John Colban

“AYE” by Sam Fender is feeling especially relevant these days. If you’ve never heard it, listen below on YouTube or Spotify.

“Aye” is basically a massive middle finger to the mess that is modern politics. It’s a loud rant that hits home right now because it captures that exhausted feeling of being stuck between two extremes while the wealthy 1% keeps winning.

Lyrics

They don’t act up for the camera
They just sit back and command them
And collect and deflect and abandon
They even wrote all the Ten Commandments
They watched Jesus get nailed to the cross
In real time and in their heads

They watched Boudica fall to the Romans
They watched Lennon as they shot him dead
They watched Jackie pick up Kennedy’s head
They watched kids go to Epstein’s bed
They watched Hollywood whitewash remake movies
Of napalm falling like water on rock

They watched the atom bomb reduce two cities to dust
And paint the whole narrative as totally just
They’re flyin’ drones above our heads
That paint the ground black and red
Children’s eyes clasped in dread
They all knew where it led

Trade ties steeped in guile
They knew the fall was comin’ all the while
And they doubled down on misery
The age-old blatant mystery
Subterfuge in synergy

Poor, hate the poor
Hate the poor
Hate the poor
Hate the poor
Poor, hate the poor
Hate the poor
Hate the poor
Hate the poor

It’s a blame game, it’s a fame trap
It’s the martyrdom of the spoken
It’s the last breath of the awoken
And the woke kids are just –
And the – are all ages
And everybody’s pointing at
Somebody’s sweetheart, I’m a scumbag
Makin’ my peace with the internal drag
Makin’ my thesis on the faceless man
He’s got the whole world in his – hand

I don’t have time for the very few
They never had time for me and you
I don’t have time for the very few
They never had time for me and you
I don’t have time for the very few
They never had time for me and you
I don’t have time for the very few
They never had time for me and you
I don’t have time for the very few
They never had time for me and you

I’m not a – patriot anymore
I’m not a – singer anymore
I’m not a – liberal anymore
I’m not a – anything or anyone
I’m not a – anything or-
I’m not a – anything
I’m not a-, I’m not a-, I’m not
Aye