Because the commonwealth will come and
help us
Because we were raised on these myths
That Johnny Foreigner loved the way we
give it to em
Because coal black, white tooth sambo
Will offer up his bowl
In exchange for a touch of British
class.
Because they were lucky to have us
We were raised on these myths.
What have they done to Greece?
What have they done to Greece?
To Sumeria?
Ruins now and aped in architecture
The house that power built and myths
Stripped and shipped and worn
Like ermines of our time.
Do they build like Christchurch in
Korea?
Will we who first burnt coal be
remembered in our forms
Will they read Shakespeare and Newton any more
Like Pythagoras and Homer
Will these stories fur our descendants shoulders
Even as their great arc breaks on this new era's shore?
The myths don't tell you
That we dismantled the cotton industry of India
For the mills of Manchester
Dismembered the Ottoman Umma when oil was new and
cool.
Fought the Chinese for right to sell them smack
Fought them again to sell them more.
Murdered the Irish for nine hundred years,
Fought the Chinese for right to sell them smack
Fought them again to sell them more.
Murdered the Irish for nine hundred years,
James, Henry, Cromwell, the blight,
Filler on the Western Front.
Armed Benin to enslave the Gold Coast, Guinea
Then broke them in debt
Armed Benin to enslave the Gold Coast, Guinea
Then broke them in debt
Our myths don't record this
But the Irish, Chinese, Ghanaians, the Indians
But the Irish, Chinese, Ghanaians, the Indians
They all have their own myths.
Our myths speak of a heroic past
Our myths speak of a heroic past
When pith helmets paved the way for God
And God spoke in English
When we bought trade to backwaters
And illiterates ululated, encircled,
enthralled
Crowned us with garlands and feathers
Showed us gleaming treasures which we took.
Showed us gleaming treasures which we took.
Our myths never say that maybe they
Expected garlands back.
And so we go
Cap proudly on our head
Expected garlands back.
And so we go
Cap proudly on our head
And offer up these myths to the
French
Who we fought for five hundred years
And sneered at.
And Germans, who we fought and humiliated
Who we fought for five hundred years
And sneered at.
And Germans, who we fought and humiliated
The Italians who we fought, the
Austrians and Hungarians
Who we defeated. The Dutch for whom we invented
Concentration camps.
And the Spanish where we've got a rock
Concentration camps.
And the Spanish where we've got a rock
Stuck like a pile in their butt
And say give us this, for these myths
But they have their own.
