Rat Patrol

MIDLIFE CRISIS:

Don't know anymore what has happened to your principles, you feel that somewhere along the line they have been stabbed in the back. As your cars grew bigger, your tolerance got smaller, statistics show that pretty soon you will have your first heart attack. Your purse grew heavy, your wife did too. Marriage became a bore, your job has got you by the balls. You can't think straight anymore. Way back in the sixties you were happy, no one's fool - But look what's happened since, you live strictly by the rules. Your son is gay, you wonder 'How the hell can he do this to me?' - Free love you once believed in, but of course that was yesterday. Today is now, be realistic, AIDS is threatening and now it's close. Forget your son, think of the whore you pay for one more dose. Once you were a radical, you lived in a huge squathouse, of course that was when you couldn't pay the rent. Now you are a broker and these punks misuse your house. You will call in the cops, the sons of those that you once fought against (lyrics: Roelsel; music: Pjotr/Rat Patrol)

HEADLINES:

Twenty-million headlines, and they all read the same. Still no solutions found, and it makes you wanna die. Ideologies just seem there to justify own actions, disguised self-interest, not recognized as such. Why do we only stand together in times of war - What is all this longing for violence for? Without enough battles we will kill each other, always find some group to blame... When every human is equal, why must there be difference, more wealth, more money, when everyone's the same... No solutions found, history's a lasting circle, still the headlines read the same (Lyrics: Henry; music: Pjotr/Rat Patrol)

YOUR GOOD REASON:

Get a clean engine in your car and the world will be allright. Remove a few missiles and the world will stop to fight. Collect some money for the poor and they will have a decent life. Make up phoney solutions to problems, for the electorates peace of mind. Never mind your childrens health, you've still got air (left) to breathe in. It's not up to you to improve the world, since you wouldn't know where to begin. Deforrestation without reforrestation could be the end of human kind. Poison scandals all over the world, dying fish all over the seas, ecologists warn against the dangers of science, nobody hears their pleas. 'Cause science means money and money makes you blind. Still the world depends on your good reason, ain't it time you used your mind (Lyrics: Roelsel; Music: Jansel/Rat Patrol)

SLOGANS:

See the slogans on the wall, they're not fake and they're not wrong - Still it is not your world, keep on wondering what it lacks. 'Bruno ist Tot' on a station in Germany, the Nationalists in the Bask-country. Dead as a social error, civilization as a crime. Keep living in your own safe room, stay ignorant of the facts - What's the use you started thinking, couldn't change it if you would. In this modern day paranoia, you can't seem to see clear, secure your achievings, lock 'em up, deep inside you (Lyrics: Henry; Music: Pjotr/Rat Patrol)

CATTLE & SCUM:

The local heroes stand in line, shiny hair, sunglasses against the dark, drinking beer (the girls are on wine). When we come in they already bark, saying 'you don't belong here, mate'. I guess it must be their fate to hate. I'm trying to get to the dancefloor, 'cause a fight is not what I'm looking for. On the floor they dance like the undead, do the dead-march, just nod your head. People push, shove, and shout in my ear, dancing to songs about cars, sex and beer. I need a drink, but the bar is crowded, too. I shout and finally I'm getting through. The beer I get is warm and soon dead, what am I doing here I must be mad... I'm getting irritated, I'm getting mean, this is the worst place I've ever seen. Girls try to look horny, bodies sweat and stink, around the bar they've had too much to drink. They're getting aggressive, they want to fight (it's all they do on a friday night). Empty-headed assholes, not able to think, I guess now I need another drink... Try to look macho, try to look big, try to get another chick. Bash someones head, just a bunch of cattle, empty head (Lyrics: Jansel; Music: Jansel/Rat Patrol)

WISH YOU COULD SEE THE WORLD THROUGH MY EYES:

When I heared you talk on the telly tonight, I really had to spew. You're cutting down on welfare, so what else is new. You don't want to create unbalanced checks we would have to pay in our near future. You talk about us but you mean you. You never cared about others and what they've been through. I'd love to spit in your face and never see you again. When you talk like this with your fatty big head, it makes me feel sick, talking about poverty you've never seen. This is just your trick to keep you in government and keep your fancy car. When will you start to realize that things can differ from what you see, that there is more than filling your wallet - Wish you could see the world through my eyes. When you talk like this, golden necklace around yor neck, chique cigarette in your lipstick-painted mouth, you arrogantly talk like the country is there just for you, did you ever wonder, did you ever think at all? Mothers try to raise their kids, all alone it is a hard time. Without money they almost fail... Wish you could see the world through my eyes. Wish you could have been where I have been, seen the people I have seen, talked to people I have met. I really wish you had (Lyrics: Henry; Music: Jansel/Rat Patrol)

WAR MOVIES:

I'm riding on a tank, flags around my head, planes in the sky - it's take four. The natives don't know real from fake, so let's stay all awake. Sun tanned heroes stand against crowds of victims, it's the final contrast, this 'sunrise at the lake'. Daydreams for the unemployed, covered up propaganda, 'they work or they get killed - either way it solves our problem'. It's the first day of spring yet the leaves start to fall down, it's my task to set the scene, agent orange does its job. Fools get romantic while romantics get fooled, this is not the way it is, this is not the way things are (Lyrics: Henry; Music: Henry/MBP)

BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS:

You were always selling your gas and gasoline. You were always telling 'I am just so little'. Didn't look further then you ever wanted, selling your gas, don't care about the rest. But now some guys have come along, they cut your hoses, and sprayed your pumps. They've put sugar in your tanks, and sprayed the 'why' on your walls. So open up your eyes, you've got blood on your hands. Apartheid doesn't exist without the supply of oil. We won't give you a second chance, because you've got blood on your hands. Have you ever noticed that your car runs on blood or were you too blind to see... You are the one that can close tap, and stop the blood from being shed. You are calling them criminals, because they've brought the war to your front door. But maybe you will think of all the kids rotting in South-african jails. Now some of the militants they are in jail and the D.A.'s name is Mr. White, like in South-africa the D.A.'s name is... You - you've got blood on your hands. You - who support apartheid. You - you, you and all your kind (Lyrics: Henry; Music: Henry/Rat Patrol)

SAVANNAH RIVER:

I'm on my way to a desolate place, because the city has become too much for me. I couldn't catch any breath and I was stumbling over 30,000 homeless drunks. Junks and thiefs, they're all after me, I'm gonna get out and travel to... Savannah River, 'cause there is nothing threatening me there. Savannah River, it attracks me. There's just this nuclear arms plant, but they assured me it's absolutely o.k. I spent my time at a ranch, catching cows, drinking Budweiser brew. Life's just cool I thought, but then... Everything changed fast: Neighbour got cancer, his wife did too. My dog went purple, there's nothing I can do. My hair falls out, all without a bang. Think I'll go back to the city, maybe join a skin-gang. Neighbour, wife, they're all dead (Lyrics: Henry; Music: Henry/Rat Patrol)

MISERY CREATOR:

They call him a saint, but he shakes hands with Nazi's. He closes his eyes to what everyone can see. In overpopulated countries where millions of people die the best thing he comes up with is 'go hence and multiply'. The living symbol of a rotting institution, with his hands on the bible he offers fake solutions. A well respected ally of many dictators - John Paul II, world wide misery creator. What's the use of all his blessings when they don't do any good. Starving children don't need words, they need food. No advice on agriculture, but a command to breed like rabbits. Drink wine with Pinochet, then back to Rome, and that's the end of it. He makes his God look like the devil to everyone who is thinking straight. A rich, conceited phoney, who decides on other peoples fates. John Paul II get off from your high horse, what people do with their lives, is their decision, not yours (Lyrics: Roelsel; Music: Pjotr/Rat Patrol)

SAY YOUR PIECE (with flying colours):

Some will insist that it's completely white, they won't stop convincing you they're absolutely right, while others go on screaming that it's totally pitch black, not having the decency to let you talk back. It's awfully hard not to get swepped by the tide, and due to your ignorance, just pick a side. All of these arguments do sound so strong, they make you feel you want to belong. Yet the opposite also rings so true. So what on earth are you supposed to do, well no one can tell you exactly what to think, but that shouldn't be a problem, since your mind is not on the blink... Once you found out there's no such thing as blue, you have got to decide what it looks like to you. And all you've got to go by is the power of your brain, to clear your own vision, to forget personal gain. And when, after a hard look, you've decided that it's green, sure you'll get laughed at, but it matters what you've seen... People who speak out, be it wrong or right, deserve our respect for showing guts to fight. Whatever you're up against, it surely won't go away, merely by pretending the only answer is grey. You've got to realize no one ever changed the tiniest little bit, by saying 'I don't know' or 'I don't give a shit'. So open up your mouth right now, holler and bellow, but please, please, from now on, stop being yellow (Lyrics: Mario; Music: Mario/Rat Patrol)

BIG BOYS:

I've been watching your faces on the stage and on the screen, and I can remember there wasn't a single smile to be seen. There were no sparks, despite all of your sweat - no good feeling in the heart or in the head. Some lyrics are still 'hardcore' and at least the enrgy is there. But something is missing, that shouldn't be this rare. Like you we think metal is fun to play, but why on earth does it have to be so dark and grey... You're so fucking macho, showing off on guitar, hoping to get laid after the show. You just want to be with the big boys, but all the same you just follow a trend. Last night I wondered how the hell it would be if this music was played by an all-girl group. Would there be the same macho disguise, or do these things just not cohere, I don't know. Would they play the same like other women start to act like men, when making a career, or could there be something that isn't measured up to cool macho male standards. Or am I completely wrong and are my generalisations really stupid, to pledge no allegiance to these guitar-gods. You're hiding behind a metal wall, but remember, that's not what it was all about (Lyrics: Henry; Music: Henry/Rat Patrol)

CRIME:

Hey you, what the fuck are you doing, you're burning down a wholesale store. You know you can't do that, we've got law and order around here. You got to understand, there's right and there's wrong. It's all written down in our laws, sorry mate, you're committing a crime! You cannot burn down a gasstation and get away with poor excuses, like you're 'fighting for liberty', all that shit just makes me laugh. You've got to understand, we've got our economy to protect. Corporate business feeds us all, sorry chap, we've got to put you away! But I thought there was only one law, the law that means justice for all, that doesn't stop at our border. When people are oppressed we have got to fight, like we should have done before, and not close our eyes to things that are not a pretty sight to see (Lyrics: Henry; Music: Mario/Rat Patrol)