| For all those millmen who cut their teeth
|
| Whose minds were made up on roof and feed
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| I’ll come and I’ll leave
|
| Aching from a night in the city
|
| It might ruin me now, but I’d probably already be ruined
|
| For skin burned black with coal and grease
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| That stuck to their lungs whenever they’d breathe
|
| I’ll come and I’ll leave
|
| Tempted by the lights of the city
|
| No clowning around
|
| T onight we’re going out to get ruined
|
| And I probably woulda never have thought
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| If it weren’t written on metal
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| That this is very old ground that you’re running from
|
| Can’t look for long, gotta be left and gone by five
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| To be half-seas over by nine
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| And bleeding drunk by midnight
|
| Forever indebted to the feats of our fathers
|
| But carry it on your back, it’s a sure collapse
|
| Laid out flat, gaspin'
|
| All the trouble you attract
|
| With cause to match
|
| Would bring a quick collapse
|
| If you always had to carry that
|
| If the gear wheel goes
|
| (There's gonna be a flood comin')
|
| When the wallower rolls
|
| (There's gonna be a flood comin')
|
| Next thing you know
|
| (There's gonna be a flood comin' on)
|
| And the water won’t spare us
|
| (The water won’t spare us)
|
| If it comes to get us
|
| (If it comes to get us)
|
| And it won’t let up ‘til all that’s dear and precious is gone
|
| And our hearts all screech a hault
|
| Whenever there’s a flood coming on
|
| And when that flood comes it comes as a canon
|
| One that lets you catch the shot in your hands
|
| But just to send its shocking tidal wave
|
| Through every bone in your body
|
| Dealt our hands, mine’s low on luck
|
| If you’re all going out you can sign me up
|
| Seems the only time that I can collect my thoughts
|
| Is if I’m bleeding, stinking drunk (so drink up)
|
| We’ll admit in the names of our fathers
|
| But carry it on your back, it’s a sure collapse
|
| Laid out flat, gaspin'
|
| All the trouble you attract, with cause to match
|
| Would bring a quick collapse
|
| If you always had to carry that
|
| And even though the doubt we all felt
|
| Came to prove itself
|
| The overflow came down
|
| With a force we never dreamed off
|
| When that rolling canon shot
|
| Rolls along again, our guard is up
|
| All the damage and all we’ve lost
|
| Lost it all with a canon shot |