Versions

Version	Length	Source	Availability
Studio	5:08	Human Frailty album.	Extremely common. Available new in CD and digital form.
Live [1]	6:17	1985 01 15 06 Live Two Tracks Cassette.	The Vault digital download at True Believers, 15 April 2013.
Live [2]	6:27	Raw Material #07 1986 07 05 Seaview Ballroom album.	The Vault Desk Tape streaming audio.
Live [3]	5:33	1986 09 28 The Venue, St Kilda, Melbourne VHS PCM.	The Vault digital download at True Believers, 18 December 2016.
Live [4]	5:37	Raw Material #08 1987 05 21 RPM album.	The Vault Desk Tape streaming audio.

Recommended Version.

Commentary

N/A.

Lyrics

You can’t make mother cry
You can’t make her twist her ragged hair
You can’t make mother groan
Even when her soldier sonny
Shakes his iron cocktail in the air

You can’t make mother cry
You can’t make her give consent
Though she flounders at the drainboard
Though her back be down there and bent

If sleeping brings relief
She can go lie down and slumber
[repeat three times]

Slumber

She puts her hands down into the sink
Scrapes the grunge up off the bottom
Down there beneath the dishes
Where the knives lie crossed and waiting

She can’t stop the kiddies talking
Their tongues be loosed upon the world
They flap until they lather
For the agony of millions

And if sleeping brings relief
They can go lie down and slumber
[repeat three times]

Slumber

And there be no release from anguish
For this slapstick generation
And there be no peace for all the kiddies
‘Cause they’re too satisfied to care

And the field of gorgeous bodies
Primed and ready in the sun
And the white flag of peace
That is hanging
Limp and useless in the air

Yeh

And if sleeping brings relief
You can all go lie down and slumber
And if sleeping brings relief
You can go lie down and slumber
Slumber