We sell 'em missiles, We sell 'em tanks
We give 'em credit, You can call up the bank
It's just a business, You can pay us in crude
You love these toys, just go play out your feuds
Got no pride, don't know whose boots to lick
We act so greedy, makes me sick sick sick
So get up, stand up, out of my way
I want to talk to the boss right away
Get up, stand up, whose gonna pay?
I want to talk to the man right away
We walk the highwire
Sending the men up to the front line
Hoping they don't catch the hell fire
With hot guns and cold, cold nights
We walk the highwire
Sending the men up to the front line
And tell 'em to hotbed the sunshine
With hot guns and cold, cold nights
Our lives are threatened, our jobs at risk
Sometimes dictators need a slap on the wrist
Another Munich we just can't afford
We're gonna send in the eighty-second airborne
Get up, stand up, who's gonna pay
I wanna talk to the boss right away
Get up, stand up, outta my way
I wanna talk to the man right away
We walk the highwire
Putting the world out on a deadline
And hoping they don't catch the shellfire
With hot guns and cold, cold nights
We walk the highwire
Putting the world out on a deadline
Catching the bite on primetime
With hot guns and cold, cold nights
Get up! Stand up!
Dealer! Stealer!
We walk the highwire
We send all our men into the front lines
We're hoping that we backed the right side
With hot guns and cold, cold nights
We walk the highwire
We send all the men up to the front lines
And hoping they don't catch the hellfire
With hot guns and cold cold, cold, cold,
cold nights
"Highwire" most certainly qualifies as an Unsung single by the Rolling Stones. Released during the Gulf War in 1991, the single was banned from many radio stations in the States (and also the BBC if I recall correctly), though oddly enough it garnered quite a bit of airplay in south Alabama! Relegated to a bonus spot at the closing of the patchy live album FLASHPOINT, the song was quickly forgotten; the Stones have never attempted the tune in concert.
Bill Wyman did not make the flight to the US for the filming of the video -- an omen of things to come as “Highwire” is one of the final two Stones recordings with Bill Wyman still in the line-up (the other being "Sex Drive"). Indeed the single in retrospect seems the end of an era, relying as it does on the Stones’ signature raunch riffage that has been missing from the majority of their singles in the past decade.
(The now-rare CD single contains an otherwise unavailable version of "I Just Want To Make Love To You", recorded at Wembley in 1990. The cassingle meanwhile is the only official source for a live version of "2000 Light Years From Home”.)
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