(Verse 1) There lived a man in Birmingham not many years ago With a razor in his flat cap and a heart as cold as snow The lawmen tried to cage him but they couldn’t find the key He was the king of the Black Country, from the docks down to the sea! He walked into the Garrison with thunder in his stride With a silver-tongue for business and a devil deep inside A veteran of the trenches with a map of French bloodstains With the power of the empire flowing through his common veins! **(Verse 2)** He wasn't born to royalty, he wasn't born to gold He was born in mud and iron where the winter nights are cold He gathered up his brothers and he told them of a dream To build a bloody kingdom on a river made of steam! From the betting shops in Small Heath to the racing at the track If you crossed a shadow-man, you were never coming back He’d look you in the eye while he was sipping on his tea And decide if you were living or a ghost in history! (Chorus) (Low, gravelly baritone—whispered energy) HE’S THE LEADER! Small Heath’s prophet, the secret-keeper! There was a cat that really was gone! HE’S THE REAPER! The Birmingham ghost, the hollow-sleeper! It was a shame how he carried on! (Verse 3) He could lead a thousand brothers like a general in the mud He could turn a copper’s loyalty with gold or with his blood But when it came to women, he was fragile as a glass Until he met a barmaid with a grace that wouldn’t pass! She was a spy for the crown, she was a dancer for the state But he took her in his arms and he challenged every fate The guns began to bark and the smoke began to rise But you couldn't find a flicker in those icy, hollow eyes! (Verse 4) But she left him lonely with a bullet in the dark And the fire in his spirit turned into a dying spark He moved into a mansion with a portrait on the wall Waiting for the day that he would finally have to fall! He handled the Italians and he broke the Billy Boys To the man of many faces, they were children with their toys He sat with Winston Churchill as the world began to burn Waiting for the lesson that his bloodline never learns! (Bridge) (The music strips back to just a ticking clock and a low, vibrating bass note)* He gathers the kin, he stands in the hall The smoke from his cigarette shadows the wall He looks at the brothers, his eyes full of spite "We are a respectable company tonight!" *(Spoken, dry and lethal)* "No fighting. No. Fucking. Fighting." (Beat of silence) GET OFF ME! (The band explodes into a heavy, distorted blues riff with aggressive brass) (Verse 5) The Lee boys came with hatchets and the Kimber came with greed But he had the vision that the working people need He played a game of chess while they were playing in the dirt He knew exactly how much every human life was worth! He survived the Russian Duchess and the wrath of Father John While the ghost of his own mother told him he must carry on! (Verse 6) Then came the London nights, the Camden streets in flame Where every man in the smoke knew the family name The Jew was in the basement with a proverb and a knife A mirror of the madness in the middle of the strife! "I'm a man of peace!" he'd whisper while he held a loaded gun Underneath the shadow of a dark and dying sun! (Verse 7) There was the brother with the anger, and the boy with all the pride With the loyal gypsy bloodline always running on their side But the cousin was a serpent with a hunger for the throne And the man realized he’d have to finish this alone! He stood upon the gallows with the rope around his neck While the empire he had built was a burning, bloody wreck But he pulled a hidden lever and he turned the tide again Because the family name is written in the hearts of broken men! (Outro) (Tempo slows—heavy, cavernous reverb) Already dead," he whispers to the ceiling. In the bleak midwinter... the sadness is the feeling. The better lives are only when I’m sleeping. It moves into the walls, the secrets that he's keeping. "Stay gold, Danny Whizz-Bang..." A red right hand... it never ends. Always sad. Always sad. (Final Anvil Strike) (Sound of a heavy iron door slamming shut)
