idiot, dance!

"The Boys Band Have Won" (2008)




When An Old Man Dies lyrics - Chumbawamba

Along with the shoes and the shirts and the ties
There's a library that's lost when an old man dies.

Add Me lyrics - Chumbawamba

I'm a loner, alone with neuroses and hate
Anger is a permanent character trait
My letter bombs are primed and they're ready to send
Would you like to add me as a friend?
I'm a wound-up whiner with a fetish for guns
I'm almost 50 and I live with my Mum
I hope my nude picture doesn't offend
Would you like to add me as a friend?

Add me, add me
Me mother says she wished she'd never 'ad me
Add me, add me
Would you like to add me as a friend?
Would you like to add me as a friend?

I'm a recovering alcoholic, I rarely leave my room
Peeping through the curtains in my dog costume
The voices in my head, oh they'll get me in the end
Would you like to add me as a friend?
I'd really like to mail you the picture that I drew
It's Kylie's body but the head is you
I've asked you fifty times before, I'm asking you again--
Would you like to add me as a friend?

Add me, add me
Me mother says she wished she'd never 'ad me
Add me, add me
Would you like to add me as a friend?
Would you like to add me as a friend?

Add me, add me
Me mother says she wished she'd never 'ad me
Add me, add me
Would you like to add me as a friend?
Would you like to add me as a friend?

Here's a picture of me in my Nazi uniform
Doing a trick with an egg that I like to perform
At a monster truck rally that my Mum and me attend
Would you like to add me as a friend?

I've added Britney and Paris and you and Tom
I'm going to find your address so I can visit you at home
I don't like people but I like to pretend
Would you like to add me as a friend?

Add me, add me
Me mother says she wished she'd never 'ad me
Add me, add me
Would you like to add me as a friend?
Would you like to add me as a friend?

Words Can Save Us lyrics - Chumbawamba

April morning summer come soon
Clouds follow after
Morning sun is hidden by noon
Day shrouded over
Tears to face the morning news
We watch our future burn
And wonder if we'll ever learn
That words can save us

War in Broken Promise Land
Fame fear and gunfire
Cowboy culture blood on its hands
Flag fuel and empire
Bit parts for shooting stars
Above the dying trees
No-one looking up to see
How words can save us

Number one Favourite son
One more outsider
Army drops its cluster bombs
Boy sees his future
World are you listening now?
This fool just had his day
Who'll be brave enough to say
That words can save us?

Hull Or Hell lyrics - Chumbawamba

Of larks trains windows and brooks
The poet he writes it all down in his book
Won't meet your eye but he wants you to look
In Hull or hell he lies

Lambs in the winter and swans in the spring
Children at play they're like birds on the wing
And the poet he writes that the sun seems to swing
In Hull or hell he lies

Away from the world and away from the page
Hidden in corners the gathering of age
Retreats to the wings where he once held the stage
In Hull or hell he lies

The dirt and the filth that we don't get to see
That's eating his language away
This yellow-eyed nastiness hides from the light of the day

Resenting the everyday growing so old
Where winter once pictured as flowers in fold
Turned frosty and bitter and weathered and cold
In Hull or hell he lies

His housemaid she tried but the dirt grew so fast
The darkest of colours he nailed to the mast
Stuck in his ways like he's stuck in the past

El Fusilado lyrics - Chumbawamba

Listen close to this crooked mouth
For my story I will tell–o
Lived in Mexico by the name of Wenseslao Moguel–o
Left my home in Santiago
The heart of the city of Merida
Served with my brothers and sisters all
For the army of Pancho Villa

Stand me straight against the nearest wall
Line up your bravest soldiers oh
Ten good shots I'll take them all
They call me El Fusilado

The Federales captured me
Bound up my arms with wire
Officer comes he says “Take your aim –
Steady your guns and fire!”
Bullet holes all across my chest
Ripped up my shirt and my body–o
Heart beat on through the silenced guns
To the rhythm of life inside me–o

Stand me straight against the nearest wall
Line up your bravest soldiers oh
Ten good shots I'll take them all
They call me El Fusilado

Fell to the ground the officer came
One last shot to the head­–o
Heard through the pain as he walked away
And left me there for dead–o
All went quiet so I crawled away
I wasn't giving up to the glory
Ten good shots I took them all
And lived to tell my story

Stand me straight against the nearest wall
Line up your bravest soldiers oh
Ten good shots I'll take them all
They call me El Fusilado.

A true story. Wenseslao Moguel was captured while fighting in the Mexican revolution in 1915 and without trial sentenced to face the firing squad, ‘las sentencias al paredon'. After being shot by the squad, and despite receiving the ‘tiro de gracia' (shot at close range by the captain), Wenseslao somehow survived. He managed to escape and spent much of his life touring the USA with the ‘Ripley's Believe It Or Not' travelling museum.

Unpindownable lyrics - Chumbawamba

In the age before the information age
Making history and living for the days
We told our stories then in oh so many ways
We were unpindownable

The moth it changed between the chimney and the tree
I grew feet so I could crawl out from the sea
No-one dares to tell me what I'm going to be
For I am unpindownable.

I Wish That They'd Sack Me lyrics - Chumbawamba

Six in the morning don't want to wake
Sun laying low and the world sleeping late
Hate like the river runs heavy and deep
Oh I wish that they'd sack me and leave me to sleep

Five days from seven the week's hardly mine
The alarm clock's gone over to enemy lines
Waste my time working for cowards and creeps
Oh I wish that they'd sack me and leave me to sleep

Rain strikes the window heralds the day
Rain won't you wash these eight hours away?
Rain feeds the river runs heavy and deep
Oh I wish that they'd sack me and leave me to sleep

Birds at my window sing in the dawn
By the time that I'm home all this day will be gone
Spend my life sowing what others will reap
Oh I wish that they'd sack me and leave me to sleep

Rain strikes the window heralds the day
Rain won't you wash these eight hours away?
Rain feeds the river runs heavy and deep
Oh I wish that they'd sack me and leave me to sleep

Word Bomber lyrics - Chumbawamba

Strap these words
Around your waist
Open arms
A last embrace
Go make your peace
Commonplace
Take the train
A last goodbye
Throw your rhymes
At passers-by
‘One Love'
On your hi-fi
Words
Words is all
Around the underground
And ticket halls
Declaring peace
Wall to wall
Back in Leeds
The news we heard
No-one killed
And no-one hurt
Wish all the young men
Used only words
Words
Words is all
Around the underground
And ticket halls
Declaring peace
Wall to wall.

All Fur Coat & No Knickers lyrics - Chumbawamba

A wave for the cameras
All fur coat and no knickers
Jayne Mansfield she came down
To cheer up the town
Lord Bono and his pals
They were a bit too busy saving the world
Well you have to take your hat off to The Edge

Those were the days my friend
We took the Stretford End
Now it's a Theatre of Dreams™
It's all smiles and handshakes
There's not a function I can't make
If the photo opportunity knocks
So long you suckers
All fur coat and no knickers
Cos I just sold my funeral
To Hell–Oh Oh Oh
Those were the days my friend

We took the Stretford End
Now it's a Theatre of Dreams™.

Fine Line lyrics - Chumbawamba

Those who stand accused
And those who point the finger
Are closer than you want to believe.

Lord Bateman's Motorbike lyrics - Chumbawamba

Lord Bateman runs an inn out on the A65
Sort of place where everybody drinks before they drive
Weekends runs a motorbike to Scarborough and back
He’s not too many brandies from a second heart attack
John Barleycorn he works the land and drinks at Bateman’s Inn
And every evening toasts to all the things that might have been
Tells the world that once he had a trial for Hull KR
Now he watches them on TV in the corner of the bar

Bateman gets up early lifts the latches on the gate
Seven horses stabled and the family sleeping late
Fourteen hundred acres two daughters and a son
He’ll ride the eastern coast and back before the morning’s done
Barleycorn he’s up at dawn and working off the beer
Same thing every day of every week of every year
Hears Lord Bateman racing by along the county lanes
And pulls his jacket tight against the coming of the rain...

Lord Bateman meets the storm that’s coming in from the shore
Speeding over Quarry Hill at 85 or more
There’s rain to take the wheels away rain among the glass
And rain to wash the blood into the tarmac and the grass
In the months to come John Barleycorn he sits and drinks his fill
Measures out his life between his pocket and the till
So down the generations Bateman’s son behind the bar
While Barleycorn he sips his beer and watches Hull KR.

A Fine Career lyrics - Chumbawamba

The councilor comes with his battered old suit
And his head all filled with plans
Says “It's not for myself, for the fame or wealth
But to help my fellow man.”
Fist in the air and the first to stand
When the Internationale plays
Says “We'll break down the walls of the old Town Hall
And we'll fight all the lifelong day!”
Ten years later where is he now?
He's ditched all the old ideas
Milked all the life from the old cash cow
Now he's got a fine career
Now he's got a fine career.

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