Forgotten Sons

Market square heroes ...
...to you

Armalite
Street lights
Night-sights
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 long-forgotten cause
On not so foreign shores
Boys baptised in wars
They are boys baptised in wars

Morphine
Chill stream
Bad dream
Serving as numbers on dog-tags
Flak-rags
Even sandbags
Your girl has married your best friend
Love's end
With a poison pen
Your flesh will always creep
T-t-t-tossing turning sleep
The wounds that burn so deep
Burn so deep
They burn so deep
They burn so deep

Your mother sits on the edge of the world
When the cameras start to roll
Panoramic viewpoints resurrect the killing fold
Your father drains another beer he is one of the few that cares
Crawling behind a Saracen's hull
From the safety of his living room chair
Forgotten sons
Forgotten sons
Your forgotten sons

And so as I patrol in the valley of the shadow of the Tricolor 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 their 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 and the glory
Forever and ever
Amen (Amen)
Amen (Amen)
Amen (Amen)

Halt who goes there? (who goes there?)

Death

Approach

Friend

Just another coffin on its way
Down the emerald aisle
Where the children's stony glances mourn your death
In a terrorist's smile
The bomber's arm places fiery giftsOn the supermarket shelves
Alleys sing with shrapnel
Dance in a temporary hell

Forgotten sons
Your forgotten sons

From the dole queue to the regiment
A profession in a flash
But remember Monday's signings
When from door to door you dash
On the news a nation mourns you
Unknown soldier count the cost
For a second you'll be famous
But you're labelled posthumous

Forgotten sons
Just another forgotten son

Ring o' ring o' roses, they all fall down
Ring o' ring o' roses, they all fall down
Ring o' ring o' roses, they all fall down

Britannia, rule Britannia
Your children
Your children
Your children
Your children they all falling down

Forgotten sons

Peace on earth and mercy mild
Mother Brown has lost her child
She's lost her child
Another child
Another child
Just another forgotten son

And they all fall down
They still fall down

Edinburgh Playhouse thank you

On the guitar Robin Boult
Mickey Simmons keyboards
On the bass David Paton
Guitar Frank Usher
The drums Kevin Wilkinson
Myself Fish
Thank you
Have a very happy new year
Goodnight