Skyclad

(Skyclad...)

I'll sing to you of days departed
Times when men proud and stouthearted
Carved their names on history's bloody page
The corpse of chivalry long dead
Is turning in his loamy bed
Indignant at your new enlightened age
White-collared knights at boardroom tables
Dream their own financial fables,
Fight to make their incomes larger
Mounted on their credit charges
Held within the safety of this mundane existence
Facing endless grey Mondays of dull nine to fives
We all climb the social ladder with a dogged persistence
Forging chains we shall carry for the rest of our lives.

We cannot see through clothes may maketh man they cannot give us shelter
On this mortal helter-skelter if our loyalties are torn
Between the values we believe in and the egos we are feeding
We stand all together naked as the day that we were born.

And so cast off the lies that are our lives and find the truth within.

Skyclad! The veil has lifted
Skyclad! Now I see through
Skyclad! Your mask of illusion
Skyclad! To the fake that is you.

Financial wizards read their spells from filofaxes
Concrete hells of their own making pass for Avalon
These men self-made by shrewd investing
Spend their weekends child-molesting
Lost in green-belt dreams they do no wrong
Your mortgage payment rocket
Like your blood pressure rising
Executive stresses are the dragons you fight
In your Armani armour you are practically shining
So have no code of honor, you must always be right
Just give me a simple life, my tastes are not demanding
And whatever life may hand me I'll accept it with good grace
For I'm just a simple lad with few ideas about my station
So ale and song will apt suffice to keep me in my place.

How can you know the cost of everything yet never see its worth?

If you think because you've paid the piper you should call the tune
Well think again my friend life is a gain of chance
By Fate's command we win or lose but still retain the right to choose
If we should stumble on or shed our cares and dance.

Skyclad! The veil has lifted
Skyclad! Now I see through
Skyclad! Your mask of illusion
Skyclad! To the fake that is you.

You charge each other for the time and breath it takes to say "good morning"
But the truth is slowly dawning, things are getting out of hand
We all pursue our shattered dreams along the roads to our own ruin
Watch our empires sink and wash away like castles made of sand.

And so cast off the lies that are your lives and find the truth within.