1. Penny Dreadfull

Forgive me if I'm out of order –
this new "music" has no soul.
It may be good for making money,
(sadly that is not my goal).

Integrity and honesty are words that you don't understand,
but you're the best – it says so in the penny dreadful in your hand.

I saw you in the magazine,
they're calling you messiah.
They must be living in a dream –
they couldn't be more wrong.

If we'd played this riff more punk,
than may be we'd have had a million seller.
But this piper's tune is not for sale,
(I'm glad to say I'm not that kind of fella).

D.J.s, V.J.s, pimps and trollops,
never mind music – this is bollocks.

I saw you in the magazine,
they're calling you messiah.
They must be living in a dream –
they couldn't be more wrong.

Turn on, tune up, cash in, sell out.
Turn on, tune up, cash in, sell out.

Stand your ground behind the times –
and refuse to follow fassion.
Write your poetry with anger,
(and then sing it with a passion).

Painted faces in a circus – images that spring to mind,
when I read my penny dreadful filled with pictures of your kind.

I saw you in the magazine,
they're calling you messiah.
They must be living in a dream –
they couldn't be more wrong.

Commercial suicide's appealing after
ten years on this losing streak.
'Cause I'd rather be called sour and bitter
then be deemed the flavour of the week.

I saw you in the magazine,
they're calling you messiah.
They must be living in a dream –
they couldn't be more wrong.

Extra, extra, read all about it!

I saw you in the magazine,
they're calling you messiah.
They must be living in a dream –
they couldn't be more wrong.

перевод: "Дешёвый роман" (Lightbringer) »

2. Inequality Street

Life's really a chocolate box –
some do without – others have plenty.
It sticks in my throat – my stomach's in knots,
while your box is so full – mine's perpetually empty.

From the cradle to the grave,
point your ladle to the gravy.
"Food comes first, then morals" they say,
the end of the world's three hot meals away.

Two average men eat their average meals
but destiny waits at their table.
One is served gruel while the other chews veal,
(but they're both spoon fed lies, lies from the cradle).

Life's really a chocolate box –
some do without – others have plenty.
It sticks in my throat – my stomach's in knots,
while your box is so full – mine's perpetually empty.

It sticks in my throat – my stomach's in knots,
while your box is so full – mine's perpetually empty.

Tragic moments for the masses-
work is the curse of the drinking classes
"homo homini lupus" we cry-
humanity fades like the moon in the sky.

You can't cook an omlette without breaking eggs,
(first they are cracked and then beaten).
The only things cracked around here are our heads,
recepies for disaster that we keep repeating.

Life's really a chocolate box –
some do without – others have plenty.
It sticks in my throat – my stomach's in knots,
while your box is so full – mine's perpetually empty.

It sticks in my throat – my stomach's in knots,
while your box is so full – mine's perpetually empty.

Here's a real beggars banquet,
a brace of rats in a blood stained blanket.
Meanwhile, gentlefolk high in their chateau,
dip silver spoons into black forest gateau.

Come lords and ladies – raise glasses in toast
to the "other-half" dying to eat.
'Cause they who receive feast deserve it the most,
it's a literal dead-end (Inequality Street).

Life's really a chocolate box –
some do without – others have plenty.
It sticks in my throat – my stomach's in knots,
while your box is so full – mine's perpetually empty.

Life's really a chocolate box –
some do without – others have plenty.
It sticks in my throat – my stomach's in knots,
while your box is so full – mine's perpetually empty.

It sticks in my throat – my stomach's in knots,
while your box is so full – mine's perpetually empty.

перевод: "Улица неравенства (На улице равенства)" (Lightbringer) »

3. Spinning Jenny

She came down from the Western Hills when we were not prepared
I turned deaf ears to words of warning now I'm running scared.
Casting caution to the wind now that the cat's away
I say my grace – fill my face (then for forgiveness pray).
Gon knows I was an honest man – the same as any other
Who loved his wife – worked all his life to keep his family
Until the 'beast' that never sleeps beneath my silken covers
Reared its head and bit its thumb at my morality.

Her passion for passion – it will devour
Cruel are the thorns of this delicate flower
Her lust for lust – it will consume
A siren song summons all men to their doom.

She whispered of her innocence – (a plea I must contest)
While baptising helpless sinners with a missionary zest
She will exorcise your demons – then exercise your thighs
Await your 'second-coming' with a hunger in her eyes.

Her sweetmeats are the souls of men – she'll gorge herself to bursting
And for yours her heart is thirsting – as a spider craves a fly
No mortal man could ever hope to suit her as a suitor
Sh'll rewrite the Kama Sutra if you'd care to watch her try.

I reach for heaven – desire drags me down
When fools choose their king I'll be heir to that crown
A strange kind of madness I cannot condone
If you are without sin come cast the first stone.

перевод: "Прядущая Дженни (Прядильная машина периодического действия)" (Lightbringer) »

4. 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.

перевод: "Плач земли" (Lightbringer) »

5. Another Fine Mess

A girl read my runes in the warm dressing room,
It was then that I started to think
There has to be something really worth hunting –
I reach for another strong drink.
For ten lonely years – that's my reward.

My ego and I we have faced many dangers.
Fear and self loathing have never been strangers.
Nobody knows of the depths we have been to –
Or all the fine messes we've got ourselves into.
For ten lonely years – that's my reward.

In my world far removed from the actual –
Safe in my small amorality capsule.
I cruise far aloof from the other world's laws-
Hiding behind tinted windows and doors.

I'm so tired of living –
Too weary to cry,
Too stubborn to give in –
Curl up and die.
This whole situation has I must confess,
All the tell-tale signs of another fine mess.

I've been run aground – a ship in a bottle,
Caught in the eye of the storm.
Deep in my strife found the meaning of life –
You're dying the moment you're born.

My heart bears the scars even time can't disguise,
If you only knew what I've seen through these eyes.
Oftimes overwhelmed by the feelings of doubt,
I have crawled in a bottle to shut them all out.

Will I drown in the sweat of this chemical dream,
With far too much blood in my alcohol stream?
When Mr. Jack Daniels has read my last rights –
His friend 'Billy Whizz' comes to turn on the lights.

First we were plastered in Paris,
Then we were frying in Greece.
Caught between heaven and hellfire,
Send for an ambulance – fetch me a priest.

I've been run aground – a ship in a bottle,
Caught in the eye of a storm.
Deep in my strife found the meaning of life –
You're dying the moment you're born.

"A band on ship" the captain cried,
We bought damnation duty-free.
Now we're floating with the tide –
"The silent whales of lunar sea."

I've been run aground – a ship in a bottle,
Caught in the eye of the storm.
Deep in my strife found the meaning of life –
You're dying the moment you're born.

перевод: "Очередная маленькая неприятность" (Lightbringer) »

6. Sins Of Emission

There's a beast in the cellar
There since this building was made.
He's lurked in the shadows
From when its' foundations were laid.

From my "double-helix" he taunts me
His primal voice roars
It mocks my humanity
Turning the key in locked doors.

Sins of emission – an animal trapped in a civilised mind
Sins of emission – my formal facade for the deaf, dumb and blind.
Sins of emission – spilling my seed now the harvest is sown
Sins of emission – come feast on a banquet of blood, flesh and bone.

Though we try to deny
This primordial drive in us all
We will cease to exist
When we no longer heed nature's call.

I'm a puppet of lust and my instincts are pulling the strings
No, love's not an angel – it's merely a monkey with wings.

Sins of emission – enticing and thrilling
Sins of emission – the flesh is so willing
Sins of emission – down under my skin
Sins of emission – we're all "in like Flynn."

Temptation's the one thing we'll never resist
It flirts like a maiden that yearns to be kissed
Is throwing the cradle to hells raging fires
More sinful than nursing unacted desires?

Hold tightly the reins
Of your bestial instinct to breed
He's an unwelcome guest
In the "house-trained" existence you lead

How long can you muzzle this wild brute creation of yours?
You can't quarantine the primeval with walls, bars and doors.

Sins of emission – an animal trapped in a civilised mind
Sins of emission – my formal facade for the deaf, dumb and blind.
Sins of emission – spilling my seed now the harvest is sown
Sins of emission – come feast on a banquet of blood, flesh and bone.

перевод: "Грехи поллюции/упущений" (Lightbringer) »

7. The Widdershins Jig

A wise man's son and Wednesday's child
in each other found a friend,
And searched together for the treasure
hiding at the rainbow's end.

To wise man's son and Wednesday's child
all is white that is not black,
They dance in symbiotic deadlock
one step forward two steps back,
Playing karmic snakes and ladders
all your sins will find you out
When all your gains are lost in vain
on cosmic wings and roundabouts.

At the roadside manhood's flower
blighted by a wayward youth,
Has cast its seed on well-worn pathways
borne on winds of whispered truth.
We march to drums of our own choosing
each of them keeps different time,
As you are free to live your own life
so I am free to live mine.

Now wise man's son and Wednesday's child
can recognise their own mistakes,
And to these ends they make amends
for every promise that they break.

Both wise man's son and Wednesday's child
view the world in red and green,
Await the day when they die laughing
thinking of the sights they've seen.
I tell you now if they were given
chance to live their lives again--
Wise man's son and Wednesday's child
would make the same mistakes as then.

At the roadside manhood's flower
blighted by a wayward youth,
Has cast its seed on well-worn pathways
borne on winds of whispered truth.
We march to drums of our own choosing
each of them keeps different time,
As you are free to live your own life
so I am free to live mine.

перевод: (Lightbringer) »

8. History Lessens (Final Examination)

Look what you get for following leaders,
who lead from the rear – where are they now?
Look what you get for following leaders,
who lead from the rear – where are they...
Where are they now?

What did we learn in history lessons?
How to sit quiet at the back of a class
with so many things open to questions,
it's too late to cry – there's no one to ask.

Life's an education – a multiple equation,
everybody finds their own solution in the end.
"To be or not to be" is a very lengthy question,
has somebody please got a sharpened pencil they can lend?

What did we learn in history lessons?
How to sit quiet at the back of a class
with so many things open to questions,
it's too late to cry – there's no one to ask.

Marching in time down a production line,
what did that teach you about life in the dole queue?

The Law of Relativity – (life's relative misery).
The Law of Probability – (it's probably contrived).
Newton's Law of Gravity – (we face a grave reality).
The Law that runs the jungle – (only the strong survive).

Look what you get for following leaders,
who lead from the rear – where are they now?

The path of least resistance – a bland text book existence,
don't expect to find the answers printed at the back.
The only sound advice that's carried me through life –
when the cards are stacked against you – play the joker in the pack.

What did we learn in history lessons?
How to sit quiet at the back of a class
with so many things open to questions,
it's too late to cry – there's no one to ask.

Marching in time down a production line,
what did that teach you about life in the dole queue?

перевод: "История недооценивает / Уроки истории (Последний экзамен)" (Lightbringer) »

9. Land Of Rising Slum

Show me a politician who's a man we can trust
And if I ever meet him then I think I'll have him stuffed
Look out of the window – see not one happy face
The only splash of colour's the graffiti 'round the place.

It's hard to even crawl
With your back up against the wall.
I find it hard to sleep at night
I feel that the worst is yet to come
Social helter-skelter
Ride the downward spiral has begun.
Are some people just born bad
Or is it how we all become?
Human termites driven mad
In the concrete mound of the rising slum.

The people who are dark fear the people who are fair
And hippies live in terror of the guys who have no hair
The saddest thing of all – what I really find grim
Is we haven't yet noticed what a mess we're all in.

It's hard to even crawl
Now your back's up against the wall.
I find it hard to sleep at night
I feel that the worst is yet to come
Social helter-skelter
Ride the downward spiral has begun.
Are some people just born bad
Or is it how we all become?
Human termites driven mad
In the concrete mound of the rising slum.

The "whether man" says that the outlook's not great
A few outbreaks of murder with some isolated rape
I ask my doctor his advice, this is what he says,
"Get yourself some cancer boy, before you die of aids."

It's hard to even crawl
With your back up against the wall.
I find it hard to sleep at night
I feel that the worst is yet to come
Social helter-skelter
Ride the downward spiral has begun.
Are some people just born bad
Or is it how we all become?
Human termites driven mad
In the concrete mound of the rising slum.

перевод: "Страна поднимающихся трущоб" (Lightbringer) »

10. Single Phial

I have walked the earth so many times before your birth,
Today is only yesterday's tomorrow.
And as a Gardner in Eden it was i who sowed the seed then
I've come to reclaim this life you borrow.

Singing 'ring a ring o' rosies' for your final lullabye,
Have you any prayers to make before you wave your last goodbye?
I bring 'a pocket full o' posies' – lay a wreath to ease my guilt,
As the light's go out forever not one drop of blood was spilt.

As yet unwritten history –
Once more i stride the lightning road
Identity a mystery –
My burden is Pandora's load.
Traversing endless centuries –
Disguised behind Death's lipless smile,
I hide that my intention is to pour this single phial.

I'd have rather seen your face almost any other place
Still here we meet – always the way in this profession
And as i gaze into your eyes – i see the glimer within dies,
From ther moment i first make my dark confession.

How could i swear i would be there for you, until your dying day,
Certain in the knowledge that it's not that far away?
So you leave me sitting here bewildered as a new dead ghost,
While i try to justify destroying that which i love most.

As yet unwritten history –
Once more i stride the lightning road
Identity a mystery –
My burden is Pandora's load.
Traversing endless centuries –
Disguised behind Death's lipless smile,
I hide that my intention is to pour this single phial.

The dark millenium is ending – final daze of the decayed
And a reign of tears is falling – it's the judgement eve parade.
Though I wash my hands a thousand times – still the guilt remains,
She stole my heart – I took her life...
(And yet i never knew her name).

As yet unwritten history –
Once more i stride the lightning road
Identity a mystery –
My burden is Pandora's load.
Traversing endless centuries –
Disguised behind Death's lipless smile,
I hide that my intention is to pour this single phial.

Out with a whimper – not with a bang.
And they all gathered round while the church bell rang.
Singing 'bring out your dead' they 'll stretch for miles,
To be bourne to their graves in single files.

As yet unwritten history –
Once more i stride the lightning road
Identity a mystery –
My burden is Pandora's load.
Traversing endless centuries –
Disguised behind Death's lipless smile,
I hide that my intention is to pour this single phial.

перевод: "Единственная фиала (Единственный ряд)" (Lightbringer) »