Chumbawamba

[fox69]

"Total Control"

"Total Control"


Product sells
People die
Same revolution
Wrapped in lies
In these sexist, drugged-up
Rock and roles
The biggest prizes
To the biggest fools

Ask the puppet-masters
Who pull the strings
'Who makes the money
When the puppets sing?'
Ask the corporations
'Where does the money go?'
Ask the empty-bellied children
'Tell me what are we singing for?'

Until we pull down the walls
It'll stay the same
Until we find something new
Make it change
I know there most be more
So what are we singing for?

[Repeats until end of song]
I know there most be more

"These puppets, underneath the skin, have the same problems as you and me--they want to be loved, don't know where to begin. Just a wall's width away, but impossible to get close. Offstage, with nothing to hide behind, the puppets are running away. And meanwhile, we're running away from ourselves... and meanwhile, we're running away from ourselves... and meanwhile, we're running away from ourselves..."

If our music makes you happy or content
It has failed
If our music entertains, but doesn't inspire
It has failed
The music's not a threat
Action the music inspires
Can be a threat!

 

[fox69]

"Tubthumping"

"Tubthumping"



We'll be singing
When we're winning
We'll be singing

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down

Pissing the night away
Pissing the night away
He drinks a whiskey drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the better times

Oh, Danny Boy
Danny Boy

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down

Pissing the night away
Pissing the night away
He drinks a whiskey drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the better times

Don't cry for me
Next door neighbor

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down

I get knocked down
(We'll be singing)
But I get up again
You're never going to keep me down
(When we're winning)
I get knocked down
(We'll be singing)
But I get up again
You're never going to keep me down
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)

 

[fox69]

"Ugh! Your Ugly Houses!"

"Ugh! Your Ugly Houses!"


Ugh! Your ugly, your ugly, your ugly houses look so Ugh!
[repeat]

 

[fox69]

"Ulrike"

"Ulrike"


[Chorus]
You sometimes wonder and you sometimes wonder
Ten thousand Deutschmarks to hand me over
Oh you sometimes wonder and you sometimes wonder
You can make a living sometimes wondering
Don't think these bones can be sold when I'm long gone
Don't think that I should want to sell my soul for the Sundays
Don't wait for me to say I'm sorry--I won't
Who wants to be a green MP? I don't

[Repeat chorus]

Wise men say only fools rush in
But I can't help falling in love with you
Don't think I walked into banks to stand in the queue
Don't think I pressed up to the plexi-glass just to talk to you
Don't wait for me to say I'm sorry - I won't
Who wants to be a green MP? - I don't

[Repeat chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Underground"

"Underground"



Lights out, the fun begins.
Can't sleep when I'm listening in.
Under cover, that sound -
My connection to the underground.
Underground...
My connection to the underground.

Transistor, tiny spark.
A bigger, better world in the dark.
Under cover, I found
My connection to the underground.
Underground...
My connection to the underground.

A secret signal from a Starman -
Just a string and a tin can.
It turned my everything right around;
My connection to the underground.
Underground...
My connection to the undergound.

 

[fox69]

"Unilever"

"Unilever"


(White-whitewash, white-whitewash)
When you don't want to feed the world
When you just want to feed your bank balance
Wash your guilt away (Whitewash)
Unilever
Washes whiter (whitewash)
Soap to clean those dirty hands
And a slap for the people who work the land
Unilever (whitewash, whitewash)
Man-made hunger (whitewash)
Soap in our eyes (white-whitewash)
John West is the best (whitewash)
Old soap opera (whitewash)
No soap-reality (whitewash)
Legal slave trade (white-whitewash)
Domestos kills all known truths dead

(White-whitewash, white-whitewash)

Soap to wash the darkest stain
Profit covers up the pain
Of a slow, deliberate genocide
And all the dirt you want to hide
Take the black and wash it whiter (whitewash)
Brooke-Bond Oxo (whitewash)
Blue Band, Bird's Eye (whitewash)
Lifebuoy, Sunsilk (whitewash)
Persil washes whiter (whitewash)
We make whitewash
(Whitewash)
We sell whitewash
(Whitewash)
Consume whitewash
Consumed by whitewash (whitewash)

[Simultaneously:]
Unilever, Man-made hunger
Soap to wash the darkest stain
Soap in our eyes, John West is the best
Profit covers up the pain
Of a slow, deliberate genocide
Old soap opera
No soap-reality
And all the dirt you want to hide
Legal slave trade
Take the black and wash it white
Domestos kills all known truths dead

Whitewash
Buy it

Somewhere in this cycle there's me and you
What are we prepared to do?
Somewhere in this cycle there's me and you
What are we prepared to do?
Somewhere in this cycle there's me and you
What are we prepared to do?
Somewhere in this cycle there's me and you
What are we prepared to do?
Somewhere in this cycle there's me and you
What are we prepared to do?
Somewhere in this cycle there's me and you
What are we prepared to do?
Somewhere in this cycle there's me and you
What are we prepared to do?
Somewhere in this cycle there's me and you
What are we prepared to do?

[vomiting]

 

[fox69]

"Unpindownable"

"Unpindownable"



In the age before the information age
Making history and living for the days
We told our stories then in oh so many ways
We were unpindownable

The moth it changed between the chimney and the tree
I grew feet so I could crawl out from the sea
No-one dares to tell me what I'm going to be
For I am unpindownable.

 

[fox69]

"Voices, That's All"

"Voices, That's All"



Seigfried Sassoon on the Dunbar End (Everyone sang)
When strangers became your new best friends (Everyone sang)
It was Armistice Day, and peace broke out (Everyone sang)
Sometimes a melody is louder than a shout. (Everyone sang)

Somebody struck up a song
We didn't know the words but still we sang along.

Just our voices, that's all,
Everywhere a concert hall.
Voices, that's all
Lullaby and call.

Chucking out time at the bar on the corner (Everyone sang)
From the Albion tap room to California (Everyone sang)
In the olden days before they put in a jukebox (Everyone sang)
"Please to put a penny in the old man's voice box." (Everyone sang)

Somebody struck up a song
We didn't know the words but still we sang along.

Just our voices, that's all,
Everywhere a concert hall.
Voices, that's all
Lullaby and call.

Lost in the middle of a demonstration (Everyone sang)
All power to imagination (Everyone sang)
Your song it sounds a whole lot better (Everyone sang)
When everyone sings that song together (Everyone sang)

Somebody struck up a song
We didn't know the words but still we sang along.

Just our voices, that's all,
Everywhere a concert hall.
Voices, that's all
Lullaby and call.

Just our voices, that's all,
Everywhere a concert hall.
Voices, that's all
Lullaby and call.

Just our voices, that's all.

 

[fox69]

"Wagner At The Opera"

"Wagner At The Opera"



I'm laying on the pavement
And the last thing I recall
Picked up by the arms and legs
And taken from the hall
For squaring up to culture
In the circle and the stall

All because they're playing Wagner at the opera
All because they're playing Wagner at the opera

Hurt can make you act without
Apology or regret
Over half a century
But still I can't forget
Ideology makes a mockery
Of the string quartet

All because they're playing Wagner at the opera
All because they're playing Wagner at the opera

When they came to take me
I was standing on a chair
I can't keep quiet
I have something to declare
Listen to my rattle
For my rattle says "Beware"

All because they're playing Wagner at the opera
All because they're playing Wagner at the opera

A rattle for remembering
The rattle of the chains
A rattle for remembering
The rattle of the trains
From Warsaw down the decades
To hell and home again

All because they're playing Wagner at the opera
All because they're playing Wagner at the opera

For everyone we lost
I swing the rattle loud and long
I swing it 'til I drown out
All the music and the songs
This tattoo will last forever
And my memory is long

Here's to no more playing Wagner at the opera
Here's to no more playing Wagner at the opera
Here's to no more playing Wagner at the opera

 

[fox69]

"Waiting For The Bus"

"Waiting For The Bus"



My name is Gary Tyler, Louisiana-born
Shadow of the poplar tree on fields all ripe with corn
Sixteen years I counted on the rising of the sun
I'm just waiting for the bus to take me home
Of all the Disunited States divided black and white
Louisiana taught me how to think and how to fight
Sixty of us kids aboard the number 91
I'm just waiting for the bus to take me home

Bus was barely moving we were set upon and stopped
Watched 200 white boys throwing bottles, cans and rocks
Trapped and scared together there was nowhere we could run
I'm just waiting for the bus to take me home
Boy outside the bus, an automatic in his hand
We heard a single shot and then we all just hit the ground
I never pulled a trigger and I never held a gun
I'm just waiting for the bus to take me home

White boy lay there bleeding cops they searched the bus
Never found a thing to say that it was one of us
Took us down the station they were beating us for fun
I'm just waiting for the bus to take me home
Gun produced from nowhere pinned the crime on me
A lynchmob for a jury meant they'd never set me free
Thirty years in prison for a crime I haven't done
I'm just waiting for the bus to take me home

Waiting here the world has turned a thousand times or more
Stranded like the man who never knew they'd stopped the war
Waiting for the pardon but the pardon never comes
I'm just waiting for the bus to take me home.