1. |
Bulldozer
03:19
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I used to be a rider and we were fleet of foot
The turf it tore up high
Came raining down like soot
Once I had a true love
Once I had a girl
And movement it was easy upon the surface of the world.
But I know, I’m homeward bound
Feels like a bulldozer I’m riding now.
I long to clamber down from the lever and the wheel
These earth works are just scars
Where once were pretty fields
Once I had a true love
Once I had a girl
And movement it was easy upon the surface of the world
But I know I’m homeward bound
Feels like a bulldozer I’m riding now.
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2. |
Be Your Own Dog
03:14
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There was a man named McArthur
Stood with Charlie in the ‘45
Now he’s in the hereafter
But if he’d made it out of there alive
He’d say “Be your own dog
Break your own ground
There must be enough to go round
Happier still wander at will
Keep moving and never be bound
By the road most easily found”
Well old McArthur had a daughter
And that daughter well she had a son
And they sailed across the water
To where a new world had begun
Singing “Be your own dog
Break your own ground
There must be enough to go round
Happier still wander at will
Keep moving and never be bound
By the road most easily found”
I’ve been sitting by this river
Watching the rain come rolling in
I’m reminded of McArthur
Why take shelter when you can dive in for a swim.
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3. |
Happiness
03:03
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I use my strength so little now
How come every sinew aches?
The hardest thing I’ll do today is drag myself awake
I’ve got a moment here suspended
Between two endless voids
I’m going to bloody up my knuckles
I’m going to raise my voice to happiness
I bought myself some shoes
I walked them round the town
A size or two too small for me
They suit me to the ground
With a burning in my heel and a crushing of my toes
To take them off is pure relief
My soul it warmly glows with happiness
They say the first is born who will live a thousand years
In convenience and comfort with no lack and little fear
I’m guessing that isn’t me
And I suppose that’s just as well
For a life with nothing wanting sounds to me like a little hell of happiness
You need to want it less, happiness
Just a little less, happiness.
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4. |
San Miniato
03:29
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Take my hand and take the lead, I need to leave
We have been walking these shadowed streets
For too long
Through an epoch unruined, a city of ghosts
Of artists and armies, princes and popes
Let’s climb the hill ‘til we can look back again
Into the face of the glorious dead
Up at San Miniato tonight
Let’s both be fuck-ups, let’s both be free
As San Miniato might want us to be
I want to see the dawn light in the trees
And map out a future in the dust at our feet
Up at San Miniato tonight
Your cigarette’s burning like a firefly
I can feel the world turning as the summer sun dies
Up at San Miniato tonight
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5. |
New Year's Day
04:07
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New Year’s day up at the lake
Winter greys out on the ice
I am lost; I have not weathered well
But I have breath in clouds I can peer through
I see the crows are coming
down from the frozen hills
But yonder more the valley floor
Looks soft and warm and still
I am just one man standing here
This is just one man’s will
Is that enough, New Year?
8lb chain hung round my neck
Orion’s gaze low in the sky
I am gone but I will be back when
New Year’s day again comes a-calling
I see the crows are coming
down from the frozen hills
But yonder more the valley floor
Looks soft and warm and still
I am just one man standing here
This is just one man’s will
Is that enough, New Year?
Ready or not, New Year
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6. |
Sapling Bough
03:10
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Carve your name on a sapling bough
I’ll be here to trace the mark a hundred times before we lie
Here again at twilight
There’s a dog in the old school yard
There’s a voice up at the house
And that tree of ours they chopped her down in the golden twilight
Let’s go back
Trace each footstep soft along the track
Until at last we’ll see
We were always free to love ourselves
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7. |
Snow Blind
03:48
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I loved you in a polar wind
All features lost in blindness
Something cruel never felt
Quite so much like kindness
And where we fell has covered up
With snow so deep and cold and fine
I loved you in the woken spring
The parkland bound by blossom
A willow tree, a shallow stream
And swallows all above us
Where we fell has covered up
With blooms so deep and soft and fine
But I loved an emptiness, I loved a void
I loved an emptiness
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8. |
Into the Sound
03:41
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I met a young man in the Anchor & Chain
He was hollow of eye and a-burning of brain
He said please help me for I do not know
Which of these vessels might carry me home
And I said it’s not luck, it’s just time
Til we’re sunk beneath the roiling brine
But climb aboard son
Don’t fear the tide
We’ll drink every drop
And everything will be fine
He said I’ve been waiting for the day to come round
When all of my problems drift into the sound
And leave me sheltering on the shore
But the peace it won’t come and I can’t wait no more
And I said it’s not luck, it’s just time
Til we’re sunk beneath the roiling brine
But climb aboard son
Don’t fear the tide
We’ll drink every drop
And everything will be fine
Well here is a knife fashioned with skill
The finest of tools you can bend to your will
This is your freedom, there is nothing else
….
And I said it’s not luck, it’s just time
‘Til we’re sunk beneath the roiling brine
But climb aboard son
Don’t fear the tide
We’ll drink every drop
And everything will be fine
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9. |
Slowly Sets the Sun
02:47
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Night draw near, quietness come
For the dark and what awaits us there
These broken hours will gently prepare
Time may seldom seem to play fair with our dreams
But I care less every passing hour
For that which fate may never allow
Slowly set the sun
Night draw near, quietness come
Against the fear of the simple end
These broken hours will gently defend
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10. |
Cargo
03:33
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Bourne in on horse winds
All the way from Asia have we travelled
Traitors and lost kings
Emissaries of silence
I will invent a name
For every story you read in my face
And gather the lonely hearts
And hang them round like stars
Hang them round like stars
That they might burn
Like little sins
Come round behold the let loose lightening
That doth afire
The Eastern line
Each light alone and each light a life
Each to do as we like.
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11. |
Stop Digging
02:55
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You can try reasoning
It won’t stop them
Stay balanced and you’ll soon fall down
Deploy your theories, if you’ve got them
It’s all practice now
Where there’s a void there will be
A queue of guys who want to get it filled
With gods and ringing tills
It’s a fact of life and will stay that way until
There are no more holes
In the heart of a city some people move painfully
There’s a voice and it is calling them back to the sea
Where there’s a void there will be
A queue of guys who want to get it filled
With gods and ringing tills
It’s a fact of life and will stay that way until
There are no more holes
Some will march and some will ramble
And some will rush around aimlessly
Save to buy, to sell and gamble
Away every dream
Where there’s a void there will be
A queue of guys who want to get it filled
With gods and ringing tills
It’s a fact of life and will stay that way until
There are no more holes
So stop digging the holes
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