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Raising The Standards

from BARD COMPANY: 'Raising The Standards' by BARD COMPANY

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RAISING THE STANDARDS: “We were honoured to play the ‘With Banners Held High’ festival in Wakefield in 2019 and wrote this for the event. It tells the story of those who went to war in 1914 – particularly from the mining communities – who were promised ‘a land fir for heroes’ when they returned. Many are still waiting for that promise to be fulfilled” ROCKY

lyrics

Raising The Standards

You said that you wanted a land fit for heroes,
a place to call home that they’d show off with pride
but somewhere along the way you forgot
the reasons they fought and the reasons they died.

They thought they were fighting for honour and justice,
suppressing the tyrants and saving our land -
returned to a country that punished the workers
for banding together and making a stand

So your songs are all dirges to heroically fallen,
your words all platitudes for their loss of life.
Your actions speak louder than all of your promises,
lies are pandemic and betrayals are rife

Cause they died in the trenches with promises, hollow,
driving them forward and ringing in ears
while you pocketed money that should have been spent
making jobs for survivors and easing their fears

Now we march all together and sing for the future,
while honouring those who we lost in the past
we still want to believe all the promises made
as our young men were slaughtered, dismembered and gassed.

Prosperity offered like chocolate at Christmas.
Peace in our times and everlasting hope -
all that they got were more broken dreams,
more pointless wars, more money for old rope





The bosses got fat on the toil of their workers,
the bankers got fat on their interest rich loans
and the man who came back from the war that he fought in
was treated no better than their graveyards of bones.

So bang the drum comrade and never forget
that if silence is demanded then shout and be loud
and don’t let this government try to sell history
as though it is something for which we should be proud.

A century has passed and they’ve destroyed the mines,
they’ve doused the steel furnaces, grounded the docks,
left northern communities suffering and reeling
in their self proclaimed, privatised school of hard knocks.

There are still poor people living in poverty,
food banks are prevalent, folk on the street,
they cannot look after the homeless and feeble,
the old cannot pay for their lighting and heat.

From the mud of the trenches they came back home
Their future was grey as the clothes on their back
They demanded we give them something to cling to
A future of light in their visions of black.

England’s green fields, the red of the blood,
The gold we were promised, the blue of the sky
These are the colours we raise as our standard
Marching together, with Banners Held High.

England’s green fields, the red of the blood,
The gold we were promised, the blue of the sky
These are the colours we raise as our standard
Marching together, with Banners Held High.

credits

from BARD COMPANY: 'Raising The Standards', released November 11, 2019
WORDS: Ian Whiteley
MUSIC: John Kettle

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