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From the Cradle to the Grave

by Subhumans

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1.
intro 00:44
2.
Forget 01:20
So I get up in the morning like most people do I look in the mirror and I think of you So I smash it to pieces and go downstairs I walk down the road and meet someone I knew It could've been god but I think it was you So I forget all about it I don't really care [Chorus:] I remember the face, the place, the time I wrote you a song but it didn't rhyme But I don't wanna remember I Just wanna forget An advert on telly for plastic goo The dummy's so real it could almost be you But it smiles all the time and it doesn't exist Crashed out in the gutter covered in spew Last thing I remember is a picture of you But I smashed it last week when I was pissed [chorus]
3.
You paint your leather jacket but it comes off in the rain And the more you cut your hair the more it grows again The badges you pin on yourself fall off or start to rust And the more they take the piss the less people you can trust [Chorus:] It's the story of your life And the end of it's your death And every word that's in between Is just a waste of breath You don't know who you might have been or who you now should be Or what you ought to write on walls or why you wanna be free And then you start to panic cos the inspiration's there But your not sure how to use it and no one seems to care [Chorus] You're the classic all-round failure who never seems to win You'd like to write a book but you're not sure how to begin It's the story of your life and the end of it's your death And every word that's in between is just a waste of breath [Chorus]
4.
We're going backwards Into the sin of self-neglect What do we stand for? It's very easy to forget The protest marches Is it the done thing to object? So where's the freedom? Your conscience hangs around your neck Where's the freedom? We're going crazy With paranoia fear and greed Accepting standards Believing what we hear and read And when we think we've sussed out a new reality But is this freedom just another hand from which we feed? Where's the freedom? We're going nowhere In vicious circles we gyrate The new sub-culture With cliches painted on their face We cannot see past The elitist barriers we create We reject the system But put another in its place Where's the freedom?
5.
Reality isn't easy to define Like turning water into wine It's a dream of fact based on fiction Everything you do has its restrictions Everyone has their own definition The record shops got plastic nutrition Cos music is the food of love But reality is waiting for a bus [Chorus:] And there's an A sign on the bus stop wall But it's very hard to relate To the bus work to keep in line So who's gonna smash the state? It's too easy to get cynical And make the problem clinical But in which direction do you turn? Do you preach or do you burn? Pamphlets blowing in the breeze A mother on her weeping knees "Reality" is on the news at ten But the bus to work is late again [Chorus] So your reality is getting pissed Avoiding a world that shouldn't exist A world within your own sour mind Where everything can be re-defined "This is wrong" "I don't agree" "I can't accept the reality" So why base your life on simple trust? Is reality waiting for a bus?
6.
OK let's start at the beginning When fishes roamed the sea They swam around before anything else In ten million years B.C. Then one day they decided To evolve into vertebrates And a few came out of the water And got drunk to celebrate Soon, well when I say "soon" I mean A coupla million years They evolved into various quadrupeds With legs and things and ears And about a trillion aeons later They went all civilized And built lots of bombs and council flats That reached into the skies The moral of this tale, you see We are descended from the fish And if we progress much further We'll put our lives at risk We're starting to destroy ourselves With pollution, war, and greed When food and sex and water Is all we really need When "sink or swim" is the choice you get You cannot swim forever You need support to keep you alive Us fish must swim together!
7.
I don't think I am what I was before I never watched anyone die before I wish I'd never left home I wish I'd left it alone Temptation is a disease You can never do as you please Your body takes over and your mind don't care Never think twice what might happen out there Go straight in for the ultimate sin And nobody else ever seems to care So I took what I thought was mine And waited for a very long time And I thought I knew what happened to you Cos you told me exactly what to do So I did it right and stayed up all night Felt like killing myself for you I don't think I think like I did before I never watched anyone die before I felt like I died as well The look the words the smell The way you looked at me As if I'd never be free I remember the words like a favourite song Cos I forget the way things went wrong Faked a picture of perfect health Then I realised I was killing myself I don't think I am what I was before I never watched anyone die before I dream in slow motion and I wake up screaming
8.
Adversity 02:41
I saw the advert on my TV screen Slimline girls and a tea machine Housewife proud of her shiny floor As if that's what she was living for The cat who had his teeth pulled out That's what the public love no doubt A cuddly gimmick to make you smile That cat won't grin for a very long while I saw the advert on my TV screen Slimline drinks and Tetley tea Exploit the accent of the flat-cap men Like hell the North will rise again The comradeship of drinking ale The workers' revolution failed Too pissed on shit to notice it Never mind wear it if it fits I saw the advert on my TV screen Slimline cars a real mean machine It's cheaper than this it's cheaper than that It's still ten thousand pounds you twat Do I get a free tart with every one? Can I drive it off into the sun? Has it got a big ashtray? I'm hooked on forty fags a day You mustn't smoke, you mustn't drink You mustn't even try to think Just stay dead the advert said Eight out of ten people had no brains Eight out of ten said they enjoyed it The whole damn country died of boredom
9.
Rain 03:12
Well it's dark outside And it's raining And the atmosphere Is like it always has been Thoughts of revolution How and why? Just pass on by Gloom and depression Fake deprivation "Well I got no money" [Chorus:] Are you depressive? or depressing? Obsessive? Or obsessed? Someone or no one? Are you alive or dead? Do you take your ideas From other people? Surrounded by boredom You get boring And then you start to enjoy it Take all the plugs out And sit in darkness It's dark in your head You're not alive any more And it's raining [Chorus]
10.
Well they took you from your mother's womb and put you in a school Told you how to run your life by following the rules Told you not to pick your nose or disrespect the queen Scrub your teeth three times a day keep mind and body clean Save up all your pocket money, nothing is for free And you'd better trust your parents cos there's no one else you see And then they send you off each day remember what you're told "You may think you don't need teaching but you'll need it when you're old" And if you're too intelligent they'll cut you down to size They'll praise you til you're happy then they'll fill you full of lies Cos intelligence is threatening and genius is sin If you could ever see through them they know they'd never win They'll channel your ability into the right direction If you're good enough and rich enough you can be a politician On the other hand if your too thick they'll tell you that you're lazy They'll put you down and wind you up until it drives you crazy They'll say you ought to learn a trade to help you in your life Success is written in three parts: a job, a house, a wife They'll say that school prepares you for the awesome world outside Well it certainly gives you bigotry and patriotic pride Racism, sexism, teacher to class From school to work remains the same Are you white and middle class? You'll learn that bad men dress in black and good men dress in white And the pamphlets in the playground say that's right Girls were made for housework and boys were made to fight And the naughty pictures on page 3 make everything alright And so from school to the outside world these morals you will take And unless you can reject them you'll have your mind at stake They'll give you a decision when you get to 18, too The right to vote for someone else who says he cares for you But the only thing he cares about is getting to the top By conning you with empty words that promise you a lot But the end result is slavery to a false set of ideals You'll be tempted to believe them cos they'll seem so very real The slavery of attitudes that make you keep in line Subconsciously devoted to the morals of our time And when you end up on the dole which you very likely will They'll offer you a brand new trade: Learning how to kill Why don't you join the army? Be a man and not a fool There's someone else to think for you just like there was at school They'll promise you absolution from the murders you'll commit In the name of god and country they can get away with it They fill you full of orders and promise you rewards Like busting up your family by sending you abroad A holiday in Germany or Iceland or Hong Kong Making money being useless well it seems it can't go wrong But then it's off to Northern Ireland where you'll practice what they preached You'll shoot to keep yourself alive and kill to keep the peace And then it won't be so much fun as you hear the wounded crying Cos before they couldn't speak English and you didn't know what they were saying But when the children call you "Bastard" it will make you think again When you cannot tell the difference between animals and men Animals don't wear uniforms but they kill as much as you But the army kills for money and animals kill for food It's the basest degradation in the name of what is right Become something you never were and regret it til you die Cos your father will tell you "Sonny, you must do as you are told" And you'll say the same thing to your kids when you're 32 years old And unless you can react against the brainwash from the start Your government will rule your mind and your mind will rule your heart You'll conform to every social law and be the system's slave From birth to school to work to death, from the cradle to the grave

credits

released March 1, 1984

Dick voice/words
Bruce guitar/voice/bass on 'Cradle'
Phil bass
Trotsky drums
Recorded at Southern, London, 10-14 October 83. Mixed Dec 83
Engineer John Loder
Bluurg Records Fish 8

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