SONG: Call it Democracy padded with power here they come international loan sharks backed by the guns of market hungry military profiteers whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared with the blood of the poor who rob life of its quality who render rage a necessity by turning countries into labour camps modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom sinister cynical instrument who makes the gun into a sacrament -- the only response to the deification of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations' idolatry of ideology north south east west kill the best and buy the rest it's just spend a buck to make a buck you don't really give a flying fuck about the people in misery IMF dirty MF takes away everything it can get always making certain that there's one thing left keep them on the hook with insupportable debt see the paid-off local bottom feeders passing themselves off as leaders kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows open for business like a cheap bordello and they call it democracy and they call it democracy and they call it democracy and they call it democracy see the loaded eyes of the children too trying to make the best of it the way kids do one day you're going to rise from your habitual feast to find yourself staring down the throat of the beast they call the revolution IMF dirty MF takes away everything it can get always making certain that there's one thing left keep them on the hook with insupportable debt (TORONTO, 11/85) SONG: Stolen Land From Tierra del Fuego to Ungava Bay the history of betrayal continues to today the spirit of Almighty Voice, the ghost of Anna Mae call like thunder from the mountains -- you can hear them say it's a stolen land Apartheid in Arizona, slaughter in Brazil if bullets don't get good PR there's other ways to kill kidnap all the children, put 'em in a foreign system bring them up in no-man's land where no one really wants them it's a stolen land stolen land -- but it's all we've got stolen land -- and there's no going back stolen land -- and we'll never forget stolen land -- and we're not through yet In my mind I catch a picture -- big black raven in the sky looking at the ocean -- sail reflected in black eye -- sail as white as heroin, white like weathered bones -- rum and guns and smallpox gonna change the face of home in this stolen land... If you're like me you'd like to think we've learned from our mistakes enough to know we can't play god with others' lives at stake so now we've all discovered the world wasn't only made for whites what step are you gonna take to try and set things right in this stolen land stolen land -- but it's all we've got stolen land -- and there's no going back stolen land -- and we'll never forget stolen land -- and we're not through yet (Toronto, January 86) SONG: Strange waters I've seen a high cairn kissed by holy wind Seen a mirror pool cut by golden fins Seen alleys where they hide the truth of cities The mad whose blessing you must accept without pity I've stood in airports guarded glass and chrome Walked rifled roads and landmined loam Seen a forest in flames right down to the road Burned in love till I've seen my heart explode You've been leading me Beside strange waters Across the concrete fields of man Sun ray like a camera pans Some will run and some will stand Everything is bullshit but the open hand You've been leading me Beside strange waters Streams of beautiful lights in the night But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys? If I loose my grip, will I take flight? You've been leading me Beside strange waters Streams of beautiful lights in the night But where is my pastureland in these dark valleys? If I loose my grip, will I take flight? SONG: Fascist Architecture (Originally from the album "Humans") fascist architecture of my own design too long been keeping my love confined you tore me out of myself alive those fingers drawing out blood like sweat while the magnificent facades crumble and burn the billion facets of brilliant love the billion facets of freedom turning in the light bloody nose and burning eyes raised in laughter to the skies i've been in trouble but i'm ok been through the wringer but i'm ok walls are falling and i'm ok under the mercy and i'm ok gonna tell my old lady gonna tell my little girl there isn't anything in the world that can lock up my love again SONG: You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chance (From the album "Inner City Front") Woman cry -- chase man down street crying "No Chuckie, no, please don't" Another girl comes they run along St. Andrew, turn south on Kensington Meanwhile Chuckie beats it down the alley by the chicken packer's By the time I reach the corner they've all vanished Just a deaf kid talking like Popeye to a large fleshy laughing man in a blue shirt You pay your money and you take your chance When you're dealing with love and romance Down the alley past the fire escape a woman is talking on the telephone Kitchen light spills out, laughter riding on its beam In the maze of moebius streets we're trying to amuse ourselves to death Under the deep sky that's squatting so close over us tonight You'd think it was trying to hatch us The numb and confused The battered and bruised The counters of cost And the star-crossed You pay your money and you take your chance When you're dealing with love and romance Confused and solo in the spawning ground i watch the confusion of friends all numb with love Moving like stray dogs to the anthem of night-long conversations, of pulsing rhythms and random voltage voices In spite of themselves, graceful as these raindrops creeping spermlike across the car window Stay or leave, give or withold, hesitate or leap Each step splashing sparks of red pain in every direction And through it all, somehow, this willingness that asks no questions You pay your money and you take your chance When you're dealing with love and romance. SONG: Birmingham shadows Birmingham Just behind the mountain Sparse streelamps glow in hot half-moon haze Shadows shorten into little black pools that elongate behind We walk, talk some, laugh some Worked hard, now wired, and hanging out I'm curious what you might be all about Curious, too, what that dark-shape in the hard shining cruiser might do And you have no idea what you're getting out of of your own curiosity and tense energy Tattoo on chest like the key to the puzzle of your pumping heart Wearing your shadows all over your sleeve Wearing the role of young upstart Chorus: Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you Under velvet trees, towering like the sides of a well Before the empty two office blocks Which we're admonished not to enter Policeman studies us, finds us confusing More amusing than threat Moves on, bemused Pavement spirals down ahead like the fossil of a giant shell Along the kingdom's midnight marches I wear my shadows where they're harder to see But they follow me everywhere I guess that should tell me that I'm travelling toward light I guess something you sang made me remember that I guess I'm saying thanks for that Chorus: Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you (Instrumental Break) Got a head full of horrors and a heart full of night At home in the darkness, but hungry for dawn I only remember scenes, never the stories I live The good things about that is, it's easy to forgive Can't make assumptions about any of this We're nomads following our own songlines Who knows what could strike before we meet again? But if I fall down and die Without saying goodbye I give you this: you'll have lost a friend Chorus: Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you