From the recording Pedalling In The Fast Lane
This song was inspired by the atrocities that occured in East Timor. The occupation by Indonesia, (using weapons supplied by the British government among others), lasted from 1975 to 1999, though much of the killing, (100,000–300,000), occurred in the 1970s.
I was watching a film, 'In Cold Blood: Massacre in East Timor' about this and immediately wrote this song.
A few years later and I went to a party in Ilkley, Yorkshire being held by my Homeopathic practitioner. Upon entering her house I noticed an Amnesty International Award on her mantle piece in her living room. It turns out that it had been awarded to her husband, Peter Gordon, who had made the film that inspired me to write this song.
The audio clip during the mid section is from John Pilger who made the film 'Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy' about the same atrocities.
Lyrics
In this world of fear power reaps the lives of men
The system runs on tears of people justice will not defend
Grey men deny us our rights to live free of pain
Grey men deceive us. We don’t see our need for change
They’ll hush it up - a cover up
So no one finds out about it
Change
Make a change
They’re dangerous, not afraid of us
We’ve gotta shout loud to make a change
Make a change
In this world of greed; the curse of God and man
Religion is a screen behind slaves of avarice stand
Grey men will cheat us. Our lives will pay for their gain
Grey men deceive us. We don’t see our need for change
Chorus
Solo
In this secret world planet earth will not survive
Under men and machines and natural world of beauty dies
Grey men ignore us. Their progress leads to our graves
Grey men deceive us. We don’t see our need for change
Chorus
If you look a little closer you can see them fighting wars
Over money land or power or insane religious laws
They will never be the victims, just the lowly and the poor
When they run out of guns to kill and main our governments sell them more
If you look a little closer you can see the pain
Industrial pollution and a sea of acid rain
They don’t care about the ozone or pollution that we breathe
The finger to the environment and the reason why is greed
If you look a little closer you can see children die
Starvation’s on the increase while we pile our surplus high
They’ll only help if they can get back something in return
Repay your loans or by some guns or watch your people burn
They can blame it on the black man, they can blame it on the Jew
They can blame asylum seekers cause that seems the thing to do
They will find another scapegoat ‘cause they won’t accept the blame
It’s time to take a closer look. It’s time to make a change