The Ballad Of The Sin Father lyrics

Song information

Artist: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
Album: Hearts Of Oak

Lyrics

When you run
Digger, runner, listener, thief
You carry it all with you

Today I woke up uncertain
And you know that gives me the fits
So I left this land of fungible convictions
Because it seemed like the pits
When I say, "conviction", I mean it's something to abjure
And when I say "uncertain", I mean to doubt I'll not turn out a caricature
So I set off in search of my forebears
Coz my forbearance was in need
But the only job I could get in dear old blighty
Was working on the railway between selby and leeds
So I took a ferry to belfast, where I had cause to think:
They wanted none of my arm-chair convictions
But nobody seemed to mind when I was putting on the drinks!

And you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, and they hate you 'coz you're guilty! so..

I stayed out all night in ibiza
By way of san sebastian
Where they said;
'Yanquee, you better watch what you're saying, unless you're sayin'
It in basque or in catalan!"
So all the way east to novi sad
Where nary a bridge was to be seen
But mother russia, she laid her pontoons on down
So I crossed over, if you know what I mean..
Then on the road to damascus
Yes, the scales, they fell from my eyes
And the simplest lesson I learned at the mount of olives was that everybody lies
And the french foreign legion
You know they did their best -
But I never believed in t.e. lawrence
So how the hell could I believe in beau geste?

You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, and they hate you 'coz you're guilty! so..

I spent a night in kigali, in a five diamond hotel
Where maybe someday, they'll do the watusi down in hutu hell
I fell in with a merchant marine who promised to take me home
But when I woke up beaten and bloodied
I couldn't tell if it was jersey or sierra leone!

And you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could have you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, and they hate you coz you're guilty..

And the knocking in my head, just like the knocking at my door
Maybe it was me or maybe it was my brother
But either me or me and him went down to the bar
Where I got seven powers in me for to give me the cure
But when seven powers failed to spin me
I had to get me seven more
And when I say, "me" I mean my brain
And when I say "give me the cure" I mean to kill the pain
And when I say "kill the pain" I meant to get the devil out
And when I say "devil" I mean the manifestation of doubt!

And you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, make no mistake - they hate you..