The Good The Bad and The Queen - Merrie Land Lyrics
Introduction
If you're leaving please still say goodbye?
And if you are leaving can you leave me my silver jubilee mug?
My old flag?
My dark woods?
My sunrise?
If you're leaving can you please say goodbye?
And if you are leaving can you leave your number?
I'll pack my case
And get in the cab
And wave you goodbye
I'll drive in the early hours down to the sea
I'll stand on the beach where the storms amplify
All the voices that I care for
And the ghosts I hold sacred
In this alignment that lasts for a day
There's nothing that I can do anyway, anyway
What am I doing here?
Waiting for you?
Eh, hey
So rebuild the railways
Firm up all the roads
No one is leaving
Now this is your home
And the horses, the foxes, the sheep, and the cows
Bow down on their knees
To the fanfare of progress, it's always the same
We cheer on the clowns as they roll into town
But their faces look tired and sad to me
And carry the terrible things they've seen
All lost in a painting of a sky coloured oil
In this Merrie Land
You are my crows, my window rattlers
Perfumed valley criers
Oh the dark ponds of Merrie England
The deep space echoes
Get on your mo
What did you say? Mobility (you can fly)
Get on your mobilised hooters (to the moon)
Hooters
Mobilised Hooters
(One day)
Get hold of those mobilised hooters
They are half price
This is not rhetoric
It comes from my heart
I love this country
Daneland, I am your kin
You were the ones who work together
Put the money in the pockets
To the few and their fortunes
Who crowd the school benches
And jeer at us all 'cause they don't care about us
They're graceless and you shouldn't be with them
'Cause they are all disconnected and raised up in mansions
And two hundred plastic bags in a whale's stomach
So you turn to the trident
Are we green, are we pleasant?
We're not either of those, Father
We're a shaking wreck where nothing grows
Lost in the sky coloured oils of Merrie Land
You can fly to the moon
One day
Writer: Anthony Oladipo Allen, Damon Albarn, Paul Gustave Simonon, Simon Tong
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Merrie Land
If you're leaving please still say goodbye?
And if you are leaving can you leave me my silver jubilee mug?
My old flag?
My dark woods?
My sunrise?
If you're leaving can you please say goodbye?
And if you are leaving can you leave your number?
I'll pack my case
And get in the cab
And wave you goodbye
I'll drive in the early hours down to the sea
I'll stand on the beach where the storms amplify
All the voices that I care for
And the ghosts I hold sacred
In this alignment that lasts for a day
There's nothing that I can do anyway, anyway
What am I doing here?
Waiting for you?
Eh, hey
So rebuild the railways
Firm up all the roads
No one is leaving
Now this is your home
And the horses, the foxes, the sheep, and the cows
Bow down on their knees
To the fanfare of progress, it's always the same
We cheer on the clowns as they roll into town
But their faces look tired and sad to me
And carry the terrible things they've seen
All lost in a painting of a sky coloured oil
In this Merrie Land
You are my crows, my window rattlers
Perfumed valley criers
Oh the dark ponds of Merrie England
The deep space echoes
Get on your mo
What did you say? Mobility (you can fly)
Get on your mobilised hooters (to the moon)
Hooters
Mobilised Hooters
(One day)
Get hold of those mobilised hooters
They are half price
This is not rhetoric
It comes from my heart
I love this country
Daneland, I am your kin
You were the ones who work together
Put the money in the pockets
To the few and their fortunes
Who crowd the school benches
And jeer at us all 'cause they don't care about us
They're graceless and you shouldn't be with them
'Cause they are all disconnected and raised up in mansions
And two hundred plastic bags in a whale's stomach
So you turn to the trident
Are we green, are we pleasant?
We're not either of those, Father
We're a shaking wreck where nothing grows
Lost in the sky coloured oils of Merrie Land
You can fly to the moon
One day
Writer: Anthony Oladipo Allen, Damon Albarn, Paul Gustave Simonon, Simon Tong, ALLEN ANTHONY OLADIPO
Copyright: Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Royalty Network, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Gun to the Head
Notice here by given
The spring guns and mantraps
To be placed on these premises
So don't trespass over the line on the map
Commissioners for oaths
In the borough of Banbury
Require the owners of rowdy dogs
To keep them on their leash
We don't care because we're all animal lovers
We like to share our lives with them
Required of this song
Is a case for love
When everything else
That keeps us together conspiring to tear us apart
At the point where the sky and the earth touch
Is the head of the Unicorn
Nailed to the wheel in the middle of the town
Is the nightingale alone
Singing 'where have you put me
I gave no signed consent
I'd rather keep my place here
I put up with your rents'
'Cause the sun is soft
Like the narcotics sold in Boots
We don't care because we're all animal lovers
We like to share our lives with them
Required of this song
Is a case for love (love)
When everything else
That keeps us together conspiring to tear us apart
Sleeping safe in your bed
A slow motion circular film
Inward looking
The realm of moles
Pressure-cooking in the home
No approvals in the out tray
Not one today
To the city no forever
Writer: Anthony Oladipo Allen, Damon Albarn, Paul Gustave Simonon, Simon Tong, ALLEN ANTHONY OLADIPO
Copyright: Lyrics © THE ROYALTY NETWORK INC., Royalty Network, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Nineteen Seventeen
I see myself moving backwards
In time today
From a place we can't remain
Close to anymore
My heart is heavy
Because it looks just like my home
Pylons, rapeseed fields
Powdered skies and trees alone
Thousands of white crosses in a cemetery
I freeze the frame from a passing train
Are you still there or am I losing you?
And every moment lost
Is telling to my heart
Puts me on the form
For silent treatment from the forces above
Our dependence on new gods
Because I'm just passing through
On this battlefield
Where we played our games
And went insane
And we waltzed around the world
As though we were off our heads
And I say why
Why are we not brought to book?
And where are we today?
Dissolution
Our lousy love affairs
If you don't love me let me go
And as I come up again
I leave a little bit of England
In a field in France
Writer: Anthony Oladipo Allen, Damon Albarn, Paul Gustave Simonon, Simon Tong
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
The Great Fire
Cubs make fires on the edge of the golf course
But there's more of them than us now
And they have come to settle scores
So there's bound to be altercations
On the B-road where they don't fly the union flag
Back to the seaside, the dream
About 6PM
The North Pier
The lead stare
The deep dead laughter of the yellow stars
Rapturous waves
Rapturous waves
This tram is for Stargate
Next stop Uncle Toms Cabin
With the bloody nuts
And the dark forces and girls
Is 15 milligrams
A way to a dream you can never touch?
Lips like a Zeppelin
Sticky brown Chinese, coke and a dummy
Metal detector
Blue skies
Joyous waves
Alcoholism disguised with a balloon or two
On Preston station
The rust on our palms
Greenbelt, pleasant land
Fills the smoky room
With the headlamp fairy lights
Suit clad purple tinsel
Karaoke knave Tuesday night
At Tiffany's
Six cocktails nursed
A million ways back to the sea
Writer: Anthony Oladipo Allen, Damon Albarn, Paul Gustave Simonon, Simon Tong, ALLEN ANTHONY OLADIPO
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lady Boston
Cut to the seagull
The quarryman
The castle
The barnacles
The cliff edge
The joy
Up in the tower that looks out to sea
The pink dressing room bell
Of the lady is ringing
She looks from the shadows
Out through the stained colors of old glass
The sorrows of slate and sugar cane are hers
And where does she go now?
And where does it seem to be free?
And where does she go now?
And where will she carry me?
If this is the end
The line in the sand
The blue dressing room bell
Is ringing the lord
He wishes the head of the whale
Who lived under the ice
Until shipping lanes sliced
Open the North Pole
Leaving a great hole
And where do I go now?
And where does it seem to be free?
Where do I go now?
Where will you carry me?
If I'm on the back
I'm on the back
I'm on the back of you
I'm on the back
I'm on the back
I'm on the back of you
I'm on the back
I'm on the back of you
I'm on the back
I'm on the back
I'm on the back of you
I want to be light now
I'm on the back of you
Dwi wrth dy gefn, dwi th dy gefen di
Dwi wrth dy gefn, dwi th dy gefen di
Dwi wrth dy gefn, dwi th dy gefen di
Writer: Anthony Oladipo Allen, Damon Albarn, Paul Gustave Simonon, Simon Tong
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Drifters & Trawlers
Enjoy it while it lasts because soon it will be different
Pernicious playgrounds and new age cultism
Outbreaks of optimism in care homes of England
The famous goodwill dumped in your fly tips so
Go raise your idols
Pull them out the marshes
Go give them sanctuary
Put them in your new builds
Because everything is now a live stream
The noise is rising
Curtain twitchers can take out their sunscreen
It looks like it's come to rest
The truce of twilight the echoes of the horned ooser
In a Southend caravan park from shore to pierhead
The twelve that follow on they are camping on the cliff top
They not dreaming just looking to midnight
Go fill your pockets now
With tomorrow's landfill
The Lions and Unicorns
Are sleeping out in shop doors
Outside dreamland
Glassy eyed demography
The smell of cut grass
The swallows are returning
And it look's like they've come to rest
Bring me my shell box and my submachine gun
Because you can't get over anything quite like this
Where the water is darker than the mirror of the sky
And Demis Roussos playing "Forever" on the waterslide
Conscripted into ranks
Look what we have done
The feckless and the lazy
Look what we've become
Chicken collector man
Look what we have done
The fortune teller she sits with the starlings
Look what we have done
Oh the mass elopers turn to exhale
Look what we have done
In the dance schools of England
Look what we have done
Copyright: Lyrics © Original Writer and Publisher
The Truce of Twilight
Enjoy it while it lasts because soon it will be different
Pernicious playgrounds and new age cultism
Outbreaks of optimism in care homes of England
The famous goodwill dumped in your fly tips so
Go raise your idols
Pull them out the marshes
Go give them sanctuary
Put them in your new builds
Because everything is now a live stream
The noise is rising
Curtain twitchers can take out their sunscreen
It looks like it's come to rest
The truce of twilight the echoes of the horned ooser
In a Southend caravan park from shore to pierhead
The twelve that follow on they are camping on the cliff top
They not dreaming just looking to midnight
Go fill your pockets now
With tomorrow's landfill
The Lions and Unicorns
Are sleeping out in shop doors
Outside dreamland
Glassy eyed demography
The smell of cut grass
The swallows are returning
And it look's like they've come to rest
Bring me my shell box and my submachine gun
Because you can't get over anything quite like this
Where the water is darker than the mirror of the sky
And Demis Roussos playing "Forever" on the waterslide
Conscripted into ranks
Look what we have done
The feckless and the lazy
Look what we've become
Chicken collector man
Look what we have done
The fortune teller she sits with the starlings
Look what we have done
Oh the mass elopers turn to exhale
Look what we have done
In the dance schools of England
Look what we have done
Writer: Anthony Oladipo Allen, Damon Albarn, Paul Gustave Simonon, Simon Tong
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Ribbons
I am the Maypole
Dancing with the sun
I wear my ribbons white and red
I am the morning
Flowers in my hair
I am your son and heir Mother
I am the Mast horse
Riding out to war
I wear my ribbons white and blue
I am the arrow
Stinging in your side
I will never let you go
I am the last king
Standing on the hill
I wear my ribbons white, red, and green
I am the visions
The night before the fair
When you don't want me anymore
And you're not there
I am a murder
All falling out of the sky
I wear my ribbons black until I die
I am the dark wood, the river, and the blood
I am the lover lost
I am the Maypole
Dancing with the sun
I only wear my ribbons for you
I am the morning
With flowers in my hair
I am your son and heir
Writer: Anthony Oladipo Allen, Damon Albarn, Paul Gustave Simonon, Simon Tong
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
The Last Man to Leave
The body follows me
Onto the cobblestones
Behind the front line
It's a ghost, it's a score
For the rabbit hole
Because you're all alone tonight
And the police with their heads down
They try to keep the law in the meadows
Where the manicured lawns of England
Barricaded in the fifties
Wake up to the blackbird
The radio and the bacon
The houses of joy and disappointment
Of the Windrush
Street sweepers leave your music
On the other side of the pavement
Because it sounds better over there
We don't want you anymore
We like the bed that we've made to lie in much
Better, thank you
I'll be the last man to leave
I'll be the last man to leave
Because the Offie's still open late
So empty those plastic bags
Line up the gear all the vodka and ice
I'll be the last man
I'll be the last man to leave
I'll be climbing back out of the rabbit hole
Because I've taken my medicine
It was bitter and it burned the back of my throat
And now I'm losing control
The ability to speak
I'll be the last man to leave
Don't leave me now
Don't leave me now
I'm pacing up and down the kitchen
Don't leave me now
Don't leave me now
I'm taking it personally
I've got to rewrite
The story that they flaunted around and hoiked us all
I was just getting on with my business
I'll be the last man to leave
I'll be the last man to leave
And now I've gone away, what will you do?
Writer: Anthony Oladipo Allen, Damon Albarn, Paul Gustave Simonon, Simon Tong
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
The Poison Tree
If you've got dreams you keep
And you're leaving me
I'll see you in the next life
I'll set you free
To find your promised land
If you're leaving me
It's really sad
It's really sad
Because our love is lying on a fallow field
It's the seed that you sowed
And scattered with the fallen shields
If you've got dreams you keep
Because you're leaving me
I'll see you in the next life
Don't follow me
To the poison tree
That grew up next to me
It's really sad
It's really sad
Because our love is lying on a fallow field (fallow field)
It's the seed that you sowed
And scattered with the fallen shields (fallen shields)
Of a last crusade to save me from myself
Writer: Anthony Oladipo Allen, Damon Albarn, Paul Gustave Simonon, Simon Tong
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.