LEVELLERS MUSIC
Best Live, Headlights, White Lines, Blackstar Rivers 1996
Sell Out
The year was 1991, it seems that freedom is dead and gone
The power of the rich is held by few
Keep the young paralyzed, educated by your lies
Keep the old ones happy with the news
Tell the singer not to song his song
Tell the poet that she's wrong
And in the courts you'll win the case with lies
Cos you sold them down the river-o
Do I belong to some ancient race
I like to walk in ancient places
These are things that I can understand
I don't believe in your modern way
Don't care about the things you say
Your policies have failed the test of time
Cos you sold them down the river-o
Now in a land not far away, there's men in prison because they say
The colour of your skin is not a question
Did you rally to their side
No, you sat back and let them die
I don't know how you get to sleep at night
Chorus
Your money market goes round and round
The pound goes up, the dollar goes down
You need the power for your new towns
Cos you get scared when the night comes down
Won't you tell me where it is that we are bound
Chorus
No need to return
There's so much that we have taught
And so much that we have learned
Hope Street
Busking On Hope Street
There's a young boy in the queue
There's not much else here for him to do
He's had a drink, he's had a few
Down the pub on Hope Street
Dear old lady, you're looking thin
Got a shopping bag with your life in
Your old man's going through the bins
And so it goes on hope street
Rain on me come pouring down
Clean the dirt off this old town
Tell the sun to come around
And show his face on Hope Street
There's a fight right down the street
The betting shop has got him beat
He blew his money for the week
On a horse called Hope Street
No old faces out today
Someone took them all away
Cleaning up or so they say
The dirty face of Hope Street
Rain on me come pouring down
Clean the dirt of this old town
Tell the sun to come around
And show his face on hope street
Rain on me come pouring down
Clean the dirt of this old town
Tell the sun to come around
And show his face on hope street
Everyday I look at you
Dressed up in your ties of blue
Saying there's not much that you can do
To help the kids on Hope Street
You don't seem to even care
That it was you that put them there
You seem to think they like it there
Hanging out on Hope Street
Rain on me come pouring down
Clean the dirt off this old town
Tell the sun to come around
And show his face on hope street
Fifteen Years
I never was a violent man
Said the man in the bar with his head in his hands
He's trying his best to understand the cause of his dismay
But the years of gin have broken him
They've left him cold where he's fitted in
But it's too late now to turn around and find another way
And the laughs in the late night lock-in
Have faded away when he gets in
The girl from fifteen years ago
Has packed and gone away
That's never how it used to be
What happened to all that energy
You took one too many liberties, I'm tired of being afraid
So after the fight she took flight
Hiding swollen eyes and a wounded pride
The best years of her life denied, and sold for liquid shares
Chorus
And the victims of their world, are advertised on posters
Just a beach and a pretty girl, if you just take this potion
Theres another week 'til his cheque comes through
He's got a fiver left now to spend on food
But the doors of the bars are open, and he breaks another rule
Well he sits on a stool that bears his name
Hes got a favorite glass well its called the same
He's never been kept waiting, 'cos he pays a landlord's wage
Chorus
Exodus
It's simple cos it is the people
Fighting for and claiming what remains
Dreaming this is not dreaming
This is the exodus from the game
Dance beneath the stars
We the sound system
We the collective
With an open heart
We the solution
Should be respected
At midnight the pharises plant the poison
False evidence to bring all back in line
It's no method just dealing out by justice
When no-one here's committed any crime
We'll turn the dust to soil
Turn the rust of hate back into passion
It's not water into wine but it's here
And it's happening
Massive but passive
To bring the peace back
Respect here for all the people
Good copper jah lawyer all good minds
Can see there is no evil
The only wrong is fighting changing times
Carry Me
When you're standing by the roadside
And it's a long way to go
Ah, to carry me
to carry me, carry me, carry me, friend
Oh, to carry me
Together in this mad land
far from truest of hands
well I'll carry you
if you'll carry me, carry me, carry me, friend
Oh, carry me
And we'll petrol Bomb the state
we'll blow away the hate
But we'll do it in our minds
If we can take the time
we'll build ourselves a road
from what we know
each take our part
and now's the time to start
Oh yea take
Oh it must be
Oh it must be
Oh it must be
But Jane's taking Heroin
and Paul is getting pissed
Steve is getting stoned
to fucked to fight
Sarah's on the Acid
and Sean has blown his mind
someone's busy hiding
to fucked to fight
Yea, Some have found religion
and some have run away
and some they formed a party
to find a way
Yea, some joined the system
some just look away
and some just bite their backsides
to find a way
And there is a way ...
Yes, there is a way ...
Yes, there is a way ...
When you're standing by the roadside
and it's a long way to go
Well I'll carry you
if you'll carry me, carry me, carry me, friend
well I'll carry you
The Boatman
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a boatman
On the canals and the rivers free
No hasty words are spoken
My only law is the river breeze
That takes me to the open seas
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a boatman
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a rover
And if the road was not for me
Then I would choose another
Cross mountains and the valleys deep
Where I would take these weary feet
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a rover
But these things they're so hard for me
I cannot choose my own destiny
And all the things that I want to see
Are so unclean
Well I wish I could choose the life I please
But I am not a free man
Others rule my destiny
But my will's never broken
I know someday I will be
Everything that I dreamed I'd be
And when I live the life I please
Then I will be a freeman
I know someday I will be
Everything that I dreamed I'd be
And when I live the life I please
Then I will be a freeman
And when I live the life I please
Then I will be a freeman
Three Friends
Burning searing sun
soft through the skin
bring your grace down here
tearing past the grey shadows of today
stroke away the fear
cold and steaming moon
call down a tune
lend us your ear
glide by the curves
which your secret serves
but bring not your speer
and life holds no time
by the blink of your eyes as both
you watch your sister planet die
Men-an-tol
So I find myself among
The brave Southsestern hills
Running like a madman on the moor
Let the sweet Atlantic rain
Wash away my youth
The Men-An-Tol shone strangely in the storm
I get the strangest feeling
In the air around
It's more than just a feeling
A different way of seeing
A different kind of life
Something I believe in
But in amongst the city lights
The feeling's not so clean
Faceless signs and neon lights
Hide what I hold dear
It's there to find if you have the mind
And you don't live in fear of it
I rest among what still remains
Of lifes thar passed before
Lighting strikes the top of Zennor Tor
I find myself amazed again
At man's pathetic score
Years of knowledge wasted and ignored
The Road
Well its headlights, and white lights, and Black Tar Rivers
Theyre dragging me around this country as it withers
The billboards, signposts, standing in the way
Tell of the state of the nations, that we find today
And we play and we play and we play
To every day, every day
To every day
And in the front rooms of old towns far from the city
With beaten up guitars and hearts full of pity
The people gather round singing songs from everywhere
Theyre torn from the nation, left without a care
CHORUS
And we'll rid the bloody world for a moment in a word
And we'll rid the bloody world cos
The words that you heard when you were young will always stay
The one's that always stay make the world go away
Warm night, clear sky, European town
Outside the bars singing their hearts out to a crowd
With open boots, violin, banjo and a voice
The exiled buskers are happy with their choice
CHORUS
One Way
There's only one way of Life
And that's your own
My father when I was younger
Took me up to the hill
That I looked down on to the city smog
Above the factory spill
He said this is where I come
When I want to be free
Well he never was in his lifetime
But these words stuck with me
I ran from all of this
And climbed that highest hill
And looked down on my life
Beneath the factory spill
I looked down onto my life
As the family disagree
Then to all my friends on the starting line
Their wages off to chase
and all my friends and all their jobs
And all the bloody waste
CHORUS
I grow up, learned to love and laugh
Circled A's on the underpass
But the noise we thought would never stop
Died a death as the punks grow up
And we choked on our dreams
We wrestled with our fears
Running through the heartless concrete streets
Chasing our ideas
And the problems of the world
Won't be solved by this guitar
And they won't stop coming either
By the life I've had so far
And the bright lights of my home town
Won't be getting any dinner
Though their calling has receded now
Like some old distant singer
And they don't seem so appealing
To the eyes of this poor sinner
CHORUS
England My Home
You gave me my birth
Then you made me pay
What is it worth
Cast me away
You've really done it now
Dying in my arms
You stand here with nothing
But you've still got english charm
Oh England, you're my home
My heart's heart
Crashing thunder of love
You're a place of the poor
Open wound
The lost rites of love
You cut your own throat
Then you let it bleed
Misleading your people
From what they all need
Roots forgotten
That's what we all say
But what does it matter
You're the USA
Why is it England
I feel like rubbish on your streets
Why is it when I care
If feel incomplete
Why does our future seem
Such a feat
When will our consciousness
Finally meet
Oh, whatever happened to
My green and pleasant land
Battle Of The Beanfield
I thought I heard something calling me
I've seen the pictures on TV
And I made up my mind that I'd go and see
With my own eyes
It didn't take too long to hitch a ride
With a guy going south to start a new life
Past the place where my friend died
Two years ago
Down the 303 at the end of the road
Flashing lights - exclusion zones
And it made me think it's not just the stones
That they're guarding
Hey, hey, now can't you see
There's nothing here that you can call free
They're getting their kicks
They're laughing at you and me
As the sun rose on the beanfield
They came like wolf on the fold
And no, they didn't give a warning
They took their bloody toll
I seen a pregnant woman
Lying in blood of her own
I seen her children crying
As the police tore apart their home
And no they didn't need a reason
It's what your votes condone
It seems they were committing treason
By trying to live on the road
And I say,
Hey, hey, now can't you see
There's nothing here that you can call free
They're getting their kicks
They're laughing at you and me
Hey, hey, now can't you see
There's nothing here that you can call free
They're getting their kicks
They're laughing at you and me
Bastards
Remember what you heard,
Hey, hey, now can't you see
There's nothing here that you can call free
They're getting their kicks
They're laughing at you and me
Liberty
There's one too many, two too many holes
Getting bigger in the garden wall
And the people looking in are getting busy, they're getting bad
They're trying to suss it all
They're trying to get to me, to take my liberty
Got to go go, get out of here, away-way, you don't want me here
Got to go go, get out of here, go home
I said this means nothing to me
They way we were is the way I wanna be
This means nothing to me
The way we were is the way I wanna be
They're sending in the elite, complete with guns
To advertise the way to go
Faxing through the fax to make it clear
That they're the ones who know
They're trying to get to me, to take my liberty
Got to go go, get out of here, away-way, you don't want me here
Got to go go, get out of here, go home
I said this means nothing to me
They way we were is the way I wanna be
This means nothing to me
The way we were is the way I wanna be
The Riverflow
I met you in 82, over a crate of beer and not a few
I cracked a can and so did you, we're going to change the world
The ghetto kings of downside town-the estates and parks of our hallowed ground
Doing anything that we found, and on the river flowed
You'd take a drink from Rev. Jimmy Jones
You'd cross the street on the path the gunman roams
Thrown aside and left to waste, that was you - you knew your place
Wander round, get off your face, and on the river flowed
On and on the river flow - we are the undertow
On and on the river flow - we are the undertow
I don't know how you made it through all the smoke and brew you do
It sure has left its mark on you but you're still with us today
Life goes on and round we go and words can kill these things I know
Sometimes you cut deeply so, but on the river flows
You'd set the table for barber Sweeney Todd
You'd clip the wings of any rising god
But man can't live on hope alone, it can be cut all that is grown
Broke your spirit but not your bones and on the river flows
CHORUS
You're working now - forced to the race
I know it left a bitter taste
But the rising tide had covered your face
Nothing you could do
But I still remember the day you said
That the river flowing through my head
Would take me far or leave me dead
And all you said was true