Dave - Three Rivers lyrics

Imagine an island where the party never ends
Where it's less about money and
It's more about friends
Where the vibes can't dun
It's less about fundin' and more about fun
Tropical sun, that’s life in the 60s
Comin' from the Caribbean
You know Ian, Delroy, Vivian, Winston
Who got drafted to England
Windrush babies from Kingston to Brixton
To say they're the life of the party
You're wrong
My Jamaicans the entire party, you can't see?
Big Notting Hill carni, you can't see?
And the ride's fiber glass, G, you wan' see?
Imagine a place where you raisе your kids
The only place you live says you ain't a Brit
Thеy're deportin' our people and
It makes me sick
'Cause they were broken by the country
That they came to fix it's like

They came at the invitation
Of the British Government
Their passports were stamped 'indefinite
Leave to remain'
But for some, who were children then
That was a false promise
Thirty-seven years of paying taxes
And I got a
Letter saying I was an illegal immigrant
I came here to England at the age of
Ten and I've lived here all my life

Look, imagine a world that's flawed
And full of evil
Where dictators and leaders are
Persecutin' your people
The bodies of the innocents are
Pilin' to the steeples
The ironic part is they're
Preyin' on the feeble
That's life in the 90s
You're Eastern European
And you're seein' people dyin' 'cause
They're fightin' for their freedom
They show you violence for havin' a voice
You move out with your kids in
Hope of havin' a choice
Life throws you a spanner
You can't handle the pain
So you gamble and you drink
And then you gamble again
You argue with your wife and then
You sleep on the couch
You hit your children and
Start freezin' 'em out
You try and work things out
But it's never the same
All the women in your
Household are livin' afraid
When you look into the
Mirror you're reminded again
That you've become the dictator
You were fightin' against it's like

We're fightin' for our rights
For our motherland and then we - we - we
Are fighting for our homes
We are fighting for our, our fa-

Look, imagine a world that's
Fucked and untrue
Where the many pay a price for the few
And every day the sun rises a little later
That's how it is when your
Oppressor is your liberator
That's right now livin' in the Middle East
Pray Salah for the peace
Death from a sky littered with stars
You run away with your kids so
You can give them a chance
But your asylum has got you
In a different war
Because the British wanna know what
You're livin' here for
We rely on migration more than ever before
They're key workers
But they couldn't even get in the door
When you're at Heaven's gates
What you tellin' the Lord?
You wouldn't even let a kid
Into some steadier shores
That's a life they may never afford
Surely you would wanna give your people
Chances that were better than yours? No?

In ten years of conflict
And twelve-thousand children have been
Killed or injured
The children here are just a
Tiny fraction of the estimated
Six-million that are in need
Of emergency humanitarian assistance
It's thought perhaps as many
As three-million no
Longer live in their own homes
And up to two-million children
No longer attend school
The opportunities of this
Generation have been
Changed forever by this conflict
I went to silence when I needed to know
Who the, who the fuck I was, bro
And like, I won't hear anyone else
Shut everyone else out
So I could just hear myself, bro
You know what I'm sayin'?
'Cause we live in this world, yeah
You stand still, the way the tide’s set up
It will take you away from yourself
You feel me?
So then I was like "Aight, cool"
But, I had to get silent
But it's not like man's
Goin' against the tide
'Cause goin' against the tide still
Makes it about them
Still makes it about the poison that
You've internalised in your mind
You feel me?
It's like "Bro, why am I in this water?"
Man, this water don't even like me
It's not even for me
It's not takin' me where I wanna go
It's not takin' me where I wanna go
It's who the fuck I am, bro
You know what I'm sayin'?
So the tide will tell me that
Bein' black is an obstacle
See what I'm sayin'?
I had to, switch Rivers, bro
I say bein' black is an asset
I am who I am because I'm black
And I love everything about it, you feel me?
And that's who the fuck I am