"I didn't know it could be a song. And I didn't care. After the Once Upon A Time experiences it just did not matter." - Jim.

"The first thing we heard was Street Fighting Years and they said they didn't want big drums. That was a good omen but a bad omen as well. Street Fighting Years is very slow and long and soft - a little bit too much one-way. But you have to respect them for making such a u-turn musically." - Stephen Lipson

It was first track recorded and finished for the album. Lipson immediately realised it should open the album as a statement of intent.

"In 1988 a younger friend of ours, the brother of one of my closest friends, was stabbed to death. In the wrong place at the right time there was no apparent reason for the attack other than the fact that the guilty ones were high on glue and brandishing knives."

"A horrifying experience for all who knew him, as well as for his family whom I know have never been able to get over the death of their youngest son, it was the pointlessness of the whole act that reverberated the most, chilling me even now as I look back on it."

"Speechless at the time and with no words that I could conjure to offer the depth of my sympathy, I did later somehow manage to write something that was part poem and part letter, which in turn surfaced as the basis for the lyric that I used on the title track of our Street Fighting Years album, released a year or so later." - Jim

Chased you out of this world, didn't mean to stop, I turned around and suddenly you were gone. Like some bird from paradise, the fire and ice, We turned around and suddenly you where gone, gone, gone. And now summer burns a hole inside and years are golden once again, My thoughts return to you my dear young friend. Oh come this way. Will you look down this way? I go down on the street, Where the wild wind's blowing, Here comes a hurricane. I say come down this way. Will you look down this way? I need you tonight. I need you around me. I'm looking through the windows, And my mind goes in a whirl, Well there's a multitude of candles, Burning in the windows of this world. I'm looking at the colours, Checking out the straights, I'm counting out the numbers, Will tomorrow never change? Still I hear you and I love you, And I'll follow you elsewhere, And I'll remember this occasion, I'll remember being aware. 'Cause we've got panic in the evening, We've got fall-out in the streets, And I hear you and I follow you, And I'll call out and I'll say. That I can hear your sister call out, And I hear her call your name, They're calling sweet surrender, And things won't be the same. And don't you think that I don't care, And don't you think that I don't know, And don't you hear them calling out, In a place not far from here. And I hear big wheels are turning, Some things are not to fear. They say this is the time and place, They call street fighting years. And I love you, I look for you, And I walk to you, I walk to you. And I hear big wheels are turning, Is there no way out of here? They'll be calling out tomorrow.

Album Version (6:26) Produced by: Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn Engineers: Heff Moraes, Robin Hancock Assistant Engineers: Danton Supple, Martin Plant
Live Version (15th Sep 89) (8:02) Recorded: Verona, Italy Producer: Stephen Lipson
Live Version (Graffiti Soul Tour 2009) Recorded: Graffiti Soul Tour 2009

Live Version (15th Sep 89) (7:25) Recorded: Verona, Italy Producer: Stephen Lipson

Live Version (Graffiti Soul Tour 2009) Recorded: Graffiti Soul Tour 2009