Before the War
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine Lyrics

Of all the bars and all the pubs
Out of countless places to drink, you had to go to every one.

And all the late night drinking clubs
Not even the clubs that stay open all night were safe from your drinking.

You had to walk into them all
You had to subject yourself to finding temporary refuge in every place of alcohol consumption.

You've been drinking to forget
The only way to not feel guilty about the war is through copious drinking.

You need to keep your thinking set
You need to keep your mind diverted from the atrocities of war.

On what you did before the war
Reminiscing through drinking about a much more innocent and cheerful past before the war started.

Before the bugler changed his tune
Before the call to arms, when life was like a romantic movie where people would kiss under the stars.

When everything was Mills and Boon
When love was easy, just like a simple romantic novel.

And lovers issed beneath the stars
People could innocently kiss outside under the beautiful and calming light of the stars.

Now they've flattened all the flats
The war has destroyed buildings, including the homes of people.

It's time to batten down the hatch
It's time to prepare for the worst.

With another whisky from the bar
Using alcohol as a crutch to numb the pain.

And drink yourself under the table
Drink until you forget everything and pass out.

Terrestrial TV and cable
Modern, widespread forms of entertainment that dominate daily life.

The wireless and the Internet
Technology that provides endless ways to distract oneself from reality.

Remind us what we're drinking to forget
The endless distractions remind us that our goal is to drink and forget everything else.

It's something more than just the guilt
All of the guilt and emotional trauma from war cannot be erased through drinking.

You can't be sure, you must have killed
Memories of the war include the possibility that you might have killed someone.

But you really can't be sure
The traumatic events of war could have greatly impacted one's perception of reality.

When progress moves so fast
The fast-paced changes in society leave a bewildered and confused society behind.

It leaves us in the past
In a world where one's past seems like the only cheerful place to go back to.

With platform shoes and dinosaurs
Retro items from the past that seem fun and innocent in comparison to the modern times for which they were seen as weird.

Close your eyes and count to ten
Forget everything by just avoiding the fact that the world is not normal anymore.

Forget the whys and wheres
It's impossible to try to rationalize everything and one should just forget it all.

And when you feel sober
Even after the alcohol wears off, there is still overwhelming sadness and trauma to deal with.

It still isn't over
Moving forward and recovering from war is difficult and not easily achievable.

There's more
More dangers and hardships will continue to come.

Sell your house
Sometimes it's best to completely start anew, even if it means selling your old house.

And change your name
Radical changes are necessary to forget and move past the traumatic experiences.

Because you'll never be the same man
The experiences from war change a person to a point where they can never go back to who they were before.

That you were
The best thing one can do is to forget their previous self and try to adapt to their new surroundings.