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Cargo

by Neil McSweeney

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1.
Bulldozer 03:19
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.
2.
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.
3.
Happiness 03:03
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.
4.
San Miniato 03:29
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
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Snow Blind 03:48
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
8.
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
9.
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
10.
Cargo 03:33
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.
11.
Stop Digging 02:55
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

credits

released October 28, 2013

Recorded and mixed in Sheffield by Andy Bell
Produced by Andy Bell & Neil McSweeney
Mastered by Dean Honer
Artwork by Andy Woodhead

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