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Sequences

from Collector's Item by Twelfth Night

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about

Recorded live at The Marquee, London - November 1983.
Originally released on Live And Let Live - MFN18 - Music For Nations.

lyrics

And it seems my time has passed
Before me until now, in sequences of moments
And now I see this poster, they seem to need me anyway
I’ll take the shilling sign
I’ll make a positive move, to be an action man
The women seem to want us to go
So I can’t refuse,
No, I can’t refuse

So I find myself in a country somewhere
Where mayhem’s madman minions all march around a square
Unquestioning obedience is the order of the day
Your friends are coloured khaki and your enemies are grey

The Sergeant Major’s pep talk

“Alright my likely lads, you’ve left your mums and dads, now
Our glorious leaders start a war, to protect the ’ole of ’umankind that’s why they always stay be’ind
What d’ya mean “ain’t it wrong to kill?” Not if the top men say so! Where you’re going, sonny, general’s top chap next to him you’re a small piece of crap
If none of us went out of fight,
We’d never prove our side was right would we?
ATTENTION!”

The Colonel’s pep talk

“The front line is a pretty bloody place to be, that’s why you go instead of me
Now, I’d hate to send you all off thinking that if you get yours
You’re going to fret about your families, so don’t.
They’ll get some lovely souvenirs
A nice bronze plaque on which will be your name
You’ll get free crutches if you end up lame, good God
Though the numbers of dead will contain many zeros, the survivors will return to a land fit for heroes
Would I lie to you? PRESENT ARMS!”

Put next to a young boy in a knee-deep trench
Whose hand even shakes when he keeps it clenched
We attack tomorrow in dawn’s early light
And as this sinks in I’m so scared
I can’t wait for it and tonight to be over
It and tonight to be over

“ALRIGHT LADS, OVER THE TOP WE GO!“

I can’t take it, I can’t make it, I trip, stumbling
Caught in the barbed wire,
Amongst the heat and smoke of the crossfire
It’s madness, madness, mad mad mad mad mad mad…madness

On a station platform full of stretchered flesh and bone
Legacy of how easy it is to destroy whatever’s grown
Maybe there’s a reason, hat is worthy of a name
Just sick illusions I suppose will happen again
Next time they ask for men at least I’m beyond recall
I didn’t gain my self-respect, I didn’t gain anything at all

If hate and war could solve anything, don’t you think they’d have solved it a long time ago?
There’s good and evil in all of us
It’s up to you alone which you follow
And I know which is my cause from now on
The only one worth sacrifice
The only one I would have remain
When I’m gone, but I’m not gone… Yet!

The flags we weave only deceive
We must believe
We must believe… in love

credits

from Collector's Item, released June 30, 1990
Geoff Mann: vocals, Andy Revell: guitar, Brian Devoil: drums, percussion, Clive Mitten: bass, keyboards, Rick Battersby: keyboards

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Twelfth Night UK

Twelfth Night are an English progressive rock band of the 1980s, reformed between 2007 and 2012 and again in 2014.

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