Internal Exile

I saw a blue umbrella in Princes Street Gardens

Heading out west for the Lothian Road

An Evening News stuffed deep in his pocket

Wrapped up in his problems to keep away the cold

Grierson's spirit haunts the dockyards

(Where) the only men working (are on the) documentary crews

Shooting film as the lines get longer

As the seams run out, as the oil runs dry

Hey there laddie, internal exile

When will you (realise) {see that} we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, internal exile

When will you realise (we've) {you've} got to let go?

Starlings wheeling round Georgian spires

And the fires of Grangemouth burn the skies

A lion sleeps in a tenement close

In the country that's tired and deaf to his roar

Hey there laddie, internal exile

When will you (realise) {see that} we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, internal exile

When will you realise (we've) {you've} got to let go?

We've got to go now

Won't you please let us go now?

They bury a wasteland deep in the wilderness

Poison the soil and reap the harvest

Of blind indifference, greed and apathy

Sowed way back in our history

The fish are few and the harbours are empty

The keels now rot on our oil slicked shores

The sheep are gone, the farms deserted

(We're) It's out of sight and we're out of mind

Hey there laddie, internal exile

When will you (realise) {see that} we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, internal exile

When will you realise (we've) {you've} got to let go?

(We're gonna go now)

(We're gonna go now)

Like our fathers before us we've eyes for America

Dream of a new life on foreign shores

(But) wherever we go we'll always know

That the land we stand on is never our own

Hey there laddie, internal exile

When will you (realise) {see that} we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, internal exile

When will you realise (we've) {you've} got to let go?

We're internal exiles

We've got to, got to let go

We're internal exiles

As if we've got to let go

We've got to let go

We've got to go now

Won't you please let us go now?

Internal exile

Internal exile

Won't you please let us go now?