Ye pimply-faced all rife with chords
wherever grace may find you
ye bards of youth with tongues of swords
lean close that I remind you

that as you're turned and passion-poised
tae voice a generation
know well your path was lit and paved
by Britain's great invasion

who forced the shores American
and bled the yankee soil
with amplifiers pressed to ten
laid waste the passive minstrel

remember jagger's pomp and thrust
and lennon's swift appraisal
proud Stewart shook the halls to dust
as Strummer, Jones and Davies

when Bonham fought with thunderous rage
and Moon wreckless abandon
brave Townshend swept the air with Page
McManus and MacGowan

and for creative liberty
nae matter what the drawback
united toppled peer and press
a band's a band for a'that

and charged with acts of mutiny
and whate'er else you'd call that
stood we in rev'rent unity
a band's a band for a'that

while ye were boasting in the bars
or brawling on the pavement
Œtwas we adoze in wrecks of cars
tae make the next engagement.

© 2006