1. 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.

2. Skyclad

I'll sing to you of days departed,
Times when men proud and stouthearted carved their names on history's bloody
page,
The corpse of chivalry long dead
Is turning in his loamy bed indignant at your new 'enlightened' age
White-collared knights at boardroom tables dream their own financial fables,
Fight to make their incomes larger--mounted on their 'credit charges.'
Held within the safety of this mundane existence--
Facing endless grey Mondays of dull nine to fives,
We all climb the social ladder with a dogged persistence,
Forging chains we shall carry for the rest of our lives.
We cannot see through clothes may maketh man they cannot give us shelter--
On this mortal helter-skelter if our loyalties are torn,
Between the values we believe in and the egos we are feeding--
We stand all together naked as the day we were born.
And so cast off the lies that are our lives and find the truth within.
SKYCLAD--the veil has lifted,
SKYCLAD--now I see through,
SKYCLAD--your mask of illusion,
SKYCLAD--to the fake that is you.
Financial wizards read their spells from filofaxes
Concrete hells of their own making pass for Avalon.
These men self-made by shrewd investing spend their weekends child-molesting,
Lost in 'green-belt' dreams they do no wrong.
Your mortgage payment rocket--
Like your blood pressure rising,
Executive stresses are the dragons you fight.
In your Armani armour you are practically shining,
So have no code of honour--you must always be right.
Just give me a simple life--my tastes are not demanding,
And whatever life may hand me I'll accept it with good grace;
For I'm just a simple lad with few ideas about my station,
So ale and song will apt suffice to keep me in my place.
How can you know the cost of everything yet never see its worth?
If you think because you've paid the piper you should call the tune--
Well think again my friend life is a gain of chance,
By Fate's command we win or lose,
But still retain the right to choose
If we should stumble on--or shed our cares and dance
SKYCLAD--the veil has lifted,
SKYCLAD--no I see through,
SKYCLAD--your mask of illusion,
SKYCLAD--to the fake that is you.
You charge each other for the time and breath it takes to say 'good morning,'
But the truth is slowly dawning--things are getting out of hand,
We all pursue our shattered dreams along the roads to our own ruin--
Watch our empires sink and wash away like castles made of sand.
And so cast off the lies that are your lives and find the truth within

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.

4. Alone in Death's Shadow

Carnal gladiators lie restless awaiting the dawn
Slaves to their passion – so eager its will to perform
They wrestle the "Double Backed Beast" face their foe hand to hand
The arena was life but alone in deaths shadow they stand.

You brand the social leper – then spare no second thought
Too scared to give this kiss of life – "Come rise my son and walk."

On these streets of damnation the destitute huddle once more
Can we pass them by just like all who have been there before?
Are you so cold and heartless you can feel no shame
That we allow a human life to become a death in vein.

A fear that's bred of ignorance perpetuates the lie
Well there but for the mercy and the grace of God go I.

Prisoners in a sterile vacuum – hearts that feel but dare not touch
The freak show in this callous circus – on parade so all may look
Those who gaze upon the outcasts to taste how bitter life can be
Can't comprehend the pain you feel – their blinkered eyes will never see.

5. 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?

6. 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."

7. 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.

8. Cardboard City

Hands locked in darkness – a nocturnal greeting
We flutter like moths round the brazier's flame
Shrouded in shadow – our clandestine meeting
Here where past and present are one and the same.

No-one dies in Cardboard City
Faces only fade away
Eat your pride and take their pity
Fight to live another day.

And did those feet in ancient times
Walk bare upon these lonely streets like mine?
Does God watch us from that penthouse high above
His children down below who live on air and love?
Wrapped in old headlines beneath this shop awning
I shiver in silence and wait for the morning.

No-one cries in Cardboard City
That would be a waste of tears
Eat your pride and take their pity
Like you have so many years.

Youth of our nation – A lost generation
Like lepers we march to the chimes of Big Ben.
Exiled and rejected by powers elected
Our cries from the gutter don't reach number ten.
Give us this day our daily bread
Before the headlines read "bring out your dead."
Chip-wrapper flowers are blown onto this cardboard grave
My spray paint epitaph upon the wall it says...
"Here lies the bones of some poor homeless vagrant
He died as he lived, in the shit on the pavement."

No-one dies in Cardboard City
Faces only fade away
Eat your pride and take their pity
Fight to live another day.

No-one cries in Cardboard City
That would be a waste of tears
Eat your pride and take their pity
Like you have so many years.

9. Land of the 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.

10. The One Piece Puzzle

Pick up the fragments and piece them together
Tell me do you like what you've found?
Are your thoughts like the earth spinning round?
Existence is pure pantomime
Why is life such a puzzle sometimes?

Trapped in a world I no longer feel part of
Each day is a thorn in my side
Though I've carried my cross – worn my heart on my sleeve
Still deep inside something has died.
If men have a sell-by-date I've just reached mine
Now we've come to the end of the line.
Why is life such a puzzle sometimes?

Well I just can't believe that it's happened again
Always knew that it would – just a matter of when
A lie was the last straw on this camels back
And just like Lot's wife I could never look back.
So maybe the reason I act so estranged
Is you still dream of him, it's you that has changed.

No method to madness – no reason to rhyme
Now we've come to the end of the line.
Why is life such a puzzle sometimes?

Well I just can't believe that it's happened again
Always knew that it would – just a matter of when
A lie was the last straw on this camels back
And just like Lot's wife I could never look back.
So maybe the reason I act so estranged
Is you still dream of him, it's you that has changed.

If men have a sell-by-date I've just reached mine
Now we've come to the end of the line.
Why is life such a puzzle sometimes?

11. Just What Nobody Wanted

Just what nobody wanted, I'm just what nobody wanted.

I think that life has got it in for me,
Can you please tell me who's to blame?
For all the bills upon my mat –
They breed and grow then eat the cat.
Where they come from I don't know,
I stare at them but they won't go!

It seems that life's a big frustration,
Why is everybody out to bring me down?
There has to be a simple explanation,
Why failure is the fashion every time I come to town.

If life is sweet – then I'm diabetic
The future looks rosy – I just went colourblind.

This all seems to be some mass conspiracy,
So I demand the right to know,
If there's a God up there, how come he seems to care
For every little bird and bee, but couldn't give a damn for me.

It seems that life's a big frustration,
Why is everybody out to bring me down?
There has to be a simple explanation,
Why failure is the fashion every time I come to town.

If high hopes were bank notes,
I'd own all of England
And teardrops were diamonds,
Then I'd be a millionaire.

Just what nobody wanted,
I'm just what nobody wanted.

You say I'm purely being paranoid,
I beg to differ – it's not true.
Shit just seems to hit the fan,
Every time I make a plan.
Grand design to small detail,
All I do is doomed to fail.

It seems that life's a big frustration,
Why is everybody out to bring me down?
There has to be a simple explanation,
Why failure is the fashion every time I come to town.

If life is sweet – then I'm diabetic,
The future looks rosy – I just went colourblind.

I'm just what nobody wanted at all.

12. Brothers Beneath the Skin

13. The Present Imperfect

Unto those who have enough you give more free of charge,
What becomes of those with nothing?
You stand back and let them starve.
Well is your conscience clear safe in your Land of Plenty?
We wait outside your walls – our pockets and our bellies empty.

"Panis angelicus – fit panis hominum,
Dat panis Caelicus – figuris terminum.
O res mirabilis – man ducat dominum,
Dat panis caelicus – figuris terminum."

A systemized autocracy of authorized burocracy
Seems to have our people by the throats,
It's time to make your choices –
Stand up and use your voices,
While you've still legal rights and votes.

Let the wishes of the few outweigh the needs of many –
In this land where money talks we have little chance if any.
Bring the nation back to basics –
Lionize Dickensian dreams,
Hide a heart that's grey and cold behind an image squeaky-clean.

We're fighting to be free – driven by necessity,
She is the mother of invention.
God bless the working men –
Slaves three score years and ten,
Who never beg for divine intervention.

"Panis angelicus – fit panis hominum,
Dat panis Caelicus – figuris terminum.
O res mirabilis – man ducat dominum,
Dat panis caelicus – figuris terminum."

14. The Cradle Will Fall

A species in its infancy--a living idiosyncrasy,
This 'naked ape' believes itself divine.
Assured of its supremacy--it dreams of immortality,
The first words that it speaks--"This world is mine."
But the time has come for us to realise,
That the animal instincts we deeply despise--
Are far more civilised than humanity.
Mankind has lived to curse the day it climbed down from the trees,
But still we keep our heads held high whilst crawling on our knees.
I hope I never live to see the 'perfect' world you crave,
Where ambition is the burden we shall carry to our graves.
We think that we are so superior--for in God's image we were made,
All other life we deem inferior--there to exploit, kill or enslave
No amount of remonstration could ever show a mind so small
that it is not 'the be and end all.'
Into the future we race driven on by our greed,
Like rats in a maze we will never be free.
Science is the 'new-religion'--scaples slash dissecting truth and reason,
Behind locked doors where no-one sees.
Down evolution's one way street mankind pursues his dream,
Of a race conceived in test tubes with the same designer genes,
But like a child who tries to run before it learns to crawl--
he'll go crying to his 'Mother' when he sees the cradle fall.
I am human--I was made to be the ultimate machine,
With the power at my fingertips to realise my dream.
Homo-sapiens--the 'master-race,' Nature's pride and joy,
Taking all the world will give me--what it won't I shall destroy.
In our hearts we yearn to be immortal--conquer all sickness and disease,
Create a world where even death's not fatal--then we can shape our destinies.
A populace of plastic people live genetically pre-programmed lives--and no-one
laughs and no-one cries.
Blinded by science the masses are duped and deceived,
By the faces that smile from their colour T.V.s.
They'll steal your dreams--remove them surgically (but leave you scars so deep
and lasting),
God is dead man has surpassed him.
Like children in our playground--we contrive such foolish games,
But fail to see the consequence of suicidal aims.
No matter how we bend the rules there's no way we can win,
Not even pleading Ignorance will vindicate our sins.
I am human--I was made to be the ultimate machine,
With the power at my fingertips to realise my dream.
Homo-sapiens--the 'master-race,' Nature's pride and joy,
Taking all the world will give me--what it won't I shall destroy.
Mankind a babe-in-arms,
Believes he's come of age--
And reaches for the stars,
With one foot in the grave.
I am human--I was made to be the ultimate machine,
I am human--I have the power to realise my dream.
I am human--an automaton--a mindless 'technoslave,'
I am human--I am servant to the monsters I have made.

15. The Declaration of Indifference

There's a "Fat Cat" sitting in a Caddilac
Riding ten feet off the floor
Who says "I used to do a little, but I couldn't get enough
And so a little got more and more."
Well I've nothing to show for all these years –
But it still makes me smile
That the ones you always hear the most
Say nothing that's worthwhile.

No gold, no frankincense or myrrh we bring
Just faith and this "burnt offering"
So raise your voice with mine and sing
A hymn to long lost causes.

[CHORUS:]
Pledge allegiance to pretence
The white flag of indifference
You sought a grail forged of fools gold
And on the quest your souls were sold.

Living the life of milk and honey
I bet it tastes real sweet
Now the "chicks" are queueing cus
They all want screwing down on
Institution street.
Does it feel so cool when you act
The fool with "Charlie", "H" and "E"?
Well to my way of thinking there's
A whole lot of nothing where your
Brains should be.

This planet burns and you couldn't really care
That your head (unlike the Earth) is full of air
If there's anybody in there – time has come to face the real world

They're walking tall yet heading nowhere
Shouting loud but saying nothing
So empty-headed, hollow hearted
Tell me how this farce got started

If there's anybody in there – time has come to face the real world.

16. Ring Stone Round

An apple in the eye of the storm that's coming
When winds of change sweep 'cross the land
These "old grey men" have braved the weather
Watched kingdoms fall while they still stand.

Walk with me down moonlit ley-lines
Farther than the eye can see
Where each breath lasts a thousand lifetimes
That is where I long to be.

Down at Ring Stone Round (together)
Down at Ring Stone Round
Down at Ring Stone Round (together)
Down at Ring Stone Round

Am I a fool – am I a dreamer?
Well ask me if I really care
And when your hearts and eyes have opened
I will meet you there.

Down at Ring Stone Round (come follow)
Down at Ring Stone Round
Down at Ring Stone Round (tomorrow maybe?)
Down at Ring Stone Round

17. Men of Straw

I pray that soon the blessed meek their world shall inherit
When all of these bastards are judged by their merits
And called to account for the acts they've commited
The jury their victims – no sins are omitted.

I'd gladly burn these men of straw who beat the weakest hardest
They sow the seeds of misery – let children reap the harvest
The "lowest of the low" are they – not fit to share our planet
They are not men but beasts indeed, so take this beast and hang it.

Suffer the children – unseen and unheard
Who live in the dark closets where skeletons stirred
Behind mental parapets feelings lay hidden
They cried out for nothing – and nothing were given.

Why is it so hard to comprehend
They should not be released to re-offend?
I think instead that they should take the place
Of the animals dissected by this so called "Human Race."

The time has come to take these scum and set a fine example
The only problem is – I fear no punishment is ample
Now I am not a violent man – but it would give me pleasure
To watch these vermin crucified (then kill them at my leisure).

They rob the young of innocence and then show no repentance
We should relieve them of their lives – the crime befits the sentence
Instead set free to hurt again for reasons I can't figure
Just line them all against the wall and let me pull the trigger.