[Intro] From the gutter's mud, from the market's din A nameless hand closed round a rusted blade [Verse 1] He hauled the flour, he mended the gate He watched the taxmen empty each plate The king's red seal on a childless home The winter took what the crown called its own He stood where the gallows creaked in the square And swore by the hunger that no one should bear [Pre-Chorus] No lord's command No jeweled throne Can make a man Forget his own [Chorus] Rise, common son, let the iron bells cry Break the crown's grip, make the high banners lie One against a thousand where the black fields run A kingdom may command—but it cannot own one [Verse 2] He crossed the old bridge as the drums began Past pikes in a row like a harvest of hands The royal host spread from hill to hill A thousand helms with a single will He met their advance where the red earth split And drove through the ranks with a farmer's grit [Pre-Chorus] No lord's command No jeweled throne Can make a man Forget his own [Chorus] Rise, common son, let the iron bells cry Break the crown's grip, make the high banners lie One against a thousand where the black fields run A kingdom may command—but it cannot own one [Bridge] They ringed him in steel They called him a fool He answered with silence And shattered their rule For every locked granary For every bare room The people came forward And swallowed the gloom [Breakdown] A thousand men! One battered shield! A thousand blades! He would not yield! [Final Chorus] Rise, common son, let the iron bells cry Break the crown's grip, make the high banners lie One against a thousand—but the ranks come undone The crown falls hard when the many move as one [Outro] No throne can own us No crown can bind The common hands Have changed the tide
