White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
Black people gotta lot a problems
But they don't mind throwing a brick
White people go to school
Where they teach you how to be thick

An' everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
An' nobody wants
To go to jail!

All the power's in the hands

London's burning! London's burning!

All across the town, all across the night
Everybody's driving with full headlights
Black or white turn it on, face the new religion
Everybody's sitting 'round watching television!

London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial 99999

I'm up and down the Westway, in an' out the lights
What a great traffic system - it's so bright

They said release 'Remote Control'
But we didn't want it on the label
They said, "Fly to Amsterdam"
The people laughed but the press went mad
Ooh ooh ooh someone's really smart
Ooh ooh ooh complete control, that's a laugh

On the last tour my mates couldn't get in
I'd open up the back door but they'd get run out again
At every hotel we was met by the Law

An' I wanna move the town to the clash city rockers
You need a little jump of electrical shockers
You better leave town if you only wanna knock us
Nothing stands the pressure of the clash city rockers

You see the rate they come down the escalator
Now listen to the tube train accelerator
Then you realise that you got to have a purpose
Or this place is gonna knock you out sooner or later

Yankee soldier
He wanna shoot some skag
He met it in Cambodia
But now he can't afford a bag
Yankee dollar talk
To the dictators of the world
In fact it's giving orders
An' they can't afford to miss a word

I'm so bored with the U...S...A...
But what can I do?

Yankee detectives
Are always on the TV
'Cos killers in America
Work seven days a week

Never mind the stars and stripes

The offered me the office, offered me the shop
They said I'd better take anything they'd got
Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?
Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?

Career opportunities are the ones that never knock
Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock
Career opportunity, the ones that never knock

I hate the army an' I hate the R.A.F.

Hate and war - the only things we got today

An' if I close my eyes
They will not go away
You have to deal with it
It is the currency
Hate...hate...hate...

The hate of a nation
A million miles from home
An' get war from the junkies
Who don't like my form

I'm gonna stay in the city
Even when the house fall down
I don't dream of a holiday
When hate an' war come around

i get violent when i'm fucked up
i get silent when i'm drugged up
want excitement, don't get none, i go wild
i don't know what can be done about it
if you play the game you get nothing out of it
find out for yourself try bein' a goody goody

you better cheat cheat
no reason to play fair
cheat cheat or don't get anywhere
cheat cheat if you can't win

nobody knows what they are doing

Police and thieves in the streets
Oh yeah!
Scaring the nation with their guns and ammunition
Police and thieves in the street
Oh yeah!
Fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition

From Genesis to Revelation
The next generation will be hear me
From Genesis to Revelation
The next generation will be hear me

And all the crowd comes in day by day
No one stop it in anyway

He's in love with rock'n'roll woaahh
He's in love with gettin' stoned woaahh
He's in love with Janie Jones
But he don't like his boring job, no...

An' he knows what he's got to do
So he knows he's gonna have fun with you
You lucky lady!
An' he knows when the evening comes
When his job is done he'll be over in his car for you

An' in the in-tray lots of work

Back in the garage with my bullshit detector
Carbon monoxide making sure it's effective
People ringing up making offers for my life
But I just wanna stay in the garage all night

We're a garage band
We come from garageland

Meanwhile things are hotting up in the West End alright
Contracts in the offices, groups in the night
My bummin' slummin' friends have all got new boots

Midnight to six man
For the first time from Jamaica
Dillinger and Leroy Smart
Delroy Wilson, your cool operator

Ken Boothe for UK pop reggae
With backing bands sound systems
And if they've got anything to say
There's many black ears here to listen

But it was Four Tops all night with encores from stage right
Charging from the bass knives to the treble

when johnny comes marching home again
he's coming by bus or underground
a woman's eye will shed a tear
to see his face so beaten in fear
an' it was just around the corner in the english civil war
it was still at the stage of clubs and fists
when that well-known face got beaten to bits
your face was blue in the light of the screen
as we watched the speech of an animal scream

tommy gun
you ain't happy less you got one
tommy gun
ain't gonna shoot the place up
just for fun
maybe he wants to die for the money
maybe he wants to kill for his country
whatever he wants, he's gonna get it!

tommy gun
you better strip it down for a custom run
tommy gun
waiting in the airport 'till kingdom come
an' we can watch you make it
on the nine o'clock news

well, i just got back an' i wish i never leave now
who dat martian arrival at the airport?
how many local dollars for a local anaesthetic?
the johnny on the corner was a very sympathetic
i went to the place where every white face is an
invitation to robbery
an' sitting here in my safe european home
i don't wanna go back there again

wasn't i lucky n' wouldn't it be loverly?

we met when we were in school
never took no shit from no one, we weren't fools
the teacher says we're dumb
we're only having fun
we piss on everyone
in the classroom
when we got thrown out i left without much fuss
an' weekends we'd go dancing
down streatham on the bus
you always made me laugh

got me in bad fights
play me pool all night
smokin' menthol

the high street shops are boarded up
an' the terrace it is fenced in
see-through shields are walled across
the way that you came in
but there's no need to get excited
as the lorries bring the bacon in
'cos the housewives are all singing
groovy times are here again

they discovered one black saturday
that mobs don't march they run
so you can excuse the nervous triggerman

Breakin' rocks in the hot sun
I fought the law and the law won [x2]
I needed money 'cause I had none
I fought the law and the law won [x2]
I left my baby and it feels so bad
Guess my race is run
She's the best girl that I ever had
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the

Robbin' people with a six-gun
I fought the law and the law won [x2]