Goons in blackface creeping in the road --

farm family waiting for the night to explode --

working the land in an age of terror

you come to see the moon as the bad news bearer

down where the death squad lives.



They cut down people like they cut down trees --

chop off its head so it will stay on its knees --

the forest shrinks but the earth remains

slash and burn and it grows again

down where the death squad lives.



I've got friends trying to batter the system down

fighting the past till the future comes round.

it'll never be a perfect world till God declares it that way

but that don't mean there's nothing we can do or say

down where the death squad lives.



Like some kind of never-ending Easter passion,

from every agony a hero's fashioned.

around every evil there gathers love --

bombs aren't the only things that fall from above

down where the dead squad lives

down where the dead squad lives



Sometimes i feel like there's a padlock on my soul.

if you opened up my heart you'd find a big black hole

but when the feeling comes through, it comes through strong --

if you think there's no difference between right and wrong

just go down where the death squad lives.



This world can be better than it is today.

You can say i'm a dreamer but that's okay.

without the could-be and the might-have-been

all you've got left is your fragile skin

and that ain't worth much down where the death squad lives.



(Toronto, January 28, 1986