Sandinista! (disc 1) lyrics

Ring! Ring! It's 7:00 A.M.!
Move y'self to go again
Cold water in the face
Brings you back to this awful place
Knuckle merchants and you bankers, too
Must get up an' learn those rules
Weather man and the crazy chief
One says sun and one says sleet
A.M., the F.M. the P.M. too
Churning out that boogaloo
Gets you up and gets you out
But how long can you keep it up?

They cried the tears, they shed the fears,
Up and down the land,
They stole guitars or used guitars
- So the tape would understand,
Without even the slightest hope of a 1000 sales
Just as if, as if there was, a hitsville in U.K.,
I know the boy was all alone, til the hitsville hit U.K.

They say true talent will allways emerge in time,
When lightening hits small wonder -

Down the road came a Junco Partner
For he was loaded as can be
He was knocked out, knocked out loaded
He was a'wobblin' all over the street
Singing 6 months ain't no sentence
And one year ain't no time
I was born in Angola
Serving 14 to 99

Well I wish I had me $1 million dollars
Oh one million to call my own
I would raise meat and say, "grow for me baby"

So you're on the floor, at 54
Think you can last - at the Palace
Does your body go to the to and fro?
But tonight's the night - or didn't you know
That Ivan meets G.I. Joe
He tried his tricks- that Ruskie bear
The United Nations said it's all fair
He did the radiation - the chemical plague
But he could not win - with a cossack spin

The Vostok Bomb - the Stalin strike

Atom secrets, secret leaflet
Have the boys found the leak yet?
The molehill sets the wheel in motion
His downfall picks up locomotion
The people must have something good to read on a Sunday

The leader's wife takes a government car
In the dark to meet her minister
But the leader never leaves his door ajar
As he swings his whip from the Boer War

They say immigrants steal the hubcaps
Of the respected gentlemen
They say it would be wine an' roses
If England were for Englishmen again
Well I saw a dirty overcoat
At the foot of the pillar of the road
Propped inside was an old man
Whom time would not erode
When the night was snapped by sirens
Those blue lights circled fast
The dancehall called for an' ambulance

I slept and I dreamed of a time long ago
I saw an army of rebels, dancing on air
I dreamed as I slept, I could see the campfires,
A song of the battle, that was born in the flames,
and the rebels were waltzing on air.

I danced with a girl to the tune of a waltz
that was written to be danced on the battlefield
I danced to the tune of a voice of a girl

Look here!
What d'you think you're
Gonna be doin' next year?
No lie...
How you know you're not
Gonna up and die?
No doubt...
Soon enough your friends
Will find you out
Take care...
You know you might not have
Too much time to spare
I say...

How long have you been acting
Up this way?
One knows...
When you gonna get
Your own floorshow
I'm hip...
And you could use a button

Start the car lets make a midnight run
Across the river to South London
To dance to the latest hi-fi sound
Of bass, guitar and drum
Seeking out a rhythm that can take the pressure off
Stepping in and out of that crooked crooked beat

Take a piece of cloth, a coin for thirst
For the sweat will start to run
With a cymbal splash, a word of truth
And a rocking bass and drum

Someone lights a cigarette
While riding in a car
Some ol' guy takes a swig
And passes back the jar
But where they were last night
No-one can remember
Somebody got murdered
Goodbye, for keeps, forever
Somebody got murdered
Somebody's dead forever

And you're minding your own business
Carrying spare change
You wouldn't cosh a barber
You're hungry all the same
I been very tempted

Must I get a witness? for all this misery
There's no need to, brothers everybody can see
That its one more time in the ghetto you know
One more time if you please now
One more time to the dying man
They say one more time if you please

The old lady kicks karate
For just a little walk down the street
The little baby he knows kung fu
He tries it on those he meets
Cos its a one more time!

Stop wastin' time
Right

One more breath

One more time in the ghetto
One more time if you please
One
One more time for the dying man
One more time if you please now

One more time

Now lightning strikes in old New York
It may be dark but I wanna talk
It might rain, it might snow
Too many things I got to know
If this is spring than it's time to sing
Never mind the l'il birdies wing
Look out, look out, old New York
New York's coming an' New York talks
Hey! Strike! Not once...
Strike! But twice!

Get out your money - peel a slab
Roll some notes an' hail a cab

The towers of London, these crumbling rocks
Reality estates that the hero's got
And every hour's maked by the chime of a clock
And whatcha gonna do when the darkness surrounds?
You can piss in the lifts which have broken down
You can watch from the debris the last bedroom light
We're invisible here just past midnight

The wives hate their husbands and their husbands don't care

Is the music of grove skin rock
Soaked in the diesel of was boys war?
Blood, black gold and the face of a judge
Is the music calling for a river of blood?
Beat the drums tonight, Alphonso
Spread the news all over the grove
The big meeting has decided
That total was must burn on the grove

Does it mean I should take my machete
To chop my way through the path of life?

Summon up the mas! Play on the pan!
Staring dreads are jerking their locks
As the white star liner sank in the docks
But on the drummers face, there is a look of dread
As he drums away 400 years of dread
The dancer man-in the power of mas
Is smoking ti the mighty sparrow's blast

But you better be careful
You still got to watch yourself

You wanna be crazy
So you wanna go crazy

[Left Channel]
Make sure!
Taking cover in the bunker tonight
Waiting for Bo Diddley's headlights
I feel alright
Gotta Fender Stratosphere
I can do anything tonight
It's in neon lights an' global rights
Frank? He's on the phone
There ain't no German girl outside
But who cares when its warm inside?
With music
Special mystery of music tragically
Exchanging slaves for majesties

As the floods of God
Wash away sin city
They say it was written
In the page of the Lord
But I was looking
For that great jazz note
That destroyed
The walls of Jericho

The winds of fear
Whip away the sickness
The messages on the tablet
Was valium
As the planets form
That golden cross Lord
I'll see you on
The holy cross roads

After all this time
To believe in Jesus