powerslave

1. ACES HIGH 2. 2 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT 3. LOSFER WORDS (BIG 'ORRA) 4. FLASH OF THE BLADE 5. BACK IN THE VILLAGE 6. POWERSLAVE 7. RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

ACES HIGH (Harris)

 There goes the siren that warns of the air raid

 Then comes the sound of the guns sending flak

 Out for the scramble we've got to get airborne

 Got to get up for the coming attack.

 Jump in the cockpit and start up the engines

 Remove all the wheelblocks there's no time to waste

 Gathering speed as we head down the runway

 Gotta get airborne before it's too late.

 Running, scrambling, flying

 Rolling, turning, diving, going in again

 Run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die

 Run, live to fly, fly to live. Aces high.

 Move in to fire at the mainstream of bombers

 Let off a sharp burst and then turn away

 Roll over, spin round and come in behind them

 Move to their blindsides and firing again.

 Bandits at 8 O'clock move in behind us

 Ten ME-109's out of the sun

 Ascending and turning our spitfires to face them

 Heading straight for them I press down my guns

 Rolling, turning, diving

 Rolling, turning, diving, going in again

 Run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die

 Run, live to fly, fly to live, Aces high.

2 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT (Smith/Dickinson)

 Kill for gain or shoot to maim

 But we don't need a reason

 The Golden Goose is on the loose

 And never out of season

 Some blackened pride still burns inside

 This shell of bloody treason

 Here's my gun for a barrel of fun

 For the love of living death.

 Chorus

 The killer's breed or the demon's seed,

 The glamour, the fortune, the pain,

 Go to war again, blood is freedom's stain,

 But don't you pray for my soul anymore.

 2 minutes to midnight

 The hands that threaten doom.

 2 minutes to midnight

 To kill the unborn in the womb.

 The blind men shout let the creatures out

 We'll show the unbelievers

 The napalm screams of human flames

 Of a prime time Belsen feast...YEAH!

 As the reasons for the carnage cut their meat and lick the gravy,

 We oil the jaws of the war machine and feed it with our babies.

 Chorus

 The body bags and little rags of children torn in two

 And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you.

 As the madmen play on words and make us all dance to their song,

 To the tune of starving millions to make a better kind of gun.

 Chorus

 Midnight...all night...

LOSFER WORDS (BIG'ORRA) (Harris)

(Instrumental)

FLASH OF THE BLADE (Dickinson)

 As a young boy chasing dragons with your wooden sword so mighty,

 You're St. George or you're David and you always killed the beast.

 Times change very quickly,

 and you had to grow up early,

 A house in smoking ruins and the bodies at your feet.

 Chorus

 You'll die as you lived

 In a flash of the blade,

 In a corner forgotten by no one.

 You llived for the touch

 For the feel of the steel

 One man, and his honour.

 The smell of resined leather

 The steely iron mask

 As you cut and thrust and parried at the fencing master's call.

 He taught you all he knew

 To fear no mortal man

 and now you'll wreak your vengeance in the

 Screams of evil men.

THE DUELLISTS (Harris)

He threw down a glove you made the mistake

 Of picking it up now you're gone

 The choosing of guns or fighting with swords

 The choice of weapons is done

 He'll tear you apart as soon as you start

 You know you don't have a chance.

 Chorus

 OH...OH...Fight for the honour

 Fight for the splendour

 Fight for the pleasure

 OH...OH...Fight for the honour

 Fight for the splendour

 Fight for your life!

 Ready to start the duel begins the best man wins in the end.

 A lunge and a feint, a parry too late

 A cut to the chest and you're down

 Seeing the stain then feeling the pain

 Feeling the sweat on your brow.

 Chorus

 The fighting resumes, a silence looms the swordsmen move 'gainst each other

 A cut and a thrust, a parry, a blow, a stab to the heart and you're down

 The Angel of Death hears your last breath

 Meanwhile the Reaper looks on.

 Chorus

 OH...OH...Fought the honour

 Fought for the splendour

 Fought for the pleasure

 OH...OH...Fought for the honour

 Fought for the splendour

 Fought to the death

 BACK IN THE VILLAGE (Smith/Dickinson)

 Turn the spotlights on the people,

 Switch the dial and eat the worm.

 Take your chances, kill the engine,

 Drop your bombs and let it burn.

 White flags shot to ribbons,

 The truce is black and burned,

 Shellshock in the kitchen,

 Tables overturned.

 Chorus

 Back in the village again,

 In the village.

 I'm back in the village again.

 Throwing dice now, rolling loaded,

 I see sixes all the way.

 In a black hole, and I'm spinning

 As my wings get shot away.

 No breaks on the inside,

 Paper cats and burning barns,

 There's a fox among the chickens,

 And a killer in the hounds.

Questions are a burden

 And answers are a prison for oneself

 Shellshock in the kitchen

 Tables start to burn.

 Chorus

 But still we walk into the valley

 And others try to kill the inner flame

 We're burning brighter than before

 I don't have a number, I'M A NAME!

POWERSLAVE (Dickinson)

 Into the abyss I'll fall-the eye of Horus

 Into the eyes of the night-watching me go

 Green is the cat's eye that glows-in this temple

 Enter the risen Osiris-risen again.

 Chorus

 Tell me why I had to be a powerslave

 I don't wanna die, I'm a god, why can't I live on?

 When the Life Giver dies, all around is laid to waste.

 And in my last hour,

 I'm a slave to the power of death.

 When I was living this lie-fear was my game

 People would worship and fall-drop to their knees

 So bring me the blood and red wine for the one to succeed me

 For he is a man and a god-and he will die too.

 Chorus

 Now I am cold but a ghost lives in my veins,

 Silent the terror that reigned-maarbled in stone

 Shell of a man God preserved-a thousand ages

 But open the gates of my hell-I will strike from the grave.

 Chorus

RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER (Harris)

 Hear the rime of the ancient mariner

 See his eye as he stops one of three

 Mesmerises one of the wedding guests

 Stay here and listen to the nightmares of the sea.

 And the music plays on, as the bride passes by

 Caught by his spell and the mariner tells his tale.

 Driven south to the land of the snow and ice

 To a place where nobody's been

 Through the snow fog flies on the albatross

 Hailed in God's name, hoping good luck it brings.

 And the ship sails on, back to the North

 Through the fog and ice and the albatross follows on.

 The mariner kills the bird of good omen

 His shipmates cry against what he's done

 But when the fog clears, they justify him

 And make themselves a part of the crime.

 Sailing on and on and north across the sea

 Sailing on and on and north 'til all is calm.

 The albatross begins with its vengeance

 A terrible curse a thirst has begun

 His shipmates blame bad luck on the mariner

 About his neck, the dead bird is hung.

 And the curse goes on and on at sea

 And the curse goes on and on for them and me.

 "Day after day, day after day,

 we stuck nor breath nor motion

 as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean

 Water, water everywhere and

 all the boards did shrink

 Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink."

 There calls the mariner

 There comes a ship over the line

 But how can she sail with no wind in her sails and no tide.

 See...onward she comes

 Onward she nears out of the sun

 See, she has no crew

 She has no life, wait but here's two.

 Death and she Life in Death,

 They throw their dice for the crew

 She wins the mariner and he belongs to her now.

 Then...crew one by one

 they drop down dead, two hundred men

 She...she, Life in Death.

 She lets him live, her chosen one.

 "One after one by the star dogged moon,

 too quick for groan or sigh

 each turned his facce with a ghastly pang

 and cursed me with his eye

 four times fifty living men

 (and I heard nor sigh nor groan)

 with heavy thump, a lifeless lump,

 they dropped down one by one."

 The curse it lives on in their eyes

 The mariner wished he'd die

 Along with the sea creatures

 But they lived on, so did he.

 and by the light of the moon

 He prays for their beauty not doom

 With heart he blesses them

 God's creatures all of them too.

 Then the spell starts to break

 The albatross falls from his neck

 Sinks down like lead into the sea

 Then down in falls comes the rain.

 Hear the groans of the long dead seamen

 See them stir and they start to rise

 Bodies lifted by good spirits

 None of them speak and they're lifelesss in their eyes

 And revenge is still sought, penance starts again

 Cast into a trance and the nightmare carries on.

 Now the curse is finally lifted

And the mariner sights his home

 spirits go from he long dead bodies

 Form their own light and the mariner's left alone.

 And then a boat came sailing towards him

 It was a joy he could not believe

 The pilot's boat, his son and the hermit,

 Penance of life will fall onto him.

 And the ship sinks like lead into the sea

 And the hermit shrieves the mariner of his sins.

 The mariner's bound to tell of his story

 To tell this tale wherever he goes

 To teach God's word by his own example

 That we must love all things that God made.

 And the wedding guest's a sad and wiser man

 And the tale goes on and on and on.

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