Skyclad - Jonah's Ark lyrics
Tracks 01. Thinking Allowed
02. Cry Of The Land 03. Schadenfruede 04. A Near Life Experience 05. The Wickedest Man In The World 06. Earth Mother, The Sun And The Furious Host 07. The Ilk Of Human Blindness 08. Tunnel Visionaries 09. A Word To The Wize 10. Bewilderbeast 11. It Wasn't Meant To End This Way 01. Thinking Allowed
My mind was a timebomb
That was set to explode So I packed up my cares Into the sunset I rode A path to hell that's paved With good intentions. Well I guess you and I Will never see eye to eye But if there's one thing I'll be Glad to know when I die It's that I never entertained your 'Can't Conventions.' Two men gaze from behind Their prison bars One man sees dirt The other sees stars I'm just thinking aloud Isn't thinking allowed? Just let your mind wander It may never come back Set off on a new train of thought On life's track. I'm just thinking aloud Isn't thinking allowed? Why is nobody thinking? How can you call me a failure Or a social defective When to find your own mind You'd need a private detective? I'm not a statistic or A regular family man. I don't give a damn about public relations I'll never live up to Your great expectations You can take or leave me Just the way I am. Your straight jacket emotions Only stifle and kill The spirit within us all I call free will. I'm just thinking aloud Isn't thinking allowed? Two men gaze from behind Their prison bars One man sees dirt The other sees stars. I'm just thinking aloud Isn't thinking allowed? 02. Cry Of The Land
Vibrant and real I lie
Mantled by the open sky The wind and waves my lullaby I am the land. Why do you view me with Eyes unable to see The beauty in all that is pure When it's left to live free? So hot the fires within my breast Rock and steel can't stand their test Yet songbirds in my green beard nest I am the land. That which is so strong and old Cannot be bought or sold Mine is the green and gold Wealth without end. Ruled by the ebb of my oceans Slaves to the dusk and the dawn Your petri - dish civilisations Are buried and born. I watch as you live With your heads in the sand Unable to hear the cry of the land. I was once a 'Happy Hunting Ground' Then one day the eyes of science found A blue - green planet Spinning round a shining star. The timeless giver of all life Offered as a sacrifice The priceless finds it's price In the greed of man. You bury your fears And your heads in the sand So you'll never hear the cry of the land. 03. Schadenfruede
Moonlit faces - ghostly white
Robed in midnight leather Death - heads adorn their necks But they have lived forever. Malign, nocturnal predators In search of human cattle Drawn toward their anguished cries Drowned by machine gun rattle. Compassionless as mortals die They feed as we lie sleeping To our otherworldly overlords We are a harvest for the reaping. He said "Hush my child, please don't fight Your faith is no salvation Which is worse - a fatal kiss Or slow asphyxiation? I must eat so you must die This is the natural order Lambs to the slaughter." Huddled in their barbed wire pens These frightened rabbits cower What shortlived comfort daylight brings The jaws of night devour Shadowed by their twisted cross They take their seats to dine Gorge themselves upon the blood Of the last of Davids line While outside in the frosty dawn Cold sentries dare not wonder why When daybreak brings the reveille Their officers in slumber lie? She cried "Holy Father save the children Of your chosen nation From the dead that walk this earth (living abominations) We cannot fight what can't be killed Only the strong survive... And evil never dies." 04. A Near Life Experience
Just a blank expression sitting in an easy chair
The living incarnation of a world that doesn't care Mesmerized by media lies Now they're "New and Improved" by a cunning disguise It drinks their poisoned water And thrives off noxious air. The avant garde of apathy Waits on the front line Ever so patiently just biding its' time They're an advertisers dream With a greed habit Their only fear is the fear Of a green planet. The avant garde of apathy Looks after itself Long past its sell by date you're still preserved on the shelf They'd rather ruin the world Than let their children have it Their only fear is fear of a green planet. The avant garde of apathy Vegetates undefeated But if you don't want to join it Then you're helping to beat it Don't let the chance pass you by You've got to reach out and grab it Turn this world they have made Into a green planet. 05. The Wickedest Man In The World
I stand here before you
The way life has made me Ill mannered, foul mouthed Bad tempered and lazy I stare at your world Down the neck of a bottle Every day is a death ride When I hold the throttle. To the drowning I am water For your calm I am the storm I'm the fiend who's with your daughter In bed well before the dawn. Was I the cat that got the bird? They'll put the blame on me Everything was grand in wonderland Till Charles Manson came to tea. Each moment's a game And I must play it to win And if you cannot bear it Then you'll just have to grin All the world is a stage So I aim to upstage you ("By the pricking of my thumbs") Kill me off - but like Banquo I'll come back to plague you ("Something wicked this way comes") All martyrs seek their cross and nails The rebels grail his cause So I'll just sign away my soul And forget the buy-out clause. The few who see me through my disguise Abhore, deplore, hate and despise me I care not what you perceive Fall unto your knees Jack the Ripper went to Sunday school With his best friends Mack the Knife And the blue eyed boy Who lives next door He's a junkie Jesus Christ. Do you think I'll be sad 'cus you don't like me Well I consider it highly unlikely Spill the milk but I won't cry My eyes are watertight Like my alibi. Yes I'll love you then leave you For no apparent reason My names are many My friends call me "Legion" The light that casts the shadows Darker shades of black That hide the drugged up mugger Who will stab you in the back. I'm not the type of angel Who fell from divine grace I'm the one who was so bad He never got there in the first place The vulture in the wings As the battle flags unfurl "Pleased to meet you, I'm the wickedest man in the world." 06. Earth Mother, The Sun And The Furious Host
He was just a lad of fifteen years
Who barely fit his breeches A latter day Dick Whittington Who dreamt of fame and riches His teachers took him to one side And promised him the earth When all he really wanted Was a taste of wine and mirth. They said "Attend our university Accept responsibility Chant our mantra of morality Until your throat is sore." A feast of knowledge this contrite Could not supress his appetite "Please sir I want some more and more..." Christianity was apparent as a fallacy The Devil take your Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The ones who have the answers Are they who pipe the dancers Earth Mother, the Sun and the Furious Host. I'll give the whole nation A sound education Welcome to the school of hard knocks Where the ones who know the answers Are they that take their chances For a small fish cast into an ocean Full of unknown terrors There's nothing much to smile at In his comedy of errors. Where streets aren't really paved with gold And rags don't turn to riches In this catalogue of disasters The models were all bitches. A Christ on every corner For a coin he'll save your soul But it's hard to be enlightened While you're queueing for your dole. When I think of all those shallow lies They fed me in the past There's one thing I must admit they've taught me... That is how to laugh At Christianity (it's nothing but a fallacy) The Devil take your Father, Son and Holy Ghost The ones who have the answers Are they who pipe the dancers Earth Mother, the Sun and the Furious Host. This one's for the teachers Who want to be preachers Will God keep you warm When you're cold? You'd put those wracked by malnutrition Straight onto your diet of superstition. 07. The Ilk Of Human Blindness
Midsummer 2045 they lay upon
The beaches burning Insects on a ball of rock Upon it's axis slowly turning Steel and concrete melanomas Punctuate the hot sunrise Spines now chilled by global warming Microwave their last goodbyes. For sixty years or more they say Mankind had known there'd come a day When there would be a price to pay. "Square Eyes" watched The fools game show The first to go and last to know Sat eating junkfood on death row (Feeding the fall of the human empire) No prophet cast the money lenders From their polystyrene temples Noone heard the penny drop All interest shown was incidental. Pity the chairman of the board For all these years he's piled his hoard But penniless he'll meet the lord As all the world prepares to die He stands before the needles eye Whilst countless millions pass him by (Fleeing the fall of the human empire) Recalling all those wasted hours Of motions passed and minutes taken Maybe now he feels remorse For all the souls he has forsaken. Silhouettes of living corpses Remnants of a transcient race March toward the red horizon Evanesce without a trace. The proud rub shoulders with the meek On debris littered city streets They fight like dogs for scraps to eat The welfare state's in dissaray All social order slips away The "Primrose Path" lead to decay (The Curtain falls on the human empire) Codes of conduct redefine As justice turns to legal crime These monsters masked by human features Are by far the blindest creatures. 08. Tunnel Visionaries
(Narration)
Nobody could have conceived in the final decade of the 20th century That our humble affairs were being manipulated by computer interface. Not a soul could have summised that the lives of billions were of Less consequence than a decimal point in the stock exchanges of the world. Rare few even questioned the relentless exploitation of our rapidly Dwindling natural resources. And yet across the polished boardroom tables, Beings immensely more devious than ourselves surveyed this defiled planet With jaundiced eyes, and swiftly and ruthlessly, they hatched foul plots Against us. 09. A Word To The Wize
From far outside
Earth's fragile atmosphere It's clearly apparent that the end is near The sleeper wakens and removes His golden casque Vital signs return to his quiescent craft. He is truth - a word to the wise Gods children are so young They cannot realise The difference between extinction And life is now only a matter of time. In the beginning was the knowledge He had carried far across The great unknown Millenia have passed since he walked On the savannah where the seeds Of life were sown. Yet even deep in slumber he could hear His children blunder to destruction The caretaker of creation placed a fail-safe At the heart of his construction. Technologies intended As mans slaves mutated Now they are his masters The trust they place in progress Only serves to bring The last days nearer faster. He is truth - a word to the wise Gods children are so young They cannot realise The difference between extinction And life is now only a matter of time. I can see the oceans Stagnent and overflowing Filled with man made waste discharged From my cosmic auditorium I view this crematorium That is your world at large My ears hear the wailing of your children In a future close at hand Just as it was before - so it may be again (If you don't try to understand)... The seas will rise before your very eyes Until they swallow up the land If your polar ice caps melt The cards are dealt And you have died by your own hands I will never help you while you still persist In acting like you're blameless I would rather let your species die forgotten So your folly remains nameless. He is truth - a word to the wise Gods children are so young They cannot realise The difference between extinction And life is now only a matter of time. "When to mischief mortals bend their will How quick they find the instruments of ill." 10. Bewilderbeast
See the brave toreador
just look at him thrive Off the crowd as they roar. For death brings a thrill To the everyday lives of the "non-com" observers Who gloat and chastise My mind can't believe we maintain This barbarous blood thirsty game. In their picturesque dwellings the aristo-classes Spill blood that's not claret from cut-crystal glasses. Never once pausing to contemplate why For vanity's victories innocents die. No better than bloodhounds Hot on the scent They butcher their prey When its' energy's spent My mind can't believe we maintain This barbarous blood thirsty game. Please show me this "sportsman" You mention with pride With his dog to defend him And his gun at his side If courage is the one thing Your kind do not lack Then why don't you hunt something That can fight you back? I see only cowardice ridden by guilt And your hands won't wash clean of the blood they have spilt. What measure of madness makes you all so ill That your passport to pleaseure's a licence to kill? So I won't waste my time trying to understand why For vanity's victories innocents die 'Cus you're all vicious bastards I'm sick of your crap So I won't bat an eyelid when it's you in the trap. I still can't believe we maintain This barbarous blood thirsty game. 11. It Wasn't Meant To End This Way
Sometimes I believe that we're already dead
Each day on the T.V. our last rights are read Some fair weather oil tanker bleeding its' load Powder keg powder plant ripe to explode. Mister Prime Minister hear what I say, Please Mister President listen I pray. You have the influence and you have the power To turn back the clocks on mankind's final hour. When death is the helmsman who steers "Jonah's Ark" Tomorrows an iceberg that lurks in the dark. The band plays our song... it's the Funeral March. |