1. |
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I’m going down to the railway station
Gonna jump the morning train
I’ll be galloping down those rails
Like a colt on his first spring trail
Cos this town’s gotten way too small
And now winter’s knocking at the door
They say the fields are fertile further south
It’s honey season down there
With fruit flesh for the tongue to caress
And watermelon juice that’ll flood your thirst
It’s a roving rambling roadside burst
Of colour and bloom
It’s every itinerant working man’s dream
The girls in the orchards with their nut brown skin
Humming love songs bringing the harvest in
The boys work shirtless
Their muscles ripple glistening
It’s every itinerant working man’s dream
There’s a house in the field with a porch out front
Where the jugs wash the working day’s dust away
There’s always someone there to play
The campfire songs, the old analogue tales
Our voices coil and sway
Entwined
They climb and cling
Like a grapevine
Coming alive again
Like a blue note
On a guitar string
It’s every itinerant working man’s dream
Yes I’m going down to the railway station
Jump the morning train
I’ll be galloping down those rails
Like a colt on his first spring trail
Cos this town’s gotten way too small
And now winter’s knocking at the door
They say the fields are fertile further south
They say the fields are fertile further south
They say the fields are fertile further south
They say the fields are fertile further south
Yes the fields are always more fertile some place else
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2. |
From Valier to Maubermé
04:57
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From Valier to Maubermé
There’s only rock and ice
Every living thing, every bird that sings
Gone now till the spring
On both sides of the border
Wind is the only sound
The snow lies heavy
Oh lord it suffocates the ground
The ridgeline that we walked along
Cuts a scar across the sky
It’s a sharp blade in the morning light
And burns a hole right through my heart
The waterfall we bathed by
Has lost its joyful song
The cloak of wildflowers
Just a memory now
Yes from Valier to Maubermé
It’s a litany of loss
I’m seated here
In the valley chapel
With the fourteen stations of the cross
Ah but I know this land I stand on
Will soon tilt closer to the sun
Frozen ice will melt
Yes and the mountain streams will run
I shall come silk spun like a chrysalis
On my resurrection day
And hold in my hand a fruit bowl
Newly fired from the clay
And though you may no longer be with me
On my resurrection day
Your presence will ever
Tread the trails
From Valier to Maubermé
Your presence will ever
Tread the trails
From Valier to Maubermé
Yes, yes your presence
From Valier to Maubermé
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3. |
Whenever I see you
05:46
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I chase the morning hangover
With a bottle of wine at noon
Chain smoking in the bedroom
Ah there’s nicotine on the sheets
My lungs and my liver
Are dedicated to you
I know yeah I know
That you do me no good
But whenever I see you
I never know just where to run
I never know just where to hide
Whenever I see you
You’ve hung our walls with all the flags
Of every ship that we sailed upon
Frame after frame of black and white lies
Your grin and mine
The words and verses
That we underlined
Our archives
Hanging heavy with the dust of our lives
But whenever I see you
I never know just where to run
I never know just where to hide
Whenever I see you
I got all the tools I need
To chip a hole in the wall
A chainsaw
To strip the shade away from the sun
A pocket torch
To find my way through the night
And bathe this world in light
Bathe my world in light
But whenever I see you
I never know just where to run
I never know just where to hide
Whenever I see you
I’m rolling in on the turning tide
Washing up by your side
Whenever whenever
Whenever I see you (come to me)
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4. |
Coffee coloured Candy
04:10
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Coffee puts the morning right
Smoothes out the memories of last night
Swirls the blood around
Mixes up new compounds
A ha ha
When Candy smiles her smile at me
She sends me winging cross the sea
To places I have never been
Candy won’t you fly with me
My coffee coloured Candy
Long days stretched out in her arms
On this island of butterfly calm
We follow the coastline round
Lost in the syncopated sound
Of her dubstep walk
And our reverb talk
My coffee coloured Candy
Sunrise socks
And a rainbow scarf
Peppermint skirt
And a lime green top
It’s a cascade of colour
When she peels it all off
My coffee coloured Candy
Oh and we look so good on the sheets
My Irish skin, potatoes and meat
And her velvet sheen, I just need to take one look
To hear the waves breaking on the reef
And that reggae beat going round and round in my brain
Coffee coloured Candy
Oh so sweet to eat
My coffee coloured
So warm to drink
My coffee coffee coffee
Sunrise socks
And a rainbow scarf
Peppermint skirt
And a lime green top
It’s a cascade of colour
When she peels it all off
My coffee coloured Candy
My coffee coloured Candy
My coffee coloured Candy
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5. |
River's edge
02:30
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In the night, the cold dark night, I went down to, the river’s edge
That old moon, shining bright and high, those clouds racing by, wind and noise
That’s the sound, of you and me, being torn, apart, of you and me, being torn …
Blowing breeze, crying out your name, breaks around my head, drowning me
I stand there, rooted to the spot, wind, trees, river, rocks, swirling round
That’s the sound, of you and me, being torn, apart, of you and me, being torn …
Blowing breeze, crying out your name, breaks around my head, drowning me
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6. |
The King Country
05:02
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I must leave, this helter skelter, leave this urban haste
And travel south to my own sacred place
Ford the river on horse-back
Ride the upland road
Out beyond the end of the fence-line
To the re-generation zone
And up to the old bach
Work of my grandfather’s hand
Where the new day
Is piped in
By a two note bird throat song
And when night falls along the cutting wall
Worms start to glow
A display of uncharted constellations
An alternate zodiac
Fragments of an untranslated story
The mystery intact
And I shall sit quiet in a lancewood grove
And be soothed by every shade of green
And I will track the rainbow glint
Downstream and cross river stone
To where the Whakapapa joins the Whanganui
Yes I must leave now, this helter skelter, leave this urban pace
And go south
To my own sacred place
To the very tissue
The membrane, filter of desire
Down to the muscle
Stretched lean upon the bone
Go deep to the heart
And to the source
Deep to the heart
Of my life force
Go deep to the heart, deep to the heart, deep to the heart
Of the King Country
Ford the river on horse-back
Ride the upland road
Out beyond the end of the fence-line
To the re-generation zone
Go deep to the heart, deep to the heart
Deep to the heart, deep to the heart
Go deep to the heart, deep to the heart
Deep to the heart, deep to the heart
Of the King Country
Deep to the heart and to the source
Deep to the heart of my life force
Go deep to the heart
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7. |
The matriarch song
02:30
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I’ve been to most places a woman can go
I’ve walked across the moorlands, I’ve touched the stones
I’ve gathered the driftwood that the tides lay down
Upon the burning black sand of the wild west coast
Upon the burning black sand of the wild west coast
Yes and I stood in the room where the Great Artist had worked
Brush stroke miracles, the cactus in bloom
But from the doorway I heard a litany of pain
The scars on the earth lit by the light of the moon
Cities destroyed by fire and rain
Cities destroyed by fire and rain
I followed the instructions step by step
I bowed my head, went down on my knees
I wore the ash on my skin, drank the holy blood
Washed the feet of the saviour to atone for my sin
I washed the feet of the saviour to atone for my sin
Now my tribe is scattered, there’s mist in the air
No more waves on the water and the time is here
To offer you my verse for the matriarch song
I will offer you my verse for the matriarch song
Offer you my verse for the matriarch song
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8. |
Ramblin Willie
05:08
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Willie is my compass,
I follow him around,
He keeps me on the move,
We roam from town to town.
But I’ll be back some day, babe,
You’ll see me coming round,
When Willie’s too old to ramble,
When Willie wants to settle down.
Willie is my third leg,
We sure do cover some ground
Small towns, big towns, towns in between
Willie likes to get around.
Willie likes to get around.
But I’ll be back some day, babe,
You’ll see me coming round,
When Willie’s too old to ramble,
When Willie wants to settle down.
Now sometimes I get tired
Of following Willie around,
But then I spy the sparkle in a pretty girl’s eye,
The wave of her hand and a come hither smile,
And Willie is off and running,
Dragging me along behind
But I’ll be back some day, babe,
You’ll see me coming round,
When Willie’s too old to ramble,
When Willie wants to settle down
If ever Willie wants to settle down, yeah
When Willie wants to settle down
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9. |
Dreamy state
05:48
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I saw a bird fly backwards this afternoon
I watched the trees dancing to some old fiddle tune
And the man in the moon winked a stony eye at me
That dreamy state
You got me in that dreamy state
There’s an oxygen bottle strapped across my back
I’m 80 feet down In the slow motion deep
suspended
In that dreamy state
I hear the echo pulsing through
Of the loving chord
you sung
In our bedroom
Oh you’ve got me
Oh you’ve put me
Oh you’ve got me
Oh you’ve put me
In that dreamy state
You’re like a handful
of happiness pills
paddling my bloodstream
and stroke by stroke
you float me
deeper into
that dreamy state
that dreamy state
Everything is silent, everything is still
The wind holds its breath …………
The stars are
Barnacles of light
In a rock pool
They’re barnacles of light
In a rock pool
Oh you’ve got me etc
You sealed my fate
In that dreamy state
Dreamy state
I saw a bird fly backwards
Suspended
Oh the loving chord
Stroke by stroke
That dreamy state
Oh yeah that dreamy state
I love it , I love it, I love it
That dreamy state
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10. |
I wanna be your Mercury
04:43
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I was a comet out in space
Tumbling through the empty waste
You were a pin prick of light for me
Just a far off memory
But your gravitational pull was oh so strong
You threaded the needle that stitched me back into your warm embrace
And relit the fire of my desire
I wanna be your Mercury
Stay as close as I can be
Don’t send me back to the cold dark night
I’ll be your faithful satellite
Hold me in to this tight spin
And lay your hands upon my skin
Lick me with your fiery tongue
Cos your my one and only sun
I know there’s others out there like you
A whole galaxy arrayed
But they can't keep my path stable and true
They're just a pale imitation of you
I wanna be your Mercury etc
What is this force that comes and goes
And catches me in its ebb and flow
Is it just a chemical thing?
I thrive in your space and time
I need your heat, I need your light
And when I hear the rushing spring tide run
I know I know I know
You’re my one and only sun
I wanna be your Mercury etc
Don’t send me back to the cold dark night
I’ll be I’ll be your faithful satellite
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11. |
Disintegration
03:09
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there's only you and me
side by side and eternal
flesh and spirit connection
disintegrate with me and go back to nothing
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12. |
Sail that ship
02:08
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Sail that ship that you built for me
Sail it out on the tide
Take it to the reef where it rises up jagged
Set a course straight and true
Batter the boat til the ropes unravel
The canvas torn and tattered
The bones of the timbers all splintered and shattered
Well that’s the wreck of our lives
Up ended and sinking down
Down down
Sinking down to the sea bed
Sail that ship that you built for me
Sail that ship that you built for me
Sail that ship that you built for me
fade
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the o'flahertys Montpellier, France
This is a father/son collaboration. The son breathes music into the father's lyrics and hey presto 12 heartfelt songs.
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