Dark and grey, an English film, the Wednesday Play
We always watch the Queen on Christmas Day
Won't you stay?

Though your eyes see shipwrecked sailors you're still dry
The outlook's fine though Wales might have some rain
Saved again

Let's skip the news boy, I'll make some tea
The Arabs and the Jews boy, too much for me
They get me confused boy, puts me off to sleep
And the thing I hate, oh Lord
Is staying up late, to watch some debate on some nation's fate

Hypnotized by Batman, Tarzan, still surprised
You've won the West in time to be our guest
Name your prize

Drop of wine, glass of beer dear what's the time?
The grime on the Tyne is mine, all mine, all mine
Five past nine

Blood on the rooftops, Venice in the Spring
Streets of San Francisco, word from Peking
The trouble was started by a young Errol Flynn
Better in my day, oh Lord
For when we got bored we'd have a World War, happy but poor
So let's skip the news boy, I'll go make that tea
Blood on the rooftops, too much for me
When old Mother Goose stops and they're out for twenty-three
Then the rain at Lords stopped play
Seems Helen of Troy has found a new face again


Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae

Blood on the Rooftops Lyrics as written by Stephen Richard Hackett Phillip David Charles Collins

Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC

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Blood On The Rooftops song meanings
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  • +5
    My Interpretation

    I believe the lyrics reference the 1972 Munich Olympics when 11 Israeli were sot on the roof of their living quarters by 'Black September' Arab/Palestinian Guerillas. 'Arabs and Jews, boy too much for me' In the same year, about the same time, Richard Nixon went to Peking (Bejing) China to broker a deal with eastern nations that included a staged withdrawal from Viet Nam 'Word from Peking'.

    Lindesfarne's Fog on the Tyne was a number 1 ablum in the UK earlier that year.

    I think it is actually the first socially and politically charged song that I can think of in the Genesis canon. It references the horrors going on around the world and also the mindless celebrity hedonism 'the trouble was started by a young Errol Flynn' of the entertainments world, on TV and film, to that distracts the populace from bad news; all cast in a pastoral English flavoured piece of music (e.g. Composer, Ralph Vaughen Williams influence perhaps?)

    Irishvoortrekkeron December 13, 2010   Link

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