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about

This song is very loosely based on a poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley called ‘The Mask of Anarchy’ written in 1825, which railed against the social injustices of the time (The Peterloo Massacre was the spur for this particular epic). Poverty and deprivation are very much relative terms and, for us, the sentiments of Shelley’s words echo down the centuries and resonate loudly in these days of the obscenely rich few juxtaposed against the minimum wage, zero hours contracts, short time working, the unemployed and supposed benefits scroungers.
For anyone remotely interested, a couple of little known facts...
1. the title of the album is taken from a lyric in this song.
2. the rant at the start of the track is taken directly from the front page editorial piece of the first every edition of the newspaper, The Manchester Herald (later the Daily Herald and later still... The Sun) in 1792.

lyrics

Out of the east a wind is rising
What do you think of that?
“Too busy living day to day”
And the rain goes pit-a-pat
Clouds are gathering a storm is coming
What do you have to say?
“As long as I’ve got my Sky TV
It’s sunshine every day”

And day on day and year on year
They work us more for less
While we focus our attentions
On those with no redress
As long there are those poor souls
Whose fate is yet more cruel
We count ourselves as winners
In this carousel for fools

You who live and suffer moan
For others’ misery or your own
Drunk as with intoxication
From the wine of desolation
Your women, children, young and old
They cry in pain and weep from cold
And many more destructions play
In this ghastly masquerade

We won’t lie down
We won’t lie down

Out of the east a change is coming
The tempest has arrived
Do we count ourselves as winners?
Is it enough to be alive?
Or has something pricked our conscience?
Do we stand or do we yield?
Is the dark veil lifted from our eyes?
Is the tyranny revealed?

And day on day and year on year
Our masters call for more
But we focus our attention
On the undeserving poor
As long there are those poor souls
Whose work we will not do
Our place is in the vanguard
of this carousel for fools

You who live and suffer moan
For others’ misery or your own
Drunk as with intoxication
From the wine of desolation
You who suffer woes untold
Reap the whirlwind and behold
Your poor country bought and sold
For the price of blood and gold

You who live and suffer moan
For others’ misery or your own
Drunk as with intoxication
From the wine of desolation
Your women, children, young and old
They cry in pain and weep from cold
And many more destructions play
In this ghastly masquerade

We won’t lie down
We won’t lie down

Shake off your chains like morning dew
And remember – ye are many – they are few!

credits

from A Carousel for Fools, released June 21, 2015
Written by Mather & Robinson (with a nod to Percy Shelley)

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about

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The Mather Robinson Band Salford, UK

Dave Mather and Pete Robinson grew up together in the north of England in the nineteen sixties and have been writing and performing music individually and as a team ever since. From Opera to rock to pop and now back to their roots in folk music. Mather & Robinson entertain audiences in the north west of England but if you ask them - they will hummmm. ... more

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