1. |
Lean Times
03:25
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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
© Robin Elliott 2015
all rights reserved
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2. |
Start Me Up
03:30
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one day I'm going to be somebody
yeah just you wait and see
going to make myself a lot of money
and everyone will want me
and I'm going to set the world to rights
in my perfection fights the good fight
to the ordinary people I'll a hero be
but I just can't get started
I can't figure out why
I just can't get started
I...
baby I've got big ideas to tell you
I know you're going to want to hear
and we will be so good together
when to me you want to be near
and when I'm there I'll show you things
of which you've never seen the like
the only thing that's stopping me is that
I just can't get started
I've been like this for years
I just can't get started
I don't know what it is
I've had my share of opportunities I must admit
but nothing ever seems to turn out right
how is it that fulfilment for me can be oh so hard to find
when in my mind my greatness does the world bestride
I thought I was waiting for the train
but it turns out that I'm tied to the tracks
listening to that old whistle blowing
and I just can't get started
I just can't get started
I just can't get started
so could you maybe help me out
© Robin Elliott 2015
all rights reserved
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3. |
Par Avion
05:01
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you flew away from me after a year
and we said that our constancy would never waiver
or might never waiver, so long either one
had had nothing superior come along
then I thought I might love you
and in through my door
came laughing your letter and fell to my floor
with in-jokes all the envelope embroidered on
and under my name written par avion
o Antonia
always be mine
birds sing, stars shine
o Antonia
the closer you came, love, the further I fled
till in my fear and arrogance your love I left
I wouldn't say always I couldn't decide
if it was nothing I felt or if I hid inside
but what true emotion would dare shrink away
into empty night's cold from the warmth of your day
where your love waited smiling and soft-voiced in song
and no doubts had ever existed for long
o Antonia
nights grow colder
but where is your breath on my shoulder
o Antonia
then the birds sang the summer in and my heart believed
and the blossom burst forth and then fell like the leaves
of an autumn inverted and turned from as I turned to you
but it's a long flight by starlight
and you say the world's turned and stars might burn out
but still seem to shine true
now the sky's getting darker, dear, every day
and the birds overhead call as they fly away
the cold binds my fingers and howls at my door
it's the end of the world, dear
it must be: I'm sure
the planes are all grounded and the fuel is all gone
but the lesson your letter taught my heart flies on
I'm alone and I'm frozen I don't feel a thing
I walk out in to winter still hoping for spring
o Antonia
life's all leaving
but time turns all things
o Antonia
o Antonia
birds sing, stars shine
always be mine
o Antonia
o Antonia
© Robin Elliott 2015
all rights reserved
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4. |
Gentle Chunks
03:02
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Baby is an artist someone's drawn pictures on her neck
she takes whatever drugs come along with style
she'd mean a little more to me I think as she walks in
maybe I'll take her out to dinner in a while
and everybody's smiling
the party's taking hold
somewhere applause is dying
I stood in the corner
and tried to act mature
more mature than I was given credit for
outside as gentle chunks of vomit splatter on the ground
and the stars are spinning circles in the sky
my friends and I smoke spliff and chat shit lying on the lawn
and our conversations start to pass us by
and di not good men of Rome some say
along the marble colonnades of yore
you know that we can't carry on like this forever, lads
but still it meant fuck all
and in the darkness in between the trees beyond the garden wall
the music and carousing far behind
the breeze between the leaves begins murmuring
and Uncle Bob never came 'round to our house
but I heard him say a lot
but in a book he'd written later on on it I read
that he hadn't said exactly what I thought
and I'm stood in the corner
swearing I'm for real
but I swear on my tape recorder and my middle name
and Baby knows the way it goes
she doesn't even really seem to mind
but somewhere applause is dying
and we're running out of time
© Robin Elliott 2015
all rights reserved
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5. |
Shapeshifter
02:39
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blue sky
wait for me
it's all mine
when I need
when I need
it's all the same to me
slips away dressed up like what you're meant to see
always willing if you think you're able
shapeshifter seeks unavailable
you can see it down by the Grand Union
wears a caved in smile
until the stars come floating back so soon again
in the water where the blue sky waits for me
© Robin Elliott 2015
all rights reserved
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6. |
Green Ginger Wine
06:59
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I'm at the bottom of the well
in the bottle on the shelf
and the rain is pouring
if I could find a promise I could keep
I could find the man I used to be
but now I know he was always me
so here I'll sit and sing along in time
with my whiskey and green ginger wine
there are gypsies washing windscreens by the lights out on the ring-road
and gangs roaming the streets
abandoned mansions crumble round the creeping ivy
and a decent man can't hold his head up high
and not get stared down
by kids just off the playgrounds
and now I sway
my head is heavy
I've made mistakes I've made too many
green ginger
green ginger
ginger wine
I'm at the edges of the city
where some places used to be
where the old canals run green
but the streets here seem so strange now
like they came in at night and found me out
changed themselves around
till the houses are facade-fronts in a dream
of some moonlit suburban Western
Yasmin, she works for the sauna/massage on the corner
bt she'll meet me
if I pay her
and so it was that day when
she lead me by the hand over the footbridge
to trees and to the lilacs
she knows how to get me on my knees
I like to wallow in my misery
green ginger
green ginger
ginger wine
all the time
in the woods were voices up ahead
someone was shouting
Yasmin ran, she thought it was her pimp
for some reason I kept walking
and in the clearing two men argued over a child
kept quiet by the barrel of a gun
and when that child looked at me
I ran until my lungs burned and I could not breathe
green ginger
green ginger
ginger wine
all the time
© Robin Elliott 2015
all rights reserved
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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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