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A Coat Worth Wearing

by Neil McSweeney

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD in shrink-wrapped digipak with lyric booklet.

    Includes unlimited streaming of A Coat Worth Wearing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of A Coat Worth Wearing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £16.99 GBP or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of A Coat Worth Wearing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £16.99 GBP or more 

     

1.
There’s tea in the pot, there’s sugar in the bowl & half the world’s ours from digging the coal Glory flies up and flutters away We all go down in the yellowing clay Mary I wish you’d let it be All hangs well in the family A time of change is a changing sea It might drown just as easily Singing hey haw, there’s no riddle Glory flies up while we go down In the middle The good Lord wants a man To mark his ground Mary I hear the wind that overcomes No less clear than the whistle and drum A rising tide will lift our boat If we play it loose with the hawser rope Singing hey haw, there’s no riddle Glory flies up while we go down In the middle The good Lord wants A man to mark His ground But all things in moderation There’s tea in the pot and sugar in the bowl & half the world’s ours from digging the coal Tobacco in the box, cotton on the pole For the thin red line or the carmagnole Glory flies up and flutters away We all go down in the yellowing clay Singing hey haw, there’s no riddle Glory flies up while we go down In the middle The good Lord wants A man to mark His ground But all things in moderation
2.
Forlorn Hope 03:04
How did we get here? From the Newport Rising To the Mutineers of Barrackpore, Them men did fall – Chopped to pieces with The Jewelled Sword Then stacked on ships in bloody bits One more cargo with a lading chit For the city men, the company board, The Queen of Hearts and the House of Lords Pirate or privateer? When the Prize Court sits at them pearly gates It will reckon clear all this plundered gear Strip all warrant of the mortal sphere Then stacked on ships in bloody bits One more cargo with a lading chit Will be the city men, the company board, The Queen of Hearts and the House of Lords Or shame for the Forlorn Hope Shame for the Forlorn Hope How did we get here? To the quiet seats in a circle box while young players Here now come to cheer Test their talents while we sit and sneer But never stacked on ships in bloody bits Never hell-bound cargo with a lading chit Were those city men, The company board, The Queen of Hearts or the House of Lords So shame for the Forlorn Hope Shame for the Forlorn Hope
3.
The wolf is In the kitchen Helping himself to all Your possessions and All of your Wealth Leave one Alive and the wolf will Win. Leave none Alive and You are Him The wolf is In the library Pleasing himself All your ambition Swept from the Shelves Leave one Alive and the wolf will Win. Leave none Alive and You are Him The wolf is At your chamber Preparing himself there Is no resistance there Is nothing Left Leave one Alive and the wolf will Win. Leave none Alive and You are Him The wolf is In the basement Hanging his Head
4.
Summer’s here again Men are working We hear them coming in Through the meadow Labouring we’ve been Through the day And labouring again We’ll be tomorrow Now to dream of Cockaigne Fatted land of leisure. The laying off of pain The taking up of pleasure When the summer’s passed We’ll have our time back Then a turn of the wheel Will have us fighting I’ve got two are strong, Lord save the other From the snow & the filth And from the hunger Now to dream of Cockaigne Fatted land of leisure. The laying off of pain The taking up of pleasure
5.
Atlantis 03:48
the sky did blue my infant eye dew did fill my veins from dry weaned upon the warm, damp earth and chaperoned by crawling lice i never shall return i lost the chart and bearing since i sailed, my heart has failed to find a coat worth wearing i mapped you out, such a room you were how deep and soft the carpet pile how high and grand the ceiling curve with lightening flash and birds a-flying i never shall return i lost the chart and bearing since i sailed, my heart has failed to find a coat worth wearing how dark your furniture of trees! what castles they concealed with peasantry of lazy bees and nobles all to battlefield - from whence returned to be interred within a broken bottle and daisies laid upon their graves to mark the bold adventure i never shall return i lost the chart and bearing since i sailed my heart has failed to find a coat worth wearing…
6.
The Strangers of Maresfield Gardens {In which General George S Patton consults Sigmund Freud} I’ve been told that I am mad Herr Dr. please advise In myself I don’t feel bad And thus far have survived Many other better men Who perhaps more balanced were But now whose balance is a noun While mine remains a verb Very well I hear you sir I’ll begin with what I see By chance the urn upon your shelf Depicts a younger me You’ll notice that I wield a spear Against a yielding foe Just how it ripped into his ribs The image cannot show The wind blows cold & the wind blows right through you My mother was a Macedon And so back then was I When destiny awaited me Upon the walls of Tyre At the breech my sword did reach Into the enemy Before the murder was complete She reached back into me I then awoke as Hannibal And then in Caesar’s ranks Then again on Crecy field As Phillip’s army sank I rode my way across the Steppe Alongside brave Murat Made an end at Waterloo My innards in my hat The wind blows cold & the wind blows right through you There is just one ambition left In this my current life And I mean to grab him fiercely By the asshole and the eye And drive him backwards underneath His precious linden trees And with my tanks pour death on him For final victory When the end comes round once more I’ll happily be dead And sleep a while until the world Wants Old Blood & Guts again. So tell me what’s the verdict Have you reached a judgement yet? How can you say that I am not the sanest man you ever met? When the wind blows cold & the wind blows right through you
7.
Oh fragrant day, radiant day, symphony! We’ve sacrificed love and life to the fire Atoms and the void synchronize in me Captured in a wave cresting on a sea I am cause. I am effect. Beautifully awake Caught in this balancing act ‘Til the day I break Every thought I have bubbling to my peak Shift-shaping my form just perceptibly Every urge I have an eddy from the deep That weighs at my back with tidal gravity I am cause. I am effect. Brutally awake Caught in this balancing act ‘Til the day I break Roses Atoms and void Skylark Atoms and the void Rock of ages Atoms and the void Silence Silence! Empires Atoms and the void Seasons Atoms and the void Memory… Reason…
8.
Light don’t leave me I need you now For my true love waits across the town I’m to meet her and win back her heart Though she’ll wait no more while it gets dark Time bid this hour stay – Boot-heels give me speed on my way Luna delay - for love! I’m sorry. I’m covering old ground For all this life allows still these hollow vows Comfort the most dearly Dusk. She rolls her eyes and I close mine Ere she lays me down On a fragrant ground of burning leaves I am deceived Raise your devil to hold me down The weight of heaven couldn’t hold me Now I feel all is weightless above I’m sorry. I’m covering old ground For all this life allows still these hollow vows Comfort the most dearly It’s the fight of a life To win time just to have and hold Against a bitter tide Of red and gold I’m sorry I’m covering old ground For all this life allows still these hollow vows Comfort the most dearly
9.
The Call 06:02
The call Will not be arranged You will not know the name Of the one who brings the change The call From half a world away Throws a curtain on the play Drags you from the stage Your senses they awake Your heart beats in a cage…. Blood’s bright lust must have its end Go fetch on your boots. Gather all of your friends We’ve got some questions. So we need some answers If it’s in questioning we should trust. Take up your horny hammers and Get them swinging in the dust. Must our hearts all beat in cages? Must our minds be bound by skull? Reacquaint your brains with your boney chains You are rotting wood You are creeping rust Will we ever more be shackled to the shiny things Whilst they talk amongst themselves? Beholden unto every Google guru Every jumped-up, jocularising, jingoistic elf? Hey all you oozers. Yeah you, you losers All you heavy, handsome hoards Get up on the scales. Let’s get some wind in the sails: Blow the locks off the local library door. Just how many pragmatists do we need to change the bulb? What about the rest of us? Hey, what about some principles? Is a drunken, broken fighter swinging wildly at the wind Any less well-suited to the world we’re moving in Than the newly mortar-boarded? Kings of learning crowned in tin Crooked captains of industry trickledown with oilskin Singing “I’m finished” I’m finished, What’s next?

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For a full discussion of the songs on this record visit www.acoatworthwearing.com

credits

released March 10, 2017

All songs by Neil McSweeney
Produced by Andy Bell
Hudson Records

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Neil McSweeney Sheffield, UK

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