I was sipping on a Whiskey when I got the call My friend Lex was lying in the hospital She'd been pretty sick for about half a year But it seems like this time the end was drawing near So dropped my plans and jumped the next London train I found her laid up and in a lot of pain Her eyes met mine and then I understood That her weather forecast wasn't looking too good So I sat and spun her stories for a little while Tried to raise her mood and tried to raise a smile But she silenced all my rambling with a shake of her head Drew me close and listen this is what she said now You'll live to dance another day It's just now you'll have to dance for the two of us So stop looking so damn depressed And sing with all your heart that the Queen is dead Yeah she told me she was sick of all the hospital food And of doctors, distant relatives, draining her blood She said "I know I'm dying, but I'm not finished just yet I'm dying for a drink and for a cigarette" So we hatched a plan to book ourselves a cheap hotel In the centre of the City and to raise some Hell Lay waste to all the clubs and then when everyone else is long asleep We know we're good and done You'll live to dance another day It's just now you'll have to dance for the two of us So stop looking so damn depressed And sing with all your heart that the Queen is dead And South London's not the same anymore The Queen is dead, and the last of the greats has finally gone to bed Well I was working on some words when Sarah called me up She said that Lex had gone asleep and wasn't waking up And even though I knew that there was nothing to be done I felt bad for not being there and now, well, she was gone So I tried to think what Lex would want me to do At times like this when I was feeling blue So I gathered up some friends to spread the sad, sad news And we headed to the City for a drink or two And we sang We live to dance another day It's just now we have to dance for one more of us So stop looking so damn depressed And sing with all our hearts, long live the Queen

Wandering lonely through the snow streets of New York I stumbled on a thrift store that sold postcards by the yard I bought a mile and shipped them home so I could read Ten thousand ten-word tragedies, the lives these strangers lead To remind myself the things I need I once wrote you love songs You never fell in love We used to fit like mittens, but never like gloves You left me feeling like We'd never really been in love Huddled home up in my place, in Holloway I wondered if you ever heard those songs I used to play I wrote them as a gift for you and in return You gave a pair of hand knit mittens to keep my fingers warm So I could play more ignored love songs I once wrote you love songs You never fell in love We used to fit like mittens, but never like gloves And I once wrote you postcards You never wrote back Promised me you would and I'm still waiting for them You left me feeling like We'd never really been in love Don't wanna fit like mittens I wanna fit like gloves (Wanna fit like gloves) I once wrote you love songs You never fell in love We used to fit like mittens but never like gloves Never like gloves (Wanna fit like gloves) I once wrote you love songs You never fell in love We used to fit like mittens but never like gloves Never like gloves

Stop asking musicians what they think He said softly as he poured himself a second drink And outside, the world slipped over the brink We all thought we had nothing to lose That we could trust in crossed fingers and horseshoes That everything would work out, no matter what we choose The first time it was a tragedy The second time it's a farce Outside it's 1933 so I'm hitting the bar But I don't know what's going on anymore The world outside is burning with a brand new light But it isn't one that makes me feel warm Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn If I was of the greatest generation I'd be pissed Surveying the world that I built, slipping back into this I'd be screaming at my grand kids: "We already did this" Be suspicious of simple answers That shit's for fascists and maybe teenagers You can't fix the world if all you have is a hammer The first time it was a tragedy The second time it's a farce Outside it's 1933 so I'm hitting the bar But I don't know what's going on anymore The world outside is burning with a brand new light But it isn't one that makes me feel warm Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn For the dawn Aren't you ashamed of this? I surely hope that you are Living in a society that's maybe heading for Mars But down here we still have a shower of bastards leading the charge Outside it's 1933 so I am hitting the bar But I don't know what's going on anymore The world outside is burning with a brand new light But it isn't one that makes me feel warm Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn (Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn) Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn (Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn) Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn (Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn) Don't go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn

Well I guess I should confess that I am starting to get old All the latest music fads all passed me by and left me cold All the kids are talking slang I won't pretend to understand All my friends are getting married, mortagages and pension plans And it's obvious my angry adolescent days are done And I'm happy and I'm settled in the person I've become But that doesn't mean I'm settled up and sitting out the game Time may change a lot but some things may stay the same And I won't sit down And I won't shut up And most of all I will not grow up And I won't sit down And I won't shut up And most of all I yeah I won't grow up Oh maturity's a wrapped up package deal so it seems And ditching teenage fantasy means ditching all your dreams All your friends and peers and family solemnly tell you you will Have to grow up be an adult yeah be bored and unfulfilled Oh when no ones yet explained to me exactly what's so great About slaving 50 years away on something that you hate Look I'm meekly shuffling down the path of mediocrity Well if that's your road then take it but it's not the road for me And I won't sit down And I won't shut up And most of all I will not grow up And I won't sit down And I won't shut up And most of all I yeah I won't grow up And if all you ever do with your life Is photosynthesize Then you deserve every hour of these sleepless nights That you waste wondering when you're gonna die Now I'll play and you sing The perfect way for the evening to begin Now I'll play and you sing The perfect way for the evening to begin And I won't sit down And I won't shut up And most of all yeah I won't grow up And I won't sit down And I won't shut up And most of all I will not grow up And I won't sit down And I won't shut up And most of all I will not grow up

Lord save me from those with my best interest at heart Lord save me from sleeves emblazoned with hearts From fools who place horses in front of their carts Who care less for learning than teaching For they know not of what they are speaking Yeah, you're marching in matching Che Guevara T shirts Ou're so damn conceited, it's starting to hurt You were born in to freedom so you don't know it's worth And you constantly speak of solutions But you only repeat revolution When you live with your parents, your ideals come cheap But what of the families with children to feed? For the ones who've scored riches have more than they need While the rest of us think of survival Your money can pay for your morals You say that for omelettes, you're gonna need to break eggs But if you follow your logic, you're soon breaking heads To patch your polemic, you tear us to shreds You'd steal all our voices for your thunder For your politics, nothing but plunder And we will not be judged or be put into place As no more than members of class are of race We're free individuals and that's what you hate Our society is not a machine You can steer or shut down as you please And one day you'll struggle to make your ends meet And one day you'll struggle to stand on your feet And you'll find something true that'll make your heart beat And you'll sacrfice something of meaning And you'll understand something of freedom

If you're heading down to Camden Town Be sure to raise a toast To the patron saint of the waifs and strays To Jinny Bingham's ghost Once she was a fresh-faced lass, from Kentish Town she came Her people, they were peddlers, Jinny Bingham was her name With her husband Gypsy George a Camden coach house they did keep 'Til they hung him by his neck from Tyburn Tree for stealing sheep It broke her heart to lose her love when she was just a child So a man named Derby took the hand of Jinny, meek and mild He was a drinker, not a thinker, daily brought his wife to tears 'Til one Camden winter morning, Derby simply disappeared If you're heading down to Camden Town Be sure to raise a toast To the patron saint of the waifs and strays Jinny Bingham's ghost She earned her reputation on those bitter Camden streets If you'd tarry with the Bingham girl, you'd hold your manhood cheap But even so the miser Pitcher was the third man on her lips 'Til one night they checked her oven, found him burned up to a crisp They tried her for his murder, thought they'd finally cooked her goose But even when the next man died, Jinny somehow slipped the noose He was a fugitive from justice, for love she took him in But he beat her once too often and the poison did him in If you're heading down to Camden Town Be sure to raise a toast To the patron saint of the waifs and strays To Jinny Bingham's ghost The locals didn't like her, false words followed her around They called her wicked woman, sorceress of some renown They swore, upon the gravestones of her husbands she'd grown rich The ribald and the righteous, they knew she was a witch But the reason she was hated was a simple one indeed She had kindness for the careless, she took in those in need The guilty and the gamblers, the harlots and the whores All knew that Jinny offered sanctuary at her bar No judgement for the judged, and you can never fall too far On the day she died, they swore they saw the devil by her side A mob broke down her door and from her chair her body pried The tavern is still standing, it's now called The Underworld And it still offers sanctuary for all broken boys and girls So let's head on down to Camden Town And folks, let's raise a toast To the patron saint of the waifs and strays Jinny Bingham's ghost

Blast oxygen masks, smoke filled cabin Depressurise, don't be afraid, hold onto me We're going down, but not our love Death don't seem so bad, when I'm with you My only love, so close your eyes Can kiss me one last time, we're gonna die But not our love, not our love Not our love Not our love Not our love

Oh my broken battered body In the days when I was younger Used to fix itself quick sharp After every slip and stumble But these days I'm collecting scars that don't seem to fade Cuts and bruises that won't go away And I used to think that I Would never live past twenty five And when you think like that, each day Is a gift if you survive But I've survived too long for my side of the deal And as I reach that shore I'm not sure how to feel I keep losing days That used to take a lifetime In the blinking of an eye And all these small ideas Are suddenly commitments As greatness slips on by As greatness slips on by I remember well the day that I got my first tattoo I was so scared before and after I was so proud when it was new But these days I've gone and got me many more And sometimes I get more when I get bored One for every year I've lost I keep losing days That used to take a lifetime In the blinking of an eye And all these small ideas Are suddenly commitments As greatness slips on by As greatness slips on by As greatness slips on by As greatness slips on by

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.