Brace yourself
This could be heaven or hell
Cause there’s a fortune to tell
Is it the din of defeat or your liberty bell?

Dead or alive
Just like Bonnie and Clyde
Sharing that shotgun ride
Do you feel shamed and framed and haunted inside?

Well anything worth having is a mystery
And every single morning is a victory
When everything is growing in the ashes of yesterday

Brace yourself
Shake those skeletons out
Chase those ghosts from the house
Make some space for the place where the future can shout

Open your eyes
Wake up Bonnie and Clyde
Cause it’s a good day to die
So all you dreamers of the world rise up and unite

Yeah anything worth having is a mystery
And every single morning is a victory
When everything is growing in the ashes of yesterday
We’re gonna build a future on the grave of the past
I don’t know when it’s coming but it’s gonna be fast
So never let the shadow of your shadow get in the way

When your down and heavy hearted
Feel you failed before you’ve started
Turn around and walk the other way

Brace yourself
Brace yourself
Embrace yourself (never let the shadow of your shadow get in the way)

Well anything worth having is a mystery
And every single morning is a victory
And everything is growing in the ashes of yesterday
We’re gonna build a future on the grave of the past
I don’t know when it’s coming but it’s gonna be fast
So never let the shadow of your shadow get in the way

In the battle of the bar
I was the drunken people’s commissar
Of best laid plans… held together with rubber bands
The sacrificial barricade
Where we dismantled every single day
With a pair of pliers
From a toolbox of saints and liars

When it was easy
To be bold
To be brave enough to be born
To bleed a while, to bleed a while

Months marching the only blues
The years tore the soles off of our shoes
They wore them thin
And they turned the whole thing in
To grey parades and monuments
Fools gold and dirty sacraments
Told half the tale
But we knew our sweetest dreams were not for sale

Cheats and liars
Corporate cobras and crocodiles
So we’d scream it out
We’d scream it out, scream it out

You think it’s all in your head but it’s all in your soul
We’re live sockets, real bottle rockets… oh
Ready to explode
The dead can bury the dead
There’s no time for remorse
You can’t stop us, pure bottle rockets… oh
Like a meteor

Now it ain’t easy
To be born
To be brave enough to be bold
Ah, to bleed a while
A calvary
To be borne
To be saved or else to be scorned
Ah, to see the light
Bring the dream to life

There’s a light in my head
There’s a fire in my soul
A live socket, real bottle rocket… oh
Ready to explode
There’s a fire in my head
There’s a light in my soul
A live socket, pure bottle rocket soul
Ready to explode
Like a meteor
A bottle rocket soul

One man’s given is one man’s taken away
One man’s prison is one man’s private estate
One man’s on the board
One man’s overboard
One more wolf at the gate

And then we dance around (dancing the dance of the slave)
As they steal this town (they can’t steal what we give away)
And the walls come down
One brick after another

Two religions is two religions too much
Cause too many vicars got too many scriptures fucked up
Too many battle scars
Too many false alarms
I’m too tired to wake ‘em all up

They watch us dance around (dancing the devil away)
As they bleed this town (electrical heavenly gates)
And St. Paul cries out
There’s no more kingdom my brother
The meek shall inherit each other

One more waterboard
One bored overlord
One more soul has to drown

While we dance around (dancing and taking down names)
As they torch this town (dancing and fanning the flames)
And the walls come down (nothing to lose but your chains)
Yeah it all comes down
To one prick after another
Some sad sick motherfuckers
Keep us one brick short of each other (look who’s laughing’ now)

It sometimes makes me wonder why
I can’t read a sentence
From the chapter of a book that tells the tale of her dependence
It’s full of pain and wonder
Full of rain and thunder
But I wonder who’s the most surprised?
Who swallows propaganda when she lies?
Who struggles just to stay afloat when she cries?

Wait!
I love you like a freight train
Like a rollercoaster
A Mayakovsky poster
She’s hammers and sickles and roses
The only question I propose is
Who catcalls in this bulldog town
Who pratfalls when her smile becomes a frown?
Who’s gonna dig a trench for her when she’s down?

It never struck me funny how I babbled and I twisted like a fool
When she said, “I don’t know you… but I sure would like to.”

She’s full of lightning and thunder
And all alone sometimes I wonder
Whose heart stops every time she calls?
Sometimes I wonder if she cares at all
Who’s gonna hold the net for her when she falls?

You know it’s all about the perspiration
Ah, you never break a sweat unless you try
If you never choose a destination
Then you’re gonna spin your wheels until you die

You’ll never get to storm that winter palace
Never get to see that brave new world
All tangled up inside
Dead until you die

If you’re never gonna join the party
Then you’ll never get to burn the whole house down
A poster boy for the dear departed
Always feeling like a square when they’re around
Ah, you’re always gonna wind up in the middle
Another nervous hostage by the phone
Now and then suspecting just a little
There’s a secret code in that dial tone
You’re never gonna crack that cryptic riddle
You’re never gonna solve that shit alone
Just living to survive
Putting in the time
Dead until you die

Livin’ on borrowed time
On borrowed time
On borrowed time

We could be that famous ragged army
Belting out the same redemption song
“Wouldn’t it be nice to live together”
“In the kind of world where we belong”
Through armigideon times and earthquake weather
Marchin’ down the street a million strong
Electric and alive
It’s better if you try
To live until you die

I’m standing in the rain, tryin’ to catch a train
Daydreaming all systems go
But there’s a buzzing in my mind
Hijacking the line
Just like a pirate radio
It’s an image of the noise
Desolation boys
It hovers then it disappears
Like a vision that conspires and crackles down the wires
And takes me back a million years

To raise those old dog tags
The days of ragged flags and faded glory

I feel it all at once
A conditional response
Believer’s voice of victory
Tulpa came to fight
Initiation rights and social insecurities

So raise those old dog tags
To days of ragged flags and faded glory

Boom box in the alley
Punks and Rastafari
Super sound system soul
David’s in position
Drums and ammunition, oh
Rebel radio

Raise those old dog tags
To days of ragged flags and faded glory
Raise those old dog tags
And raise that ragged flag of faded glory

That vision still conspires and crackles down the wires

When all the roads you see from your door
Lead one way in the other way
And all the waves that crash on your shore
Carry sailor’s bones from shipwrecked days
When all those vicious, handcuffed words
Constrict, contract, constrain
I’ll meet you on the barricade
In the cool defiant rain

When you and your brothers held onto your mothers
Your story an unwritten page
Well they read you the rules and they sent you to school
But she paid for the bars on your cage
You played a poison violin
In a symphony of rage
Now it’s time you traded that fucker in
For a place on the barricade

In or out
Shrug or shout
The second’s the jury, the minute’s the judge
In the hour of the barricade

Your green eyes and your battle cries
Are the sweetest warning served
But the only ring can dismantle this thing
Is the sound of a siren heard
By the children of apostasy who will rescue this wretched world
And join their hands like a barricade
Like an insolent fist full of pearls

Stay or go
Now or no
The week is the hangman, the month is the rope
In the year of the barricade

Some vote with their heads, some vote with their hearts
Some vote with the end of their dicks
You can vote with a ballot, you can vote with your wallet
But it’s always a vote for the pricks
So let me tell you this for free
My next vote’s with a brick
Ah, from somewhere behind the barricade
Beyond the lies and the rhetoric
If I see you on the barricade
I’ll be sure to shake your hand
And I’ll help you build your barricade
On the grave of this sleepwalking land

Tell me where do I fit in?
If I’m too cynical to pray but don’t have the stomach to sin
What can you do? Where can you go?
When the top’s too high and the bottom’s too low
We spend our lives chasing nickels and dimes
And finding hills ‘stead of mountains to climb
And I really don’t know why
But I’ve seen enough
The night of a thousand guns
The palace burns, the kingdom comes
The night of a thousand guns

Who wrote this twisted fairy tale?
And why do they force us to read it again and again
This jacket’s straight, this shallow grave
When there’s two lives lost for every one life saved
It’s like a life sentence more than a life
A billion souls on the edge of a knife
It’s time to kick it over and set it alight
Start again tonight
Ah, here it comes
The light of a thousand suns
The fox uncaged, the rabbit runs
The night of a thousand guns

The light of a thousand suns

Come spend your life in pursuit of the light
And get your broad shoulders into the fight
Let’s start that clock tonight
Cause here it comes
The night of a thousand guns
Small hand on twelve, big hand on one
The night of a thousand guns
Sisters in arms
Daughters and sons… the night of a thousand guns
Heed the call
The time has come…the night of a thousand guns
The light of a thousand suns
Run rabbit run, run rabbit run, run rabbit run
The night of a thousand guns
Roll up your sleeves and get it done
The night of a thousand guns

If hate is a snake
I guess love is a ladder
Justice is another matter
A tougher egg to break
Ah, but make no mistake
Through the static and the chatter
The former becomes the latter
Though you feel lonely
You know you’re never alone

When your life is a nail
History is a hammer
The side you’re on is what matters
So drive the point of it home (heavy and true)
When the struggle is on
Victories and disgraces
You’ve got friends in Low places
We’ll big you up
So you know you’re never alone

It’s time to pull a rabbit from a hat or two
Sleight of hand is nothing new
Prestidigitation is the wrecking crew
Keep your steady hand upon that match
And light that fuse

Allies, arise and move on!
Blood brothers and sisters
Philosophers and drifters
The day to daydream is gone
‘Cause we’re like ships in the storm
Let loose from their tethers
Rude grrrls and soul rebels
They got your back
So you know you’re never alone
Low, but yer never alone
No, no… ah, you’re never alone
Maybe lonely but you’re never lone
Not the only… oh, you’re never alone

I remember the days
When you’d drop by drunk and disorderly
But now you’re gone away
And nobody knocks on the window screen
You were singin’ the tune you were born to recite
Always sung in the same sad key

Come back Imogene
Come back Imogene
Come back Imogene

Can somebody explain
Why somebody’s pain is so hard to read?
If somebody’s the blade
Then I guess somebody’s gonna have to bleed
When your worst inclinations were beating you breathless
Where was the referee?

Ah, come back Imogene

I walk these sallow streets that we used to claim
Your name from my lips falls
But that hallowed whisper floats and then drifts away
Was it ever here at all?

Like the birthday candles we couldn’t ignite
And the guests for a party too sad to invite
All the things that have been and the things that’ll never be

When will you find the shoes that match the suit that is your life?
And where will we put the ropes that bind your hands behind you?
How can you fit a thousand tears on the dull end of a pin?
And where the hell have you been?

We love you we love you we love you we love you we love you
We love you we love you we love you we love you we love you
We love you we love you

What is it like to see yourself from a thousand miles away?
How could you miss the you that’s right beside you?
Maybe the darkness dragged you here but it can’t make you stay
Cause love is the great escape

And we love you we love you we love you we love you we love you
We love you we love you we love you we love you we love you
We love you we love you

No more heroes anymore
Well that’s ok (They need not apply)
Never gave a shit before
And you don’t today (D.I.Y)
But you don’t have to go it alone
Like a rolling stone on a black Monday

Let me spell out those three small words that you can’t seem to hear
W-E L-O-V-E Y-O-U
Is it the memory that hurts or is it simply fear?
You’re deaf till the darkness clears

Above you above you above you above you above you
Above you above you above you above you above you
Love you we love you we love you we love you we love you
(Hear these three little words)
We love you we love you we love you we love you we love you
(Ah, just three little words)
We love you we love you

Midnight MaryAnne
Don’t you understand
That your the phantom with an angel’s face
You strike that pretty pose
So no one ever knows
You’re dancing deftly on the razorblade

You’re the star of your own nightmare
It’s a game where the rules aren’t fair
But everyone has a cross to bear sometimes

Ah, Midnight MaryAnne
You’ve been burdened and beguiled
By memories that sting like scars
Then one day comes around
And every wound unbound
Is shining through you like a million stars

I can see that you can’t see the point of it all
And you can’t seem to read the writing on the wall
So I’ll try desperately to be there when you fall apart

One thing MaryAnne
When I hold your hand
It feels like falling in a shallow grave
Despite that pretty pose
Everybody knows
You’re dancing daily on a razorblade
So put the pin in the hand grenade

Midnight MaryAnne
All things greater than
The sum of every ugly undertow
Waving from the deck
Send that S.O.S.
And I’ll receive it like a radio

A thousand lights
A thousand lights that leave you blind
You leave yourself behind
You raise the dead when you feel low

What do you take?
What does it take to feel alright?
When it takes all your might
To raise your head from the pillow

What do you need?
What do you need to feel the light?
The sun or the moon at night?
That feeling of now or never?

Warm as a womb (united once)
Cold as a tomb (divided up)
You’re two halves now (till one plus one… equals none)
But two selves won’t allow (the puzzle longs)
To be put back together

A thousand dreams
A thousand nightmares

You belong
This place is grey without you here
The lights are on
But colours bleed away like bitter tears

Behind the light (behind the light)
Behind the light that leaves you blind (the blinding light)
The blinding peace and quiet (a thousand watts electrified)
A quiet place inside you (you try to find)

Beyond the dark (beyond the dark)
Beyond the dark that haunts your mind (the dark that haunts)
Numb and tranquilized (a shadow falls, a vision taunts)
Will you still recognize you? (if you give up)

A thousand lights
A thousand lights that leave you blind

It’s your life so find your own solutions
Strength or strife
Ah, what’s it gonna take?
The Queen is dead
So crown this world a new one
I thought she said?
Ah, let them all eat cake

I guess it’s time for a permanent revolution
Yes it’s time to blow it all away

Good intent and righteous resolutions
Can mend the fence but throw open the gate
To parasites and vampire institutions
So seize the day and plant that bloody stake

Cause it’s time for a permanent revolution
Yes it’s time to blow it all away

Tin soldiers
High rollers
Big gambles take big shoulders
They’re day-drinkin’ while the empire smoulders out

Yes it’s time for a permanent revolution
Greet the day and make your contribution
Cause there’s no way they’re gonna stop this evolution
So don’t decline and throw it all away