Mr Love & Justice

If you want to make the weather
Then you have to take the blame
If sometimes dark clouds fill the sky
And it starts to rain
And though your head may tell you
To run and hide
Listen to your heart and you’ll find me
Right by your side, because

I keep faith
I keep faith
I keep faith
I keep faith in you

If you think you have the answer
Don’t be surprised
If what you say is met with anger,
Contempt and lies
No matter how hard you may want to
Just walk away
Reach out you’ll find me there beside you
All of the way, because

All the dreams we’ve shared
I never knew no-one who cared
About these things the way that I’ve seen you
It doesn’t matter if
This all falls off the cliff
Together we are going to see it through

I know it takes a mess of courage
To go against the grain
You have to make great sacrifice
For such little gain and so much pain
And if you’re plans have come to nothing
Washed out in the rain
Let me rekindle all your hopes and
Help you start again, because

You see a rainbow, I see a dark cloud
You see your new friends and I see a bad crowd

I almost killed you
Nearly killed you
Almost killed you
With my love

I’ll put a gun up to my head if you treat me this way
Is it fake? Is it real? Are you feeling lucky today?

Like a gypsy child who wouldn’t be christened, you just wouldn’t listen
If the tune that you dance to is not of my making I can’t countenance the steps that you’re taking

Take the M for me and the Y for you
Out of family and it all falls through
We’ve got to love each other every day
Instead of hoping it will stay that way

Now I’ve got friends who are telling me
They’re living in clover
But lose the C for commitment and the L for love
And it’s over baby, it’s all over now

I’m not thinking about the things you said
As we lay awake last night in bed
I’m just happy to be by your side
When we’re rolling in the sheets or tumbling in the tide

You keep on come and telling me
All about your problems
Let’s pull the Y off of your and throw it on the fire
And make them our problems baby, our problems now

The fields belong to the farmers
And the forests belong to the king
These days our pleasures are all behind fences
We have to pay for everything

So turn around and come on down,
The beach is free
Just turn around and come on down
The beach is free

Well the cities are teaming with people
And the highway is jammed up with cars
And the airport is a nightmare in the season
But you don’t have to go that far

Well they take all the flags down in the evening
And the soldiers stand guard at the keep
But the beaches are always open
Because the ocean, she never sleeps

We sing our songs of freedom and we sing our songs of peace
We sing about sweet harmony for to make the fighting cease
Lets sing one song for the folks tonight that are sleeping on the streets
Come on and sing their souls back home

Oh, oh, won’t you sing along with me
Come on, oh, oh, raise your voices now with me
And let them know that we want them back home from wherever they may be
Come on and sing their souls back home

The wind blew and the birds they flew and they scattered everybody wide
Gathered up their loved ones, they were running form the tide
Now, if we don’t get these people back then I fear this town will die
Come on and sing their souls back home

Oh Lord it’s hard, don’t you know, to be living in days like these
Terror and war do nothing but shatter families
So lets reach out with all our hearts to our soldiers overseas
Come on and sing their souls back home
Bring’em home now

There’s a place, a place that I go
Where I curl in a ball on the floor and no-one can know
And the fear wells up inside
I’m just falling again, feel I’m falling again

Then you make me brave
Then you make me brave

When the dark and all of the doubt
Crowds in around me and blocks the world out
And then I, I see you smile
And I’m flying again, yes I’m flying again

What’s to come, no-one can know
But I fear for the future and what it may hold?
Take my hand, take it today
Lets not live in the past, lets not hide in the past
Today
Today
Live for today
Live for today

Do you know what love is?
Love is when you willingly
Place someone else’s priorities
Above your own

Do you know what lust is?
Lust is when you actively
Force your own priorities
On someone else

Mr Love & Justice
Please tell me what am I to do?
Everything he told me
I found out none of it was true
I’m looking for some answers
To these problems I face
Desertion should mean disgrace
So tell me do I have a case?

I know that nothing is forever
But still, though
I want to make the effort so
He knows
You just can’t walk away

Mr Love & Justice
I ask you is it really fair
If all of that commitment
Just vanishes in the air
Feel I’m on a one-way ticket
To the end of the line
It won’t stop the children crying
But I want some justice this time

Still waking up in the morning with a troubled mind
Can believe he left me: how could I be so blind?
What else can I do but make this appeal to you
Is there any love or justice in the world today for me?

Mr Love & Justice
If there’s one thing that I must do
If only for my own sake
I’ve got to see this thing through
I’ve just got to find out
If I was right or I was wrong
Then I’ll believe he’s gone
Pick myself up and move on

Walking out together
All along the shore
Arm in arm beneath the cliffs that tower above us
We hear the breakers roar
Here we found each other
Here we made our home
Took the sea, the sky, the sun, the summertime,
Made it all our own

But if you ever leave
If you ever leave me
If you ever leave my dear
Well there’s nothing for me here

The storms that pound the harbour
Scatter driftwood on the beach
The million stars that fill the winter night sky
Seem just beyond our reach
The tides of time march onwards
Just as sunshine follows rain
The seasons, ever changing ever moving on
Yet our love remains

But if you ever leave
If you ever leave me
If you ever leave my love
Then they can take the stars above

But if you ever leave
If you ever leave me
If you ever leave my love
Then they can bring the curtain down
On this lonesome town

The policemen broke my door down
Dragged me from bed
I asked them what was happening
They just ignored the words I said
They waved their guns in my face
Kept screaming out my name
Something terrible had happened
And somehow I was to blame

O Freedom! What liberties are taken in they name

My accusers formed the jury
The judge and the defence
The charges were made known to me
But not the evidence
There was no guilty verdict
Yet still I was detained
Flown to another country where
Their methods are less constrained

In our determination
To defend democracy
We must not destroy the safeguards
That underpin our liberty
For who will pay the price if
Injustice such as this
Turns our protectors to oppressors
And angry men to terrorists?

Saw some guy on the tv yesterday,
Selling poison by the ton
How can you do such a thing a woman asked him
He replied ‘The secret is to hook’em young
Look, I’m not responsible for the lessons children learn
I’m just responsible for giving my investors some return

Here’s a message from the
Sponsors of the Johnny Carcinogenic Show
The sponsors of the Johnny Carcinogenic Show

You never believe how much effort goes into
Adding some glamour to the brand
To distract you from the damage that they do
Putting their product in your hand
What other industry could ever get away
With contaminating their best customers this way?

Here’s a product that promises to do nothing but
Take your money and your soul
Poverty is toxic – everybody knows
No need to help it take it’s toll
Who profit from the misery they sow?
Not the grandchildren that you will never know

Whisper under my breath
Say a little prayer
Same as I do every time
I step into the sun’s bright glare
I am just a farm boy
Lived up on the hill
Wanted to get away
Now the Army pays my bills

I’m just dreaming of the time when I can go home
I’m just dreaming of the time when I can go home

Here come a captain
Take his anger out on me
Calls down fire upon
My country’s enemies
Wants me to pick out targets
But all that I can see
Are farmers and their families
And a whole lot of misery

Say a little prayer now
Second one today
Oh, sweet Jesus
Won’t you take my sins away

If you want to make the weather
Then you have to take the blame
If sometimes dark clouds fill the sky
And it starts to rain
And though your head may tell you
To run and hide
Listen to your heart and you’ll find me
Right by your side, because

I keep faith
I keep faith
I keep faith
I keep faith in you

If you think you have the answer
Don’t be surprised
If what you say is met with anger,
Contempt and lies
No matter how hard you may want to
Just walk away
Reach out you’ll find me there beside you
All of the way, because

All the dreams we’ve shared
I never knew no-one who cared
About these things the way that I’ve seen you
It doesn’t matter if
This all falls off the cliff
Together we are going to see it through

I know it takes a mess of courage
To go against the grain
You have to make great sacrifice
For such little gain and so much pain
And if you’re plans have come to nothing
Washed out in the rain
Let me rekindle all your hopes and
Help you start again, because

If you want to make the weather
Then you have to take the blame
If sometimes dark clouds fill the sky
And it starts to rain
And though your head may tell you
To run and hide
Listen to your heart and you’ll find me
Right by your side, because

I keep faith
I keep faith
I keep faith
I keep faith in you

If you think you have the answer
Don’t be surprised
If what you say is met with anger,
Contempt and lies
No matter how hard you may want to
Just walk away
Reach out you’ll find me there beside you
All of the way, because

All the dreams we’ve shared
I never knew no-one who cared
About these things the way that I’ve seen you
It doesn’t matter if
This all falls off the cliff
Together we are going to see it through

I know it takes a mess of courage
To go against the grain
You have to make great sacrifice
For such little gain and so much pain
And if you’re plans have come to nothing
Washed out in the rain
Let me rekindle all your hopes and
Help you start again, because

Take the M for me and the Y for you
Out of family and it all falls through
We’ve got to love each other every day
Instead of hoping it will stay that way

Now I’ve got friends who are telling me
They’re living in clover
But lose the C for commitment and the L for love
And it’s over baby, it’s all over now

I’m not thinking about the things you said
As we lay awake last night in bed
I’m just happy to be by your side
When we’re rolling in the sheets or tumbling in the tide

You keep on come and telling me
All about your problems
Let’s pull the Y off of your and throw it on the fire
And make them our problems baby, our problems now

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© Billy Bragg 2021 - 2023