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Industrialists

from People by The Burning Hell

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  • Streaming + Download

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  • German pressing of the CD from BB Island
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in an old-school jewel case (remember those?) with a lyrics booklet and beautiful artwork by Gabe Foreman.

    Includes unlimited streaming of People via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • Limited Edition from Headless Owl on Heavyweight Green Vinyl with Sparkly Silver Artwork
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Headless Owl went to a whole lot of trouble on this one - 180 gram green vinyl, printed inner sleeve with all the lyrics, and a custom jacket from Standard Form in Toronto, with embossed shiny silver cover art by Gabe Foreman. Oh, and it also sounds good.

    Includes unlimited streaming of People via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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lyrics

They say he was a pillar of industry
Well, God made some pillars, so some must filler be.
Like me, a simple servant of the company
My humble tongue begins his eulogy
When only a small boy with no mother’s love
And no answers from the Great Dancer up above
And no firm father to guide him
He watched a wild horse, and longed to ride him
And legend has it that on that day
He planted two tiny feet in that wild horse’s way
That mighty stallion with a deathly eye
The stars looked down to watch a child die
But as the horse reared up to crush his tiny bones
Its heart grew cold, cold as river stones
For it saw the steel in the soul of the child
And knew that no more would it run free and wild
And so our hero tamed his untamable horse
That was the beginning of his winning course
And from that moment ‘til the end of his days
The people of this land would hear him say
It takes all kinds of people to make a world
It takes all kinds of people to make a world
From the farmer in the field to the spaceman in space
Everybody has a reason, a purpose and place
Well, he was ten he started his first company
Less than five feet tall, but already somebody
By the time he was sixteen he owned a warehouse block
Where he traded in trailers, trucks, lights and livestock
Then came that famous day you all know
He went to buy a hacienda down in Mexico
Fell in love with a señora, begged her to get engaged
The main problem was, she was three times his age
The other problem was, she was already hitched
To a real hijo de puta, a sonofabitch
They agreed to duel in the abandoned aeropuerto
The husband said “you can have her over mi cuerpo muerto”
Our hero said “Sí - esto no es muy difícil”
Then he shot so fast it looked like his hands were holding still
With his dying eyes the husband looked up to see the circling birds
And then he heard those famous words:
It takes all kinds of people to make a world
It takes all kinds of people to make a world
From the farmer in the field to the spaceman in space
Everybody has a reason, a purpose and place
You know the story as well as I do
But I’ll fill in the blanks now - at least I’ll try to
He returned to his homeland with his aged bride
Four hundred labourers at his side
He said “I’ll seize the knocking fists of opportunity and history
I shall build an empire of diligence and industry
Shaped like a pyramid, all golden, aglow:
With my office at the apex and the others below!”
We all worked together to build his dream
In the swelter of the smelter and the sweat of the steam
Though many hands cramped and many muscles ached
Oh how we laughed on our coffee breaks
For we dreamed of the day when the work would be done
And at last it seemed that great day had come
The pyramid glistened like a golden fire
But he said “No, it’s not high enough, it needs to be higher!”
It takes all kinds of people to make a world
It takes all kinds of people to make a world
From the farmer in the field to the spaceman in space
Everybody has a reason, a purpose and place
Now it’s true that some grumbled and some were sure
Those famous words were simply a non-sequitur
But with a soft sigh we went back to work for many years
Our families and our fiancés collected their heartbroken tears
‘Til one day the unthinkable happened:
Young José was high up on the scaffold
He screamed like a baby bird abandoned in a tree:
“¡Dios mío, muchachos, you must come and see!”
There under the cyclops eye of the endless sun
We climbed the scaffolding one by trembling one
Truly it was an evil sight to behold:
There was our jefe, imprisoned in gold.
Murdered with molten metal, now pinned there gruesomely
With only God’s unblinking eye and of course us to see
We had to leave his body to the hungry birds
But deep in the pyramid’s face we carved these words:
It takes all kinds of people to make a world.

credits

from People, released April 16, 2013

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The Burning Hell

The Burning Hell is the ongoing musical project of songwriter Mathias Kom and multi-instrumentalists Ariel Sharratt and Jake Nicoll, often including additional comrades and collaborators.

Their densely populated genre-shifting songs are packed with an abundance of literary, historical, cultural, and pop-cultural forebears, heroes and villains, subjects and objects, stories and hooks.
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