Chords

Chords for Children of the Revolution, transcribed by John Meranda. Also check out John’s Easy Chords Page.

Lyrics

Children of the revolution coming out to play
Bombers ripped the night apart and blew the school away
Some live on the south side and they overlook the water
Some live on the north side and they’re looking at the border
And those children of the revolution see the soldiers come
Smiling at the widows as they take away the sons
Children of the revolution shot down with a brand new gun
They’re dropping down like flies and in their eyes
The images of war are in their eyes
They’ve seen it all before and know your lies
Won’t keep their bellies full
In love and war there are no rules

Children of the revolution getting off the boat
To face the ignorance and prejudice that keep this land afloat
Children of the revolution make a brand new start
Running through the rubble of a thousand broken hearts and in their eyes
All promises are broken in their eyes
The words that can’t be spoken and your lies
Don’t keep their bellies full
In love and war there are no rules
But in their eyes
Murder comes by sea and from the skies
It’s shiny and it’s quick to take their lives
And it’s cruel in love and war there are no rules

Children of the revolution coming out to play
Someone sells a gun and someone blows them all away
Children of the revolution sold out by the banks
Who swap the green upon the dollars for the green upon the tanks
Children of the revolution shot down by a brand new gun

Here’s a live performance on Irish TV in 1997 (clip starts after Kirsty sings Libertango, so aout 4:30).

Chloe & Gianni sang this at the 2017 Kirstyfest on London.

Here’s a track called “Prometheus” which was written as “an homage to ‘Children of the Revolution'” (Anon.). Always good to see see people inspired by Kirsty!

Chords

Chords for Walking Down Madison, transcribed by Alan Officer from Walking Down Madison – sheet music.

Lyrics

Walking down Madison
I swear I never had a gun
No I never shot no-one
I was only having fun
Walking down Madison
Swear I never had a gun
I was philosophizing some
Checking out the bums

See you give ’em your nickels, your pennies and dimes
But you can’t give ’em hope in these mercenary times, oh no
And you feel real guilty about the coat on your back
And the sandwich you had, oh no

From an uptown apartment to a knife on the “A” train
It’s not that far
From the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement
It’s not that far
To the bag lady frozen asleep in the park
Oh no it’s not that far

Would you like to see some more?
I can show you if you’d like to

Walking down Madison
I swear I never had a gun
No I never shot no-one
Wouldn’t do it just for fun
Walking down Madison
Trying to keep my head screwed on
I was philosophizing some
Checking out the nuns
When you get to the corner don’t look at those freaks
Keep your head down low and stay quick on your feet, oh yeah

The beaming boy from Harlem with the airforce coat
The ones who died
The ones who tried
The ones that sit and gloat

From an uptown apartment to a knife on the “A” train
It’s not that far
From the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement
It’s not that far
To the bag lady frozen asleep on the church steps
It’s not that far

Would you like to see some more?
I can show you if you’d like to

Within every city and town there’s a Madison
Frozen lives for whom nothing’s happening
Hungry children is a mother’s dilemma
Dumpster diving to feed her baby Emma
So you walk on by like it doesn’t affect you
The held out hand that you pay no respect to
Nickels and dimes won’t even buy your guilt
Another wino dead burnt to death in his quilt
It’s a cardboard city, newspaper metrapolis
The system can’t cope or keep on top of this
The outhorities come as you’re not for display
Do they solve the problem no they move him away
They’re in a vicious circle of no fixed abode
The social won’t pay ’em the money they’re owed
When you got no money you can’t pay rent
Hypothermia kills ‘cos the system is bent

From an uptown apartment to a knife on the “A” train
It’s not that far
From the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement
It’s not that far
To the bag lady frozen asleep in the park
It’s not that far

Would you like to see some more?
I can show you if you’d like to

From an uptown apartment to a knife on the “A” train
It’s not that far
From the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement
It’s not that far
To the bag lady frozen asleep on the church steps
It’s not that far

Would you like to see some more?
I can show you if you’d like to

In the subway sits a vacuous man
His grip on life is a bent tin can
It’s a holy shrine where he burns his light
It makes things easy and removes his plight
For an hour or two but he can’t escape
They’re all penned in with government tape
There are good samaritans who bring them soup
The sally army with their bibles and boots
You can see yourselves it’s not too far
One short trip you don’t know who they are
Till the night comes then it all comes back
Like the smell of patchoulli and the armies of rats
It’s a shame to be human it’s a human shame
It seems we’ve forgotten we’re one and the same

One and the same
One and the same
No it’s not too far
No it’s not too far
We’re one and the same

Commentary

Spending a lot of time in New York City, Walking Down Madison’ was cut at its Electric Lady Studio. “I wrote the lyrics when I was working in New York. I couldn’t find the right musical approach for ages, I tried writing stuff and asked some other people to try, but it never worked until I got a tape through the post with some ideas from Johnny Marr. The minute I heard his guitar I dug out the lyrics and sussed out a melody”. From a gentle instrumental piece of guitar play, Johnny’s demo was suddenly transformed into a furious trip through the downtrodden streets of NYC, with MC Aniff Cousins laying down a heavy commentary. ‘Madison’ was released in a variety of differently textured mixes, and became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, charting in the UK at No. 23.

The Salvo 2012 release claims to have additional production but this is hard to spot. Some other CD reissued versions all have a somewhat flattened dynamic range compared to a test rip from my original vinyl LP copy (giving them that punchier sound) but I can’t detect any difference between these. ‘Ye Olde Original Mix’ is quite evidently a different mix from the original LP version.