Why We Fight

The messenger came with bad news from the front
Said "The soldiers are starving and their swords are all blunt
They need a show of support or some futile sign
That’s what they told me to tell you, not even the words are mine"

The messenger came with bad news from the war
He said "The fine young men forgot who they were fighting for
They don’t wanna be stars on your TV screen
That’s the general feeling, please don’t blame it on me"

And the people said
"One and one is two
There’s nothing left for us to do
But since we can blame it all on you
We will kill the messenger
Kill the messenger”

The messenger came with bad news from the town
Said "The phone-lines are on strike and the doormen are all down
They’ve turned your den of thieves into a temple
They need someone of stature to set them an example"

And the people said
"Two and two is four
Don’t tell us anymore
We all know the score
We should kill the messenger
Kill the messenger”

Someone brought the news to the messenger’s folks
He said "Your son’s been killed two times"
They said "Is that a joke?"
He said "No! He was the victim of ignorant minds
I hate to bring such bad news, please don’t think me unkind”

And the family said
"One and one is two
There’s nothing left for us to do
But since you’re here and we can blame it on you
We will kill the messenger
Kill the messenger
We will kill the messenger Kill the messenger”

So if you want to send a message...

I lost my job on Friday, I went drinking to forget
My luck it had been down so long but I could change it yet
Sat down and started talking with some guy sitting there
He bought me drinks all afternoon until I didn’t care
He said “Was I in need of work? Some money could be found”
I said "Is it above the law?" He said "It’s underground"
I said "I need the paycheck now, I got debts here and there"
He smiled and asked if I could drive and I said "Anywhere"

Anywhere in this weekend of ordinary dreams
Everything is not as it seems
Take a look around at the faces in the crowd
And you’ll see where I’ve been

We met up on the Saturday, I thought it was us two
But I had not asked questions not knowing what to do
Twelve of them were in the van, thirteen including me
Twelve pairs of eyes were staring back at me suspiciously
And so I just sat down and drove, took them to a track
And drove past the security guard while they hid in the back
They made me stop, and got out there, and I heard a couple of shots
I hoped they were in self-defense but I knew that they were not

They were not in this weekend of ordinary dreams
Everything is not as it seems
Take a look around at the faces in the crowd
And you’ll see who I’ve been

I drummed my fingers on the wheel and waited for the boys
Had a smoke, I had a few, I got very paranoid
And still they hadn’t come back there so I just drove away
Deciding to play safe and get my share another day
On Sunday, he came round my place, I asked him where they’d been
He said they’d left another way and only I was seen
He said that we should cache the van and did I want my share
I didn’t like the way they’d left but by now I didn’t care

For this weekend of ordinary dreams
Everything is not as it seems
Take a look around at the faces in the crowd
But I guess I was just too keen

He drove me to a back room with a single swinging light
Someone said "The fish are starving, ain’t it time they had a bite?"
And I felt sick and stupid and damned my own brown hair
Forgetting that the price you pay must far exceed the share
Someone pulled a knife out and they stabbed me in the back
They bound my hands and they tied my feet and threw me in a sack
They took me to a lakeside where they threw my body in
I could hear them laughing, they said you can sink or swim
Sink or swim

So hear you desperate women and hear you desperate men
Don’t take your life for granted
Please don’t live your life in vain
But if you think that you can change it
Hope you know you can’t go back
Just go down to the lake
Watch me floating in that sack
In this sack

I was arrested for disturbing the peace
But, hey, I was disturbing the war
I was waving a small white handkerchief
Saying "Please don’t fight no more"
And I thought there’d be an army each side
But there was just two guys wearing very bad ties
So I shouted until my throat went hoarse
They cut out my voice box of course

I was taken to court in a city of gold
Where silence is a sure sign of guilt
Where you can’t speak out in your own defense
Or be heard over worlds being built
And the trial was a farce as befitted a place
Where comedy and tragedy share the same face
The judge read the verdict, a curtain was raised
An audience roared out its praise

And I said
“Where’s the truth around here today?
Where do fact and fiction separate?
Who’s the big guy that we have to pay
To find the truth
To find the truth?”

It all made the news but the story was wrong
And the photo wasn’t even of me
And the great God I love, he intoned from above
“You shouldn’t sniff at free publicity”
But it wasn’t the voice I’d expected to hear
It was thin and unclear like Richard Gere
Somebody said "God’s had a bad fall
That’s his manager taking his calls"

And I said
“Where’s the truth around here today?
Where do fact and fiction go their separate ways?
I know that we’re much too clever to pray
To find the truth
To find the truth?”

I was put in a cell for the whole afterlife
But my mind was just as free as could be
Somebody said, "Just your body’s enchained"
And that encouraged me
So I wandered and roamed for the rest of my days
I was clearing my name, I was apportioning blame
But when I woke up, it was all a dream, all was well
When I woke up, I woke up in my cell

And I said
“Where’s the truth around here today?
Where do fact and fiction separate?
No-one wants to be the one to say
Where’s the truth
In this world today?”

I live in the dead centre of town
Where every landlorn sailor comes to drown
Where great ideas extinguish without sound
And all my fickle friends have gone to ground
So they will not come round

You ask me what the problem is I say it’s obvious and I’m not lying

I live in the dead centre of town
With one foot in the grave and one underground
Where clocks don’t go no matter how they’re wound
Boredom’s king, unhappiness abounds

You ask me what the problem is
I say it’s obvious and I’m not lying
Our town is dying

I live at the dead centre of here
Where daughters treat their daddies like King Lear
Who says "Death’s a good career prospect, dear"
Sinners burn in hell for half a beer

You ask me what the problem is
I say it’s obvious and I’m not lying
Our town is dying

I live at the town centre of death
Where even time is running out of breath
She crawls past gasping
"How much have we got left?"

You ask me what the problem is
I say it’s obvious and I’m not lying
I’ll tell you what the problem is
Because it’s so obvious and I’m not lying
Our town is dying

He threw his hopes into the wind
To see if they would pin on her again
He threw his heart against the wall
To see if it would stick or fall
She put her arms around him
And said "You are forgiven"
He said "Well you’re the only thing
Makes life worth living
When you live into the wind
Into the wind"

He pushed the rock up to the top
And then it rolled back down the mountain
He did it once, now he can’t stop
But he’ll never quit complaining
She tells him why he does it
It must be because he needs to
He takes his hands away
And the rock does not roll down
It sits firm into the wind
Into the wind

Why can’t you see
You create these situations?
It’s not to be or not to be
Nothing’s that easy

He builds a home paper on sand
Then he awaits congratulations
The wind blows once, the house falls down
And he wails amidst the ruins
For all the time that he spent working
On this worthless enterprise
She stands him on a rock and says
"A word to the wise
If you live into the wind
Into the wind”

Why can’t he see
He creates these situations?
It’s not to be or not to be
Nothing’s that easy

He doesn’t feel the cold today
He doesn’t worry about tomorrow
He doesn’t build a house of cards
Just so he can knock it down
He takes her in his arms
His overconfidence returning
And laughs with her when she says
"We have love to burn
If it burns into the wind
If it burns into the wind
Into the wind”

One man’s tears stain the pillow
Where he used to lay his head
She’s left him for another man
So how come they’re both sleeping in his bed?
He can hardly sleep for misery
You can hear him catch his breath
And he grinds his teeth into the night
And the guard says "Hey, Adolf, are you alright?"

One boy’s tears stain the paper
Where he writes his Christmas list
And he inks in broken German
"Send me the skill of a fine artist"
Then he wipes out half a continent
With a flick of his wrist
He’s so lonely, so misunderstanding
As he pulls his blanket across the landing

You can hear them falling every day
Hitler’s tears
Just open up the newspaper
Hitler’s tears
You can hide, there’s no escape from
Hitler’s tears
Just what makes the Führer blue?
He’s crying for you

One man’s tears - he was a fascist
Before it was cool
’Cos now it’s so expected
Just accept it that power is cruel
So he’ll apply for reinstatement
Using new reincarnation rules
He’s the only man, most certainly
Who could claim to have learned from history

You can hear them falling every day
Hitler’s tears
Just open up the newspaper
Hitler’s tears
You can hide, there’s no escape from
Hitler’s tears
Just what makes the Führer blue?
He’s crying for you

Hitler cries himself to sleep
Alone in Brazil, no-one calls
How must it feel to be
The biggest loser of them all?

One man’s tears - saltwater salutes the final trip
A thousand naughty Nazis
A fraülein with a bullwhip
A lullaby of Über Alles
A shaking upper lip
It’s all become a Whitehall farce
That’s how we tear our fears apart
But you shouldn’t take it to heart
So the rest of us can get some sleep tonight

Hitler’s tears
Just open up the newspaper
Hitler’s tears
You can hide, there’s no escape from
Hitler’s tears
Open up the newspaper
Hitler’s tears
You can hide, there’s no escape from
Hitler’s tears

I know you think that you are perfect
So Fred Astaire, so Joan of Arc
I see the light that shines around you
And leaves you standing in the dark
’Cos you’re in debt up to your eyeballs
You’ve no idea how much things cost
You’re so high on higher purpose
You don’t know what you’ve lost
You don’t know what you’ve lost
And you should get back down
You should get back down

You get so proud because you’re humble
You cut off truth from what is true
You’ll blame your problems on anything
Except you
You don’t take criticism easy
I see those handfuls of hair
And when some poor fool attempts to
You get up on your high horse, yeah
Of course you get up on your high horse
And you should get back down
You should get back down

You say no-one can kill a notion
Then watch one bleed to death each day
Say it once, and say it with emotion
But watch what you say
You’ll hate something on a Monday
Tuesday you love it out of fear
You’re blind by Wednesday with your head in the clouds
You say "It’s heaven up here"
Weekends, it’s heaven up here
And you should get back down
You should get back down

You know if Jesus was a rent boy
Then God was his pimp
The People in Power they squeezed him
Until he went limp
If the new messiah called here
First, we’d put him on hold,
Get him a deal and a good-looking haircut
We’d make him look less old
Less good and less old
Tell him to get back down
Get back down

Tonight the clocks go backwards
And it’s snowing at home
We’re incommunicado
Cos they cut off the phone
We’re in collaboration
Against everyone who tries to bring us down
And we’re sadly incoherent
All our sorrows have been drowned
Got the plane out of Atlanta
Stripped the honour bar of booze
Saw the ceiling melt like candles
Dripping wax onto my shoes
Needed proof I was still breathing
So I held my breath for a while
Fell flat on my face on purpose
So I could see somebody smile

And they say that it’s them and it’s us
And they say that it’s you and it’s me
Now I can see that it’s me against me
Against me
Against me
Against me

I keep your picture in a locket
Heart-shaped hanging around my neck
You put it on me last year sometime
Now the catch is just a wreck
My new friends say that you look like me
Of course, they’re right
But you’re who I used to be
Sometimes late at night

And they say that it’s them and it’s us
And they say that it’s you and it’s me
Now I can see that it’s me against me
Against me
Against me
Against me

All the things we’ve done, think we should own up
How come we’re old but we’re not grown up?
I wish I didn’t drink so much
Wish I didn’t drink at all
Wish I didn’t need these smokes
Wish I didn’t take those pills
I wish for just one time
My behaviour matched up to my needs
Wish you were alive now
Then you could help me

And they say that it’s them and it’s us
And they say that it’s you and it’s me
Now I can see that it’s me against me
Against me
And they say that it’s them and it’s us
And they’ll tell you it’s you and it’s me
Now I can see that it’s me against me
Against me
Against me
Against me

"Hey you" she said
"I think that I have something in my eye"
And she posed beneath the standard lamp
As her clothes waved goodbye
And she was
Naked as a true apology
For something she hadn’t yet done
He said "Did I ever tell you the one about
The Original Miss Jesus?

"Born before
Her more famous little brother Mister Christ
Sure, there were miracles
But out of the public eye
And they never
Thought even to have her crucified
She just wrote some novels and then she died
And only her family cried for her
The Original Miss Jesus

And then he came
The one they wrote all the books about
The King of the Rock Opera
Whom she could do without"

"Stop" she said
"Jesus could have been a boy or girl
History would still have been unkind
If he’d been a her
Anyway
Just watch me turn this beer into air
As for Redemption Value, I don’t care
But if you want, I’ll even pretend to be
The Original Miss Jesus"

So she was the saviour
Of that sad and lonely room

Somebody went and killed some people
And they know who
The evidence fits around the facts
Like a favourite shoe
But nobody knows where the corpses are
Their whereabouts unknown
The killer’s in a frenzy
And he’s getting on the phone
So they put their thinking hats on
And they spread out in their cars

But only I, only I
Only I know where the bodies are

You know they can I.D. someone
From one cell of skin
But they couldn’t spot a crime scene
If the killer went and let ’em in
To genetic fingerprinting
We all take off our hats
To hide the little stains that spread
Across the welcome mat
You can put your best foot forward
And you can wish upon a star

But only I, only I
Only I know where the bodies are
And I’m not telling you

Lawyers defending guilty men
Depending on the bid
The question isn’t if they’re guilty
But if they’ll get acquitted
Justice goes unjustified
Underneath the eagle
Pain’s too difficult to prove
They’re not going to make pain illegal
To think that we were once naive
To think we’ve come this far

To think that only I, only I
Only I know where the bodies are

Some people don’t wanna know
The facts behind the scam
Or see "Who could I be?"
Peeking out behind "The great I am"
Most of us got enough to think about
Husbands and wives
To notice pointless death’s become
A brand new way of life
And this is just a sandwich board
That I wear out in the park

It says only I, only I,
Only I know where the bodies are
Only I
Only I know where the bodies are
And I’m not telling you

I’m a quiet guy, lead a quiet life
Got a quiet way and a quiet wife
I don’t say too much, if there’s nothing to say
I just watch the silence blow my day away

Put the TV on but there’s nothing to see
Just people talking endlessly
About things to buy, more shows to see
Might mean something to someone, means nothing to me

When I go to bed, I sing to her
And I go to sleep
Dream of dreaming
Dream of dreaming

Walk down the street, wish I’d stayed in
I should have taken the car out for a spin
People ask for money, say I’m sorry for you
I’m in debt for life, I should be begging too

When I go to bed, I sing to her
And I go to sleep
Dream of dreaming
Dream of dreaming

Had a dream that I was dreaming
I woke up with a start
A millionaire with a broken heart
Not me

So I don’t want nothing and I don’t need much
’Cos I’m a millionaire with a Midas touch
The bank, God and tomorrow lay siege my home
And I wish they’d just leave us alone

When I go to bed, I sing to her
And I go to sleep
Dream of dreaming
Dream of dreaming

Come gather round and listen if you can get that near
If not, we’ll use a microphone so that all poor souls can hear
And hold hands in a circle or stare bored straight ahead
Rejoice in your rebellion or wish you were in bed

Come gather round and listen or watch it on the screen
The campfire burned out long ago, the songs all got obscene
And left us with some rich kids trying hard to be sincere
Why don’t you let it fly straight out the other after going in one ear

Come gather round
From the kings and the queens on down
If you listen close, you can hear the sound
Of a human voice saying
Come gather round
Come gather round

So listen to my story, I haven’t yet begun
We have to cut through so much crap to have a little fun
And who are "we" now anyway to even earn the name?
We’re so convinced we’re different, it makes us all the same

Come gather round
From the kings and the queens on down
If you listen close, you can hear the sound
Of a human voice saying
Come gather round
Come gather round

Don’t fall for the new maturity
It ain’t real
They just call it "integrity"
Please don’t grow up
Please blow up your TV

Come all you desperate rebels and hang your heads in shame
For those who live in self-contempt with just themselves to blame
And for those who can who do nothing,
And those who can’t, who succeed
To cry out bloody murder the moment that they bleed

Come gather round
From the kings and the queens on down
If you listen close, you can hear the sound
Of a human voice saying
Come gather round
From the kings and the queens on down
If you listen close, you can hear the sound
Of a human voice saying
Come gather round
Come gather round