Get all 12 Gang of Four releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of La Roux - Damaged Goods remixes EP (taken from The Problem of Leisure, Gang of Four covers album), The Problem of Leisure. A celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four (20 tracks feat. IDLES, Tom Morello, Flea & more!), ANTI HERO EP, This Heaven Gives Me Migraine EP, Happy Now, Complicit EP, Lucky, Live...In The Moment, and 4 more.
1. |
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Turn your back on London's bitter pride
And melancholic isolation
Force-feed yourself sentimentality
With golden age mythology
A feudal order, rootless no more
But in the night the ravens Caw
False memories
Fake history
Next you'll talk of racial purity
Where the Nightingale sings
The nettle and the dock leaf grow
Union abiding
Where your name is known
Always want simpler relations
Walk away from anonymity
A feudal order, rootless no more
But in the night the ravens caw
Force-feed yourself sentimentality
False memories
Fake history
False memories
Fake history
Next you'll talk of racial purity
Where the Nightingale sings
The nettle and the dock leaf grow
Union abiding
Where your name is known
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2. |
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He's not a machine
But he's processing bad code
Intermittent Contacts
Arc as he overloads
He trusts in fate
He trusts in fate
He don't know
He don't sleep at night
And so he's getting ill
He's in a waking dream
He's talking broken talk
He's talking broken talk
Where does he come from?
He's got an itch that won't be scratched
Sometimes he guesses he might be wrong
Sometimes guesses that he don't belong
He trusts in fate
He trusts in fate, he trusts in fate
But he checks sell - by dates
Redeemer of coupons in a lonely mall
He don't know
He don't sleep at night
And so he's getting ill
He's in a waking dream
He's talking broken talk
Self medicator
getting ill
Shakes but he's steady
Self medicator
It may come too late
Deteriorating
Will he recuperate
It may come too late
He trusts in fate
He trusts in fate
He don't know
He don't sleep at night
And so he's getting ill
He's in a waking dream
He's talking broken talk
He don't know
He don't sleep at night
And so he's getting ill
He's in a waking dream
He's talking broken talk
He's talking broken talk
He's talking broken talk
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3. |
Isle Of Dogs
03:47
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They call me obscene
There's just no empathy
But I'm at the top of the world
No one looks down on me
From commercial road
To the old city
Every day we invent
The economy
I look around and I'm pleased
And I buy into everything I see
I buy in, I buy in, into everything I see
Buy into everything
Into everything
I don’t need to be liked
But join me on my journey
Sweet Thames run soft
Till I end my story
Past the Isle of dogs
The river flows to the sea
The cradle of our wealth
She carries lovingly
I look around and I'm pleased
And I buy into everything I see
I buy in, I buy in, into everything I see
Buy into everything
Into everything
Let forgiveness be heard
I can change
Let forgiveness be heard
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4. |
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Just like you I was born alone
I’m like you but I’m unknown
I stand here gurning, talking to myself
England is in my bones
Windows broken at my home
Dealer says there’s something I stole
Bring me my bow of burning gold
God you don’t know how slow the hours go
England's in my bones
Now I come to the end of the road
No one taught me to think like me
Don’t have no rules make it up on my own
Don’t believe anymore than I see
Got nothing in the bag
Nothing I control
Just a sex text on my phone
Bring me my spear
Oh clouds unfold
God you don’t know how slow the hours go
England's in my bones
England's in my bones
England's in my bones
England's in my bones
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5. |
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Stop the seconds' flow
Oh I'm too late
I'm back where I began at the start
I'm caught in their wake
I'll have my due and drag
The rock up the hill
Nothing to lose that's not been lost
I wish the sun anchored still
What I wanted
Disappears in the haze
A speck of dust
Held forever in the dying rays
Breath on the mirror, nothing in sight
The horizons bare but in the night
I missed the pilots light
Control & power
Empires were built in our minds
But it will all go up in a blaze
Only dust
In the dying rays
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6. |
Obey The Ghost
04:37
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I wonder
I drift aimlessly through
A glittering world of pornography
Nothing
Matters much any more
You help spin the web we weave
They make black-and-white of complexity
We're Facebook friends with celebrities
Hold my hand in the community
And irony is a luxury
It's everything I know
I take what I'm sold
I hear everything I'm told
Nothing I can control
I obey
I obey the ghost
The ghost of the Colony
They make black and white of complexity
Scape goats live at home as refugees
On line gods speak personally to me
They hold my hand in the community
It's everything I know
I take what I'm sold
I hear everything I'm told
Nothing I can control
I obey the ghost of the colony
I obey the ghost of the colony
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7. |
First World Citizen
04:03
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She walked out of the state in flames
Crossed over the 38th parallel
Hitched a ride to the west
Big appetites, those American guys
Chew up whatever the dollar buys
To be a first world citizen
la ah ah la ah ah
To be a first world citizen
la ah ah la ah ah
She will take the border checks, no respect
And will work all the hours in the day
When they say jump, they wanna hear how high
I have lost everything
Didn't ask for anything
I would take anything
Anything at all
To be a first world citizen
la ah ah la ah ah
To be a first world citizen
la ah ah la ah ah
I have lost everything
Didn't ask for anything
I would take anything
Anything at all
To be a first world citizen
la ah ah la ah ah
To be a first world citizen
la ah ah la ah ah
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8. |
Stranded
03:36
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The cool guy laughs: look at the cheap suit
! I'm amused by the conceipt !
The other one says: that's quite a look
! To the fashion front send the conscript !
It's a neat idea it's like cool art
! It's writ large upon our skin !
Thinking to himself should try funny !
! We all love the artifice !
I wear Exquisite Scent of Success,
I am divine, deluxe beyond reach
In a holding pattern soon to be coming down
No remorse, no second thoughts, I'm stranded
I’m coming down, I hope to land, I'm stranded
Aahh, I hope to land
Aahhh
The therapist says live in the moment
! I must describe desires within !
You're interested in just the two things
! I'm into fucking and money !
You're not up to much you should be better
! I like the way you're never negative !
Ooh, you got a sharp edged tongue, you got the put downs
! I'm an arbiter of taste !
I wear Exquisite Scent of Success,
I am divine, deluxe beyond reach
In a holding pattern soon to be coming down
No remorse, no second thoughts, I'm stranded
I’m coming down, I hope to land, I'm stranded
Aahh, I hope to land
Aahhh
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9. |
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Your free will
Is heresy
All ideas are vanity
Don't let your words
Effect the world
Don't let the world change your mind
I look to the cards to read our destiny
A laugh out loud comedy
I roll on the floor, tell me the score
Say we won't do this any more
Dark ages dawn
Dark ages dawn
Dark ages dawn
And as the light falls
The dark ages dawn
Ideologue
Un-talks the truth
You won't dissent
You'll have no proof
Looking forward to our history
The great design to infinity
Lights out, you're not dead
Kingdom come instead
Endure this life patiently
Dark ages dawn
Dark ages dawn
Dark ages dawn
And as the light falls
The dark ages dawn
Must never make
A Graven image
You must forsake
A Graven image
You will not take
A Graven image
You’ll never make
A Graven image
You must forsake
A Graven image
You will not take
A Graven image
You must forsake
A Graven image
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10. |
Dead Souls (ft. Hotei)
03:23
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I’m a dissident
I say what we say is true -
Is not; but we give our consent
So it is decreed
I’m an alien hiding
among the worker bees
the stories told
Will be ratified
Passing time
We are dead before we die
Well they made the laws
To keep control
But in the end
I’ll join
The line of dead souls
The shrink explains,
I'm dysfunctional or just
Ill by some other name
I’m not cut out for this role
and in the end I’ll join the line of dead souls
Because souls die
Without ever living
We only take
What we are given
The world is rushing by
Everyone is on a roll
And I pass the time
In the line of dead souls
Well they made the laws
To keep control
But in the end
I’ll join
The line of dead souls
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11. |
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Gang of Four London, UK
Gang of Four is one of the most radically important, and influential rock groups of the last 40 years.
The Red Hot Chili
Peppers, INXS, R.E.M., U2, Rage Against the Machine have all spoken of their debt to Gang of Four, with today's creators of angular rock music having GO4's influence and imprint all over it.
This page features Gang of Four's new music output from 2008 onwards.
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