Skyclad - Skyclad.mp3

[00:00.00] I'll sing to you of days departed,
[01:01.05]Times when men proud and stouthearted carved their names on history's bloody page,
[01:04.86]The corpse of chivalry long dead
[01:06.48]Is turning in his loamy bed indignant at your new 'enlightened' age
[01:10.38]White-collared knights at boardroom tables dream their own financial fables,
[01:13.59]Fight to make their incomes larger--mounted on their 'credit charges.'
[01:16.38]Held within the safety of this mundane existence--
[01:18.90]Facing endless grey
[01:19.86]Mondays of dull nine to fives,
[01:21.93]We all climb the social ladder with a dogged persistence,
[01:24.45]Forging chains we shall carry for the rest of our lives.
[01:27.12]We cannot see through clothes may maketh man they cannot give us shelter--
[01:32.46]On this mortal helter-skelter if our loyalties are torn,
[01:37.26]Between the values we believe in and the egos we are feeding--
[01:43.02]We stand all together naked as the day we were born.
[01:48.18]And so cast off the lies that are our lives and find the truth within.
[01:53.52]SKYCLAD- -the veil has lifted,
[02:03.39]SKYCLAD--now
[02:04.41]I see through,
[02:05.37]SKYCLAD- -your mask of illusion,
[02:08.94]SKYCLAD--to the fake that is you.
[02:11.28]Financial wizards read their spells from filofaxes
[02:13.56]Concrete hells of their own making pass for
[02:19.89]Lost in 'green-belt' dreams they do no wrong.
[02:22.29]Your mortgage payment rocket--
[02:23.79]Like your blood pressure rising,
[02:25.38]Executive stresses are the dragons you fight.
[02:28.08]In your Armani armour you are practically shining,
[02:30.93]So have no code of honour--you must always be right.
[02:33.54]Just give me a simple life --my tastes are not demanding,
[02:38.73]And whatever life may hand me
[02:41.49]I'll accept it with good grace;
[02:43.65]For I'm just a simple lad with few ideas about my station,
[02:49.71]So ale and song will apt suffice to keep me in my place.
[02:54.54]How can you know the cost of everything yet never see its worth?
[03:39.78]If you think because you've paid the piper you should call the tune--
[03:45.09]Well think again my friend life is a gain of chance,
[03:50.64]By Fate's command we win or lose,
[03:53.52]But still retain the right to choose
[03:56.28]If we should stumble on-- or shed our cares and dance
[04:00.57]SKYCLAD- -the veil has lifted,
[04:05.85]SKYCLAD--no
[04:06.84]I see through,
[04:08.58]SKYCLAD--your mask of illusion,
[04:11.43]SKYCLAD--to the fake that is you.
[04:13.74]You charge each other for the time and breath it takes to say 'good morning,'
[04:18.90]But the truth is slowly dawning-- things are getting out of hand,
[04:23.82]We all pursue our shattered dreams along the roads to our own ruin--
[04:29.73]Watch our empires sink and wash away like castles made of sand.
[04:34.77]And so cast off the lies that are your lives and find the truth within