Hey! Hey! Babylon is Dead!

Hey! Hey! Babylon is Dead!

Hey! Hey! Babylon is Dead!

Hey! Hey! Babylon is Dead!

Hey! Hey! Babylon is Dead!

Hey! Hey! Babylon is Dead!

Hey! Hey! Babylon is Dead!

Hey! Hey! Babylon is Dead!

My Generation: half British / half Babylonian.

We will die of decadence just like the Greeks and the Romans before us

And everybody else that ever believed

That you can do whatever you want without consequence

We will run naked to the forests from God when He asks us

"What have you done?"

Babies were crying and Jesus was dying on a cross

Whilst we were all looking out for Number One

Following our hearts and being true to ourselves

Because the whole damn world revolves around the mind of the decadent westerner

Godless, meaningless culture

Loveless, selfish vulture

Lustre for the flesh of the living and the dead

But the meat comes in packages so you never have to stare her in the face

Sacrifice the girls to your semen

Sacrifice your children to your independence and freedom

Hey! Hey! Babylon is Dead!

Woe to you Babylon, because you have no minds of your own anymore.

You think you’re doing what you want to, but you’re not

You’re doing what they told you to do

Drinking what they told you to drink

And screwing who they told you to screw

You and I have been pacified by liars and cheats

Who are getting rich quick on our blood

And the blood of our children

And our children’s children

Whilst we choke on the ashes of our stupid mistakes

Perverted zombies are good for the economy

And if we all lived righteously the economy would collapse

So wake up zombies

God will surely judge Babylon and Britain for all of this crap

Hey! Hey! Babylon is Dead! x99

O Lord

We coughed our lungs into the sky

Poured contempt into the sea

Sucked each others’ bones dry

And broke apart like dead leaves

O Lord

I’m bleeding

I’m bleeding real good

No reason You should give a damn in heaven above

But O

When I look down I see I’m bleeding Your blood

Jesus

We turned Your name into a curse

In every corner of the earth

You’re the great unspeakable offence

Never to be spoken of again

O Lord

I’m bleeding

I’m bleeding real good

No reason You should give a damn in heaven above

But O

When I look down I see I’m bleeding Your blood

O Lord

We wouldn’t die for a good man

We wouldn’t suffer for anyone

We wouldn’t give up anything

For anything less than ourselves

O Lord

I’m bleeding

I’m bleeding real good

No reason You should give a damn in heaven above

But O

When I look down I see I’m bleeding Your blood

Jesus

We left behind what You said

Loved ourselves more than anything else

Till the last of the living were dead

And the dead ruled the face of the earth

O Lord

I’m bleeding

I’m bleeding real good

No reason You should give a damn in heaven above

But O

When I look down I see I’m bleeding Your blood

You know I wouldn’t have given up nothing for You, or anyone else

Jesus, I wonder

Why would You bleed Your blood for us?

Jesus, I wonder

Why would You bleed Your blood for us?

Suckers lined up on a Babylon chain gang…

O high society

Founded on the self

Where selfishness was the highest value that anyone ever felt

We reassured each other

"You got to look out for Number One…"

"Follow all your dreams man, before they’re all gone…"

So here in the land of the free

It’s weird that we do what we’re told like we’re slaves on a chain gang

We only want what they tell us to be wanting

And we always chase whatever they tell us to be chasing

Suckers lined up on a Babylon chain gang…

Sex is the opium of the people

And this is the most religious people of them all

We set up idols everywhere we go

Every page

Every channel

Every street

Every shop and every home

Television

Pay - rise

Alcohol

New car

Friday night

Younger flesh

Weed

Porn

Bigger breasts

Clearer skin

Property ladder

50% extra free

Or whatever is your weakness

And so on, endlessly

Here in the middle of a million idols and anaesthetics

We’ve become completely pacified

Completely apathetic

You could take every bit of dignity from us and we wouldn’t even notice

Because we’re too busy chasing the desires hung in front of our noses

Suckers lined up on a Babylon chain gang…

Where self centeredness is the ultimate principle

Those who can gain from others’ losses will do so

It’s simple

It’s a game

It’s Monopoly

It’s a race

It’s the economy

It’s illegitimate gods competing for significance

So drink more and think less - it’s good for the economy

O.C.D. stress is good for the economy

Spend yourselves into the red and pay it back with interest

And do whatever the heck else is good for the economy

We’re dogs fetching sticks for thieves

We’re suckers chasing fallacies

In the name of somebody else’s money

We do whatever we’re told

And we somehow still believe that we’re masters of our own lives

gods - with a lower case "g"

Suckers lined up on a Babylon chain gang…

Lovers, O lovers

Is anyone for real?

Sisters and brothers

I’m tired of the spinning wheel

So we put on our berets and became revolutionaries

Incensed by the enslavement of the masses by a few mercenaries

But the truth hits harder than our fears…

We’re enslaving each other - there is no "us & them" here

Show me one good woman

Show me one good man

I’ll show you a trap door full of secrets and corpses

We became gods - every man for himself

We’re not givers - we’re takers

We’re not lovers - we’re consumers

Sex is like food to us - pure sensory pleasure

Divorced from all human relational endeavour

People are disposable cameras

We take the nice memories and throw away the carcass forever

Lovers, O lovers

Is anyone for real?

Sisters and brothers

I’m tired of the spinning wheel

Give me expensive, spray - on love potions

Give me an R ‘n’ B song to focus on

Give me a fantasy

Give me divorce

Is this it?

Do we have a good thing going on?

You chewed me all up just to prove your own worth

A desirable product and a handsome consumer

We’re all washed up

We divorced ourselves from God

And we’ve got no worth in particular

I swallowed you down for plain simple pleasure

Since you don’t have any innate value either

Love is consumerism

and you’re a product for social, emotional and physical satisfaction

Sometimes we’re the product

Sometimes the consumer

Sometimes the slave

And sometimes the master

Mostly we’re both at once

Which is why all the love songs of my generation mean nothing

Lovers, O lovers

Is anyone for real?

Sisters and brothers

I’m tired of the spinning wheel

We say we’re free

We define our own relational moralities

But then we all end up doing the same thing

Wake up zombies

Our sexual roles have been defined by the media

in the interest of the economy

And power

And the selfish desires of people

Love of the self isn’t love, actually

The love songs of my generation mean nothing

Hollow gods

Halloween pumpkins

Male - Consumer - Pervert

In this place these terms have become interchangeable

Female - Product - Whore

Get me out of the cattle market

I can’t take it anymore

We divorced ourselves from God and became gods ourselves

Picked up His crown and put it down on our heads

Looking all serious, as though it were we who were betrayed

We filled up our bellies on whatever He had made

We are the illegitimate pretenders to the throne of blood

Give any man more power - see the more damage he does

But if you can't trust yourself then, tell me, who can you trust?

We took deity on credit from the people who knew us

They said that we out-grew Him. That we'd be happier without Him

They said that He was holding us back from all of the action

They said we could have whatever we wanted or imagined

We're gods, with a lower case "g", on plastic

But an ugly divorce is like a thorn in your pancreas

You don't want to talk about it for a long time afterward

You just want to drink, and smoke, and get on with your life

Chase your new horizons and sleep around for a while

So, to talk about God is weird and reprehensible

We don’t talk about the past or the future wherever possible

But to use God’s name as a cuss word is fine

Natural as breathing to us most of the time

We unchained ourselves from the sun and floated off into space

Turns out Galileo was wrong in the first place

We’re gods with a lower case "g"

The universe revolves around me

The consumer

The kings and queens of Babylonia

We unhinged ourselves from every context and grew imaginary wings

And crowned ourselves the centre of all things

We divorced ourselves from God and became gods ourselves

And we stopped giving a damn about anybody else

Naturally my dear it follows that you don’t care for me

And I don’t care for you very much either

We are the illegitimate children of nothing

With nothing left to do but try and prove that we mean something

Its survival of the fittest

Its every man for himself

Let the weak fall by the wayside

Let the dying go to hell

Because now we are only worth as much as we are rich

Or beautiful

Or useful

Or some such thing else

We have no innate value in (and of) ourselves

The identity crisis!

The beauty complex!

We used to be equals from the same Intelligence

Happy families.. Squabbling brothers and sisters

Then we divorced and disconnected from each other

There is no basis for equality here

We divorced ourselves from all absolute ethics

There’s no basis for human rights because morality is relative

Its survival of the fittest

Its every man for himself

Let the weak fall by the wayside

Let the dying go to hell

We made ourselves gods with a lower case "g"

And became kind of worthless

Eventually

We divorced ourselves from God and became gods ourselves

Drunken sack of bones at the bottom of the stairs

Bitter and alone

Singing "Damn it all to hell.

All my dreams have turned into nightmares…"

Like glass shards in my ears, the Lion rears & roars a grand barrage of tears like silver spears down the tunnels in the sides of my skull, bouncing around the caverns of my ear drum - thump, thump, thump - until its pierced. Blood leaks from my mind & runs in little red lines down my neck and my shoulders. Angry heads scream, “What the heck? You should have told us. You knew the truth, but you chose to disown us.” The time has expired for apologetic hermits, chocolate soldiers & Jonahs. Heads lowered in shame, we all ended the game where we began it - squirming in a pool of our own blood and vomit.

Bad dreams in their heads - squirming in their beds - all the prophets of the world wake up in cold sweats: shaking the vision from their minds, screaming and sighing, “Oh man, we’re not dead yet.” The newborn walk out their four walls onto the doorstep. New eyeballs let the vision of the world get under their skin & into their situation.  Every single dream, we saw the same thing: shadows racing across the face of the earth, trying to find a body to attach to, & maybe give birth to some kind of reason or rhyme - to ease the lacerations of this passing time. Nightmarish dreams stored behind the eyes. Memories of the future, vivid but splintered like threads of a shattered diamond - illuminate the mind from inside with fine light beams

Just like our master before us, we slip into the sands of time in His glorious slipstream. The creator of the dream dreamt Himself into the nightmare sphere, & we all screamed, “What are you doing here?” He answers with peace by the holes in His hands & a scar from a spear. & now I can see Him through the dark atmosphere. To be close again. & everything’s green but, I get confused all the time. I get curious about these hands of mine - never meant to be self serving, these things. I’ll be left behind or they’ll be blistered and bleeding. I’m getting the feeling we wasted too much time in hiding. Cellotape me to the ceiling. “& you must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake from your sleeping & dreaming.

I guess if you live in forever, then time is never going to mean that much to you at all. 85 years on the planet, they’ve gone & you’ve had it - you’re never going to win back your marbles. 4 blurred years at the high school, swimming in the shark pool - barely remember anyone. 18 months & he’s walking, trying out talking - the baby grows towards the sun. 29 days ‘till your birthday - struggle to remember where all of your days have gone. 8 long hours at the office, throwing back the coffees - the 9 to 5 drags on. 5 long minutes at the bus stop, by the cigarette shop - watching every second on the clock. 1 split second in the now - here is no how - this moment is the size of a cow. 

(This is a story about a man who climbs up a lamp-post to see if the world really is orange at night, or if its just people who made it seem that way.)

Through the night time sky, arrows of liquid, with reflections of my eyes staring back at me, explode like kamikazes into the glass of my windscreen, & slide down in silver streams. On the outside of my sleeping vehicle I’m peaceful & dry & pleased in my dreams - coffee & custard creams. The infinite gentle hum of the orange street light falling out onto the roadside under it. Raindrops twinkle like stars on my bonnet. Orange is the colour that we chose to paint every midnight sonnet of our towns & our roads.

& the rain fell in beautiful tones of sound, massaging every stone in the tired out ground - 3 dimensions of liquid right up to the roof tops, vividly clouded in the orange facade. The rain was hard & I began to foster it into our urban vertical 6 yards. After a while - maybe 20 minutes - it began to wind down & then left me in silence. I opened the sun roof & gazed at the sky, but the sky was obscured by the pious orange light, & for once I was inspired to fight my way through the shell that holds us on the inside.

There beneath the watchful orange eyes I renounced enslavement: stepped out of my car onto the pavement, walked in slow motion through miniature oceans, passing into my trainers like ghosts - the freezing spirits were possessing my toes. Felt like a hippy making a statement. Alone & excited - ending the pretending. Walk out of the prison & look for real friendship. I approached the lamp post & embraces it:
“Farewell friend, we’ve had some years together but I still don’t know you & you don’t know me either, so its over. I’m leaving to the heavens above your gentle aura, to the light & glory in the yonder.

We struggled asunder, & like an obese monkey for a while I was slipping & sliding up the freezing pole. Under the beacon, the closer I was reaching, the orange light was dazzling & it hummed like thunder. Clumsily I swung myself above it’s head. With fear & dread I mounted the summit. From there I gazed over all that we’d created from outside of the beacons of meanings that we’d made it. But first I breathed in the universe with a new thirst, like the world had just given birth to me. The glory of the heavens was all around me - the beauty went right through me like sweet music…    

(Drinking hot chocolate with homeless people in Brighton, and hearing their stories… Meanwhile people would be queuing for the clubs - chewing gum to get that minty-fresh breath, and then spitting it onto the pavement where it turns into the waxy black zit’s the homeless people sit on…)

I used to live in the mouth of a handsome boy ‘til he spat me out. I hit the ground & 1000 hedonists trod me down until I became a stain on the earth.

& there were bright lights, & there were dark shadows. People were having a good time skipping through concrete meadows. Full of laughter & fast cars, they were buzzing - they were like “…” excited. & always able to ignore the ancient chewing gum trod into the fabric of the pavement; the little dark circular zits of the earth. The people made their own contributions to the enslavement.

& there were people in the dark corners living off of pollution; phased out by the light rays of the orange radiation. There were people too far gone to believe that nothing was wrong anymore. Sitting on the floor amongst all of the sticky black circles - the discarded chewing gum stares them in the face all day. Wading through lamenting & pain, they were like “… what have I done?”

I used to live in the mouth of a beautiful woman ‘til she spat me out. I hit the ground & 1000 hedonists trod me down until I became a stain on the earth.

(A fable based on the Tower of Babel from the Bible - Genesis 11 - and the fall of Babylon - Revelation 18)

#1 - It was a weird idea which began way back in time, with the glorious visions from the minds of our forefathers. The children of Nimrod spoke to glass manufacturers, & laid down the foundations of Megapolis. & here is, the city made completely out of glass. Like gigantic icicles drawn towards the gravity of the stars. What a sight this is; breath taking I guess - some would say, more beautiful than nature itself. Light cuts through the city, then splits into colours. The sky scraping prisms above us. This place is a circus of reflections & ghosts: you see your own face every corner that you turn. Hippies journey here to find themselves & learn what life is, along with young whippets who are here to make their millions, & millions of tourists from all around.

#2 - From the first time I saw it shining like a diamond ring on the horizon, I set my heart on the destination: “Home - the Glass Megapolis, please.” When I first saw the moon waxing through the walls of every tall building… glorious orange in the evenings. This place gives sunbeams their meanings. Light refracted into rainbows - now we’re making promises of our own. So far disaster never touched us, so I call this place my home. Glass cars fly passed the offices. Reflections slide on every surface, weaving in between buildings that are etching cuts into the heavens.

Just like the glass skyscrapers stand tall & cast no shadows, this city keeps no secrets - nothing is forbidden in Megapolis. Clear as the apartment that I live in: I’m innocent - totally transparent. Some might say barely existing - blink & you might just miss me. This is the beautiful work of a man’s hands - behold & understand, I see everything from right here where I am. I love this place.

#3 - Just like everybody else, I guess I came to this place because I fell in love with Her transparent face. She made so many beautiful promises to me; totally seduced me with Her crystals lodged up in the sky. “You & I,” she said, “We’ll live forever.” & after all these years I’m still here waiting patiently to die. Down on the ground in the ally ways we spend our days like rats, where everything is covered in crap; but no one likes to talk about that. Broken glass gets everywhere; into your clothes and your hair. Makes it hard to sleep. Today I found a 1 inch splinter in my feet - grabbed it with 2 hands & grit my teeth.

I’ve seen the cracks at the foundations of these glass towers climbing further up their spines with all the passing hours. I’ve cut myself 1000 times on the pieces of glass that get smashed off these invincible buildings. Despite all our trickery with the light our sins are not invisible. I’ve been having the same dream every night for a while now. The doom of the window is sudden & fatal. Megapolis - the 1000,000,000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

My goodness, we’re just full of big ideas. Take a look at what we did & tell us what you’re thinking. Glass cities seemed like a good idea at the time - every bit as beautiful as it is stupid. I’m nobody & I’m covered in cuts, but when this place falls it’ll rip everybody’s guts out. Passers by will sigh at our remains, “What is this? Behold the beautiful stupid Glass Megapolis.   

Jealousy. Baby, did you know that there is One who loves you so much that He’s reaching for His sword & the ground will shake when it feels the force of His furious anger? With 2 hands He’ll smash down every rival that stands in between you, & every single evil that ever laid a finger on you will be cut to dust so small. For God so loves you, & there’s so much at stake, when He saw the snake around your neck, hissing in your ear like a lying pervert - behold the wrath of the jealous husband. Rips the serpents tongue out of His face. Sword like a crucifix wedged in the TV. Takes your hand & breaks out of this place.

&somewhere I heard someone say:
“LORD, place me like a seal in the blood of Your heart - I’ll tattoo Your name on my arm, ’cause here we live in 1000 years of blizzards where we have become meaningless. Making everything disappear. For all my crimes everything dies. Etch me into the palms of Your hands with Roman nails until the end of time.” 

Please Baby, believe me, you’re not cheap. Don’t let this last generation sell you, like pimps pushing hookers out onto the streets - you don’t have to live like this. Our masters have passed us a bad legacy; turned us into a marked, turned us into commodities. Are we the horny little perverts that buy their magazines & dress up like cuts of meat? Like criminals these want to get into your wallets. Like paedophiles they’re all over your bodies. Fragile cities of glass. This place is a farce, its all about the sex & the money. The land of milk & honey - we buy their stuff until we turn into products, for the land of the rich & free - we’ll be exactly what they want us to be. Male/Consumer/Pervert - in this place these terms have become interchangeable. Female/Product/Whore - get me out of the cattle market, I can’t take it anymore.

Every Friday night like parasites, sucking on strangers to keep us alive. Peaches & cream, alright… This place has got us believing we’re steadily weaving a fabric of love & respect for ourselves. Jumping off shelves, ‘cause everyone wants us. Leaving a hell of a trail behind us; bleeding meanings out of our guts. But God Himself has followed the trail of blood into the darkest corners of the city, & found us in agony, covered in sick, dying in the souls volcanic eruptions. Baby, you’re amazing - priceless: all of the diamonds & pearls in the world & all of the heroine of pimps & eternal youth couldn’t buy this. Baby, you belong to Christ.

I wanted to hold the world wide open with my left hand & watch it bleeding sweet lava into space, so that when you see my face you’d remember my name & when you feel pain you’d remember my face; & when you’d remember you’d be thumping your chest & listening to it ringing out hollow - remember when I ripped your soul out from inside of you with my bare hand? “Whatever it takes to become a man,” I said…

The earliest days of my adventures were the bloodiest - the crusades - my perverted rampage to manhood. I scoured the earth & must have loved 1000 girls, & stared each 1 of them right in the eyeballs when I ripped their beating hearts out of their chests & sucked their bleeding souls out of their hearts. ‘Life is in the blood’ like the Good Book says, & I felt like twice the man every time. Sending them out into the night like the undead: spiritless bodies - zombies - the opposite of ghosts. Be it sexy girls on posters, TV adverts, & teenage movies about sex & manhood & going through puberty, or horny mainstream porno magazines, girls at school, or teenage pop queens - they were all the same to me.

I wanted to hold the world wide open with my left hand & watch it bleeding sweet lava into space, so that when you see my face you’d remember my name & when you feel pain you’d remember my face. Just like my forefathers said ‘grace is for girls & faggots,’ so I grab my commission with 2 hands. I’ll do whatever I have to: whatever it takes to become a man…

The wind whistles through me, underneath a waxing moon. I feel more alone now than I did at school, even after everyone I’ve consumed. I’m a haunted house, simultaneously full & empty. Who would dare come near me? Not even I, if I still had the choice. I’d like to scream if I still had a voice, but victory is silence - a field of corpses. All’s fair in love & war as the saying goes. They were all spiritless whores when I found them - now I wish their ghosts would leave me alone. Days like these, I often be thinking of my mother - I wonder how boys stepped over her on their rites of passage to manhood & health. I wonder how many young men’s mothers I stepped over myself.

I wanted to hold the world wide open with my left hand & watch it bleeding sweet lava into space, so that when you see my face you’d remember my name & when you feel pain you’d remember my face; & when you’d remember you’d be thumping your chest & listening to it ringing out hollow - Like a mother mourning when her only son is dead. “Whatever it takes to become a man,” I said…
 

Somebody told me that in 100 years this place - the darkest of the northern cities - will have fallen into the sea. Needless to say, no one’s the least bit sorry. But one day I saw something beautiful in the blackness of the pool; at the apex of the skyline was hidden the most priceless of jewels. I glanced through the window from my hotel room, rolled over & returned to the musings of fools.

I was wrestling with a question that was hassling my good intentions. I lay on my bed resting, staring at cracks on the ceiling. “I love Stephen” was etched in & I wondered about the meaning. Feeling for the remote, I tilted my head & asked the TV, “What do you think Mr. Technology?” He lit up & he said to me:

“Real love is a he or a she. Projected material images of curves & contours in 3D, with certain traits of personality. You can voyeur through your screen at the queens of pop music, or if you prefer something real, discuss revealing clothing schemes, sweet fragrances & hair products with our advertising people. Real love is not a temple, it’s for your pleasure & convenience - so we take what we want & we scatter the bodies to the winds. Yes we take what we want & scatter the corpses to the winds.”

“Is that really what you believe?” I asked the TV.

“Don’t ask me - there is no me. I’m just a black box of Japanese technology, possessed by evil spirits of the powers that be, who are enslaving your hormones for your money, you suckers.”

“You make me sick,” I said. “I have to get out of here.

I stepped out of the door into the vast grey atmosphere, walking through refuse, newspapers & tumbleweeds. The words of the TV rang uncomfortably clear inside my mind. I feared that his ways of thinking were nearer to my own than I’d care to desire.

The sky began to spit. I felt worthless & sick, but then the silence of the streets was choked up with the sounds of gentle organ tones & the beats of a bossa nova. I followed the sweet sounds across the ground towards the tower. I arrive in a grand golden hall of olden days, where the old folks go to hear the great white organ played - that the music might echo around the place & carry their expiring bodies like couples waltzing through space.

I dared to stare into 1 old woman’s face & saw a desire like my TV couldn’t conceive or replicate. 2 lifetimes of grace - of love that doesn’t take, but gives in faith - because real love does nothing but gives until the dying breath. The kindness of an old man who’s years have taught him an ethereal love beyond what I can ever understand. The beauty of a haggard woman who’s old enough to realise that her beauty is not in the wrinkled skin in which she stands. A love so vivid that it beams incandescent as they limp across the floor in little circles, hand in hand.

& the Master of the universe smiles down from above, because the truth  of this love is that He loved them first. And in the sky I saw the Beloved’s thirst rain down in anger. Blood & fire in his eyes - & angels with flame-throwers for the lap dance club owners, & the pimps & coyotes, & TVs & glossies of celebrity worshipping societies, & all the prostitutes of pop getting naked for money screaming, “Every kid in the West needs to look just like me - There will be no ugly people welcome on Saturday morning TV…”

(This is written from imagination, inspired by the book of Job. But then afterwards, one day, I woke up on a pavement in Paris. I said “What happened?” and the paramedic said “Monsieur, you were ‘it by a bus…” Yoikes!! I had no idea. We like to think we’re in control of our lives, but we didn‘t decide when or where to be born, and we don‘t usually decide when we die either.)

Ah, what happened? I feel crap & my head hurts. Think I must have fallen off of a tall building, or something. What a gas… What a blur… Oh man this hurts so bad. Feel sick - queasy - retching & hacking. (cough). Crap it. Need to lay back & relax for a moment - regain my senses. Everything’s swimming in confusing pools of natural juices while I’m trying to deduce what’s happened. Sickness swells in my abdomen… (yack) - burns my heart & my throat. Hard to alone at the weirdest of moments. Lets try some thinking: questions & answers. What is my name? What am I seeing? Vision is reducing - slowly overwhelmed by the blackness around the edges of myself, I think…

Oh dude, this is weird - familiar? De-ja-vu? No wait, I remember - must have passed out a while back now. Wonder how long I’ve been stretched out here like a rag doll. I guess something real bad must have happened to me. Can’t remember my name. Can’t feel my body. I feel better & I feel worse at the same time. (cough). Wonder if this is a bad trip this whole time. Is it ok, do you think, if I rhyme the same word twice? I’m not sure why words would have to rhyme in the first place. Man, I’m confused & I don’t know who I am. Maybe I’d remember my name if I could see my own face…

I need someone to slap me - somebody to tell me what’s happening to me. I think I need somebody to save me actually. There has to be 1 here smarter than me in this place - can anybody tell me, what is my name? Because I surely can’t remember it, or anything else. If I could just grab hold of a piece of God’s grace. At this precise time I have to recognise a fact that’s been true all of my days., although I never admitted it: right now I’m not in control of my own life, it seems, & I can’t stand the fact that actually I never have been. Don’t know how I got here, but I’m sure it wasn’t my idea. I didn’t decide when to arrive, or who my parents were. Natural pain killers wear off & leave me stranded here. I need an intercessor between me & my father, to ask on my behalf as a man pleads for his friend the lame - can anybody tell me, what in heaven is my name?  

I saw my country erupt into blood, crap & flames. Civil war hit the walls like exploding brains. I saw my people in the 1000,000s all dressed up the same way. There were advertised products jumping out of TV & grabbing children by the throats & screaming, “Damn it; don’t you ignore me - you know that you need me.” & every single 1 of us said that we didn’t believe them, & yet we all bought into their twisted versions of the truth. & everybody else is doing it so I guess that counts as proof… or, what do you think?

I saw 1000,000 dead foetuses floating on the top of the broth. A mechanical arm was straining them off - a by product of the way of life that was sold to us by the Britneys & the Kylies & the Christina Aguileras. We went back into our cupboards & found our school uniforms. We danced & we sang, & we pretended to be paedophiles. Suddenly it didn’t seem all that strange to be screwing the brains out of teenage strangers, & then leaving them alone to their own devices - to kill the piece of meat or to bring up the fatherless. Finally I saw the survivors return as silhouettes on the horizon; grown men & women. They erupted into self destructive acts of violence - revenge on the land that despised & hated them.

I saw twisted metal falling from the sky & smashing through every estate & private empire. Every mortgage in suburbia was left meaningless & void. Husbands didn’t go back to save their wives, who they would divorce anyway if there was still any point. Everybody ran to save their own lives. Empty offices… Smashed up computers… Cracked name badges… Dying commuters… Days gone by only confused us. Drinking strong coffee stolen from other countries. Each of us building our own private empires. Keeping our eyes on the enemies beside us, we got twitchy & over excited. I saw fighting break out, & bolts lighting striking across all of the office block buildings. We’ve been signing our death warrants here for as long as anyone wearing a shirt & tie can remember.

I saw people escaping up an escalator in Canaan & disappearing into a portal in the heavens. Ducking out of the flight paths of jet fighter, spiralling out of control & filling the sky with smoke. The escaping refugees were choking & crying - clothing totally soaked in tears, as they looked downwards at all of the years finally left behind to be destroyed by swarms & wars & unnatural disasters, TVs & magazines & children with handguns. Understand mothers & daughters, I saw people slaughter us & I was ready to blame someone. Then I woke up, looked into the mirror & stared into the Son… What have I become?

Wake up. Look into the mirror. Then stare into the Son. Wake up friends. What have we become?
Wake up. Look into the mirror. “Kiss the Son, lest he should become…” (Psalm 2:12)

This here city's full of blood and everybody knows it
Full of bad choices and everybody chose it
The Prime Minister can't find his glasses
The slave classes
The consumers and bastards
They wiped the floor with us
The warlords and wizards
The big tycoons with the figity fingers
The miracle workers
The money burners
The high priests of the religious masses
And the imperial cult is this
A whole lot of money and three big six six sixes

You better let my people go this time
You better let my people go

There'd best be blood on the doorframes
Blood on the doorframes
Blood on the doorframes
'Cause here He comes

The slave classes are losing their patience
The daily injections
The re-education
The standing silently down in the underground station
And all he wanted was a little conversation
By night we're chained to televisions
And by day we que up for labour like lemmings
Industries are handing out false identities for money to people who've got next to nothing
So behold
The first rumblings
The uprising
The mutiny
And all the disfunction

You better let my people go this time
You better let my people go

There'd best be blood on the doorframes
Blood on the doorframes
Blood on the doorframes
'Cause here He comes

All the girls are stripped naked
Their bodies are hung up in public places for amusement
And all the boys are lost on credit and plastic
The bayliffs are reposessing their houses
And all of the mothers and fathers in sackcloth and ashes
Wishing that the revolution had happened in the 1990's
Because now their children have even less courage than they did
Ain't nothing left but the blood and the angel armies hanging over this town saying

You better let my people go this time
You better let my people go

There'd best be blood on the doorframes
Blood on the doorframes
Blood on the doorframes
'Cause here He comes
 

Stick my scribbles to the fridge
Who's a clever little man?
If you taught me one thing it's that life's a bitch
And I am here to take whatever I can

But there is nothing that I want here
Nothing I would be afraid to lose

Little boys
Hold on to your toys
Don't let these suckers steal your childhood

Tie a ribbon in my hair
Show me how to use my legs
O the path of womanhood
1000 pillars of salt along the way

But there is nothing I respect here
Nothing I admire enough to choose

Little girls
Hold on to yourselves
Don't let these suckers steal your childhood
 

Sinner man with your hand in your pocket
Devil's got his hand up your butt like puppet
You think you're doing what you want to sucker?
Dummer than a plank of wood in a bucket
Left hand knows what your right hand's doing
Think you're going to get away with something?
Eye in the sky doesn't miss nothing
I see trouble round the bend...

Sinner lady with a nose for trouble
Wrapped your tongue around a big steel shovel
Stench of death coming out of your gullet
Sucking it down like a suicidal drunkard
Stuffing all the rotten dead bodies in the cupboard
Spitting out words like locusts buzzing
Think the big man's not looking or something?
I see trouble round the bend...

Boy do you want to be a man now buddy
Keep both hands on what your head's thinking
And be thinking about what your hands are touching
If there's a beginning, there's an end...

Girl do you want to become a wise woman
Keep two eyes on the words you're speaking
And spit on all these lies you're seeing
If anybody touches you he's dead...

I see trouble round the bend
 

There was a man and his shadow
They couldn't agree between themselves
Where to go this way or the other
He's a double minded man

And they argued in the desert
And they argued in the town
And they argued on the mountain
And mostly the shadow won

Man and his shadow

Until one day as they argued
Right there they came to a cross roads
And there they had a disagreement
About which way they should go

And the shadow saw the devil
He was laughing his head off
And the man saw Jesus
He was bleeding on the cross

Man at the cross roads

So the man told his shadow
"I'm tired of fighting all the time"
And so he stared him in the darkness
Said "You go your way and I'll go mine"

And then the man tore assunder
And the shadow went his own way
And the man praised Hallelujah
Cast no shadow the rest of his days

Man with no shadow
 

The Lord is my light and my salvation
Whom shall I fear?
No one
The Lord is the stronghold of my life
Whom shall I fear
Nobody now

Ain't gonna none of us be here long
Never gonna come this way again
So we're not gonna sing your songs
And we're never gonna playour games
Not gonna waste my time
Because I got no time to waste
Never gonna swing my hammer
Dragging my money on a ball and chain

The Lord is my light and my salvation
Whom shall I fear?
No one
The Lord is the stronghold of my life
Whom shall I fear
Nobody now

So we're gonna do what we shouldn't do
And we're gonna say what we shouldn't say
And we're going to be what we're going to be
Gonna be it anyway
So may what is good be good
And may evil go it's way
We're gonna dance around His glory
Till the end of the end of days

The Lord is my light and my salvation
Whom shall I fear?
No one
The Lord is the stronghold of my life
Whom shall I fear
Nobody now
 

O heart breaker
Wore me down
You knew well I had a heart of stone
my brain was set like solid bone
My head was busy
My mind was fizzy
As I dug myself a lonely home

Hey big hammer
Came crashing down
1000 little pieces of my cold stone heart
All over the floor as it shattered apart
My head was confused
My mind bemused
I just witnessed my sorry little dreams dying before they could start

O watchmaker
With Your two big hands
Picked up every piece so sharp to feel
Warmed them in Your hands and put them on Your spinning wheel
My head was spinning
My mind was thrilling
My heart came out warm and soft with a beat
 

I saw 100,000 towns on fire
Blood and smoke and coal and wire
The sky is black with burning hair
Cows and pigs and sheep up there
And He's coming this way next

The hills are melting down like wax
1000 town halls just collapsed
With a baby strapped onto His back
He's headed this way next
Yes, He's headed this way next

So I'm ringing the bell for the last time
So hear me now
I'm gone

The trees all stood and clapped their hands
Power cuts accross the land
The buildings shook like rubber bands
And the stones all jumped for joy

He spins the earth and makes the day
Pillar of smoke tears up the way
The ocean steps out of His way
And He's coming this way next
Yes, He's coming this way next

So I'm ringing the bell for the last time
So hear me now
I'm gone

Why'd He come with eyes on fire?
Breathing smoke into the skies
Shedding tears like blood from His eyes
Did He see you crying there?

Why'd He come with peals of thunder?
Bloody feet and skulls there under
Tearing the heavens assunder
It's because He saw you crying there
Yes He saw you crying there

So I'm ringing the bell for the last time
So hear me now
I'm gone
 

Behold
The Army of the Broken Hearted
You can't stop them now

All the religious faithful were gathered in the shopping malls
Kneeling at the TVs and bowing down to every billboard
But there's riots in the alleyways and whispers in the streets
Where all the filthy infidels will never dance to your beats
Because they're not afraid of nothing, since they've got nothing to lose
Not afraid of bleeding since it's blood that set them loose
Not afraid of loving since their hearts are already broke
They're not afraid fire and they're not afraid of smoke

And they're never going to stop because they're in love

Behold
The Army of the Broken Hearted
You can't stop them now

Voting at the checkouts with the rest of the undead
Remote controls in both your hands and a TV for a head
Sitting on the pavement with a lonely cigarette
You can try as hard but it ain't no use, is what the Spirit said
Because you can't sell them nothing by putting your dirty pictures on it
And you can take whatever from them because they don't care nothing for ownership
And you can't buy them off because you've got nothing that they want
And you can'y make them stop because they're not afraid of anything you've got

And they're never going to stop because they're in love

Behold
The Army of the Broken Hearted
You can't stop them now

Hard times up ahead
Money doesn't buy much bread
And I've lost the taste for all the lovers in my bed

The darkness doesn't love you baby
Come out while you can

The world's full of cheats
Nobody's what they seem
And I met all my girlfriends in a stack of magazines

Down in my hole
Can't nobody save my soul
If there's anything left to save after everything I sold

The darkness doesn't love you baby
Come out while you can

Friday night
Under the orange lights
Everybody wants to touch me but I know that they're all liars

Hollow desire
Drink a little more and smile
If only they all knew I'm just pretending all the time

The darkness doesn't love you baby
Come out while you can

I'm lost in my dreams
Swimming in TV screens
And I lost the distinction between the fiction and the real

Riding on the beast
Letting him touch my meat
And I got the feeling that he doesn't give a damn about me
 

Better be ready when the sun turns black
Better be ready when the moon turns red
Better be ready when the Son comes back
Better be ready when He wakes the dead
Better be ready when the stars fall down
Better be ready when the stars fall down
Better be ready when the stars fall down
Better be ready when they hit the ground

Striking the earth with the rod of His mouth
With a hand to the north and a foot to the south
With His winnowing fork cut the wheat from the chaff
With His winnowing fork cut the good from the crap

Smashing up the tables and breaking down chains
Lighting up the mountains and beating down the wave
Tearing down the curtain in the holy place
Lifting off the veil from her beautiful face

Better be ready when the sun turns black
Better be ready when the moon turns red
Better be ready when the Son comes back
Better be ready when He wakes the dead

Hauling the world through the holes in His hands
With the stripes on His back he'll be healing the lands
Drawing a 1000 mile line in the sand
Calling to you all and He's making a stand

Writing down the law in the flesh of yr heart
Calling when you wander to the left or the right
Beginning to the end and the end from the start
The logos in the chaos and the light in the dark

Better be ready when the sun turns black
Better be ready when the moon turns red
Better be ready when the Son comes back
Better be ready when He wakes the dead
Better be ready when the stars fall down
Better be ready when the stars fall down
Better be ready when the stars fall down
Better be ready when they hit the ground

Behold the rider on the horizon
Riding His horse through 1000 miles of devastation
A pillar of smoke all around Him
Straight as an arrow
He rides through 1000 years of desolation
Leaving a trail of blood
all the way from His cloak
in a dead straight highway to the skyline
Doesn't blink once as He follows His beloved
into the city of buses, billboards and pylons
The shadows pass
and 1000 angels fill up the skies and cry
"Hosanna in excelsis"
His eyes are burning with wrath so I ask
"sir, is that your blood, or is it someone elses?"
He shows me the scars on His hands
but His arm is strong
and I can't believe that He could be beat
My jacket is dirty so He hands me His clean clothes
He insists
and He speaks

"O darling, you're as red as blood.
But I'll make you as pure as snow, my love"

I was undecided
an in the blinking of an eye He was gone into the night
so I sat there and cursed my hesitation
I've walked every inch of this town
asking everybody
"Did you see Him? Did you see where He was heading?"
And the people of this city all sound like a broken record
Like propaganda slogans looping over on the television
"Don't know.. Don't care..
Little lady, how dare you be talking about that man
in our utopian civilisation?"
The watchmen on the walls are looking down on me
Staring like they want me
or like they're going to come and beat my face in
Arms are swinging
Time and space are suspended
The world turns red and I'm kissing the pavement
Wake up three days later
Behold the rider
and I'm right behind Him in His trail of blood
I messed up his clothes pretty bad
But He doesn't mind
And now I've got scars just like He does

Don't look now - here comes leviathan
Eyes on fire, and we just shook his hand

Everybody knows, but no one cares..
We'll see this kingdom fall

Wasting time inside the dragon's mind
My people - countless as the lies

Everybody knows, but no one cares..
We'll see this kingdom fall apart
before youre time is done

Mark our right hands "BABYLONIANS"
Mark our foreheads "KINGDOM OF DARKNESS"
Burn your hopes and burn your wage slips
Don't play dumb - you know just what we did

Everybody knows, but no one cares..
We'll see this kingdom fall apart
before youre time is done

The sun beats down
The desert is a blanket of fire
The city is empty
Heat crushes my face into frown lines
Very deep and very heavy
Sweat dissappears into space instantly
Leaves the face covered in salt
Itchy like sack cloth and ashes and a hard days work
And the whole time I can't understand
how my shoes have got no holes in them
and my shirt id still on my back
Never get hungry - ever
because food falls right out of the sky whenever you need it
Never get thirsty
because water gushes from the rocks as though they were bleeding
Thinking and feeling
and peeling like a banana
Developing wrinkles and growing in character
Following a man through the sand
He keeps my shoes on my feet and my shirt on my back

I was in the wilderness
chased by a huge rhinosaurus
Man
That son of a gun must have chased me 1000 miles
He wanted my blood on his horn
I could see it in his eyes
Big rhinosausus
Didn't ever get tired
Chased me all the way without stopping
Somethings got to give
I guess you can't run forever
Least ways, not while this weather holds out
All of my life running from animals
No point dragging it out into the never
So I decide to stop running
My God is able to save me from the power of the rhino
if He wants to
and even if He doesn't - fair enough
I'd rather not be a Godless chicken on the run from death
Stand my ground and have faith
I think I'd rather stand my ground and have faith

So I turned
and looked him in his big red eyes
either side of that horn
which is twice the size of an ice cream cone
As hard as stone
Didn't do him any good though
A piece of rope appeared like a noose around his throat
Snapped his his neck backwards so it broke
The horn smashed into 1000 pieces
I followed the piece of rope back into the hands of Jesus

Pillar of fire in the night
Pillar of cloud in the night
Double edged sword in the fight
Animals rage in the streets
Never laid a finger on me
Killer of each of the dead
Count every hair on my head
Love like the apple of His eye
"Lord of Lords" on His thigh
White horse cutting throught the night
The King cuts open the horizon

Walking out east of Eden with a mark upon my head
If anybody tries to kill me
damn sure they'll be dead
Seven times over
And I don't know why the LORD will avenge my life
But I'm ready to climb the mountain and die

Born into the river Nile - saved by a princess
The blood of slaves runs through these veins
a crown on both my heads
And I'm crying because I feel I've been a traitor to my own
So I'm ready to take my crown off and fight

Revolution in my bones - blood on both my hands
Running from my masters house for killing an evil man
And I'm crying because I can't believe he's never going to breathe again
So I'm going to become a shepherd and start again

Looking out for the wife and kids and chasing after sheep
Jesus calls out from the bush and says
"My people are weeping under enslavement
Crushed like 1000,000,000 coke cans into the pavement
So I'll tell that city to set my people free

Standing in front of the president and all his politicians
Folks have been writing letters to these for years and years about all kinds of issues
You need a sign?
You'd better let my people go this time
I'm here because the LORD is by my side

Watch these rivers turn to blood
The sun blocked right out
Watch all of your firstborn die
and the military buried alive in the Red Sea
I'll cry for you - stubborn as a mule
And I'm ready to take my people and leave

Bury me LORD because I'm tired out

Everybody's hanging off me
Breaking up fights all day and all night
Choices coming up faster than I can choose which way is right
Its always something
I don't know why I keep on trying to try
And I'm ready to climb the mountain and die

Sitting around thinking way more thoughts than a man can think
Seen so many people I begin to wonder if they all exist
And my heads so full of everything
I feel like a walking television
And I'm ready to pull the plug out and sigh

Ran the race pretty dang hard
but perfect I am not
Lost myself a million times
Grit my teeth and smashe the rock
Looking over the promised land - You hold me by the hand
And I know you're going to do whatever's right

I don't care about anything now
I've got nothing to lose anymore
I've got nobody in heaven by You
and the world has nothing I want
So screw it all
I count it all a loss to be found by Your side
And I'm ready to climb the mountain and die

Bury me LORD because I'm tired out

Weeping in the garden with blood on His face
Praying: "By this time tomorrow I know I'll be dead, for three days"
Then He crushed the snake
"Not My will but Yours" He said
"Im ready to climb the mountain and die

The sun turned dark at noon and th moon turned red
The Mediteranian gave up its dead jellyfish
and the campfires burned
A third of the stars fell down to the earth
I saw the city and I wept for her
as I watched her give birth to her own misery

And the whole world is made of concrete and steel
And the sun only sets on the days when it rises
For as long as I've been alive no one's ever looked into my eyes
for fear of seeing the truth about me in my irises
I think you and I both know we've been had
so we look from side to side trying to find out who the liar is
But we'll never look into each other's eyes
for fear of seeing the image of God and falling in love with it
And the whole world is made of beauty and corruption
The wonder of perfection is for now lost on all of us
I'm terrified of love, because love is afraid of nothing
He has the will to do what nobody else does
The trees grow tall and we all reach for the skies
The leaves fall in all their different colours and sizes
No one ever looks anyone in the eyes
for fear of really knowing each other
for fear of what that might cost us

On the floor
You cleaned my feet
I'll clean yours with my tears
And all the liars and the cheats will be washed away
I'm the whore
You cleaned my feet
I'll clean yours with my tears
And all the liars and the cheats will be washed away

Please
I love you
Wake up
Don't die
Please
I love you
Wake up
Don't die
An eye for an eye and a life for a life
I'd go under the knife to see you waking up alive again
Your lips have gone blue and your blood is all spent baby
Your hearts gone as black as the devil inside your chest
I'd slit my wrists and give blood through a drip into your veins
O please baby just open your eyes again
O please heart beat again
O please lungs breathe again
O please voice say my name
O please heart beat again
O please lungs breathe again
O please darling speak to me

On the floor
You cleaned my feet
I'll clean yours with my tears
And all the liars and the cheats will be washed away
I'm the whore
You cleaned my feet
I'll clean yours with my tears
And all the liars and the cheats will be washed away
In all the clubs
On all the streets
The dead will sing, "Hallellujah!"
And we will cry at Your feet
at Bethany

She has become to me like a lion in the forest
estranged, endangered and distant
I can remember when it was just the two of us
tied into one knot - beautiful and honest
Then a third came along and placed himself between us
And she said: "He looks so mysterious!"
And he said that she looked as "sexy as hell"
"O my goodness!" she said, "I just can't help the way that I'm feeling.."
Decisions were made behind lame excuses
They ran off and screwed each other on the high places
hoping that My face wouldn't see them
but they didn't even know their right from their left hand
So I sat by Myself on the Mount of Olives
Where Jesus cried for His lost beloved
Tears inbetween my face and my hands
because I knew where that devil would take her in the end

O unfaithfulness

Sometimes she'd cross the street and pretend she didn't see me
Sometimes she'd walk right by and just be smiling slightly
Sometimes she'd make a slight noise - like when a cat leaves the room
And always she looked down through her shoes
Sometimes her eyes were vacant and other times angry
Sometimes mascara ran from her head to her feet
Sometimes she'd be screaming at her children
Other times she would just ignore them completely

Just one time I saw that low-down casanova
I said, "Hello"
and he didn't say anything
So I said, "where you been this whole time, Diabalo?
I keep seeing all of your girlfriends and your whores around"
He said, "I've been going round the world
Voyeuring at people and going back and forth
and so on, and so forth
Looking for the action
Checking out the talent and seeing whats happening"

I shut my eyes and screamed like a lion in the city
and all of the windows in his apartment shattered
and showered them naked in bed
as they lay in twisted sensations
and alienation from each other
Filled with hatred
Sick of the smell of each others unfaithful selfishnes
The smell of their bed
The taste of each other's spit
And the crying of unwanted babies in distress

Laying in our bed surrounded by glass and plaster
The ashes of our own demise
1000 adulterers cut their losses
curse each other and wander off into the night
As did I
We are 1001 vagabonds
Refugees running from the chaos of our own lives
From the four corners of the earth we are asking the skies
Beloved, is this love worth the price?

O my God, we're in trouble now
O my God, we're in trouble now
(save..)
O my Father, we're in trouble now
O my Master, we're in trouble now
(hosanna..)
Hallellujah, Hosanna
Hallellujah, Hosanna
(blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD)
Jesus

We cursed your name all day and all night
Till we gained the world and we lost the light
And a 1000 1000 armies died
We shook our heads and looked to the skies
Shook our fists and asked you "Why?"
You said something and we turned to the side
Then we saw you but we shut our eyes
Cursed your name some, and then we smiled
All our children - we call them "bastards"
Called our parents "insignificance"
Paid our daughters to dance for us
Raced our sons to the ends of innocence
Took it all for ourselves somehow
"We want the world and we want it now!"
We didn't give a damn who we hammered down
in between us and everthing else
From everlasting to everlasting to everlasting to everlasting
The shadows are long and the day is passing
Why should you give a damn about us?
The reckoning
Hearts on fire like a burning building
Blasphemous names written all over it
Kingpin - not enough money this time
Too afraid for sleeping
Spend our days blaspheming
Rolling around and screaming
bed too short and sheets too thin
O my God, what was I thinking?
Curesed your name on Christmas day
Snow is falling and the ship is sinking
Crusified you all over again
(sun beats down)
We got no legs to stand on

His love endures forever

Hallellujah

In the streets - the streets of Babylon
All the cats are screaming at the dogs
and the dogs aren't even listening
And the rush hour traffic doesn't care
about the road kill scattered everywhere
So why should You give a damn about them?

But You do..

In the back seat - the back seat of my ride
I start to wonder:
is there anyone that I really care for as much as I love myself?
And in the middle of all my filthy lies
All my cursing, and my perverted mind
Why should You give a damn about me?

But You do..