1. |
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How Much Is A Life Worth? (Andy Worthington)
When you’re white and killed by terrorists, your value is the maximum
And that’s what happened with the Twin Towers
But in Afghanistan and in Iraq in retaliation
Half a million were killed at a minimum
It seems that one Western life is worth 200 Muslims
And that’s the truth that they don’t want us to know
‘Cause warmongers only want to keep on warmongering
Leaving us to ask in vain
Chorus
How much is a life worth?
How much?
How much is a life worth?
If you’re fleeing death in Syria, in Libya or Iraq
Or the nightmare that is life in Eritrea
Westerners are getting more cold-hearted
And they just want to send you back
These Christians have given up on Jesus’s values
Treating refugees like criminals
When they’re the victims of our wars and our exploitation
Leaving us to ask again
Chorus
How much is a life worth?
How much?
How much is a life worth?
If you’re black in America, your life has no value
Unless like Obama you’re part of the elite
But for most it’s still like the days of slavery
Though now they’re murdered by the police
That’s why Black Lives Matter is the movement of the moment
Trying to stop the hundreds killed every year
From Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner
With each new death we want to know
Chorus
How much is a life worth?
How much?
How much is a life worth?
Line-up:
Andy Worthington (lead vocals, electro-acoustic guitar)
Richard Clare (electric guitar, backing vocals)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)
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2. |
Riot
06:56
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Riot (Andy Worthington)
The establishment want us to believe everything is fine
But they're brutal and intolerant if they think we step out of line
In 2011 when there was unrest in the streets
They hunted down those who stole a bottle of water while the bankers all walked free
They stole billions, they crashed the system and lost money for millions
But they never paid nothing and it's the stench of this hypocrisy
Chorus
That means that there must be a
Riot Riot Riot
Till you treat us all with decency
The establishment want to destroy the welfare state
Except for their friends in the property racket who are all on the take
They ignore the corporate subsidies that cost a hundred billion a year
While making young people work for nothing as interns or through workfare
We have to turn the tables on finding the disabled fit for work when they're not able
Because the death toll is rising and it's anger at this cruelty
Chorus (repeat)
The establishment are only interested in the transfer of wealth
From the young and poor to the old and rich at the cost of the nation's health
They use our money on the services they want to privatise
Then their cronies take all the profits while we're left high and dry
And this insane house price inflation that's causing so much debt and so much consternation
Is just the greed of the rich whose appalling sense of entitlement
Chorus (repeat)
Line-up:
Andy Worthington (lead vocals, electro-acoustic guitar)
Richard Clare (electric guitar, backing vocals)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)
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3. |
London
04:32
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London (Andy Worthington)
London, you were like a lover to me
Drunk and disorderly and full of honesty
In your wild pubs and squats we broke all the rules
We decided that playing it safe was a game just for fools
And though we lost many along the way to heroin and AIDS
It was better to have loved and lost than to have let our passions fade away
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
London, they tried to stop you being free
By selling off your culture and through the death of industry
But you came bouncing back with your pills and your all-night raves
In those glimpses of giddy utopia when millions misbehaved
And you were like the earth mother on drugs from the M11 to Reclaim the Streets
Though they hit us with the CJA and that ban on repetitive beats
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
London, you were my impetuous wife
Always out and out of it with a voracious appetite
But oh my darling, the end came with the men in suits
Whose enthusiasm for the super-rich meant they sold you like a prostitute
And when you still weren't silenced and laughed at their dull complacency
They razed your neighbourhoods to the ground and gave you a lobotomy
No no no no
London, you're on a life support machine
In the basement of one of those hundreds of towers being built for a foreign elite
And oh my baby, I hope that you rise again
And throw off these rich parasites like you have every now and then
And I'll keep fighting against the dying of the light
But without some kind of revolution the future doesn't look too bright to me
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Line-up:
Andy Worthington (lead vocals, electro-acoustic guitar)
Richard Clare (electric guitar, backing vocals)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)
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4. |
She's Back
04:50
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She's Back (Richard Clare)
She's back from the dark night
She's been away too long
She's out of the twilight
Eternal winter of frozen promises and faint regrets
They gave her two years' hard labour
For a prayer against Vladimir
Now she's out and she's talking
Which the internet misogynists hate ... hate
Chorus
She's got a purpose, a reason to carry on (x4)
She thinks she's winning the long fight
With the authorities
Her head has been so tight
She's heard the whispers, the guards are waiting
Chorus (repeat)
Repeat 1st verse
Chorus (repeat)
Line-up:
Richard Clare (lead vocals, 12-string guitar)
Andy Worthington (backing vocals, electro-acoustic guitar)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)
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5. |
Dreamers
04:08
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Dreamers (Andy Worthington)
We met in London in the restless '90s
Before capital ruined it all
We lived intensely with booze and euphoria
Sometimes staying up wide-eyed till dawn
You were the first of us to have a baby
To show us how it could be done
I still remember looking after your daughter
And seeing how it could fun
Chorus
And we were dreamers then
And we're still dreamers now
Though we overcame some demons
And gained some wisdom somehow
You moved away to make sense of your dreams
Though it left a hole in our lives
But we soon embarked on our own adventure
Putting our egos aside
Now that we're older and our time is our own again
Now that our children have grown
The past has informed us, the present adorns us
But the future's still unknown
Chorus (repeat)
Line-up:
Andy Worthington (lead vocals, electro-acoustic guitar)
Richard Clare (electric guitar, backing vocals)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)
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6. |
Tell Me Baby
03:56
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Tell Me Baby (Andy Worthington)
When we were young we would fly
It was all the same game looking for sex or love
Booze was the lube we would choose
And for many I'd say those were the golden days
But now I feel the weight of my life
And all that gives me relief is the sweet taste of your love
So please take some heed of my needs
Cause I'm here all alone and the clock ticks on
Chorus
So you gotta tell me baby
Cause I can't just hang around
Yeah you gotta tell me baby
When will your love come down?
When we got older we paired
But we were not prepared for how our lives would change
Kids change you more than you know
You lose your ego, you grow, and then one day they leave
An empty nest can be a source of distress
Or set you free once again to find out who you are
And although age it can wither and maim
And nothing stays the same I'm still hungry for love
Chorus
So you gotta tell me baby
Cause I really wanna know
Yeah you gotta tell me baby
Should I stay or go?
When there was nothing to do
There were three ways to escape: sex, drugs and rock and roll
But now in the materialistic glare
With porn and shoes everywhere I don't know how love survives
Cause we need to need each other more than our drive
For wealth and status to count more than what burns inside
And I've been with you so long
I'm incomplete without you, you're there in all that I do
Chorus
So you gotta tell me baby
Cause I really need to know
Yeah you gotta tell me baby
When will your loving show?
Line-up:
Andy Worthington (lead vocals, electro-acoustic guitar)
Richard Clare (electric guitar, backing vocals)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)
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7. |
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Equal Rights and Justice For All (Andy Worthington)
Once upon a time we had no protection
From every tyrant with an axe to grind
They could throw us in a dungeon
And we could only hope they'd change their mind
Then 800 years ago in England
The barons changed the rules of the game
They made King John introduce habeas corpus
And tyranny would never be the same
Chorus
And that's why we're calling for
Equal rights and justice for all (x2)
But since the start of the "war on terror"
The rules have changed, our leaders have said
Some have been subjected to rendition and torture
And some have ended up extra-judicially dead
And for the prisoners at Guantánamo
Not held as PoWs or charged with a crime
The court of appeals shut down the litigation
After the Supreme Court ruled they had habeas rights
Chorus (repeat)
Guantánamo found an echo in England
In the arbitrary detention of terror suspects
Held in maximum-security prisons
Or under a form of house arrest
Held on the basis of secret evidence
That is only discussed in a secret court
They never get to hear the allegations against them
But we claim to respect the rule of law
Chorus (repeat)
Line-up:
Andy Worthington (lead vocals, electro-acoustic guitar)
Richard Clare (electric guitar, backing vocals)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)
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8. |
Close Guantanamo
04:10
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Close Guantánamo (Andy Worthington)
They said they were the worst of the worst
But they didn't know a thing about them
They said that they were captured on the battlefield
But most of them were bought for bounties
They took them to a place outside the law
In a bay that they stole from Cuba
They said they had no rights at all
As they tore up all their laws and treaties
You cannot claim to respect the law
And treat people this way
And after all the torture and abuse
It's time to make it go away
Chorus: Close Guantánamo, Close Guantánamo (x2)
When they didn't know what they wanted them to know
They introduced "enhanced interrogation"
They played them music as loud as it would go
In isolation and as sleep deprivation
And when they broke them and they made them lie
About themselves and their fellow prisoners
They had the nerve to hold their heads up high
And call this shame and this disgrace a success
You cannot claim to respect the law
And treat people this way
And after all the torture and abuse
It's time to make it go away
Chorus: Close Guantánamo, Close Guantánamo (x2)
Obama promised to close the prison for good
On his second day in office
But Republicans resisted his plans
And he lacked the political will to do it
So as the years drag on and on
And the men still held get older and iller
Endless imprisonment without charge or trial
Is what it always was - a form of torture
And now the future’s looking bleaker again
With Donald Trump and his dystopian views
So we must tell him there’s no future
For this place of torture and abuse
Chorus: Close Guantánamo, Close Guantánamo (x2)
Line-up:
Andy Worthington (lead vocals, electro-acoustic guitar)
Richard Clare (electric guitar, backing vocals)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)
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9. |
River Run Dry
04:08
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River Run Dry (Andy Worthington)
When winter froze up the heart of the city
Oh my love sailed away for the sun
I sat alone in the shuttered museum
I sat alone and I polished my gun
And in the shrine I built for her memory
I surrounded her portrait with trophies of war
But every arrow of love shot in hatred
Kept turning forever to nevermore
Chorus
Oh how can it be so monotonous?
How can the river run dry?
But trying too hard to hold on to someone
Leaves nothing but lies in your eyes
I met her down where the refugees wander
Hot with anger and cold with ennui
Where past and future are ancient delusions
And life is an echo eternally brief
Without a word to express our misgivings
We take our time and we put it to bed
But the morning after what started so harmless
Winds up speechless and sick in the head
Chorus (repeat)
The midnight bells toll another new daytime
The drunken sailors are far from the sea
Ducking down alleyways far from the jailers
Who jangle their handcuffs and forget all their dreams
Me I sit at my window
Calm inside the cascading rain
That falls like a cool benediction
Smoothing away the furrows of friction
Gently laughing at contradiction
Till the river flows again
Line-up:
Andy Worthington (lead vocals, electro-acoustic guitar)
Richard Clare (electric guitar, backing vocals)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)
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10. |
When He Is Sane
04:28
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When He Is Sane (Richard Clare)
When your life is on the rise again
See a picture on your shelf
Find that things will always be the same
Just a step beyond all help (x2)
Chorus
Let me out, let me in
Falling slowly a voice begins
It threatens gently, delusions fear
Will always haunt his inner ear
He’ll end it now when he is sane
Doesn’t want that hell again
Death is simple, death is safe
Unless his voices follow to the grave
Time to think is time to fall again
Now he’s getting deeper in
At the party no one leaves but then
No one you could call a friend (x2)
Chorus
Let me alone, I’m so alone
Where’s the life that I have known?
There’s nothing about me it doesn’t know
It’s never going to let me go
He’ll end it now when he is sane
Doesn’t want that hell again
Death is simple, death is safe
Unless his voices follow to the grave
Verse 1 (repeat)
Line-up:
Richard Clare (lead vocals, electric guitar)
Andy Worthington (backing vocals, electro-acoustic guitar)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)
The cover image shows 'Sick mood at sunset. Despair' (detail) by Edvard Munch (1892).
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The Four Fathers London, UK
Militant, melodic rock & roots reggae band, based in SE London, mostly playing original protest music. Journalist and activist Andy Worthington (lead vocals, electro-acoustic guitar), Richard Clare (electric guitar, vocals), Bren Horstead (drums, percussion), Andrew Fifield (flute, harmonica), Paul Rooke (bass). ... more
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