Paul Shapera - The Wasteland lyrics

[Constance] Angry adolescents with no parents left Hang out all night sharpening their attitudes and smoking cigarettes Laugh and howl and cry until the room spins Hang on to Katy, all I know is tomorrow night, I'll do it all again In the wasteland Where the ashes, ashes all fall down from worlds that could never stand In the wasteland Where rings of roses, broken boughs, just fall down and down and down I raged with Katy through our last teen years We's too wild to notice, and too sad to care I learned the wind blows, and the bough, it breaks So I looked to have some laughs, some gra**, and shots of what you got, I'll take At 2 am, a pack of wild kids laugh, swig bottles back Stumbling and fumbling, I bid good night and slap their backs I'd stray to the graveyard and pa** out on my mother's grave 'Til my aunt comes, puts a blanket round me, and just sits and stays In the wasteland Where the ashes, ashes all fall down from worlds that could never stand In the wasteland Where rings of roses, broken boughs, just fall down and down and down Katy's daddy threw her mum aside Left her with nothing, and I'd loved her, she was always kind And in her hour of need, no one would look around Someone had to step up, but I was ground and drowned and so far down I's in the wasteland My dear daddy, whiskey on his breath I never knew him really, and one day, daddy left But he'd say, “My girl, if only one thing now I ever teach you, sweetheart…. do not stay down." Little girl, oh little girl, you don't stay down You kick and scream and scratch, you roar and thrash, but don't stay down The last breath you take, spit in their face, you lick your wounds another day But get off the ground, go take 'em down, oh little girl, don't stay down Daddy dear, I could use your voice right now Life's smacked me round, and I'm so down, I just can't get up from here I put that angry girl behind me and I rose From ash just like you asked, I could use her here now, though I'm in the wasteland Where ashes, ashes all fall down from worlds that could never stand In the wasteland Where rings of roses, broken boughs, all fall down and down Little girl, oh little girl, you don't stay down You kick and scream and scratch, you roar and thrash, but don't stay down The last breath you take, spit in their face, you lick your wounds another day But get off the ground, go take 'em down, oh little girl, don't stay down