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lyrics

SIDE D

04: Percy's Song

Born out of wisdom
Slummed in the shadows
Squalor lived on
A roller coaster
Raised by the belt in joyless sorrow
Learnt by himself
There was no act to follow

To work culprit condemned
Those of towns and fields
Go make the steal
Cut at the face
know your face
You made the blades
So now go plunge 'em

Grey clouds on the horizon drew in
And the bugle sounds the call
For bona fide patriots
The papers headlines
Glory for all

Go parade in scarlet fever
Through the streets in pomp and valour
Go to war you might as well
There’s nothing left to fight here for

Fear not young ones
Preached the man in black
Brave hearts can always meet their maker
That's a fact
He likes the sons that fight others battles
And it's never a disgrace to die in hast
And with youthful hands you're be remembered
Ragged trouser brigade

So out of the smog filled streets
Stepped a young man
Who said he' d keep his head down
An exotic war he'd rather fight
It meant a go away
Not a prison stay

He wasn’t brave he wasn’t strong
Didn’t know what the fighting was for
But had a quick mind
A savvy one
He would never lift a gun

They left Southampton for the fields
They could never have dreamt of
But the winds of glory quickly paled
As slaughtered lambs
Sailed back through the fog

Fresh off the boat hoarded like cattle
Into the bullring they did go
They got the shit scared out of them
Unlawful mental abuse unlawful mental abuse
Unlawful mental abuse unlawful mental abuse


They kept their lines did the best
With Blanket cover human flesh
Over the top
An ordained suicide
Over to the other side








And mercy went and hid all day
Was never there
For the ones that slipped away
And all for one and one for all
Became an inevitable
None at all

And thousands fell like sitting ducks
A stale mate stuck in blood-stained mud
And a private who saw the madness unfold
Devised a plan tall and bold

He called upon a mutiny
To end the fruitless pain
He said our rivals over no-man's land
Were hyped up foe
It's all insane

Word got out and news spread fast
And Parades were suspended in hast
And local towns were taken over
By so called rebels who'd lost faith

And 20,000 escaped to the forest
A sanctuary
Men from both sides living in harmony
They lived in hollows on their wits
With berries and hope
Not hero's

The ruling classes promised much
An amnesty was spoken of
The tricked worked well
Rebels downed their arms
But no one lived past the firing squad

The search was on for the degenerate one
The corporal in wolf's clothes
Who changed his name a treason act
This most wanted man
Was now on the run

Now Percy Topless was hunted down
From high to low from north to south
And finally killed without trial by an illegal shot
Percy's storey will live on

So men in the corridors of power
Denied all happened
And wiped the records clean
You can blurt out history all you like
That's how the state works this machine

credits

from Used Culture (Double album from Shapeless Man), released July 16, 2021

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DavidJohnHull Germany

David started playing double bass in various folk, rock, and chanson bands in Berlin. In 1991, he turned to writing songs and has released roughly 17 albums to date. In 2017, the band Golden Dark was formed, and in 2018, the project Shapeless Man was initiated. In 2020, he began working on the radio play "The Pigeon House." In 2023, he started improvised voicing with various projects. ... more

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