1. |
Derelict
07:10
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Old tales tell how the forest birds lost their shelter
Wild wood fell as we built with stone and timber
A quiet old man had a dream to live in the country
Be close to the land, build his house out in the woods
In the land now he sleeps
But his dream sprawled into a city
In the waste-strewn streets
Now the walls stand broken and empty
Where a dead man’s dreams stand derelict
The lost flown birds find a home
For the ground beneath is just as rich as the cold stone is overgrown
The vine roots deep and covers beam and rafter
There’s fruit the blackbirds reap
And the walls resound with their laughter
And these ruins are a sanctuary of praise without words to life returned
Where a dead man’s dreams stand derelict
Let the lost flown birds find a home
For the ground beneath is just as rich as the cold stone is overgrown
Where all our dreams stand derelict, let the lost flown find a home
If you give your life you’ll find it where the kerb stone is overgrown
And these ruins are a sanctuary of praise without words to life returned
And these stones raise a melody
A healing tide to death defied
And these ruins are a sanctuary of praise without words to life returned
And these stones raise a melody
A healing tide to death defied
And these stones raise a melody
A healing tide to death defied
Broken jars
Fallen stars
All we are
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2. |
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Breakfast at 11, it’s a cop-out of a morning
I’ll be sat here till lunchtime reading the paper
And all the news is bad news, but there are many places
That don’t get a mention in these pages
Well, my town did. It was a cop-out of a robbery
The cash had been removed so they just made off with the safe
And turning to the back page it’s a cop-out of a weather forecast
They’re just hedging their bets again
‘Cause you just never know when they say
Sunny spells and scattered showers
Its only sunny spells and scattered showers
And I know everything is not ok
But there’s a beautiful sky today
And the downpour brings the rainbow
Now I wouldn’t envy the ones on the jury
When God faced our judgement for all that He’s made
And the crowds of the scoffers say He’s copped out of His duty
To free us from the Romans, to free us from pain
Well, free will had to be, but it’s a cop-out of an answer
So we tortured our maker, ‘cause it’s a very strange world
It’s chockerblock with sorrows, yet it’s brimming with wonders
And it’s a cop-out of a prophecy
But you can never be wrong if you say
Sunny spells and scattered showers
Its only sunny spells and scattered showers
And I know everything is not ok
But there’s a beautiful sky today
And the downpour brings the rainbow
So when you feel you’ve got nowhere to run to
A lone tree holds off the rain but lures the lightning to strike you
And you could swear the storm’s just howling out of spite
‘Cause the weatherman he promised you no hurricanes tonight
It’s only sunny spells and scattered showers
Its only sunny spells and scattered showers
And I know everything is not ok
But there’s a beautiful sky today
And the downpour brings the rainbow
Sunny spells and heavy showers
Its only sunny spells and scattered thundery downpours
And everything is not ok
But there’s a beautiful sky today
And the downpour brings the rainbow
Yeah the downpour makes our roots grow
Yeah the downpour brings the rainbow
And the rainbow takes my breath away
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3. |
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You followed us all summer long
And sang to us your jangling song
But winter ravished and burnt the earth
We forgot you in our pain
Out with hedgerows, grass and trees
Banks and boundaries, flowers and weeds
Restless hands with nothing to do
We left the land and you fled too
You need rest and a place to sleep
And some nice plump grubs for your chicks to eat
A grain-rich corner of an English field
For the little fat bird of the barley!
We think that we have simple needs
Cheapest food at cut-price deals
But the real cost is hidden from us
Counted in vanishing creatures
And a countryside empty of jobs
We’re stealing from our future selves
Pulling the carpet from under our feet
Denying the birds what little they need
A little support’s the least we can do
You need rest and a place to sleep
And some nice plump grubs for your chicks to eat
A grain-rich corner of an English field
For the little fat bird of the barley!
And all that we have made
Will crumble into dust
Did you ever see a skylark with an iPhone?
A soft breeze blows
The summers coming in
And every atom stands in wait of redemption
You need rest and a place to sleep
(corn bunting song)
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4. |
Wildflower
05:21
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Wildflower
I’d till the land for you but it was never me who planted you here
Wildflower
My sorrows end right when I least expect it, there your colours appear
Beneath the window
Between the broken patio stones
Wherever life can grow you spring your smiling face
Wildflower
How much I’d pay for just one seed and yet you fill my garden for free
Wildflower
Some people say you’re just a weed but if they’d only look they’d see
That every flower
Is made with holy power
And we are overgrown with heaven’s sweet embrace
Wildflower
Your simple colours have more charm than any make-ups, fabrics or dyes
Wildflower
Your simple truths are all I need while all the billboards shower us with lies
And when it’s raining
And when the sun is shining
In every flower I see you smiling back at me
Wildflower
Your loving fragrance is more sweet than any cold synthetic perfume
Wildflower
There is no product they could sell that could compare to laughing with you
Beside the water
Between the bricks and mortar
The highest wall they build won’t stop you growing free
So grow wildflower, with me wind
Sunward bound, our souls entwined
And in this broken world we’ll find
That all things love will bind
Wildflower
My people kill and hate but in your eyes I know that we can learn
Wildflower
Your gentle peace can grace the battlefield and bid the birdsong return
Cause when it’s raining
And when the sun is shining
Each time I see your smile it stills my strivings too
Wildflower
No-one can sell this to me, we don’t have to be what we’ve been told
Wildflower
No-one can tell you where to grow and let your buds of hope unfold
Beside the water
Between the bricks and mortar
The highest wall they build won’t stop me loving you
So grow wildflower, with me wind
Sunward bound, our souls entwined
And in this broken world we’ll find
That all things love will bind
This is all that I’m longing, that I’m dreaming
To be there in your arms evermore
All the life in the world knows this feeling
Love is one, love is free, love is all
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5. |
Wilderness Road
06:23
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Narrow is the way that leads to life
Happiness and peace are hard to find
You and I have fallen by the wayside
Carrying the weight of our own lives
Somebody show the way, somebody show us
And we’ll all go together
We’ll go together
We are all stepping out on the wilderness road
Take a hand everybody and we’ll help one another
Yes well all go together when we finally go
Breaking up the stones that block our path
Picking up the piece of the past
How did we become so fragmented?
How to put it back the way it was?
Somebody showed the way, somebody showed us
And we’ll all go together
We’ll go together
We are stepping out on the wilderness road
Take a hand everybody and we’ll help one another
Yes we’ll all go together when we finally go
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6. |
Swift Song
04:33
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Now, the swift is an enigmatic bird
She spends all her days on the wing
She won’t ever stop once she has stirred
Her feet won’t touch the ground for anything
But if ever she should feel the wind bring a chill
To the southern skies she’ll run and fly to chase the sun
She craves her warmth and comfort like a drug
But to seek them she’s forever on the wing
Flapping like a heartbeat through the skies
She spends all her nights on the wing
Those wings will keep on beating till she dies
Those mournful screams are all she’ll ever sing
And if ever she should weary be
It’s to the open sky she’ll turn and fly
Only there will she but close one eye
And she’ll sleep but a moment on the wing
And if ever she should fall in love
The one that she adores will chase her as she soars
And though she knows come autumn he’ll not stay
She’ll make love on the wing and fly away
Swift, flying by in that dusky grey-black suit of feathers as you cry
Swift, I hear you weeping, little bird don’t you fly away
Stop where you are, set your feet upon the ground
Sing me your heart and I’ll sing you mine
Now, the swift is an influential bird
For we have tried our best to live like her
She will never pause to say a word
And we will never have the time to hear
Too busy rushing out to spend all day still rushing
Only to charge back the way we came with nothing
Slaving, see we’re saving up our hours
So we can rush across the ocean for the flowers and sunshine
It all wilts away right before our tired eyes
Love is only fleeting
As if we just tour a lifetime
Flying round in circles in the sky
And there’s never time to stop and ask why
I can’t do this anymore
I can’t spend my life just running for my grave
I can’t live this way, ‘cause it’s no life at all
And in your empty eyes I know you feel the same
Rushing by in your dusky gray-black suit and jacket and tie
Still I hear you weeping, precious child don’t you rush away
Stop where you are, set your feet upon the ground
Sing my your heart and I’ll sing you mine
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7. |
Farmhands
04:34
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One day the information empire will explode into a billion ones and zeroes
You will taste them on your lips as they tear across the sky
The post-apocalyptic sunrise breaks on us, and the air is sweet and fragrant
All the noise and dust has at last been swept away
Caught up in the shockwaves at the dawn of the new day
One day we’ll all be farmhands and breathe the open skies
Working with our fingers we’ll bury all the lies of the past
We’ll keep the truth alive, a secret deep inside the new earth
When will we return?
One day the endless fields of asphalt will be rent by the roots still trapped beneath them
Our grey citadels of mammon will be overgrown and lost
The tree of life cracks through the pavement, fills our walls and the birds roost in her branches
The barren concrete jungle will teem with life again
The seed’s already sown and we’ll sing out until then
One day we’ll all be farmhands and breathe the open skies
Working with our fingers we’ll bury all the lies of the past
We’ll keep the truth alive, a secret deep inside the new earth
When will we return?
When we lose all we’ve built upon the sand
(when we lose it all)
When springs break forth upon this desert land
(when springs break forth)
When at last we all come to understand
(come to understand)
That heaven’s planted here in our own muddy hands
(heaven’s planted here)
The harvest is so great
But the workers are so few
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8. |
Make Tea, Not War
04:37
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If only they had tea in a thousand BC
In the promised land where the Philistines and Israel came to blows
Then Goliath spake to David
‘Put a teabag in my helmet,
I’ve been dying for a cuppa since Sokoh and your God knows’
Make tea, not war
Make tea not war
You put the kettle on and I’ll sweep the floor
Make tea, not war
And if the house of Capulet and the house of Montague
Had all put up their longswords and put the kettle on for two
The pair of star-cross’d lovers could neck their potion free
‘Wherefore art thou Romeo? Can you make it three?’
Make tea, not war
Make tea not war
You put the kettle on and I’ll sweep the floor
Make tea, not war
And if Oliver Cromwell and King Charles the First
Told the cavaliers and roundheads just to stop and quench their thirst
As they sipped they’d start to wonder what all the fighting’s for
It would have been most civil but it wouldn’t have been war
Make tea, not war
Make tea not war
You put the kettle on and I’ll sweep the floor
Make tea, not war
And if your kettles empty meet me at the well
We’ll fill them up together, stories we will tell
Stories of the way history could have been
With less guns-and-bombs
More caffeine and tannin
And if Osama Bin Laden and George Dubya 2
Had stopped all of the killing and just had a brew
A cluster bomb of cookies, as much as Fish could bake
And the only shock and awe’s at the size of the cake
Make tea, not war
Make tea not war
You put the kettle on and I’ll sweep the floor
Make tea, not war
(I’m not saying it was perfect...)
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9. |
Climatologist
03:46
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Who is worse than greedy bankers and politicians on the take?
The government’s raining money for research, it’s my time for a lucky break
My every word is a distortion if you read between the lines
Today I dreamt up 15 new ways just to hide the decline
Hide the decline!
Hide the decline!
I’m a climatologist
Not an apologist!
In public I say ‘polar bears? Well, I’m concerned about their fate’
But if you look inside my lunchbox you’ll find polar bear steaks
I tell you all it’s getting hotter and lie about barbecue summers
But when the winter snow blows in I’m outta here in my fleet of hummers!
Hide the decline!
Hide the decline!
I’m a climatologist
A proper scientist!
What about the glaciers?
(I invented it)
What about the summertime?
(I invented it)
Stratospheric cooling?
(I invented it)
Who d’ya think you’re fooling?
(I invented it)
Ice sheets collapsing?
(I invented it)
Permafrost retracting?
(I invented it)
Carbon dioxide?
(I invented it)
Are you out of your mind?
I invented it to
Hide the decline!
Hide the decline!
I’m a climatologist
Check out my hockey stick!
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10. |
Peanut Butter Junkie
02:53
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When it comes to spreading spread on toast at breakfast
There’s a condiment for which my love is steadfast
I demolish every jar of it so dead fast
That I just can’t seem to make a loaf of bread last
Lalalalala (Lalalalala)
Lalalalala (Lalalalala)
Seven jars a day sure spreads a lot of croutons
Lalalalala (Lalalalala)
Lalalalalalalalala (Lalalalala)
And if those run out I’ll have to spread it on my futon
It’s what I love the most
With every meal I’m due
I spread it on my toast
I cook it on my stew
A jar of dry roast in my field of view
Will be gone before you knew
That I’m a peanut butter junkie through and through
You can eat it every meal with every course
After all it’s a healthy protein source
Oh I snaffle every helping like a horse
It’s my crunchy, nutty, flavoursome life force
Lalalalala (Lalalalala)
Lalalalala (Lalalalala)
Now I take a jar to church on Sunday morning
Lalalalala (Lalalalala)
Lalalalalalalalala (Lalalalala)
So I can spread some on my bread at communion
I spread it on my toast (he spreads it on his toast)
I’d lick it off your shoe (he’d lick it off your shoe)
The consecrated Host (the consecrated Host)
I’d spread it on that too (if the priest would let him)
A jar of dry roast left in my sight
Will be licked out clean tonight
‘Cause I’m a peanut butter junkie through and through, waaow!
I’ll buy a tonne of bread one of these fine days
So I can go to bed in my PBJs
Who need caviar when you’ve got nuts and jam
‘Cause what you eat you are and that’s what I am!
And if you’ve got some (And if you’ve got some)
There’s nothing I won’t do for you (There’s nothing he won’t do)
I’d even steal it from (he’d even steal it from)
Gorillas at the zoo (ooh ooh ooh ooh)
While I distract you with this song
Wow, turn your back and it’s gone
And if I may boast (and if he may boast)
About the skills I keep (about the skills he keeps)
I take a four inch toast (he takes a four inch toast)
And spread it four foot deep (FOUR FOOT DEEP?!)
A jar of dry roast left where I can get it
Will be empty in a flash, you bet it
‘Cause I’m a peanut butter junkie through and through
‘Cause I’m a peanut butter junkie through and through
‘Cause I’m a peanut butter junkie
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11. |
Dr Fish
05:00
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A fresh faced master of the weather
Dashing back and forth to battle code
Along the Wilderness Road
On a dark Whiteknights cycleway,
Dank wind blowing, in his frizzy hair
He toiled for days and months and years
Assimilating data up in 2U07
Not yet on the stairway to Devon
But under Robert Plant’s supervision
He could fulfil his great commission
Dr Fish, Dr Fish, and his stochastic data
Tweaking those parameters at highest frequency
Dr Fish, Dr Fish, aquatic prognosticator
If your SCM* needs testing he’s your man! Or should that be your Fish?
How was he to know, each cookie crumb would form a CCN**?
Major unexplained corrections
Raining from the dark grey skies
But when he gets the keys to his control machine:
It’ll turn out better when Dr Fish controls the weather!
Dr Fish, Dr Fish, and his stochastic data
Tweaking those parameters at highest frequency
Dr Fish, Dr Fish, aquatic prognosticator
If your SCM needs testing he’s your man, oh-oh, oh-oh
His work it promised us protection
From poorly forecast and extreme convection
But many things they cause deflection
A working life of most extreme complexion
From speaking out he never showed defection, protesting wrongs like vivisection
Baking cookies sweet confection, but deadlines still required attention
A thesis as stubborn as infection, yet still he holds the weather with affection
Struggling for words, the right inflection, drawing on his powers of perception
The examiners met and after some reflection, they passed him with minor corrections
And these are my conclusions!
*Single Column (Unified!) Model **Cloud (/ Correction) Condensation Nucleus
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12. |
Escape From New Street
05:33
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Attention! This is a platform alteration
The train now leaving Platform 9 at Birmingham New Street Station
Was the 8:15 for Waterloo you were waiting for on Platform 2
While I calmly spouted useless information
Attention! Please don’t leave your bags unattended
Or they’ll end up in the same black hole as every penny that Railtrack expended
For somewhere in the darkness lurks the dreaded engineering works
That’ll keep your train eternally suspended
And you’ll hear the spine chilling tales of those who live to tell of their ordeal
Behold with fear the event horizon of the rails
Oh my friend, beware, things happen there so surreal
I kid you not, you’d be better off at London Kings Cross
Unless you know where the New Street trains all go
You can buy yourself a return ticket, but in this hole that won’t get you toss, oh no
You won’t ever get home via Birmingham New Street!
Attention! This is a platform alteration
Platform 9 has disappeared to the ethereal 5th dimension
The concourse may display the signs but the platform screens show different times
Will you ever escape this bleak abomination?
The next six trains to Derby have been replaced
By a single 12-seat minibus, and the driver’s been misplaced
If you queue out in the rain all night it might take you to the Isle of Wight
But if you want to get to Derby you’re in the wrong place
And you’ll hear the spine chilling tales of the few that lived to tell of their ordeal
Behold with fear the event horizon of the rails
Oh my friend, beware, things happen there that are just unreal
I kid you not, you’d be better off at London Kings Cross
Unless you know where the New Street trains all go
You can buy yourself a return ticket, but in this hole that won’t get you toss, oh no
You won’t ever get home via Birmingham New Street!
Fifty trains have arrived today but they’re stuck in the queue to depart
In a log-jam tailback all the way to the Edinburgh line where they start
In the Birmuda Traingle of Britain there are too many trains, too few lines
And they’re all trying to leave at 2:15 from Platform 9
I kid you not, you’d be better off at London Kings Cross
Unless you know where the New Street trains all go
You can buy yourself a return ticket, but in this hole that won’t get you toss, oh no
You won’t ever get home via Birmingham New Street!
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13. |
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I saw a wasp in the garden yesterday
It was buzzing round the flowers outside the kitchen door
I had the oven hot for a bramley apple pie
If only I had known what that insect had in store, yeah yeah
It flew in through the ventilator
And made a beeline for the pie
Now, call me a wuss but I’m no exterminator oh no no
I couldn’t even kill a fly no no
So I opened up the shutter, tried to chase it out
Why I bothered I don’t know
It just keeps banging its head against the closed half of the half open window
Wasp on the pane of the window, use your brain
I tried to show you where to go, you only try and sting me
Oh wasp won’t you see that I am not your enemy
I just wanna let you go where the flowers grow and the songbirds sing
So i got out an empty jamjar and the envelope fromt he water bill
To send it back to the great outdoors from whence it came
And i swooped in to make the catch, but only bashed my thumb on the windowsill
That bug would not co-operate for shame no no
It buzzed past me really fast
And headed for my bedroom door
And when I though t I’d cornered it at last, it flew up high
And sat just out of reach till I got bored
It just crawls around the ceiling whatever I do
Why I bother I don’t know
It’s like I’m banging my head against the closed half of a half open window
Wasp in my house, why the game of cat and mouse
I’m not gonna eat you, please put away that sting
Why are you running from me when I just want to set you free
So you can buzz away and go where the flowers grow and the songbirds sing
I saw the wasp; I saw the garden out the window
But it clearly had no wish to buzz that way
So I got out another jamjar, but this one wasn’t empty no
I just took off the lid, put it down and walked away yeah yeah
It was full of strawberry jam so sweet
From the Fairtrade shop on London Street
My little black and yellow friend’s self control
Was no match for his undying love for
Sweet fruit conserves
He tried to empty that jar of every dollop
But a wasp’s eyes are bigger than its stomach
He had some sweet dreams about my apple pie
But he’d snaffled so much jam he couldn’t fly
So I sneaked back in and screwed the lid back on the jar
Hey there little wasp, I’ve got you now, haha!
Oh wasp, caught at last, now I drop you on the grass
You’ve had so much sugar you’ve forgotten how to sting
Oh wasp, soon you’ll see that in the garden you are free
When you wake up in a mo where the flowers grow and the songbirds sing
Well those flowers bloomed so sweet and happy
And that songbird hailed the bluest of skies
Alas, the bird was really hungry
And he gobbled up my wasp before my eyes
Oh wasp in the bird, you know I think that it’s absurd
When at last you really need it fast you go and lose your sting
You drove me right round the bend but I just wish that we’d been friends
Now I’m left here on my own where the flowers grow and the songbirds sing
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The Brooms of Destruction UK
Passionately silly musicians, writing & playing an eclectic bunch of songs about world issues and cookies. Met while reading at Reading Uni.
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