Songtext Behold the pale rider The Levellers

Behold the pale rider

Bombs go off in London,
Stirred panic's rhythmic creep,
The city turns its shoulders,
Smooths the cracks and tries to sleep

Split the gulf sky red,
As the oil fields start to blow,
And weep a heavy storm of black, black rain
Onto the earth below

And the millions cried "Sweet Mary",
A million more cried tears of shame,
When they saw what they had done in the name of all of their hopes and fears,
When they realised what they became

In hidden eastern passes,
That defenders will not yield
To a soldier from the Edgware Road
Come to burn the poppy fields

And the millions cried "Sweet Mary",
A million more cried tears of shame,
When they saw what they had done in the name of all of their hopes and fearsWhen they realised what they became

Behold the pale rider, the new war partisan,
Twenty years still with the desert dust,
Slipping slowly through his hands

And from the water margins,
To death row, Guantanamo,
You can hear that King's Cross countdown,
As the detonators blow

And the millions cried "Sweet Mary",
A million more cried tears of shame,
When they saw what they had done in the name of all of their hopes and fears
When they realised what they became

Behold the pale rider, the new war partisan,
Twenty years still with the desert dust,
Slipping slowly through his hands