4 June 1989

I told them we heard singing first before we reached the Square

"Arise the wretched of the earth" filled the air

So many fists clenched to the sky we couldn't count them all

But then the sea of weeping washed over the Hall

I told them no one saw me, there was no one who would know

I was an army soldier dressed in students clothes

Between the smoking bonfires we held our rifles high

As the ashes of the banners soared into the sky

Ah, I was seventeen that spring

Ah, we were just obeying orders

Ah, I still see everything

Through the factory's yellow windows

In the dirty stinking river

In the messages that find you then vanish in the ether

They vanish in the ether:

I told them not to fear me but history tells the tale

The artists and the poets fill up every jail

Before I held a rifle I held an artist's brush

Before Tiananmen I even dreamed of love

Ah, I was seventeen that spring

Ah, we were just obeying orders

Ah, I still see everything

Through the factory's yellow windows

In the dirty stinking river

In the messages that found me, then vanished in the ether

In the messages that found me:.

I told them they'd see me walking in the rain

In Budapest, in Prague, in Soweto's lanes

Between the burning oil drums and the graffiti on the wall

I told them, yes I told them, I told them all

Ah, I was seventeen that spring

Ah, we were just obeying orders

Ah, and I still see everything

Through the factory's yellow windows

In the dirty stinking river

In the messages that find us, then vanish in the ether

Oh the messages will find us, then vanish in the ether