Demons
Lyrics written by Neil O'Brien
They call them chav scum and in every respect
They fit the profile of the prime suspect
They've been demonized, all coated with tar
And if they were black we'd see what bigots you are
Cos we've seen this before, many times in fact
With skins and punks and mods and teddy boys before that
When working class youths assert their identity
There's a chorus of horror and authorities react
Chorus:
They're the faceless phantoms that haunt the street
The wretched of the earth, the ghosts at your feast
And who can say what purpose it serves?
Every society gets the demons it deserves
Scorned and ignored at the bottom of the heap
Creatures living in darkness, down in the deep
Plebs, peasants, underclass, lumpen proles
They're not people like us, you know they've got no souls!
A resource to exploit, a problem to control
They're a mob you can't trust, best keep them on parole
Cos they're objects, not actors, yeah, they have no voice
Always subject to your rules, never given a choice
Crude in manners with uncultivated minds
Economically redundant, getting left behind
While the well-to-do always howl about yobs
They'd rather pay the shareholders than invest in jobs
And there's no way out, it's so hard to transcend
To get what you need you've gotta make the rules bend
Beat down by the right hand, sold out by the left
They're all the evidence you need that property is theft
Cos they're the ones who go without while others have it all
This witness is still insisting it was a push not a fall
And it was you who did that, you fucking middle class twat!
Every time you vote for tax cuts, the working class get a slap
And endless generations of social degradation
Have left their mark on half of this nation
People mock what they fear and you've got to expect
Deny us dignity and respect, you might well fear what you'll get
Chorus:
They're the faceless phantoms that haunt the street
The wretched of the earth, the ghosts at your feast
And who can say what purpose it serves?
Every society gets the demons it deserves