The Charge Lyrics - New Model Army

Our history speaks in thunder from a thousand village halls 

In blood and sweat and sacrifice, in honoring every call 

So the forces gathered against the thorn a-piercing in their side 

A brave new world is beckoning so the olden world must die. 

In the offices of the city, at all the tables of oak and power 

The snares are laid and baited for the approaching of the hour 

A hundred justifications and the presses are ready to roll 

The gateways to the nation they are firmly under control 

On, on, on, cried the leaders at the back 

We went galloping down the blackened hills 

And into the gaping trap 

The bridges are burnt behind us and there's waiting guns ahead 

Into the valley of death rode the brave hundreds 

We called for some assistance from the friends that we had known 

But this is the 1980s and we were on our own 

We never felt like heroes or martyrs to a cause 

Just battle-weary soldiers in a bloody civil war 

The massacre now is over and the order new enshrined 

While a quarter of the nation are abandoned far behind 

Their leaders offer the cliché words, so righteous in defeat 

But no one needs morality when there isn't enough to eat 

The unity bond is broken and the loyalty songs are fake 

I'll screw my only brother for even a glimpse at a piece of the cake 

We only cry in private here behind the shuttered glass 

When we think of the charge of this brigade, the severing of the past