Lovers and Friends - Battlefield Band

Ah, battles and wars

Leave deep wounds and scars

And deep wounds are long in the mending

Where reflecting upon

All that is gone

Your life passes on til it’s ending.

But the pleasure and pain

In our memories remain

And by memories, our times will be measured

And the times that we spend

With lovers and friends

Are times we remember with pleasure.

So fill up your glass

To the future and past

In harmony, be determined:

There’s more friendship poured out

In a bottle of stout

Than you’ll find in statute or sermon.

I’ve heard all the old songs

of the rights and the wrongs

The prophets of doom and destruction

Speak more of messiahs,

like all pariahs

Up to their necks in corruption.

From the holy and wise,

Denial and lies,

Where innocent youth is foresaken

I have watched the days end,

with lovers and friends,

Sorry to see the dawn breaking.

There are those who are certain

that drinking and courtin'

Is a sure way to hell and damnation.

Well if that is to be,

it would seem clear to me,

Their God has no sense of occasion.

To fulfill his plan,

both woman and man,

Bring forth each new generation.

And a bottle of stout

And a bit of a bout,

Surely appease procreation.

variation:

So fill up your glass,

throw your arms round your lass

In harmony be determined.

There’s more friendship poured out,

in a bottle of stout

Then you’ll find in statute or sermon.

To the precious and pious

And them that shall chide us

To the fear that the call has been given.

To parade and deride us,

Separate and divide us

All in their versions of heaven.

But mountains and rivers

Will by far outlive us

When our bones into dust they are withered,

There will be lovers and friends,

and we’ll still comprehend

The reason we’re in this together.