This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
While sons and daughters of the empire
Stained the map red, white and blue
Back at home the storm clouds thundered
Dole queues lengthened - unrest grew
'til the tides of fresh opinion
Washed away the world they knew.
Exchange inhuman wrongs for human rights
This underdog not only barks - it bites!
Take your partners for our civil war dance
Open season on the under worked and overpaid.
Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution
Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made.
Children of the urban third world
Breast fed lies and cathode rays
Speak their minds down party chat lines
(they don't have that much to say)
Told nothing of the world we live in
Or that it will be theirs someday.
This system cultivates our lust and greed
With anti-social insecurity.
Take your partners for our civil war dance
Open season on the under worked and overpaid.
Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution
Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made.
The preacher tells us all that heaven waits
So pay your "soul tax" when you reach the gates.
Take your partners for our civil war dance
Open season on the under worked and overpaid.
Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution
Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made.
Livestock bred to feed the cannon
Hands grown hard with honest toil
Fuel the fires of mass rebellion
Hatred's cauldron starts to boil
They fight for something they believe in
Not another nation's oil.
Britannia cowers in her public school
Once too often now she's waived the rules.
Take your partners for our civil war dance
Open season on the under worked and overpaid.
Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution
Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made.
Stained the map red, white and blue
Back at home the storm clouds thundered
Dole queues lengthened - unrest grew
'til the tides of fresh opinion
Washed away the world they knew.
Exchange inhuman wrongs for human rights
This underdog not only barks - it bites!
Take your partners for our civil war dance
Open season on the under worked and overpaid.
Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution
Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made.
Children of the urban third world
Breast fed lies and cathode rays
Speak their minds down party chat lines
(they don't have that much to say)
Told nothing of the world we live in
Or that it will be theirs someday.
This system cultivates our lust and greed
With anti-social insecurity.
Take your partners for our civil war dance
Open season on the under worked and overpaid.
Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution
Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made.
The preacher tells us all that heaven waits
So pay your "soul tax" when you reach the gates.
Take your partners for our civil war dance
Open season on the under worked and overpaid.
Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution
Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made.
Livestock bred to feed the cannon
Hands grown hard with honest toil
Fuel the fires of mass rebellion
Hatred's cauldron starts to boil
They fight for something they believe in
Not another nation's oil.
Britannia cowers in her public school
Once too often now she's waived the rules.
Take your partners for our civil war dance
Open season on the under worked and overpaid.
Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution
Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made.
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