New Model Army

The Charge

New Model Army


Our history speaks in thunder 
From a thousand village halls 
In blood and sweat and sacrifice 
In honoring every hall 
So the forces gathered against the thorn 
A-piercing in their side 
The brave new world is beckoning 
So the olden world must die 

In the offices of the city 
At all the tables of oak and power 
The snares are laid and baited 
For the approaching of the hour 
A hundred justifications 
And the presses are ready to roll 
The gateways to the nation 
They are firmly under control 

CHORUS: 
On on on, cried the leaders at the back 
We went gallopping down the 
Blackened hills 
And into the gaping trap 
The bridges are burnt behind us 
And there's waiting guns ahead 
Into the valley of death 
Rode the brave hundreds 

Well we called for reinforcements 
From the friends that we had known 
But this is the 1980s 
And we were on our own 
We never felt like heroes 
Or martyrs to a cause 
Just battleweary soldiers 
In a bloody civil war 

CHORUS: 
On on on, cried the leaders at the back 

The massacre now is over 
And the order new enshrined 
While a quarter of the nation 
Are abandoned far behind 
Their leaders offer the cliche words 
So righteous in defeat 
But noone needs morality 
When there isn't enough to eat 
The unity bond is broken 
And the loyalty songs are fake 
I'll screw my only brother 
For even a glimpsy at a piece of the cake 
We only cry in private now 
Behind the shuttered glass 
When we think of the charge of this brigade 
The severing of the past 

CHORUS: 
On on on, cried the leaders at the back