1. |
At Sunset
03:16
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there's a door that's always open to anyone who can't resist
the lure of being over with and freed from all you'd wished
and you write that note inside your head, step out into the mist
saying loneliness is all there is
I don't know if you can see me it's so dark here all the time
I believed my eyes were open but it could be that I am blind
and anything I think I know turns out is just my state of mind
and loneliness is all there is
I don't know if you can hear me I might be talking to myself
I might be all alone in here there might be no-one else
it could be that I'm the only person ever to have felt
that loneliness is all there is
but I'll take your word if you'll take mine and hand in hand we'll go
to places where the people meet like rivers in the roads
and perhaps we'll both be wondering how many of them know
that loneliness is all there is
streaming starlings tumble-turning, never touching wings
a changing cloud of thoughts you're thinking caught up in the wind
you might find at sunset that you cannot lay your heart to rest
but you'll never be alone in loneliness
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2. |
Lean Times
03:19
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lean times are on their way
gonna be a lot more work
at lot less play
gonna be here now any day
lean times are on their way
when men like me aren't hard to find
who've never done a days work in our lives
we're gonna be the last ones of our kind
ain't going to make it through no lean times
maybe you've got a lot of things to say
you've been around the world on holiday
your mother lived till she was old and grey
but lean times are on their way
lean times are on their way
maybe tomorrow if not today
nothing that's here is ever here to stay
lean times are on their way
and if you made it through then what you did was right
who's there to argue with the winners of the fight
but stick around, Punchy, and you might find
that you ain't seen the last of lean times
maybe we will all fly off some day
climb in our ships and sail away, hey-hey
and try our luck on airless rocks in space
but from yourself I fear there's no escape
lean times are on their way
take two steps towards it and one away
as long as you're living you're never safe
lean times are on their way
man keeps on trying to survive
keeps living all the time that he can stay alive
the time that he can't stay alive is the time he dies
but if he ain't died he's going to keep on trying
and if I have a child someday I'm going to say
you'd best not make mistakes that I have made
but the advice has always been the same
and goddamn kids don't ever change
lean times are on their way
take two steps forwards and you're one step away
nothing that's here is ever here to stay, but
lean times are on their way
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3. |
William V
05:14
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in 1982 they tore me from my mother's womb
who knows the meaning who knows the why
but I never looked into her living eyes
like my dad and my granddad both before me
and my great- and my great-great- one, so they did say
they called me William for joke or for wish
named like the new-born prince William V
mum lay so quiet and cold in her bed
as her brown eyes so sweetly rolled back in her head
like his father before him dad could not be found
he fucked off and only his name stuck around
here I am in the doorway, Billy the V
hail, hail, hear the bells ringing
keep that mutt away from me
hail, hail, the king, the king
good people were George and Elizabeth Baptiste
took me in for an orphan before I'd cut teeth
took me into their home and into their arms
in Tottenham town, on the Broadwater Farm
to the Broadwater Farm estate, Tottenham town
in '85 came the riots and our door it came down
cop clubbed Georgie Baptiste plumb on the skull bone
and they carted me off to the council care home
where the superintendent said, when I arrived
“I run a tight ship so you'd best toe the line”
but I would not tow anything and I cursed his name
and I played merry hell until I ran away
well I woke up this morning and I could not stand
hail, hail, hear the bells ringing
this old body of mine won't obey my commands
hail, hail, the king the king
“life isn't fair, Bill – you get what you get”
well that's easy to say but it's tough to accept
“if you try hard you can make it in our meritocracy”
that's just a way to excuse laying into the weak
who knows the meaning who knows the why
but it's true when they say nothing's fair about life
back in '97 poor William, my friend
he lost his own mum in a car accident
I was down by the river, age of 15
the police came and swept us all off of the streets
and a carpet of flowers and wreaths was laid down
I stole flowers for my mother, and then I felt proud
and the years struggled by
and oh how the nation's been mourning
until today, which is the day
that my namesake is proudly crowned king
here I lie, my life flashing in front of my eyes
I didn't realise they made you sit through this shit twice
here I lie in a doorway, old Billy V
hail, hail, hear the bells ringing
and dogs come up sniffing and snapping round me
hail, hail, hear the bells ring
maybe if I was strong, maybe if I'd tried
hail, hail, hear the bells ringing
but I'm old and I'm weak maybe here I will die
hail, hail, the king, the king
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4. |
Poor Murdered Woman
02:49
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they were bouncers who found her out training their dogs
in the grey drizzle evening with their black bombers on
the dogs went for something out on the common
and they found a piece of that poor murdered woman
the news crews and cameramen soon all turned up
the poor murdered woman was each place you looked
with official statements and what locals said
some cold and some violence in everyone's head
she can stand in for the pain that I feel
or some other darkness my anger reveals
the prettiest killing, the poor murdered woman
the person is gone but the picture is hung
to look at her somehow she's always downhill
she never got level, now she never will
down through the mist the corpses roll away
but the image the poor murdered woman remains
it was Yankey the squire, as I've heard men say
who rode out a-hunting on one Saturday
they rode out a hunting but nothing they found
but a poor murdered woman laid on the cold ground
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Robin Elliott London, UK
Extraordinary songwriter and performer.
Funnier and more self-deprecating than this makes me sound.
Forthcoming album There is a Land is awash with novel narrative strategies and novelty Brexit tunes.
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