The Manifesto

[Intro] Time to tackle something a little bigger Guys, what you saying? [Verse 1] My manifesto's buried at the end of the garden A shoe box full of perishing parchment I cling tight to the dreams that I still harbour Til I hear the shrill bark of the drill sergeant I march in expensive boots But I'm marching to somebody else's tune Still I pay the piper in plain dollars Pile my pape's while I try to remain conscious Another number on the pay-roll Brain-trained from the strain of the same-old-same-old But when I get my chain swoll Then I'm going AWOL from you A-holes On a quest for my piece of mind Until then, I'mma give you all a piece of mine Fuck the internet, and fuck TV My free speech is knee-deep in faeces Next levels of horror Where the crest on your chest is a medal of honour Repeat the news but don't dare speak the truth They got us hanging from a neon noose They sell it, we buy it, it's mostly horse shit The funds go to forces to go start wars with We get bored so we go buy more shit That all ends up in the ground with our corpses What a beautiful lie Exhaust the fuel supply til there's no more blue in the sky We gotta keep 'em in check Rally the troops man, I'll put an Arab Spring in their step Cos it's about time times changed Bars rattle on the cage of my mind's frame And when it's time I'm [?] My manifesto ready for the day we ditch the dirt [Verse 2] My manifesto sits in a battered notepad On a sheet from my life that I grasp with both hands Ink-stained passion in a backwards old land Keep the fire burning where the haggard folks stand Three square meals for your malnourished masses Every menu that's present is stagnant or plastic We present a splendid banquet for your pallet Ample calories for the ravenous and famished Keep my belly filled with a thirst for fascination Retail's irrelevant, you can't purchase amazement Strive for the riches not earned with the wages A swollen bank roll don't determine my status Carving a niche with my plough in the dirt Seeds from my furrowed brow flower in the earth Take root in the underground, now we emerge Spoonful of wonderful powering the nerves Billboard remedies filled with empty promise March past the paving slabs flecked with the vomit Plasticine landscape invested with profit Grayshaded and grim, can't pretend that I want it Paint the world with my rainbow, splash in the puddles Dance in a thunderstorm, laugh off your troubles Cast off yesterday's panic and greed There's a cabinet of wonders, just ask for the key [Verse 3] Yo, I march pavements Uniform charity shop-bought 'cos of sweat shops and child labour Getting more fat and more rich off my paper No weapons on show for the moment Milk-top medals all spark in the sunlight Got a blank flag wedged in belt And I still been hitched to my hip for the drum time Manifesto tied on my back so I turn another cheek and I still touch numb minds I'll sun you or shun you You'll get it if you read But I can summarise in one line The meek shall inherit the earth So you'd better watch out for them quiet ones Got a steel-toed boot, it's the right one For any TV screen that is seen on my route Knees swing, [?] bring truth And inky black fingers from hours on the tube I leave their signs stained Or up go the blinkers, 'cos I ain't letting them in my brain It's about time times changed Landslide and the wave brewing down here's tidal I sound off in silence, march head high with my mind on the signs and the cycles