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Dark and grey, an English film, the Wednesday play
We always watch the Queen on Christmas Day
Won't you stay?
Though your eyes see shipwrecked sailors you're still dry
The outlook's fine though Wales might have some rain
Saved again.
Let's skip the news boy (I'll go and make some tea)
Arabs and Jews boy (too much for me)
They get me confused boy (puts me off to sleep)
And the thing I hate, oh Lord!
Is staying up late, to watch some debate, on some nation's fate.
Hypnotized by Batman, Tarzan, still surprised!
You've won the West in time to be our guest
Name your prize!
Drop of wine, a glass of beer dear what's the time?
The grime on the Tyne is mine all mine all mine
Five past nine.
Blood on the rooftops, Venice in the spring
The Streets of San Francisco, a word from Peking
The trouble was started, by a young Errol Flynn
Better in my day, oh Lord!
For when we got bored, we'd have a world war, happy but poor
So let's skip the news boy (I'll go and make some tea)
Blood on the rooftops (too much for me)
When old Mother Goose stops, and they're out for twenty three
Then the rain at Lords stopped play
Seems Helen of Troy has found a new face again.
We always watch the Queen on Christmas Day
Won't you stay?
Though your eyes see shipwrecked sailors you're still dry
The outlook's fine though Wales might have some rain
Saved again.
Let's skip the news boy (I'll go and make some tea)
Arabs and Jews boy (too much for me)
They get me confused boy (puts me off to sleep)
And the thing I hate, oh Lord!
Is staying up late, to watch some debate, on some nation's fate.
Hypnotized by Batman, Tarzan, still surprised!
You've won the West in time to be our guest
Name your prize!
Drop of wine, a glass of beer dear what's the time?
The grime on the Tyne is mine all mine all mine
Five past nine.
Blood on the rooftops, Venice in the spring
The Streets of San Francisco, a word from Peking
The trouble was started, by a young Errol Flynn
Better in my day, oh Lord!
For when we got bored, we'd have a world war, happy but poor
So let's skip the news boy (I'll go and make some tea)
Blood on the rooftops (too much for me)
When old Mother Goose stops, and they're out for twenty three
Then the rain at Lords stopped play
Seems Helen of Troy has found a new face again.
Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae
Track duration: 05:28
"Blood on the Rooftops" as written by Phil/hackett Collins
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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In the same year, about the same time, Richard Nixon went to Peking (Bejing) China to broker a deal with eastern nations that included a staged withdrawal from Viet Nam 'Word from Peking'.
Lindesfarne's Fog on the Tyne was a number 1 ablum in the UK earlier that year.
I think it is actually the first socially and politically charged song that I can think of in the Genesis canon.
It references the horrors going on around the world and also the mindless celebrity hedonism 'the trouble was started by a young Errol Flynn' of the entertainments world, on TV and film, to that distracts the populace from bad news; all cast in a pastoral English flavoured piece of music (e.g. Composer, Ralph Vaughen Williams influence perhaps?)
how about
Selling England by the Pound (Dancing Moonlit Night) ...that sounds a little socially and politically charged.....or even better yet Aisle of Plenty...their activisim was always quite subtle and understated (the English Way) back in the day.....
Rather than retreating into ignorance, the lyrics show more that if lives are made to become insignificant (through staleness, doing the same thing, taking partners and situations for granted), the only meaningful thing left is to make an issue of "the world" as they see it which, of course, is tainted by their own blinkered perceptions.
I like the line about Errol Flynn- he was an actor, so it's like he's saying that everything in the news in someway or another staged.
And what are the lines "When old Mother Goose stops - they're out for 23
Then the rain at Lords stopped play" about? More British television, I presume?
Then the rain at Lords stopped play" is to do with cricket!
Sadly, this is the last great Genesis album. Duke and And Then There Were Three both had their moments, but, otherwise, Genesis never really was the same.