Dirty Martini said:
Let this be the first mention of 'Forgotten Sons' by Marillion.
But not the last
Armalite, street lights, nightsights
Searching the roofs for a sniper, a viper, a fighter
Death in the shadows he’ll maim you, he’ll wound you, he’ll kill you
For a long forgotten cause
On not so foreign shores
Boys baptised in war
Boys baptised in war
Morphine, chill scream, bad dream
Serving as numbers on dogtags, flakrags, sandbags
Your girl has married your best friend, loves end, poison pen
Your flesh will always creep, tossing turning sleep
The wounds that burn so deep, burn so deep
Your mother sits on the edge of the world when the cameras start to roll
Panoramic viewpoint resurrect the killing fold
Your father drains another beer, he’s one of the few that cares
Crawling behind a saracen’s hull from the safety of his living room chair
Forgotten sons
Forgotten sons
Forgotten sons
And so as I patrol in the valley of the shadow of the tricolour I must fear evil
For I am but mortal and mortals can only die
Asking questions, pleading answers from the nameless faceless watchers
That parade the carpeted corridors of whitehall
Who orders desecration, mutilation, verbal masturbation in the guarded bureaucratic wombs
Minister, minister care for your children
Order them not into damnation
To eliminate those who would trespass against you
For whose is the kingdom, the power, the glory for ever and ever
Amen
Fish ... what a lyricist. Since he left the band's been nothing like the same.
It's a shame their music is so unfashionable though, that nowadays the mere mention of it provokes cries of disgust
My votes go for songs that have already been mentioned ... 'Johnny Was' (which iirc is identical to the Marley version apart from the substitution of 'Belfast' for 'Kingston' in one line of the song ...), 'Alternative Ulster', 'The More I See, The Less I Believe' (which I believe was withdrawn by their record company after a very short time on sale ...), 'Barbed Wire Love'.
Having now heard it ... definite
to 'King Billy's On The Wall' for sure ...
We have occasionally in chat had some discussions over the whole issue of Ulster Scots and whether it's a dialect of Scots, a separate language, or a political fiction... You don't hear many songs in Ulster Scots for one thing ... Being a Scotsperson tho I do find it
fascinating to listen to (It just sounds like Scots in a thick Irish accent to me btw with the odd word I can't work out). But I'm not getting dragged into the argument here over what it is. We're a more civilised bunch in chat*; here it'd turn into mudslinging
* ok maybe not - but we know each other well enough not to drag such an argument into verbal fisticuffs. See, we're a close-knit bunch. None of you buggers ever turn up in there unless the boards are down
