One by one
The stars grow dim
And fall out of the sky
And we gather round our shiny screens
To say a last goodbye
In communion with a bunch of folks
That we don't know or see
In the hope that we might feel something
In place of empathy
And so it goes...
Sure gonna miss them
Is it wrong to cling to the past when life comes at you so fast?
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
Lies ride in style on a big red bus
While you walk into town
And surrogates keep their cap locks on
To shout each other down
And the levies that protected truth
Can no longer hold the flood
And expertise and experience
Get trampled in the mud
And so it goes...
Guess they had it coming
Now there's nothing that you can do
To convince them that it's true
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
It's over now, you lost my friend
Move on, just let it go
Says a man who flies a confederate flag
On his profile just for show
And when he hears someone point out that things
Are much too male and white
He eases of the safety catch
On his second amendment rights
And so it goes...
And the kids are alt-right
Giving license to all this hate
Is gonna make our country great
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
In this constant state of what the heck
Just happened, you feel woke
But through it all you treat it like
It's just some kind of joke
And in the end, the greatest threat faced by democracy
Isn't fascism or fanaticism
But our own complacency
And so it goes...
Best pay attention
For there's simply no guarantee
Of a happy ending to history
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters, produces monsters, produces monsters
The stars grow dim
And fall out of the sky
And we gather round our shiny screens
To say a last goodbye
In communion with a bunch of folks
That we don't know or see
In the hope that we might feel something
In place of empathy
And so it goes...
Sure gonna miss them
Is it wrong to cling to the past when life comes at you so fast?
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
Lies ride in style on a big red bus
While you walk into town
And surrogates keep their cap locks on
To shout each other down
And the levies that protected truth
Can no longer hold the flood
And expertise and experience
Get trampled in the mud
And so it goes...
Guess they had it coming
Now there's nothing that you can do
To convince them that it's true
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
It's over now, you lost my friend
Move on, just let it go
Says a man who flies a confederate flag
On his profile just for show
And when he hears someone point out that things
Are much too male and white
He eases of the safety catch
On his second amendment rights
And so it goes...
And the kids are alt-right
Giving license to all this hate
Is gonna make our country great
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
In this constant state of what the heck
Just happened, you feel woke
But through it all you treat it like
It's just some kind of joke
And in the end, the greatest threat faced by democracy
Isn't fascism or fanaticism
But our own complacency
And so it goes...
Best pay attention
For there's simply no guarantee
Of a happy ending to history
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters, produces monsters, produces monsters
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Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.
Album: Bridges Not Walls
Il sonno della ragione produce i mostri del nazionalismo e dell'intolleranza, come spiega Billy Bragg nella sua nuova canzone direttamente ispirata all'incisione di Francisco Goya.
Says Billy: “Life comes at you real fast these days. What’s a singer-songwriter to do when events keep challenging the way that we see the world? Before we’ve had a chance to digest one startling development, along comes another to throw us off balance again. I’ve been grubbing up songs for the past 12 months, but without the time to get an album together due to other projects, so I’ve decided to start dropping tracks as they become ready. As always, they’re my way of trying to make some sense of what’s going on.
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters is the name of an etching created in 1799 by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. The title struck a chord with me when trying to understand the events of last year. The lies and hubris of the Leave campaign in our EU referendum were echoed and amplified by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Only by restoring empathy and reason can we hope to defeat the monstrous forces of nationalism and untruth.”