Frans Hals

They calculate how much it takes to starve a rat
And send it out to me
Sleeping in the trash
Begrudging everything
They're keen to deal with me
So yesterday I
This land informs me

These are better days
You stop your money
There's no more money
We've already paid
We're making money
I said you're joking

The rich are out to get to me
They want to see me hung drawn and quartered
You bastards gave me
And I will pinch you dry
It's not much to do
It's all I can do
But one day soon
The poor will deal with you

Make your will out mate
They know your names and they know your faces
Make your will out mate
They know your names and they know your faces
They will deal with you
They'll really deal with you

notes: Released as a single in 1987.  Malcolm wrote not only the words on this one but the music as well.

Most of the song I can't understand very well, so I've just put down what it basically sounds like for the questionable parts.  Like, does he really say Iran or Iraq in the first line?  I doubt it, but I'm not sure what else it is.

Frans Hals was himself a 17th century Dutch painter.

Malcolm:

This was recorded for a John Peel session. The people at our record label, Pink, liked it and decided to put it out as a single. We did a second, rockier, faster version for the B-side. The words are about the seventeenth century Dutch painter, whose story I found in a book called Ways of Seeing by John Berger.

found on: A La Guillotine, That's All Very Well, But...

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