1. |
Black & Amber
02:43
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Black & Amber
The poor aul Ma & she hasn’t got a penny
No she hasn’t got a penny & she hasn’t got a penny
The poor aul Ma & she hasn’t got a penny
No she hasn’t got a penny to her name
& it’s oh so lonelyeo,
He’s left us no our owneo
Down the Black & Amber treating strangers like they’re kings
& it’s oh so lonelyeo,
He’s left us no our owneo
Sitting in the freezing wondering what the day will bring
& the Da out there & he sinking one of many
& he sinking one of many & he shouting up Kilkenny
& the Da out there & he sinking pints of plain
& he smoking 20 major with the change
& it’s oh so lonelyeo,
He’s left us no our owneo
Down the Black & Amber treating strangers like they’re kings
& it’s oh so lonelyeo,
He’s left us no our owneo
Sitting in the evening wondering what the day will bring
& the Ma out there & she’s working night to morning
& she’s working night to morning & she can’t afford the yawning
& the Ma out there & she’s getting the kids ready
& she hasn’t got a washer to her name.
& it’s oh so lonelyeo,
He’s left us no our owneo
Down the Black & Amber treating strangers like they’re kings
& it’s oh so lonelyeo,
He’s left us no our owneo
Sitting in the freezing wondering what the day will bring
& he comes home senseless & we know that we will suffer
& we know that we will suffer & we know that we will suffer
For he comes home legless & he after a fish supper
& he doesn’t hold the title to his name
& it’s oh so lonelyeo,
He’s left us no our owneo
Down the Black & Amber treating strangers like they’re kings
& it’s oh so lonelyeo,
He’s left us no our owneo
Sitting in the freezing wondering what the day will bring
& it’s oh so lonelyeo,
He’s left us no our owneo
Down the Black & Amber
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2. |
Long Balconies
03:42
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Long Balconies
First day of April 1963, Mother fell in the lap of luxury
Still tells of the day they handed her the keys, 2nd floor palace the long balconies
They did a little dealing in the shade, still of the cops & priests they were afraid
The hung the washing out there on parade, when there was good drying
Nothing was spared, what they had they shared, they kept their worries to themselves
They knit the community of the long balconies
Days they were rough but no one got upset, our little homes immaculately kept
The accent was flat & of that we were proud but only as much as our poverty allowed
Woke Sunday morning but a jobless anger after Saturday evening down the Black & Amber
Two scruffy young fellas belting our folk standards, they sang their hearts out
No-one was scared, what we had we shared, we kept our worries to ourselves
We lit the community of the long balconies
Whether by flaw or design I suspect, they let our kingdom fall in to neglect
The promises broke, the second we had voted, they said that they cared but had another motive
So that the high-tech hadn't far to venture, they need homes beside the city center
We watched our neighbours slowly disappear & we cried our eyes out
We became scared, what we had they shared, the had it sewn up for themselves
They split the community of the long balconies
But we had a dream you see in the long balconies
To never have to leave, leave the long balconies..
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3. |
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No Hope Road
After mass at the record stall
Was out first blast of Peter, Bunny & Bob
Blaring out if the stereo
Someone had opened the Black Ark of the Covenant
I played the punter, you on the rob
‘Til we'd 9/10 of Peter, Bunny & Bob
They put your back up against the wall
Necessity, the mother of invention.
In your bedroom on the linoleum beneath clouds of smoke.
You collapsed into my arms in ribbons
As you practiced your first toke.
Well pale skinned our sons & daughters
& our homes were bricks & mortar
But inside the same internal rhythm as the beat of the 9 mile day
For we were idle & we were wrong side of the tracks like Peter, Bunny & Bob
To kill the boredom we kicked a ball & when the sun shone, we lit up like a tournament
No hope road but the day revolved ‘round "Signing Off" & Peter, Bunny & Bob
Our sound system was a 2 in 1, hanging out on top of our extension
On the tar roof, on our Mothers towels the soundtrack to summer days
Teenagers trying to find their place in post-colonial decades
& we drank to those recordings from the land of wood & water
As our hearts pulsed to the laid-back rhythm, to the beat of the 9 mile day
The days of broke had us in a choke but inhaled through Peter, Bunny & Bob
We wrestled free of the colony to suffer worse at the hands of our own governments
In your bedroom on the linoleum floor we dreamt we could escape
The threat of carving out a living that would seal our parent’s faith
Now we both have sons & daughters, know the price of bricks & mortar
Still our release is to retreat back to the beat of the 9 mile day...
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4. |
Cruelty Man
02:26
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Cruelty Man
Once there was the cruelty man
The whip of the state in his hands
Creeping round the halting site to steal their infancy
If they held out in the ditches well then come the morn
They had to move on again
Brush that history down the shore, disinfect the corridors
Mother she is fallen & the father is unknown
Superior vile she burnt the files, left a generation in tatters
They’re rising, they’re rising, their chances of surviving
What’s really after happening in the fields?
A young one that was raped so young
Took decades to discover her tongue
Touch me daughter sergeant & I’ll break your fucking knees
You’re the bastion of misogyny
Protected by the baton of ignorance
They’re rising, they’re rising, their chances of surviving
What’s really after happening in the fields?
The parish is rising, the parish is rising
In the diocese & the villages that were poisoned
The parish is rising, the parish is rising
To find out what has happened in the fields
What kind of mind debased & rank
Buries babies in a septic tank
If there’s a heaven father then you’re going to fuckin hell
You may not have signed off the heinous crimes
But pulled down the blinds when they came for the answers
They’re rising, they’re their chances of surviving
What’s really after happening in the fields?
They’re rising, they’re rising but no-one’s televising
What’s really after happening in the fields?
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5. |
Lemon 7s
04:30
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Lemon 7s
Smoking Lemon 7s through a broken bottle neck
Smoking Lemon 7s through a broken bottle neck.
Pills ground down like powder, 'til your problems are no louder than
A little infant whimpering for Ma to come & help
Passed out in a dark & damp, romantic alleyway
A stranger whispered in your ear & carried you away
Nodding to the revving, top deck of the 67 to
A college town in Kildare where the love affair began
Here’s' me head, me arse is coming down the Straffan road
Bag o cans in hand & red haired lover boy in tow
The locals think you’re shady but you, you are a lady with
A love so fine & genuine that only few should know
Sleeping in a 2 man tent beside the Royal canal
Sleeping in the harbour filed with all your traveller pals
You'd love a country cottage but you haven't got a sausage so
You're sleeping in a 2 man tent beside the Royal Canal
But love won't stop the winter when you're on the bottom rung
The cider got his liver & the cold got in his lungs
You pretend you didn't notice with your bandage & your poultice but
His sores they got infected & the cold got in his lungs
They treated you like vagrants & they said the ward was full
There upon the floor of James Connolly Memorial
You prince slept for a thousand years & you, you wept a puddle of tears
As you threw his few belongings off a cold Bull Island pier
All along the North Strand with no lover boy in tow
Back in to the city to the only life you know
You needed one to kill the pain
& love like this it knows no shame
Met an old friend in a lonely lane, rekindled an old flame
Smoking Lemon 7s through a broken bottle neck
Smoking Lemon 7s through a broken bottle neck
Pills ground down like powder, 'til your problems are no louder than
A little infant whimpering for Ma to come & help
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6. |
Metal Railings
04:33
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Metal Railings
In the half light of the city, we contemplate our worth
As we make the slow migration from the center to suburb
The dusk, the conversations, soften the shabby face
The silver metal railings, penning these estates
The sound I hear is golden, the stories of their day as they retreat
They're not poor but they’re not rolling & bring to night a warm humility
In the half light of the city, you cannot see the hurt
In the eyes of working families that see progress as a curse
As we pass along the prison walls, my head bows at the thought
Of the mothers & the fathers who are carrying their cross
The silver sun in failing on young ones who were sent down in their prime
Like the silver metal railings, a symbol of our freedom in decline
In the half light of the city, it's where they would have hid
These ancient streets & corners where my parents played a kids
Me Ma, she came from Summerhill, Me Da, Dominick Street pack
They moved them out & tore them down, they were forever looking back
I miss their city saying, the D they'd put between the R & L
& their devotion for praying, that our place found in this wordld was not a cell...
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7. |
Funeral Sessions
03:38
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Funeral Sessions
Son I’m only passing through, I just called by to say
A farewell to an old friend who passed away
Tell your Ma, I’ll see her after, I’m not hanging round this place
The temptation is too much for me to take
When they found him, he was still
Stone cold on St. Michael’s hill
He scored bad gear in Henrietta Place
All the drunkards they stay local
All the junkies go to town
So I took my second chance & I got out
Son I’m straight but it aint great, I’m barely getting by
With the boys I ran with dropping off like flies
I’m cosying a taxi in the midland’s afternoon
Delivering their takeaways at night
Well they’re making their confessions
In the lounge at funeral sessions
There’s only so much sorrow you can drown
Leaves a trace, does the dark years
On the hard faces of your peers
Only ever leave the stool when it’s their round.
Still I miss waking up to find the horses in the garden
Close the gate, they’ll eat your Mother’s flowers
Summer evening on the avenue
Playing squares or path to pavement
A few tins with Sylvester’s & the Powers
Son I best be going, I don’t know when I’ll rise again
Son I’m sorry that your fathers such a cunt
A funeral’s a sad excuse to see your only son
But I’ll be back to my old tricks within a month
In my head on a clear day
I hear my late great father say
You come from here you only got two routes
Be a drunkard & stay local
Be a gear head, go to town
Or you take your second chance & you get out
All the drunkards they stay local
All the junkies go to town
So I took my second chance & I got out
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8. |
Silver Vein
03:29
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Silver Vein
Why are the young ones on the knees?
Why aren’t sirens wailing?
Why is this place surrounded by the miles of metal railings?
The route that bought us back to here is the root of all our problems
The dusk dissolves, a day without walls to die with your boots on
The route that bought us back to here is the root of all our problems
A body designed to stand in line & die with your boots on
Looking at those jokers poll again, another own goal that we scored
Property is the new gold & the leaders are the landlords
Looking at those jokers fold again, another own goal that we scored
Poverty is the silver vein, the leeches are the landlords
The route that bought us back to here is the root of all your problems
The night dissolves, a day without walls to die with your boots on
The route that bought us back to here is the root of all your problems
The course of an unbackable horse to die with your boots on
The kids are singing in the street & at the near post, they say the shorter odds are better than a kick in the balls
Why those derelicts are still abound?
What are the horde inhaling?
The temperature is dropping & the coffins they are nailing
Why do they struggle to pick it up when the rest of them are sailing?
Corpses found in this ghost town
When everyone else needs bailing
The route that bought us back to here is the root of all your problems
The dusk dissolves, a day without walls to die with your boots on
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9. |
A Tar Road
04:38
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A Tar Road
There's a great migration coming from the east
The birthplace of civilisation is dying on its knees
They cross the blackest waves and there's still some way to travel
Lord give them a week of tar in a lonely year of gravel
Lord give them a tar road, cause it's easier on the soles than a gravel road
Like the failed assimilation to settle the travelling people
Denied them there ethnicity we'd preserve all things being equal
Wandering underneath the stars, when the winters they were hard
When we sent them down the gravel road, they would pray for a stretch of tar, they would pray
Lord give them a tar road, cause it's easier on the soles than a gravel road
I met a little stranger on a lonely gravel road
She had love & sadness in her eyes, for her bloodline had run cold
But she became out lifeboat, brought us cross treacherous waters
Every wrong foot we ever put was a stone road to our daughter
Lord give them a tar road, for it's easier on the soles than a gravel road
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10. |
Settled Kids
09:06
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Settled Kids
A white Kentucky thoroughbred sixteen four, hands high
His first embrace a mother's kick that blinded him in one eye
That's how he became a lilywhite, you past not unlike his
The cinema of circumstance beneath those dark eyelids
Local is knowing where the gap in the fence is
We became community between those strides of theirs
Local is knowing where the gap, the gap in the fence is
My Mother & my Father died with just 9 month apart
We were strangers in the neighbourhood, staked down with our orphan hearts
'til we sat upon their withers & became the local kids
Down languid lanes, we left our loss
In their ditches grief was rid
Local is knowing where the gap in the fence
Bringing Star & Oscar up the field in hoodies & hi-vis
Local is knowing where the gap, the gap in the fence is
We are only wide awake when we're half seat, on the edge
The Casey's will be waiting where the picket meets the hedge
We'll re-record what's going on beneath those dark eyelids
With summer walks & sparrow-hawks, with coola pops & fizz
We became community just like the settled kids
Bringing Star & Oscar up the filed in hoodies & hi-vis
Local is knowing where it is, local is knowing where it
Local is knowing where the gap in the fence
We became community just like the settled kids
Local is knowing where the gap, the gap in the fence is
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