Asklemmy

Love, Ire, and Song by Frank Turner

Well a teacher of mine once told me That life was just a list of disappoints and defeats And you could only do your best, And I said "That's a fucking cop-out, you're just washed up and your tired, and when I get to your age I won't be such a coward" But these day I sit at home, known to shout at my TV And Punk Rock didn't live up to what I hoped that it could be And all the things that I believed with all my heart when I was young Are just coasters for beers and clean surfaces for drugs And I packed all my pamphlets with my bibles at the back of the shelf Well it was bad enough the feeling, and the first time it hit When you realized your parents had let the world all go to shit And that the values and ideals for which many had fought and died Had been killed off in the committees and left to die by the wayside But it was worse when we turned to the kids on the left And got let down again by some poor excuse for protest Yeah by idiot fucking hippies in 50 different factions Who are locked inside some kind of 60's battle re-enactment And I hung-up my banner in disgust and I head for the door Oh but once we were young, and we were crass enough to care But I guess you live and learn, we won't make that mistake again, no Oh but surely just for one day, we could fight and we could win And if only for a little while, we could insist on the impossible Well we've been a good few hours drinking So I'm going to say what everyone's thinking If we're stuck on this ship and it's sinking Then we might as well have a parade Cos if it's still going to hurt in the morning And a better plan's set to get forming Then where's the harm spending an evening In manning the old barricades, So come on old friends to the streets Let's be 1905 but not 1917, Let's be heroes, let's be martyrs, let's be radical thinkers Who never have to test drive the least of their dreams Let's divide up the world into the damned and safe And then ride to the valleys like the old life brigade And straighten our backs and we won't be afraid And they'll celebrate our deaths with a national parade So come on let's be young, let's be crass enough to care Let's refuse to live and learn, let's make all our mistakes again yes And then darling, just for one day, we can fight and we can win And if only for a little while, we could insist on the impossible Leave the mourning the to the morning Yeah pain can be killed With aspirin tablets and vitamin pills But memories of hope, and glorious defeat Are a little bit harder to beat