The Rolling Stones Songs - Highwire Lyrics

The Rolling Stones - Highwire

The Rolling Stones - Highwire Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Flashpoint
Released: 1991

Highwire Lyrics

We sell 'em missiles, we sell 'em tanks
We give 'em credit, you can call 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 want to talk to the boss right away
Get up, stand up, outta my way
I want to 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 prime time
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

We walk the highwire
We walk the highwire
With hot guns and cold, cold, cold nights

With hot guns and cold, cold nights

Writer/s: MICK JAGGER, KEITH RICHARDS
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Highwire Song Chart

The Stones recorded this for Flashpoint in 1991. The album consists of live recordings from their Steel Wheels tour followed by 2 new studio tracks, this and "Sex Drive."

The song is a commentary on the international arms trade and the events that led to the first US war with Iraq, which ended around the time this was released.

The first line - "We sell them missiles, we sell them tanks, we give them credit, you can call up the bank," was censored when The Stones performed it on the BBC TV show Top Of The Pops.

Bernard Fowler sang background vocals. Since the '90s, he has appeared on many Rolling Stones tracks. He has also worked with Yoko Ono, Sly & Robbie, Bootsy Collins, Duran Duran, Living Colour and Herb Alpert. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)