Song lyrics that reflect the news

[gmaz]

Watching the news this last weekend, I find myself thinking of a particular song that seems to fit the situation perfectly even though it was written 43 years ago.

Any other songs that are so appropriate to any aspect of the news?

Witch hunt by Rush

The night is black
Without a moon
The air is thick and still
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torchlit hill

Features distorted in the flickering light
Faces are twisted and grotesque
Silent and stern in the sweltering night
Mob moves like demons possessed
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right
Confident their ways are best
Ooh, ahh

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill

They say there are strangers who threaten us
In our immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness, too dangerous
In our theatres and bookstore shelves
Those who know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves

Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear, walk hand in hand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9iRIvTSbps

[Heathwood]

Didn’t have to think too hard about this one…

Watching the people get lairy
It's not very pretty I tell thee
Walking through town is quite scary
It's not very sensible either
A friend of a friend he got beaten
He looked the wrong way at a policeman
Would never have happened to Smeaton
An Old Leodensian

La... la, la, la, la, la
Ah... la, la, la, la, la

I predict a riot
I predict a riot
I predict a riot
I predict a riot

[Slow.Patrol]

Manic Street Preachers
If you tolerate this, then your children will be next

It was written about the Spanish Civil war, but potentially could apply to the present on many levels.

The future teaches you to be alone
The present to be afraid and cold
So if I can shoot rabbits then I can shoot fascists
Bullets for your brain today
But we'll forget it all again
Monuments put from pen to paper
Turns me into a gutless wonder
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next, will be next
Will be next
Gravity keeps my head down
Or is it maybe shame
At being so young and being so vain?
Holes in your head today
But I'm a pacifist
I've walked La Ramblas
But not with real intent
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next, will be next
Will be next
Will be next
And on the street tonight an old man plays
With newspaper cuttings of his glory days
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next, will be next
Will be next

[Lotobear]

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take up my art for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they are flown in the next war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take up my art for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again, no, no

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?

Yeah

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again, no, no

Yeah
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

[Chauffard]

Light My Fire ?

[popegregory]

Street fighting man?

[CypSIdders]

Johnny Rotten snarling, "No future, no future.............."

[shirt]

Better stop dreaming of the quiet life
'Cause it's the one we'll never know
And quit running for the runaway bus
'Cause those rosy days are few
And stop apologising
For the things you've never done
'Cause time is short
And life is cruel
But it's up to us to change
This town called Malice

[av185]

Saturday nights alright for fighting.

[Lotobear]

White riot, I wanna riot
White riot, a riot of my own
White riot, I wanna riot
White riot, a riot of my own

Black man gotta lot a problems
But they don't mind throwing a brick
White people go to school
Where they teach you how to be thick

And everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
And nobody wants
To go to jail

White riot, I wanna riot
White riot, a riot of my own
White riot, I wanna riot
White riot, a riot of my own

All the power's in the hands
Of the people rich enough to buy it
While we walk the street
Too chicken to even try it

And everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
And nobody wants
To go to jail

White riot, I wanna riot
White riot, a riot of my own
White riot, I wanna riot
White riot, a riot of my own

Hey you, standing in line
Are we gonna sign an agreement?

White riot, I wanna riot
White riot, a riot of my own
White riot, I wanna riot
White riot, a riot of my own

[lancslad58]

Boomtown Rats - I don't like Mondays.

[LR90]

Let's skip the news boy, I'll make some tea
The Arabs and the Jews boy, too much for me
They get me confused boy, puts me off to sleep
And the thing I hate, oh Lord
Is staying up late, to watch some debate on some nation's fate.

[itcaptainslow]

This rather wonderful B-Side by Del Amitri was written thirty years ago, but it sums up the ever widening wealth divide succinctly. There’s a line in there that’s quite pertinent to Covid and the government response, too…



As the sun rises over Mexico
And sets on the African plains
On a tourist jet, the in-flight magazines
Sets out your rate of exchange

While the unhealed and homeless are wondering
If they will ever feel safe again
They give you drinks and show you sailors
Dancing in the warm New York rain

So many souls to change

So mother and child while traveling to Deli
Have to jump off a burning train
While the puppet rich bible class third world society
Meets to discuss it's slogan campaign

You are complicit in this conspiracy
You are unable to get free
They send the rich ones to University
And the rest get comics and T-V

So many souls to change

You are shocked with shots of corpses
And seduced by scenes of greed
So your overloaded conscience
Goes out looking for some kind of relief

And the church, the government and charity
They collectively agree
You cannot simply print more money
Just to save some poor country from disease

So many souls to change

So when you die and go to heaven
Looks like there could be hell to pay
As the saints and angels ask how anyone
Could treat mortals that way

Edited by itcaptainslow on Tuesday 17th September 09:50

[55palfers]

One more time to live by The Moody Blues


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgaBGjUPYls





Look out of my window
See the world passing by
See the look in her eye
One more time to live and I have made it mine
Leave the wise to write for they write worldly rhymes
And he who wants to fight begins the end of time...
For I have riches more than these
For I have riches more than these
Desolation
Creation
Tell me someone why there's only confusion
Evolution
Tell me someone that this is all an illusion
Pollution
Tell me someone
Saturation
Tell me someone
Population
Annihilation
Revolution
Tell me someone why this talk of revolution
Confusion
Tell me someone when we're changing evolution
Illusion
Tell me someone
Conclusion
Tell me someone
Starvation
Degredation
Humiliation
Contemplation
Changes in my life
Inspiration
Elation
Changes in my life
Salvation
Changes in my life
Communication
Compassion
Solution
Look out on the hedgerow
As the world rushes by
Hear the birds sign a sigh
One more tree will fall how strong the growing vine
Turn the earth to sand and still permit no crime
How one thought will live provide the others die
For I have riches more than these
For I have riches more than these

[Lotusgone]

CypSIdders said:

Johnny Rotten snarling, "No future, no future.............."

From the Pistols' song EMI,

Blind acceptance is a sign
Of stupid fools that stand in line

[White-Noise]

Dream theater always come to mind. The song the great debate is about stem cell research and the arguments around it. I love the drumming at the start and the little audio clips from the news etc they put in. The clip about the woman's paraplegic son always touched me at the end as well as the atmosphere.

https://youtu.be/TS6kqBllgGU?si=N3CbO4zOupZMv1Ou

What if someone said
Promise lies ahead
Hopes are high in certain scientific circles
Life won't have to end
You could walk again
What if someone said
Problems lie ahead
They've uncovered something highly controversial
The right to life is strong
Can't you see it's wrong
Human kind has reached a turning point
Poised for conflict at ground zero
Ready for a war
Do we look to our unearthly guide
Or to white coat heroes
Searching for a cure
Turn to the light
Don't be frightened of the shadows it creates
Turn to the light
Turning away would be a terrible mistake
Anarchistic moral vision
Industries of death
Facing violent opposition
Unmolested breaths
Ethic inquisitions breed
Antagonistic views
Right wing sound bite premonitions
In a labyrinth of rules
Are you justified
Are you justified
Are you justified
Justified in taking
Life to save life
Life to save life
Taking life to save life
This embryonic clay
Wrapped in fierce debate
Would be thrown away
Or otherwise discarded
Some of us believe
It may hold the key
To treatment of disease
And secrets highly guarded
Are you justified
Are you justified
Are you justified
Justified in taking
Life to save life
Life to save life
Life to save life
Human kind has reached a turning point
Poised for conflict at ground zero
Ready for a war
Do we look to our unearthly guide
Or to white coat heroes
Searching for the cure
Turn to the light
Don't be frightened of the shadows it creates
Turn to the light
Turning away would be a terrible mistake
We're reaching
But have we gone too far
Harvesting existence
Only to destroy
Carelessly together
We are sliding
Someone else's future
Four days frozen still
Someone else's fate
We are deciding
Miracle potential
Sanctity of life
Faced against each other
We're divided
Should we push the boundaries
Or should we condemn
Moral guilt and science
Have collided
Turn to the light
We defy our own mortality these days
Turn to the light
Pay attention to the questions we have raised

[Kowalski655]

Since I'm listening to their new one, this from an old album, still pertinent 4 decades later...

What is evil?
What is love?
What is the force that possesses us?
Where is the beauty?
Where is the truth?
Where is the force that watches over you?
What is it that makes us ashamed to be white
When we close our ears to the sound of machine gun fire?
And while the n*****rs of this world are starving with their mouths wide open
What is it that turns the coins we throw at them
Into worthless little tokens?
Why is it that anything on this Earth
We do not understand
We are pushed down on our knees
To worship or to damn?
Those are the rules of religion
Those are the laws of the land
That's how the forces of darkness
Have suppressed the spirit of man
That's why human beings
Still walk on all fours
Whilst in the presence
Of their so called superiors
Something's telling you
To wake up and salute
The dangers of obedience
The violence of truth
God is evil, God is love
God is the force that possesses us
God is beauty, God is truth
God is the force that is watching over you

In fact that whole album is still relevant

[smithyithy]

New Model Army - Vengeance:

Escaped the net in '45, hiding out in South America
Protected by money and powerful friends
Hoping the world has forgotten by now
All the things that you did in the Nazi Death camps
The people that you tortured and killed
You can live you life in expectant fear
Sure some day you'll be made to pay

I believe in justice
I believe in vengeance
I believe in getting the bd

Man walks over dressed in flashy clothes
With an empty heart and a head full of money
Puts his arm around the lad of fifteen years
Talks sort of close like a long-lost brother
"It's really cool, all the pop stars do
If you don't try a little you'd really be a fool
Tell you what I'll do, I'll make the first one free
And when you want some more just come back to me"

Loading up the barrels at the warehouse gates
Men in overalls on double rates
Put the stuff in the river and away for a beer
Don't worry too much, they don't live around here
And the poison seeps into every pore
Every child's eyes, every innocent's sore
Everybody knows behind the closed doors
Kick down the doors, kick down the doors

I believe in justice
I believe in vengeance
I believe in getting the bd

Top-dog fascist gets the boys in the corner
Plants poison where there was just confusion
Walks away scot-free and laughing
Rides on the tide as the cancer grows
And the business man on corruption charges
With millions of dollars in dirty money
Gets a thousand pound fine after months in court
While the lawyers get fat and the law gets bought

I believe in justice
I believe in vengeance
I believe in getting the bd