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lyrics

Only the very young and the very beautiful can be so aloof
Hanging out with the boys, all swagger and poise
I don't even care what other people are there
I just stare and stare and stare

I see your shadow in the swimming pool
I see your face in the shaving mirror
Time and time and time again
I follow your footsteps so quietly up the backstairs
And I hope and I pray you ain't never going to find me there

Smooth skin and tenderness long ago on a dark night
Wish I could see you once again just to remember it was true
I wanna be still beside you - quiet and still beside you
Listening to your breathing and feeling your warmth again

War Baby - you were a
War Baby - this means
War Baby - I'm scared, so scared
Of whatever it is you keep putting me through

I don't think I could stand another ten years of this fighting
All this stabbing and wounding - only getting my own back
I don't wanna batter you to your feet and knees and elbows
When I'm kneeling by the candle at the foot of my own bed

Corresponding disasters every night on the TV
Sickening reality keep gripping me in its guts
All my friends talk and joke and laugh about Armageddon
But like a nightmare it's still waiting there
At the end of each and every day

War Baby - you were a
War Baby - this means
War Baby - I'm scared, so scared
Whatever it is you keep putting me through

I don't think I could stand another ten years of this fighting
All this stabbing and wounding - only getting my own back
But later that same evening we were out in the car talking
I suddenly wondered who the hell it was we were trying to fool

Cos you were the first one I ever wanted
And it's you I come home to at the end of every day
Like a mother-sucking baby, demanding and so helpless
A little old balding man, all wrinkles and bulging eyes

War Baby
War Baby - this means
War Baby - I'm scared, so scared
Whatever it is you keep putting me through
You were a War Baby
Talking 'bout the Third World War, baby
War Baby - so scared

credits

from War Baby: Hope And Glory [1984], released January 31, 2013
Written by TR with sax parts by Mark Ramsden. Produced by TR, co-produced & engineered by Dennis Weinreich. Additional engineering by Alastair Houston. Recorded at Redan Recorders, London. Steve Laurie (dr, perc), Ebo Ross, Sean Mayes (b.vox), Simon Skinner (bs), Danny Kustow, TR (gtr), Sean Mayes (kyb), Mark Ramsden (sax), Deezal Martin (gtr fx), TR (ac gtr, synth fx)

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Tom Robinson London, UK

Tom Robinson (b.1950) is a UK songwriter & broadcaster first known in the 70s as an anti-racist and LGBT campaigner. He released 19 albums between 1975-2001 with various bands and has co-written songs with Elton John, Peter Gabriel, Dan Hartman and Manu Katché. He's an award-winning presenter at BBC Radio 6 Music, and released Only The Now (his first album in 19 years) in October 2015. ... more

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