Welcome to the Middle Ages
Where the past bites back through history’s pages
Back to a world of pirates religious wars beheadings and slaves
We thought the past was buried and there it would stay
Locked up in tombs old stones and graves
Not reaching out with it’s skeletal hand to break the earth where it was laid
But it’s back
It never left

We’re beginning to see the future
And it’s too much like the past
And we’re looking at a future
We didn’t build to last

The past should stay where it was
In ruined castles old folk songs or buried in the ground
But it’s not
It’s up and moving about like some awful beast come to tell us it never went away
It let us think that
It never listened to those speeches by well meaning politicians
On the aspirations of post-war Britain
Our grandfathers paid the price in blood and gave us this world for free
So we could dance in the rain at Glastonbury
It’s a wake up call, that’s all, we just got lazy with it all
There was no war to end all wars there is no drink to end all drinks
Of course the beast is back
It never left.

We’re beginning to see the future
And it’s too much like the past
And we’re looking at a future
We didn’t build to last

We got an overclass, an underclass
And behind that another underclass
We got untouchables somewhere far away
Who tread the mill that turns our wheel of luxury
We got Nazis, in the school yard, and in the streets
Something we never thought we’d see
We got contract hours back down to zero
Leaders with the hobbies of Nero
There’s not much talk of a minimum wage
What do we do? Comfort is the enemy of rage
We take selfies in the looking glass
And buy stuff that’s not made to last
We got robots that will take our jobs, and all the temptations of Pandora’s box
The beast
Is back

We’re beginning to see the future..
And it’s too much like the past
We’re looking at a future
We didn’t build to last

We’re looking at a future

Words and music Ray Cooper