War Baby - Tom Robinson, 1983

 
 

Only the very young and the very beautiful can be so aloof
Hanging out with the boys, all swagger and poise
I don't even care what other people are there
I just stare and stare and stare

I see your shadow in the swimming pool
I see your face in the shaving mirror
Time and time and time again
I follow your footsteps so quietly up the backstairs
And I hope and I pray you're never going to find me there

Smooth skin and tenderness long ago on a dark night
Wish I could see you once again just to remember it was true
I want to be still beside you - quiet and still beside you
Listening to your breathing and feeling your warmth again

War baby - you were a
War baby - this means
War baby - I'm scared, so scared
Of whatever it is you keep putting me through

I don't think I could stand another ten years of this fighting
All this stabbing and wounding - only getting my own back
I don't want to batter you to your feet and knees and elbows
When I'm kneeling like a candle at the foot of my own bed

Corresponding disasters every night on the TV
Sickening reality keeps gripping me in its guts
All my friends talk and joke and laugh about Armageddon
But like a nightmare it's still waiting there at the end of every day

War baby - you were a
War baby - this means
War baby - I'm scared, so scared
Of whatever it is you keep putting me through

I don't think I could stand another ten years of this fighting
All this stabbing and wounding - only getting my own back
But later that same evening we were out in the car talking
I suddenly wondered who the hell it was we were trying to fool

Cause you were the first one that I ever wanted
And it's you I come home to at the end of every day
Like a mother-sucking baby, demanding and so helpless
A little old balding man, all wrinkles and bulging eyes

War baby
War baby - this means
War baby - I'm scared, so scared
Of whatever it is you keep putting me through

You were a war baby – talking about the third world
War baby

War baby – so scared


 
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Tom Robinson's musical career has been underscored with advocacy and controversy since founding the Tom Robinson Band in 1976. He is a member of Rock Against Racism, and has always been a stalwart supporter of gay rights, releasing singles Glad to be Gay and Don't Take No for an Answer. He was criticized by both gays and straights, however, when he married and had children.

After the Tom Robinson Band, he continued on with a solo career. He financed a new band, Sector 27, but the experience let him bankrupt. He was apparently hiding from his creditors in Hamburg when he wrote War Baby. He had additional success with Atmospherics (Listen To The Radio), when the song was covered by the Pukka Orchestra under the shortened name Listen to the Radio.

Tom Robinson became more of a broadcaster, working for BBC Radio, and getting involved with Apple Computers. He doesn't release much in the way of new music, but performs annual free concerts, known as Castaway Parties. These are exclusively for "friends, fans & families".