[ Introduction | Song Index | Updates ]

Qasr El Nil Bridge

(Sullivan/Dean/White/Gill/Monger?)

Come, tell me, Ibrahim, about this day that you'll remember
Tell the story over to be sure it really happened
How you gathered in a circle to protect your kneeling brothers
Amid the howling of the sirens and the stutter of the gunfire
Ahmed shaking hands coming late into the Square
Clean clothes and looking good for the People's Revolution
For you cannot choose a time you may be chosen for a martyr
Pushing through the soldiers, smile as wide as ever

And at night on the great river the party boats pass
And the music and lights float away in the darkness
We're sailing with only the sound of our voices and the water
And the man pulls on his cigarette and pulls the boat round
And we all fall forward, tumbling and laughing
And the bright-eyed boy watches his father
Listening and feeling and learning to read the wind

250 miles south-west and into the Sahara
The white stone figures tower away to the horizon
I'm like a pawn in a chess game gazing up in fear
For in these great games of power, they sacrifice their children
And in the black velvet night, we built our little fire
And watched the desert foxes daring to come closer
Our broken conversations eaten by the silence
Just the crackle of the flames and a billion stars above us

And they tell me god is great but this I've never doubted
We each find wonder in the sky and the mountains
In the waves of people gathered and waiting
Listening and feeling and learning to read the wind

Lazy flies, sugar sweet teas
Winter chill, flame-fire trees
The great eucalyptus watching and waving
As the crowds come now from every direction

They tell me god is great but this I've never doubted
We each find wonder in the sky and in the mountains
In the hot scalding winds that will come from the desert
Hot enough for drying all the blood that has fallen

And at night on the great river the party boats pass
And the music and lights float away in the darkness
We're sailing with only the sound of our voices and the water
And the man pulls on his cigarette and pulls us around
And we all fall forward, tumbling and laughing
And the bright-eyed boy watches his father
Listening and feeling and learning to read the wind

----------
Between Dog and Wolf - CD (9/13)
Between Dog and Wolf - Double LP (9/13)

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Queen of My Heart

(Sullivan/Heaton)

To the Queen of my Heart, from the King of Nowhere . . .
I have watched you arming, and how you wave your sword in the air;
always fighting the shadows as they move behind you,
and the beating wings that hover around you . . .
To the queen of my heart, from the king of nowhere . . .

It's a shallow sky that holds us in; you can reach right out
and touch the edge with just one outstretched hand and feel
the dark come closing in.
And there's nowhere far enough away from here;
the ringing ears and the closing air, and the cities and deserts all beat the same;
the radio waves crackle and phase, the satellites spinning slowly round.
The radar towers search and call
to the Queen of my Heart, from the King of Nowhere . . .

This is the great world calling to the last crusader;
the rush of the lifeblood coming out of the sunrise . . .
And you're the Queen of my Heart . . . and I'm the King of Nowhere.
----------
Strange Brotherhood - CD (4/98)
Strange Brotherhood - CD (plus Bonus CD) (4/98)
Queen of My Heart - Maxi CD (5/98)
Strange Brotherhood - Triple LP (7/98)
1980-2010 - Triple DVD (2/11)

(Nobody Else; Nuernberg Forum, 11/05/98) - New Model Army . . . & Nobody Else - CD (8/99)

(Nobody Else) - Feb.-May 98 - Nobody Else Tour (UK, Europe)
(Acoustic) - 25/07/98 - WOM Record Store, Karlsruhe
Oct.-Dec. 98 - Europe, UK Tour

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R&R

(Sullivan/Dean)

Days into weeks of Sunday afternoons
Nothing much for us to say nothing real for us to do
Just watch the carousel go round and round in endless circles
in the pupil of the Deadeye until you just feel numb
It’s virtual Jerusalem. There’s not much trouble anymore
it’s mostly the blissed out stuff that people really go for
and the juggernaut tyranny of oblivion 4/4

Double triple bluff and then back on itself
a world of ironies and tribute bands, everything downsized
I don’t know where it was but I swear I’ve heard that song
it was a century of answers and all of them have been wrong.
Wake me in a thousand years
Wake me in a thousand years

Sorry little island you look better in the rain
You looked more honest in blue or something we can’t see through
and out across the world there are 4 billion claims
and all of them have faces and all of them have names
Enough. Wake me in a thousand years
Wake me in a thousand years

The Prozac dawn opens milky white
I don’t remember what it was I got so passionate about
It’s all now digitally synthesised, genetically enhanced, seduced, stainless
the bad smell of poverty disguised, deodorised
There’s just the scent of money and privilege intact
A century of madness put to sleep to start over again
Here comes the Presidential train.

We looked into the crystal and we felt the Fear
but it’s already here, it’s already too late
We’re learning to love the things that we hate
We’re learning to love the things that we hate
----------
Eight - CD (1/00)

(London Astoria, 16/12/03) - Live 161203 - DVD (5/04)

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R.I.P.

(Sullivan/Heaton)

This all started the way things do
With a laugh and a cup of tea around the fire
As we sheltered from those wicked winds
In front of that old TV
And we traded ideas as we watched each other
With those ambitious bright eyes
Those eyes that saw every detail of the world so clear
And we bided our time impatiently
Until the hunger really burned
And the softest sweetest kisses were lost
Amidst the thunder in our hearts

We watched the people round us
Getting up, getting on, getting old
But the game we were going to play so well
We'd get to stay young forever
To begin with they just smiled
And stepped around our little fire
But remember how pretty soon
That all began to change
But now bitter in this great city
All the little children should go home
Cos the big men want to make deals
When they find you've got something they want

The party's gone, the party's done
The party's over children
You'd better go home

Funny how they all come running
If you let your pockets jangle a little
And there's that strange queasy feeling
Every time someone holds a door open for you
Such sweetness, such kindness
While they manoeuvre you into position
And we all know how hard it is
To bite the hand that feeds you
Remember all those old films we used to watch
Every Friday night on TV
However fast you run
However slow the mummy walks
It always catches you in the end

The party's gone, the party's done
The party's over children
You'd better go home

This ain't no place anymore
For little girls or little boys
Not unless you want them
To spoonfeed you all your life

The party's gone, the party's done
The party's over children
This dream is gone, this dream is dead
This dream is over, children
You'd better go home
----------
(Alternative Mix) - Brave New World - 12" (11/85)
(Alternative Mix) - Brave New World - 12" (plus Bootlegged Bootleg) (11/85)
Brave New World - 7" (11/85)
(12" Mix) - Adrenalin - LP (11/85)
B-Sides and Abandoned Tracks - CD (9/94)
(Remastered) - The Ghost of Cain - Double CD (5/05)

Oct. 91 - Red Sky Coven - Germany, Vienna Tour

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Rainy Night 65

(Heaton/Sullivan)

It's a silent scream in rain town
How far have we fallen now?
And the rain come, wash away
The promised land that is here to stay
We came back, things left undone
Like uncut stone
Little breathes and nothing fills, things broken
Still we're all looking for it
Still looking for it

It's a silent scream in rain town
My shadow hunts without me now
In for the kill, in for the kill
Now half killing ourselves
We're still looking for it
Looking, still looking
----------
Queen of My Heart - Maxi CD (5/98)
Strange Brotherhood - Triple LP (7/98)
Lost Songs - Double CD (2/02)
Anthology - Double CD (2/11)

(Nobody Else) - New Model Army . . . & Nobody Else - CD (8/99)

(Nobody Else) - Feb.-May 98 - Nobody Else Tour (UK, Europe)

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Rasputin

(Boney M)

There lived a certain man in Russia long ago
He was big and strong, in his eyes a flaming glow
Most people looked at him with terror and with fear
But to Moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear
He could preach the bible like a preacher
Full of ecstacy and fire
But he also was the kind of teacher
Women would desire

Ch:
Ra Ra Rasputin
Lover of the Russian queen
There was a cat that really was gone
Ra Ra Rasputin
Russia's greatest love machine
It was a shame how he carried on

He ruled the Russian land and never mind the Tsar
But the kasachok he danced really wunderbar
In all affairs of state he was the man to please
But he was real great when he had a girl to squeeze
For the queen he was no wheeler dealer
Though she'd heard the things he'd done
She believed he was a holy healer
Who would heal her son

Ch

(Spoken:)
But when his drinking and lusting and his hunger
for power became known to more and more people,
the demands to do something about this outrageous
man became louder and louder.

"This man's just got to go!" declared his enemies
But the ladies begged "Don't you try to do it, please"
No doubt this Rasputin had lots of hidden charms
Though he was a brute they just fell into his arms
Then one night some men of higher standing
Set a trap, they're not to blame
"Come to visit us" they kept demanding
And he really came

Ch:
Ra Ra Rasputin
Lover of the Russian queen
They put some poison into his wine
Ra Ra Rasputin
Russia's greatest love machine
He drank it all and he said "I feel fine"

Ra Ra Rasputin
Lover of the Russian queen
They didn't quit, they wanted his head
Ra Ra Rasputin
Russia's greatest love machine
And so they shot him till he was dead

(Spoken:) Oh, those Russians . . .

Thanks to Peter and Freak for this piece of information
----------
23/08/89 - Highbury Town & Country Club, London (as Raw Melody Men)

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Red Earth

(Sullivan/Dean)

The rock is made of diamond, the rivers wash with gold
The sun beats down in rhythm, pounding on our reason
Pounding on our reason, ringing in our skulls
Sometimes this land looks empty - it plays so many tricks on you
The soil of dried blood - sown with seed of people
Overrun with armies that grow out of the earth
They flow down from the mountains, spring out of the ground

The shacks they all have numbers
The dirt tracks run in straight lines
Vanity and uselessness, the minds of prison guards
Praying on a Sunday, dressed up in our finest
Any god is welcome - any god that will come
To give back what was taken, take back what was given
Blood and death and sacrifice, the curse of wasting plague
And all the beauty tainted and east of Eden cast

Children walking bare foot in the golden dust
Boys with blinding eyes, perfect skin and Bible names
Machetes and AKs, perfect skin and Bible names
Machetes and AKs, perfect skin and Bible names
Take back what was taken, take back what was taken
Take back what was taken, machetes and AKs

All the waiting, all the walking all the miles
All the working in the fields and in the mines
In the orchards of the rulers
Bring us cure, bring us deliverance from evil
From the sins of all the fathers
Bring us water, bring us vengeance, bring us power

Catch a sound in the dead of the night
The clicked triggers of security lights
By the pool where the shadows stir... silent, silent
Through the scented garden moving in
By the waving of the skeleton trees...closer and closer
And through the doors and through the walls and...
----------
Carnival - CD (9/05)
Anthology - Double CD (2/11)

(Paris La Locomotive, 23/10/05) - 1980-2010 - Triple DVD (2/11)
(Christmas 2014 shows) - Between Wine and Blood Live - Triple CD (4/15)
(Christmas 2014 shows) - Between Wine and Blood Live - DVD (4/15)

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Refugee

(Heaton/Sullivan)

My room is dark, and very small;
there's a place to wash at the end of the hall.
I hear strange languages through the wall,
I hear them shouting in the street below.
I listen now to anything, anything at all;
just to keep the ghosts away, not to let them come.

Lusala, she was the first to hit the ground,
running up the hill at the side of the house . . .
One by one, in the screaming sun, my family fell,
the air alive with bullets, and the smell of fear.
Don't look back, don't look back, don't look back at all:
their bloodied faces are here with me, now, in the room . . .
Until the lights go out and the silence comes
don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, just keep on running;
keep running, keep running, keep running, run, run, run . . .
----------
Wonderful Way to Go - Maxi CD (2/98)
Strange Brotherhood - Triple LP (7/98)
Lost Songs - Double CD (2/02)
1980-2010 - Triple DVD (2/11)

Oct.-Dec. 98 - Europe, UK Tour

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Rivers

(Sullivan/Nelson/Dean/White/Gill)

And so I came to this dream-like place
But I can't remember how
Our lives just break open in front of us
Like pack ice before the bow

Ch:
I followed rivers, I followed orders
I followed prophets, I followed leaders
I followed rivers, I followed highways
I followed conscience, I followed dreamers
And I'm back here, and I'm back here
At the edge of the sky

And so I came to this dream-like place
But I can't remember why
I was never quite ready for what came my way
But I've always been ready to die

Ch

I sowed the seeds - I sowed the seeds
I followed rivers, I followed orders
I followed prophets, I followed leaders
I followed rivers, I followed highways
I followed conscience, I followed dreamers
And I'm nearly there, I'm nearly there
----------
High - CD (8/07)

(High Tour 07/08) - Fuck Texas, Sing for Us - CD (11/08)
(Cologne Palladium, 16/12/06) - 1980-2010 - Triple DVD (2/11)

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Rockin' in the Free World

(Neil Young)

There's colors on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin' their feet
People sleepin' in their shoes
There's a warnin' sign on the road ahead
There's a lot of people sayin'
We'd be better of dead
Don't feel like Satan
But I am to them
So I try to forget it, any way I can

Ch:
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world

I see a woman in the night
With a baby in her hand
There's an old street light
Near a garbage can
Now she puts the kid away
And she's gone to get a hit
She hates her life
And what she's done with it

There's one more kid
That will never go to school
Never get to fall in love
Never get to be cool

Ch

We get a thousand points of lights
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand
We got department stores
And toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people
Says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn
Got roads to drive

Ch
----------
(9/94) - Big Guitars in Little Europe - CD (3/95)

(Medley with 51st State) - (Hamburg Logo, 23/03/91) - Raw Melody Men - Bootleg LP

(Medley with 51st State) - Mar.-May 91 - Europe Tour (Partly as Raw Melody Men)

Oct. 91 - Red Sky Coven - Germany, Austria Tour
04/09/93 - Justin Sullivan - Freilichtbuehne, Luebeck (Anti Fascism Festival)
Nov.-Dec. 93 - Justin Sullivan and Dave Blomberg - Europe Tour
Jul. 94 - Justin Sullivan and Dave Blomberg - Netherlands Festivals
Sep. 94 - Justin Sullivan and Dave Blomberg - Netherlands Tour
30/09/99 - Justin Sullivan - Markthalle, Hamburg (Move for Mumia)

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Roly

Instrumental
----------
(Instrumental demo) - Roly - Bootleg CDR (2009?)

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Rumour & Rapture (1650)

(Sullivan)

We waited in our summer camps, we waited all summer long
To be paid for the bloody work we had done
I fought with General Ireton, I fought with Freeborn John
The best of men in the worst of times
I have honours to my name, I have served my God
And not that fool of a king
But when I close my eyes to dream I see pikes against the sky
I hear dying men and horses scream
And no one tells us what is happening
No one seems to know what's happening

Through those November rains, we were on the march again
To Putney with our elected men
And in the Church the leaders talked
And outside we stamped our feet against the cold and dared to hope
News from home comes slow and it is never good
The harvest poor and too few to gather
We were sent to hang two men caught stealing food
By a frozen river
And no one ever tells us what is happening
No one seems to know what's happening

They say in London town the streets are alive with talk
The Assembly of Saints to be taken down
I say let them rot in Hell - it will be God's will
To see a land that is free
Everywhere there are prophets
Everywhere there are words
All rumours and rapture
But I just long to go home, turn my face into the sun
And know Jerusalem
And no one ever tells us what is happening
No one seems to know what's happening
----------
BD3 1 - CD Single (5/06)
BD3 EP - CD (11/06)

(Beautiful Days Festival, 08/05) - Rev Hammer's Freeborn John Live - CD + DVD (12/06?)
(Cologne Palladium, 16/12/06) - 1980-2010 - Triple DVD (2/11)
(Christmas 2014 shows) - Between Wine and Blood Live - Triple CD (4/15)
(Christmas 2014 shows) - Between Wine and Blood Live - DVD (4/15)

19-21 August 2005 - Beautiful Days Festival

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Runaway

(Del Shannon)

As I walk along I wonder what went wrong
With our love, a love that was so strong
And as I still walk on I think of the things we've done
Together, while our hearts were young

Ch:
I'm a-walking in the rain
Tears are falling and I feel a pain
Wishin' you were here by me
To end this misery
And I wonder
I wa-wa-wa-wa-wonder why,
Why-why-why-why-why she ran away
And I wonder
Where she will stay-yay
My little Runaway
A-run-run-run-run-runaway.

Ch
----------
Aug.-Dec. 86 - Ghost of Cain Tour (UK, Europe, USA, Canada)

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Running in the Rain

(Sullivan)

So many words are spoken
Round and round and round and round
So many confidences broken
In this town
Too many cigarettes
I don't want to feel like this anymore
I go running in the rain

The television programmes
Go round and round and round and round
Oh God, I wish you were
Still here
Oh yes, I'm sorry for what I said
I love you, but I still wish you were dead
Now I'm running in the rain

So much time for thinking
Round and round and round and round
The boys all go drinking
Just to shut it out
Out here in the water, the wind
You know that you're alive
Running in the rain
----------
Vengeance - LP (4/84)
Vengeance - The Independent Story - CD (6/87)
(The John Peel Session) - Radio Sessions 83-83 - CD (6/88)
(The John Peel Session) - Radio Sessions 83-83 - LP (6/88)
Vengeance/Radio Sessions - Double Picture CD (6/95)
(The John Peel Session) - Vengeance/Radio Sessions - Double Picture CD (6/95)
Smalltown England - Double CD (97)
(The John Peel Session) - Smalltown England - Double CD (97)
(Remastered) - Vengeance - The Whole Story 1980-84 - Double CD (12/12)
(The John Peel Session) - Vengeance - The Whole Story 1980-84 - Double CD (12/12)

Apr.-Jun. 84 - UK Tour
06/06/87 - Reichstag, Berlin

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[ Introduction | Song Index | Updates ]

01/04/99; last update 17/06/17