Well a teacher of mine once told me
That life was just a list of disappointments and defeats
And you could only do your best
And I said: "Well that's a fucking cop out
You're just washed up and you're tired
And when I get to your age, well
I won't be such a coward"
But these days I sit at home
I'm known to shout at my TV
And punk rock didn't live up to what I'd hoped that it could be
And all the things that I believed with all my heart when I was young
Are just coasters for beers and clean surfaces for drugs
And I've packed all my pamphlets with my bibles at the back of the shelf.

Well it was bad enough, the feeling
The first time it hit
When you realized your parents had let the world all go to shit
And that the values and ideals for which many have fought and died
Had been killed off in the committees
And left to die by the way-side
But it was worse when we turned to the kids on the left
And got let down again by some poor excuse of protest
Yeah, by idiot fucking hippies in fifty different factions
Who are locked inside some kind of sixties battle re-enactment
And I hung up my banner in disgust when I head for the door.

Oh but once, we were young and we were crass enough to care
But I guess you live and learn
We won't make that mistake again, no
Oh, but surely, just for one day, yeah, we could fight and we could win
And if only for a little while
We could insist on the impossible.

Well we've been a good few hours drinking
So I'm going to say what everyone's thinking
If we're stuck on this ship and it's sinking
Then we might as well have a parade
So if it's still going to hurt in the morning
And a better plan's yet to get forming
Then where's the harm spending an evening
In manning the old barricades?

So come on old friends, to the streets
Let's be 1905 but not 1917
Let's be heroes, let's be martyrs
Let's be radical thinkers
Who never have to test drive the least of their dreams
Let's divide up the world into the damned and the saved
And then ride to the valley like the old Light Brigade
And straighten our backs, and we won't be afraid
And they'll celebrate our deaths with a national parade.

So come on
Let's be young, let's be crass enough to care
Let's refuse to live and learn
Let's make all our mistakes again, yes
And then darling, just for one day, yeah
We can fight and we can win
And if only for a little while
We could insist on the impossible

Leave the morning to the morning
Yeah, pain can be killed
With aspirin tablets and vitamin pills
But memories of hope and of glorious defeat
Are a little bit harder to beat.