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We were watching TV
In Tiananmen Square
Lost my baby there
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes
She was a short order pastry chef
In a Dim Sum dive on the Yangtze tideway
She had shiny hair
She was the daughter of an engineer
Won't you shed a tear
For my yellow rose
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes
She had perfect breasts
She had high hopes
She had almond eyes
She had yellow thighs
She was a student of philosophy
Won't you grieve with me
For my yellow rose
Shed a tear
For her bloodstained clothes
She had shiny hair
She had perfect breasts
She had high hopes
She had almond eyes
She had yellow thighs
She was the daughter of an engineer
So get out your pistols
Get out your stones
Get out your knives
Cut them to the bone
They are the lackeys of the grocer's machine
They built the dark satanic mills
That manufacture hell on earth
They bought the front row seats on Calvary
They are irrelevant to me
But I grieve for my sister
People of China
Do not forget do not forget
The children who died for you
Long live the Republic
Did we do anything after this
I've a feeling we did
We were watching TV
Watching TV
We were watching TV
Watching TV
She wore a white bandanna that said
Freedom now
She thought the Great Wall of China
Would come tumbling down
She was a student
Her father was an engineer
Won't you shed a tear
For my yellow rose
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes
Her grandpa fought old Chiang Kai-shek
That no-good low-down dirty rat
Who used to order his troops
To fire on the women and children
Imagine that imagine that
And in the spring of '48
Mao Tse-tung got quite irate
And he kicked that old dictator Chiang
Out of the state of China
Chiang Kai-shek came down in Formosa
And they armed the island of Quemoy
And the shells were flying across the China Sea
And they turned Formosa into a shoe factory
Called Taiwan
And she is different from Cro-Magnon man
She's different from Anne Boleyn
She is different from the Rosenbergs
And from the unknown Jew
She is different from the unknown Nicaraguan
Half superstar half victim
She's a victor star conceptually new
And she is different from the Dodo
And from the Kankanbono
She is different from the Aztec
And from the Cherokee
She's everybody's sister
She's symbolic of our failure
She's the one in fifty million
Who can help us to be free
Because she died on TV
And I grieve for my sister
In Tiananmen Square
Lost my baby there
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes
She was a short order pastry chef
In a Dim Sum dive on the Yangtze tideway
She had shiny hair
She was the daughter of an engineer
Won't you shed a tear
For my yellow rose
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes
She had perfect breasts
She had high hopes
She had almond eyes
She had yellow thighs
She was a student of philosophy
Won't you grieve with me
For my yellow rose
Shed a tear
For her bloodstained clothes
She had shiny hair
She had perfect breasts
She had high hopes
She had almond eyes
She had yellow thighs
She was the daughter of an engineer
So get out your pistols
Get out your stones
Get out your knives
Cut them to the bone
They are the lackeys of the grocer's machine
They built the dark satanic mills
That manufacture hell on earth
They bought the front row seats on Calvary
They are irrelevant to me
But I grieve for my sister
People of China
Do not forget do not forget
The children who died for you
Long live the Republic
Did we do anything after this
I've a feeling we did
We were watching TV
Watching TV
We were watching TV
Watching TV
She wore a white bandanna that said
Freedom now
She thought the Great Wall of China
Would come tumbling down
She was a student
Her father was an engineer
Won't you shed a tear
For my yellow rose
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes
Her grandpa fought old Chiang Kai-shek
That no-good low-down dirty rat
Who used to order his troops
To fire on the women and children
Imagine that imagine that
And in the spring of '48
Mao Tse-tung got quite irate
And he kicked that old dictator Chiang
Out of the state of China
Chiang Kai-shek came down in Formosa
And they armed the island of Quemoy
And the shells were flying across the China Sea
And they turned Formosa into a shoe factory
Called Taiwan
And she is different from Cro-Magnon man
She's different from Anne Boleyn
She is different from the Rosenbergs
And from the unknown Jew
She is different from the unknown Nicaraguan
Half superstar half victim
She's a victor star conceptually new
And she is different from the Dodo
And from the Kankanbono
She is different from the Aztec
And from the Cherokee
She's everybody's sister
She's symbolic of our failure
She's the one in fifty million
Who can help us to be free
Because she died on TV
And I grieve for my sister
Lyrics submitted by H-bomb
Track duration: 06:08
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Maybe Roger wants to tell us how emotions and images are used to make people to react in one way, the way THEY (media) wants you to go.
They shows a dying "perfect woman" on tv, the immediate reaction of most of people think that it was an injustice (and maybe it was) Media tells you how to react (get out your guns, get out your knife ...)
Media uses emotions, not information, to make people react and to control mind, (as says biko2720 it's based on neil postman book, which tells how media control public opinion)
We know nothing of this woman, exept some details, but nothing about his past, in other circumstances, the same kind of image could be used to say that this woman was a terrorist or other
Notice that for Roger, it's not actual governement in china which is dictatorship, the dictator is Chiang Kai-shek who order to fire in the crowd (and not mao or another communist leader), who left china and build a commercial island (shoe factory, money rules), we know now that during tien an men, some disturbing events occurs (may be orchestrated by other "governement") and we know now for sure that orders have been sent by chinese governement during the "tien an men revolution" to NOT shoot at people.
"She's a victor star conceptually new" .... "She's symbolic of our failure" not THEIR failure (chinese)
I aggree that roger is fighting for human right, but not in china only or in supposed dictator state, but here,in our western country, he says beware of what is shown on tv, it's maybe manipulation, maybe dictatorship is in our countries... without noticing it, coz nobody show it to you.
Notice that all other "disasters" that are quoted are fruits of OUR western civilisation (boleyn, rosenberg, holocaust, nicaragua war dodo, kankabono, aztec, cherokee, he says that your are fooled, it's deception, coz we are at the origin of most mass murdering
-or am I reading too much stuff into this?
Get out your stones
Get out your knives
Cut them to the bone
They are the lackeys of the grocer's machine
They built the dark satanic mills
That manufacture hell on earth
They bought the front row seats on Calvary
They are irrelevant to me
But I grieve for my sister"
This verse really stands out. He is clearly pleading for people to take action. This song also brings up a theme that I think he also explores in "Too much Rope"; That in spite of televisions tendency to sensationalize world event to the point of meaninglessness, it also shows how it can bring suffering to our awarness. Think about how history might have been different if we had had global media coverage on the colonalization of the America's and the genocide of American Indians?