Album: Jonah's Ark by Skyclad (1993) part 1

Cry Of The Land

Vibrant and real I lie
Mantled by the open sky
The wind and waves my lullaby
I am the land.

Why do you view me with
Eyes unable to see
The beauty in all that is pure
When it's left to live free?

So hot the fires within my breast
Rock and steel can't stand their test
Yet songbirds in my green beard nest
I am the land.

That which is so strong and old
Cannot be bought or sold
Mine is the green and gold
Wealth without end.

Ruled by the ebb of my oceans
Slaves to the dusk and the dawn
Your petri - dish civilisations
Are buried and born.

I watch as you live
With your heads in the sand
Unable to hear the cry of the land.

I was once a 'Happy Hunting Ground'
Then one day the eyes of science found
A blue - green planet
Spinning round a shining star.

The timeless giver of all life
Offered as a sacrifice
The priceless finds it's price
In the greed of man.

You bury your fears
And your heads in the sand
So you'll never hear the cry of the land.


A song that speaks from Mother Earth’s point of view, notifying the insignificance of human achievements and accusing their falsified values they follow or believe.


A Near Life Experience

Just a blank expression sitting in an easy chair
The living incarnation of a world that doesn't care
Mesmerized by media lies
Now they're "New and Improved" by a cunning disguise
It drinks their poisoned water
And thrives off noxious air.

The avant garde of apathy
Waits on the front line
Ever so patiently just biding its' time
They're an advertisers dream
With a greed habit
Their only fear is the fear
Of a green planet.

The avant garde of apathy
Looks after itself
Long past its sell by date
you're still preserved on the shelf
They'd rather ruin the world
Than let their children have it
Their only fear is fear of a green planet.

The avant garde of apathy
Vegetates undefeated
But if you don't want to join it
Then you're helping to beat it
Don't let the chance pass you by
You've got to reach out and grab it
Turn this world they have made
Into a green planet.


A song about the human apathy towards environmental and social issues. Their are only interest is a comfortable imitation of life and attack anything that destroys their nirvana. Their only fear is fear of a green planet! Indeed, they prefer extensive concrete cities and pollution instead of a small scale natural habitat in harmony with a green environment. This allenation is intensified by the fake plastic world showed by TV.



The Ilk Of Human Blindness

Midsummer 2045 they lay upon
The beaches burning
Insects on a ball of rock
Upon it's axis slowly turning
Steel and concrete melanomas
Punctuate the hot sunrise
Spines now chilled by global warming
Microwave their last goodbyes.

For sixty years or more they say
Mankind had known there'd come a day
When there would be a price to pay.
"Square Eyes" watched
The fools game show
The first to go and last to know
Sat eating junkfood on death row
(Feeding the fall of the human empire)

No prophet cast the money lenders
From their polystyrene temples
Noone heard the penny drop
All interest shown was incidental.

Pity the chairman of the board
For all these years he's piled his hoard
But penniless he'll meet the lord
As all the world prepares to die
He stands before the needles eye
Whilst countless millions pass him by
(Fleeing the fall of the human empire)

Recalling all those wasted hours
Of motions passed and minutes taken
Maybe now he feels remorse
For all the souls he has forsaken.

Silhouettes of living corpses
Remnants of a transcient race
March toward the red horizon
Evanesce without a trace.

The proud rub shoulders with the meek
On debris littered city streets
They fight like dogs for scraps to eat
The welfare state's in dissaray
All social order slips away
The "Primrose Path" lead to decay
(The Curtain falls on the human empire)

Codes of conduct redefine
As justice turns to legal crime
These monsters masked by human features
Are by far the blindest creatures.

An apocalyptic vision of total environmental destruction and decline of civilization and extinction of human beings. Neither prophecy or scientific evidence persuaded anyone or drove away human blindness. The time is come to pay the cost.



Tunnel Visionaries

(Narration)
Nobody could have conceived in the final decade of the 20th century
That our humble affairs were being manipulated by computer interface.
Not a soul could have summised that the lives of billions were of
Less consequence than a decimal point in the stock exchanges of the world.

Rare few even questioned the relentless exploitation of our rapidly
Dwindling natural resources. And yet across the polished boardroom tables,
Beings immensely more devious than ourselves surveyed this defiled planet
With jaundiced eyes, and swiftly and ruthlessly, they hatched foul plots
Against us.


we read in wikipedia:

Skyclad could very nearly be described as a protest band. Their lyrics deal with a wide variety of real-world themes (as well as more personal issues, though this was mainly under Walkyier) including poverty, drugs, environmentalism, politics, urban decay, paganism, society and commercialism. The band's polemics are often based on real experiences: In an interview, Walkyier recalled a point in the band's early days where his electricity meter reached 19 pence, and he was reduced to sharing cold baked bean sandwiches with guitarist Steve Ramsey. Skyclad's politics are generally left wing, with a strong working-class bent. Walkyier's writings for the band also show a particular fascination with sexually predatory women ("My Mother in Darkness", "Polkageist!", "Little Miss Take").

The band is noted for concealing the message of its songs somewhat in allusion and wordplay ("Womb of the Worm", "Vintage Whine"), though this has become less pronounced in later albums written by Ridley, who favours a slightly more straightforward style. Puns and wordplay, however, have become for many an integral part of the band, and there is no evidence that they have been entirely excluded.

you can hear a song from this album in youtube:
thinking allowed