Radio Baghdad

Suffer not Your neighbor's affliction
Suffer not Your neighbor's paralysis
But extend your hand
Extend your hand

Lest you vanish in the city
And be but a trace
Just a vanished ghost
And your legacy
All the things you knew
Science, mathematics, thought
Severely weakened Like irrigation systems

In the tired veins forming From the Tigris and Euphrates
In the realm of peace All the world revolved
All the world revolved Around a perfect circle
City of Baghdad City of scholars
Empirical humble Center of the world
City in ashes City of Baghdad
City of Baghdad Abrasive aloof

[Guitar riff]

Oh, in Mesopotamia
Aloofness ran deep
Deep in the veins of the great rivers
That form the base Of Eden
And the tree
The tree of knowledge
Held up its arms To the sky
All the branches of knowledge
All the branches of knowledge
Cradling
Cradling

Civilization In the realm of peace
All the world revolved
Around a perfect circle
Oh Baghdad Center of the world
City of ashes
With its great mosques
Erupting from the mouth of god
Rising from the ashes like
A speckled bird Splayed against the mosaic sky
Oh, clouds around

We created the zero
But we mean nothing to you
You would believe
That we are just some mystical tale
We are just a swollen belly
That gave birth to Sinbad, Scheherazade
We gave birth
Oh, oh, to the zero
The perfect number
We invented the zero And we mean nothing to you
Our children run through the streets
And you sent your flames Your shooting stars
Shock and awe Shock and awe
Like some, some Imagined
Warrior production Twenty-first century
No chivalry involved No Bushido

Oh, the code of the West Long gone
Never been Where does it lie?
You came, you came Through the west
Annihilated a people
And you come to us
But we are older than you
You come you wanna
You wanna come and rob the cradle
Of civilization
And you read yet you read
You read Genesis You read of the tree
You read of the tree
Beget by god
That raised its branches into the sky Every branch of knowledge
Of the cradle of civilization

Of the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates
Oh, in Mesopotamia Aloofness ran deep
The face of Eve turning
What sky did she see
What garden beneath her feet
The one you drill
You drill
Pulling the blood of the earth
Little droplets of oil for bracelets
Little jewels
Sapphires
You make bracelets round your own world
We are weeping tears
Rubies
We offer them to you
We are just Your Arabian nightmare
We invented the zero But we mean nothing to you
Your Arabian nightmare

City of stars City of scholarship
Science City of ideas
City of light City
City of ashes
That the great Caliph
Walked through His naked feet formed a circle
And they built a city A perfect city of Baghdad
In the realm of peace And all the world revolved
And they invented
And they mean nothing to you
Nothing to you
Nothing

Go to sleep Go to sleep my child
Go to sleep And I'll sing you a lullaby
A lullaby for our city A lullaby of Baghdad
Go to sleep
Sleep my child
Sleep Sleep...
Run Run...

You sent your lights Your bombs
You sent them down on our city Shock and awe
Like some crazy t.v. show

They're robbing the cradle of civilization
They're robbing the cradle of civilization
They're robbing the cradle of civilization

Suffer not
The paralysis of your neighbor
Suffer not
But extend your hand