Green And Grey - New Model Army

The time I think most clearly

The time I drift away

Is on the bus ride

That meanders

Up these valleys of green and grey

I get to think about what might have been

And what may yet come true

And I get to pass the rainy mile

Thinking of you

And all the while, all the while

I still hear that call

To the land of gold and poison

That beckons to us all

Nothing changes here very much

You used to say it never will

The pubs are all full on Friday nights

And things get started still

We spent hours last week with Billy-Boy

Bleeding, yeah, queuing in casualty

Staring at those posters we used to laugh at

Never-never land, palm trees by the sea

Well, there was no need for those guys to hurt him so bad

When all they had to do was knock him down

But no one asks too many questions like that anymore

Since you left this town

And tomorrow brings another train

Another young brave steals away

But you’re the one I remembe

From these valleys of the green and the grey

You used to talk about winners and losers all the time

As if that was all there was

As if we were not of the same blood family

As if we lived by different laws

Do you owe so much less to these rain swept hills

Than you owe to your good self?

Is it true that the world has always got to be something

That seems to happen somewhere else?

For God’s sake

Don’t you realize

That I still hear that call?

Do you think you’re so brave

Just to go running

To that which beckons to us all?

And tomorrow brings another train

Another young brave steals away

But you’re the one I remember

From these valleys of the green and the grey

No, not for one second

Did you look behind you

As you were walking away

Never once did you wish any of us well

Those who had chosen to stay

And if that’s what it takes to make it

In the place where you live today

Then I guess you’ll never read one of these letters that I sent

From these valleys of the green and the grey