Anti War Song

[jester1470]

Fish has made available one of the songs from his 2001 album 'Fellini Days', 'Pilgrim's Address' is his comments about the War, and I thought that some people might like to hear it, hell it's a song for free

http://www.the-company.com/sound/PilgrimsAddress.mp3

Not his best vocal performance the whole album suffers from some dodgy vocals but the lyrics I think are amongst some of the best written about the subject. Interestingly as well this album was released in May 2001, before the 2 towers and the aftermath that has brought us into another war, the lyrics are very apt...

Hope you like it, i would be interested to know what people think,

It's a long way from Kayleigh...

Pilgrim's Address

"Mr President, you don't know my name,

But you could find it if you really cared,

Because I pay my taxes and I pay my dues,

All I ask for in return is the truth.

Can we just be honest, I've heard that speech is free

So please believe me that this address is sincere

I'm no-one special, just a regular guy

But I just can't keep on wondering why

That the shells we fired they now kill our own

And we waste away like shadows in our homes.

I fell from blue skies, fought through desert storms

I froze in firefights, I killed someone,

That had a father who loved him just like mine

Who believed the sacrifice was justified

In the name of freedom and in the name of God

While shifting sands hid all our sins and all the blood

In the wake of glory, I flew back home

I watch videos at night in my uniform

Of those towns and cities being blown apart

By those bombs that fool the people by being smart

As they flew down chimneys, flew along corridors

And explode on film and everyone goes 'awe!'

And you read the stories about how no-one's killed

And I think about the photos that I kept

To remind me that it was all for real

And the ghost that I've become will be released

To the sands still shifting that cover all the lies

About what really happened and who really died.

Was it really worth it?

Was it worth the cost?

Did we really take the high ground or have we lost all the moral battles, did we lose the war?

Mr President I need to know for sure

That with all this knowledge, all this control

That we were on the right side after all

That we weren't lied to, that we weren't used

And the country that we fought for still upholds the truth.

Mr President you don't know my name

But you can find it if you really cared

It's on a black wall, it's on a cross of stone

In the Balkan States, the Gulf and close to home

On not so foreign islands out on city streets

Mr President, just tell me why I'm here

This is my question, this is my life, this is my address

Mr President

Mr President, Mr President

This is my address, this is my address, this is my address,

Mr President

Mr President

This is my address."

Cheers

Stuart

[Guest Keira]

aww... the song is..quite good. really like the lyrics.. but they are rather hard to make out in the song.

it's touching..

[jester1470]

aww... the song is..quite good. really like the lyrics.. but they are rather hard to make out in the song.

it's touching..

Fish has always been heavily involved in the military here and was the first UK artist to play Bosnia after the war when he went over to play to the troops and one of the shows was shut down as bullets ripped into the wall of the venue. He wrote another song about the experience called 'Tilted Cross' which I think is one of my favourite all time songs of his' date=' sadly its not available on mp3, his whole last album Field of Crows was a concept piece about the feelings evoked in him and the soldiers he'd had contact with, its a very good album, but then i'm biased I'll enclose the lyrics to 'Tilted Cross' too, if you ever get a chance try and get a copy, its a superb song and one that the landmine charity wanted to use for a while but decided the image might have been too graphic for the mainstream charity work they do i believe.

It's the lyrics more than anything that made me a fan of Fish, that and the live shows, the actual singing is not sadly as consistant as i'd like.

[b']Tilted Cross

"There's a message that's been left in the long grass by a stranger who's passed this way before,

planted seed from which we reap a bitter harvest from his long forgotten war,

I left my love in a grave and I marked it with a cross that will stand so straight and true,

it's not alone in the shade of the valley, they're what remains of the ones we once knew,

Walk with me my child but tread softly on this earth,

keep a close eye where your feet they touch the ground,

Watch out for the signs and heed what they say,

One false step and all is lost,

in the land of the tilted cross.

They lie beneath the needles of the forest, in the fields where only shadows dare to play,

washed down from the slopes of the mountains in the Spring when the snow melts away,

So be sure when you go on your journey, carry sticks, mark the place where they are found,

make a cross and be sure that it's tilted so that others don't step on this ground.

Walk with me my child but tread softly on this earth,

keep a close eye where your feet they touch the ground,

Watch out for the signs and heed what they say,

One false step and all is lost,

in the land of the tilted cross.

I left my love in a grave and I marked it with a cross that stands so straight and true."

Cheers

Stuart

[Hog]

Good song, your right, not fish's best vox but ace lyrics!