1. |
The Tallest Tree
05:05
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The robin calls, the robin sees
The robin flies to the tallest tree
The tallest tree so far from earth
The robin watches from the highest perch
The highest perch, the longest view
The robin watches me and you
Me and you, them and them
Observer of maelstrom
She turns her head towards the brine
A lifeboat caught in the salty swell
The salty sweat of desperate souls
Lives preserved by hull and stern
A jouncing head, with begging eyes
Grasping hands that scrape the side
Despite more flesh than boat can bear
Of course they could not let him die
And in the night that closed that day, with beak in wing she dreams
Of Africa, desolation, thirsty, sun-scorched fields
Crops sent o’er to feed the fat whilst mother’s milk runs dry
This time in the lifeboat, the rescued shut their eyes
Her eyes fix on a distant cry
A hooded child with arm aloft
Alarms and sirens mask the crack
Cheers and smiles as brick hits glass
A swarm of bats with cloak and shield
A flock of magpies hoarding junk
The nest of things soon boarded up
And looting birds caged up
The second night, her sleep disturbed by visions of a street
Where crows in pinstripe uniform, gather to repeat
The systematic ruin of the commoner’s nest egg
To feast upon their bonuses and then freely fly onwards
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2. |
Colne Valley Hearts
04:00
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Wasn’t an easy birth
Smacked me head coming out
Made me rugged, shoulders broad
Ready to carry, ready to work
Foreign on me tongue
Dialect, disarm
Spot the incomer miles away
When I turned up knowing no-one
When I showed up knowing no-one
Colne Valley Hearts
Necklace of red
Colne Valley Hearts
Hand over heart over hand
Cold hands, warm hearts
Lighting up the cut tonight
Back o’dam I saw her
Translucent, barely there
Cradling her clutch of carrier bags
Lullabies sung to air
By the cenotaph
Smoked from inside out
Furrows deep as valley sides
Bejewelled with the kindest eyes
She has the kindest eyes
Smog stained stone
Makes us know we’re home
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3. |
Small, Big Love
03:50
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The grace of a train having to go slow
The turning of turbines, ten in a row
The rain’s net curtain over there in the distance
And one field lit up by the sun
Breathing in, breathing out
None of this is said out loud
That’s the size of my love for you
That’s a world we have made
From one and one to two
The skeleton fingers of trees making circles
Plane lines of winter skies uncurling like tendrils
Hot tea on cold mornings, warm bed at the dawning
Hopeless to get out of bed
Oh the things that we say
Only to each other
That turned a friend into a lover
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4. |
Two Mothers
06:03
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As I lay you gently down to sleep,
I hear my mother’s voice lilting to me
Unexpected child was I upon a young girl
Through her tears she sang me farewell
Come sing a song for the mothers
Who held you in their arms, when you were a child
Who sacrificed their dreams for ours, taught us to fly
Soothing our fears with her lullaby
Wrapped up in mother’s crocheted shawl
I crossed a faraway sea to a world turned around
New hands, a bottle, kind eyes and a strange lullaby
My new mother answered my cries
Time like the tide she ebbs and flows
And in my arms I cradle a child of my own
Her eyes the forest green, whilst mine are cornflower blue
Perhaps they’re a keepsake from you
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5. |
Beryl
04:17
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You might think that she was born on two wheels
Mam and dad behind her and the stars at her heels
Never looking back, I’m gonna make me mark
Born into nothing, a shy awkward lass
Coordination? St Vitus her dance
Never looking back, I’m gonna make me mark
I will not lead a life of disillusionment and disappointment
Beryl
Heart beats to the pedal
Like the salmon has to leap
Not about the medals
Feet flat to the metal
Push and push and push, repeat
Mother, worker, wife, champion on t’side
Like her curly crop, tightly organised
Never looking back, I’m gonna make me mark
Sprockets and mudguards, Charlie’s her guy
Dancing through the ginnels, the Queen of British time
Never looking back, I’m gonna make me mark.
Head down, eyes forward, pulsing, sprinting to find the sweet spot
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6. |
Ronnie's Song
06:01
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I saw him on the front row, he always sat there alone
Ronnie was a scarecrow, down at heel, boho
Aficionado of anything Broadway
Bernstein and Sondheim kept loneliness at bay
Stumbling through the town with coins in hand
To bank them for a conversation
Cashier lifts her eyes to heaven
Ronnie had low expectations
A person is a person
It makes no odds to me
A person is a person
Just like you and me
Derelict, frozen and sleeping under filth
Wounded, feral but strangely seraphic
Walls thronged with stars of the Music Hall
Though the person that saved him
An ordinary girl
Once a little boy, a mother’s son
Light on his feet, his father told him
‘Don’t do things like that round here’
Filled with moral apprehension
Breaking of bread and drinking wine
For once he had a shared communion
Chose to spend her Christmas time
With someone viewed as barely human
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7. |
The Hum
04:06
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Hum is the sound
In the sound, in the sound
Hum
Jennifer and Wayne would often times complain
Viewing a house where a factory remained
The singular reason they pulled out of the sale
It would never pass in pursuit of middle class
To wake up to that din, it really wouldn't do
How could they retire when the poor refused to?
When the poor refused to?
Clever Mrs B, she cared for herself
Preferring poppies to cigarettes I'd say
Found the poison nectar, draped in nicotine
Equivalent dose to 60 fags a day
Should we side with pest, or let human do its best?
Eradicate with ease, a hundred million years
The hum is the people is the sound
Of the people in the sound
Are the people in the sound
Of the people is the
Hum, is the buzzing is the sound
Of the buzzing of the bees,
Is the humming of the
Sound of the buzzing is the
Hum
Decisions from above, from those who have the means
To spray the common folk, expunge community
How lovely it must be
The hum is a factory is a mine is a playground is a hive is a garden is a school is a village is a choir is a forest is a town is a person is a group is a heart is a mind is a voice is the hum.
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8. |
Between The Bars
04:03
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Drink up, baby, stay up all night
With the things you could do, you won't but you might
The potential you'll be that you'll never see
The promises you'll only make
Drink up with me now and forget all about
The pressure of days, do what I say
And I'll make you okay and drive them away
The images stuck in your head
People you've been before that you
Don't want around anymore
That push and shove and won't bend to your will
I'll keep them still
Drink up, baby, look at the stars
I'll kiss you again, between the bars
Where I'm seeing you there, with your hands in the air
Waiting to finally be caught
Drink up one more time and I'll make you mine
Keep you apart, deep in my heart
Separate from the rest, where I like you the best
And keep the things you forgot
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9. |
Woman in Space
04:21
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I am the keeper of secrets
I keep my back to the wall
I am their mother and their daughter
They think I know nothing at all
Assertion is aggressive
Ambition a barren place
Pink is our prison
Language honed to subjugate
A right to education
Like fearless Malala
I am a woman in space
We've been choke chained and muted
Fitted with concrete shoes
Wings clipped and tethered
Assembled to be consumed
When we look at Earth from above
Swimming in the silent sea
There are no borders or limits
A pale blue dot is all we see
Holding it in tension
Like Valentina Tereshkova
Refusal to surrender
Just like Rosa Parkes
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10. |
All For Me Grog
03:19
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All for me grog, me jolly jolly grog
All for me beer and tobacco
Ooh I spent all me tin on the lasses drinking gin
And across the western ocean I must wander
Where are me boots, me noggin’, noggin’ boots?
All gone for beer and tobacco
The heels are all worn out and the soles are knocked about
And me toes are looking out for better weather
Where is me brain, me noggin’, noggin’ brain?
It’s wrinkled and dried like a raisin
No memories retained, me liver’s much the same
And me booze breath would fell the tallest timber
Where is me phone, me noggin’, noggin’ phone?
The night’s not complete without a selfie
I was trying to dry it out, cos I dropped it in me stout
And now I think I’ve flushed it down the kazi!
Where is me purse, me noggin’, noggin’ purse?
Last saw it three weeks a Friday
You’ll have to buy this round, I’ve only got a pound
And I need that for the last bus back to Clifton
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11. |
Blanket
05:10
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Wrap me in patchwork
Colours on grey
Material mother
Waterless whale
Born into conflict
Something our species dictates
Stay with me in the dark hours
Cloak my frightened head
Side by side, standing tall
You and me
My beautiful friend
Heavily footed
Powerful grace
Paper thin eyelids
Trauma replayed
Stately procession
Fate to be toppled or saved
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12. |
Like Horses
05:21
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In the gloaming, the darkening
Morpheus whispers his sweet lullaby
Silent prayers are mouthed
“Send him home safely”, “I’ll be good”
Three; the loneliest hour
For cowards, fools and me.
Why can’t we be...
Like Horses
Horses
Like Horses
Gentle and king?
From the blood plains, to the high street
Where does the boy go, that becomes the man?
Inward grieving, outward seething,
Self-deceiving, human
Three; the loneliest hour
Uncovers the child in us all
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13. |
Gentleman Jack Live
05:17
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Behind her back she’s Gentleman Jack
A Yorkshire lady of renown
Ever so fine, won’t toe the line
Speak her name, gentlemen frown
At Shibden Hall she had them all
The fairer sex fell under her spell
Dapper and bright, she held them tight
Handsome Anne seduced them well
Gentleman Jack, oh Gentleman Jack
Watch your back, you’re under attack
The husbands are coming, you’d better start running
For nobody likes a Jack-the-Lass
Jack-the-lass, Jack-the-Lass
No-one likes a Jack-the-Lass
The code is cracked, your bags are packed
The knives are out for Gentleman Jack
Proud and stout and full o’clout
She played the fellas at their game
Sharp of mind, she’s one of a kind
Devilish ways the men couldn’t tame
Hidden away, revealed today
Loaded words in diaries found
Wants exposed in a baffling code
Lusty letters all leather bound
Behind her back she’s Gentleman Jack
She’s Gentleman Jack behind their backs
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O'Hooley & Tidow Huddersfield, UK
ENGLAND'S ANSWER TO THE MCGARRIGLES
* * * * *
GUARDIAN
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