Before the War

of all the bars and all the pubs
 And all the late night drinking clubs
 You had to walk into them all
 You've been drinking to forget
 You need to keep your thinking set
 On what you did before the war
 Before the bugler changed his tune
 When everything was Mills and Boon
 And lovers kissed beneath the stars
 Now they've flattened all the flats
 It's time to batten down the hatch
 With another whisky from the bar
 And drink yourself under the table
 Terrestrial TV and cable
 The wireless and the Internet
 Remind us what we're drinking to forget
 It's something more than just the guilt
 You can't be sure, you must have killed
 But you really can't be sure
 When progress moves so fast
 It leaves us in the past
 With platform shoes and dinosaurs
 Close your eyes and count to ten
 Forget the whys and wheres
 And when you feel sober
 It still isn't over
 There's more
 Sell your house
 And change your name
 Because you'll never be the same man
 That you were
 Before the war