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The Day The School Burned Down

from No One Talks Like That by Restless Youth

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about

The Day The School Burned Down is an upbeat anthem, and firm favourite from the EP. It’s based on a poem that my grandad, Patrick, wrote many years ago. He was a child psychiatrist, and once worked with a boy accused of arson, only to recognise something of himself in the child's rebellious spirit. We had a CD of him reading his poems back home, and something about this one always captured my imagination growing up. So, we decided to turn it into a defiant, fiery tune! The first verse is almost verbatim, with only a few changes to the original to make it rhyme; and the second verse is my own take on it, carrying it on with my own experiences of school.

lyrics

The day the school burned down
Was the day I turned 21
Far too late to bring me joy
But it felt like I had won
So I went to see the remnants
Stared cooly like a boy
And saw with my own eyes
Schools could actually be destroyed
The policeman looked at me sternly
And he told me he was appalled
I said nothing, as the rain
Turned the ash to thick gruel
I thought of you
And of everything that we’d been
And I was so glad that it could
Never be seen

Dropped my juice on the floor
When the school burned down
Not the same as before
When the school burned down
No need to settle the score
When the school burned down
There’s no shame anymore
After the school burned down

In my mind we were ten feet tall
Really we were barely 5’8
Spoke holy words between
Thatchers gold crates
We grew up far too quickly
Rolled our first spliffs at 13
And hid all of our thoughts behind
A white blank screen
A long perpetual winter
Of house parties and powder
Thought it would chase our ghosts away
It only did make them louder
We learnt to hide together
And learnt to lie together
But I'm ready to let all that go
I forgive us all bro

Dropped my juice on the floor
When the school burned down
Not the same as before
When the school burned down
No need to settle the score
When the school burned down
There’s no shame anymore
After the school burned down

Burn your school to the ground
Burn your office burn it down
Burn your school to the ground
Burn your office burn it down
Burn your school to the ground
Burn your office burn it down
Burn your school to the ground
Burn your office burn it down
I’m not who I was anymore
And I don't need to be
You’re not gonna hold me down
I set those memories free

Dropped my juice on the floor
When the school burned down
Not the same as before
When the school burned down
No need to settle the score
When the school burned down
There’s no shame anymore
After the school burned down
Dropped my juice on the floor
When the school burned down
Not the same as before
When the school burned down
No need to settle the score
When the school burned down
There’s no shame anymore
After the school burned down

The day the school burned down
Was the day I turned 21
Far too late to bring me joy
But it felt like I had won
And truth be told
What will be will be
But when they find the kid who did it
They'll find me

credits

from No One Talks Like That, released February 19, 2023

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Restless Youth Leeds, UK

Young, upcoming British group Restless Youth play a unique fusion of genres; using elements of jazz, folk and pop music to create their infectious, upbeat sound.

"I was moved by all of the songs in different ways, they all made me think... this is spoken word poetry... and musically they are incredible" - Local Sound Focus
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