1. |
Old Man's Shoes
05:14
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I’m stepping into the Old Man’s shoes,
he left them lying around for me to use
They got leather heels and grown-up laces,
they’ve been to Birmingham and other places
I’ll be hanging out the Old Man’s shirt
patched up elbows and the hard earned dirt
Sweat on the collar, lipstick traces
real life underneath the airs and graces
I’ll be pushing out the Old Man’s boat
I guess I’m the one to keep this thing afloat
The gear needs oiling, it’s running squeaky
hull’s full of holes, she getting leaky
I’ll be putting on the Old Man’s tie
pity that we never saw eye to eye
When he went left I had to go right
but we both found a way to get to sleep at night
I’m climbing into the Old Man’s coat
there’s three buttons missing and the buckle is broken
Pocket full of dreams and words unspoken
I guess he put‘em in his pipe and smoked‘em
I’ll be sharpening the Old Man’s tools
had ‘em ever since I went to school
They were real good then, they’re real good now
I’m going to put them to work somehow
I’ve been opening the Old Man’s books
never really knew about time he took
To building bridges, mending fences
taking on a language with eleven tenses
Wrap myself up in the Old Man’s cloak
It’s getting kind of worn and full of patches
Felt in the pocket; found a box of matches
memories all coming back in snatches
I’m stepping into the Old Man’s shoes
he left them lying around for me to use
They got leather heels and grown-up laces
they’ve been to Birmingham and other places
I’ll be pushing out the Old Man’s boat
climbing into the Old Man’s coat
wrap myself up in the Old Man’s cloak
stepping into the Old Man’s shoes
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2. |
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Now nowhere is it written down
or part of nature’s plan
That everything we use is manufactured in Japan
The tycoons out in Tokyo have everything to fear
We’re not talking South America
not talking South Korea
We see a new world order
as the century unfurls
It’s China that’s the workshop
for the widgets of the world
It started out with Kodak
and their cameras and tripods
Then came Sony and the Walkmen now it’s Apple and the iPods
There isn’t much that you can find that isn’t somehow finer
For turning up-side-down
and finding out it’s made in China
For everything that beeps and whistles pirouettes and twirls
China is the workshop for the widgets and gadgets, yeah
China is the workshop for the widgets of the world
Once our stuff was made by Mexicans moonlighting in El Paso
Tomorrow’s toys will probably come from Burkina Faso
A dollar and a half an hour is all the bosses want to pay
Pretty soon they’ll find someone who’ll do it for a dollar and a half a day
We know where Christmas comes from for all the boys and girls
It’s China that’s the workshop for the widgets and the gadgets and
the fridges and their magnets and their bits and bytes and digits
China is the workshop for the widgets of the world
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3. |
Difference
04:24
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I don’t care what it is
Anything you can do’s got to be better than this
So find the right time, and the right place
and make a difference
The old plans are going wrong
I’m tired of hearing them singing the same song
I’m tired of hearing how they can’t get along
why don’t they split the difference
You say you want to make it right
By sorting the trash and
turning out some of the lights
I got news for you, that’s not much use if you
really want to make a difference
We need brand new big ideas
Something we can do in
months instead of in years
Something that ain’t going to end up in tears
and really make a difference
All the fat cats at the top
Are ripping us off and filling their personal pots
While everyone else is down here losing the plot
just trying to make a difference
All the young dudes on the street
Need a job, a roof overhead and
something to eat
Need a hand to get them back up on their feet
now wouldn’t that be different
Be comfortable in your skin
Don’t ever give up, don’t ever give in
Be in it if you want to win it
and make a difference
So I don’t care what it is
Anything you can do’s got to be better than this
Find the right time, and the right place
and make a difference
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4. |
Every Now and Then
04:56
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Every now and then I miss you
And I reach out for the phone
Asking myself, hey – will this do?
I can make it all alone
Walking down the road on my street
I hear people passing by
Keep on looking down at my feet
Just in case they see me crying
Every now and then
See your car on every corner
See your face in every crowd
My life could be so much warmer
Think of how you used to warm me
Every now and then
Every now and then
Old friends, say hello
They don’t notice, they don’t know
What’s going on inside
They can’t see those tears I’m crying
People pass me by
smile and ask me how I’m doing
OK I reply, hoping they don’t know I’m lying
Every now and then
Every now and then,
just every now and then
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5. |
Room with Richards
04:32
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Why don’t we put him in a Room with Richards
Find out everything he knows
Once we put him in the picture
information over-flows
Why don’t we put him in a Room with Richards
Because we’re running out of time
We’ll use the fittings and the fixtures
while we investigate his mind
He’s going to sing like a canary
We’ll have him humming like a (humming) bird
We’ll re-assess the situation
down on fifty-first and third
We better buckle up our seatbelts
And move on up another gear
By the time we hit the highway
he’ll tell us all we want to hear
He’s going to be the judge and jury
And executioner as well.
Nobody’s ever done it better
at least as far as I can tell
We’ll open up the silver briefcase
with all the needles and the pins
A little surgical persuasion
should be enough to reel him in
After time in a Room with Richards
let the fireworks begin
So let’s put him in a Room with Richards
this is how the story ends
Put him in a Room with Richards
find out exactly when he bends
After time in a room with Richards
he’s going to be our new best friend
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6. |
After the Bullfight
03:55
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Last night, inside the fascist bar
We toasted the arrival of the matador
The tapas greasy, and the beer was warm
Juan and the barman talked
about the coming storm
I thought about the fight that I had seen
The barman made a joke, I even smiled a little
The heat was close, closer than we’d ever been
It made the conversation short and brittle
We climbed the spiral staircase to our room
It folded in around us like a tomb
Downstairs,‘LosToros’ played the ancient hits
The shutter caught the wind and
banged against the wall
One day, this thing is going to fall to bits
I wonder what the Bull had thought about it all
We sweated underneath the sheets
Eventually the rain brought some relief
We dreamed in images from the Spanish deep
The Matador paraded through my sleep
In the morning, in the market square
He passed alone, ten feet away now, I suppose
Though I remember him with shorter hair
I never saw the ring threaded through his nose
The storm had passed, the earth at peace
Still this dark foreboding, this unease
Then it hit me, I sensed his greedy eyes
The skin across his face was grey and bovine
I screamed –
and when he turned to say goodbye
The hand that he held out to me was cloven...
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7. |
Think
04:47
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I wake up every morning this is what I do
I sit around awhile and have a think or two
I check out every corner of my sleepy mind
just in case you come creeping back in one more time
I’m getting very good at this and I ain’t lying
it’s got so I can do this without even trying
You’ll never ever see me down or catch me crying
I never think about you
Think about you, I never think about you at all
You’re never on my mind
you’re really gone this time,
I never think about you
Now I don’t think about you, this is what I say
I do it in about a hundred different ways
I know because I count ‘em every single day
I never think about you
There’s all the anniversaries I don’t regret
your birthday in December and the day we met
The beach in San Marino where we lost that bet
I put ‘em in my diary so I don’t forget to not
Think about you, I never think about you at all etc.
They asked me to a party in a different town
I thought I’d go so I could start to get around
I checked out everybody just to be quite sure
that nobody was in there with a face like yours
Then I saw her standing up against the bar
I tried to turn away but I didn’t get far
She asked if I was drinking and I said ‘Oh Please
It’s the only way to make it through on nights like these’...
We talked about this ‘n that and then she said
She’d like to go outside a while and clear her head
And then she asked if maybe I could take her home
I said I would but then I want to be alone to not
Think about you, I never think about you at all etc.
Too dangerous to think about you...
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8. |
Liberation Day
04:51
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We left the road at Richmond and headed for the hills
It’s Liberation day in Sector 3
we’ve all been given yellow freedom pills
Let’s hallucinate together
and deconstruct our brains
The posters say ‘Forever and Ever’ it’s Liberation Day
We took the Beta highway
the barriers were down
Past decommissioned mines of Sector 3
(Were we the only people leaving town?)
Let’s imaginate together
and sychchronise our dreams
The posters say ‘Forever and Ever’
it’s not the way it seems
We read the grid at Newtown and drove across the hills
To the river at the edge of Sector 3
and Ezra took the final freedom pill
We’ve never trusted Ezra
he’s trouble every time
But we struck out and down to the river
and left the hills behind
The ferry man on duty said ‘No crossing possible today
It’s swollen and you’re not allowed to cross that river anyway’
We offered him 5 tokens
and a box of Major Grant’s
He said ‘I’m not open to persuasion I cannot take that chance’
Then Ezra told this joker that
he’s gonna break his nose
We said Ezra,‘don’t be crazy they’ve got two-way radios
They could be here in seconds
‘cos those choppers fly like sound’
And Ezra saw the sense in this agreed to turn around
We drove back home to Richmond
and climbed down from the hills
The day was nearly done on Sector 3
They’d cleared away the stocks of freedom pills
Let’s forget our day together
and reconstruct our brains
The posters say ‘Forever and Ever’
it’s Liberation Day, Liberation Day
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9. |
Text Message
04:12
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I’m lying on my bed, it’s half past five
Not quite sure if I’m dead or alive
My head’s aching, my body’s in pain
Feel like I’m up against the ropes again
The wind’s howling up and down and round my roof
Think you might have left me
but I got no proof except
Your ring thing is missing
and your toothbrush is gone
Your hat’s not hanging up where it belongs
Now the pieces of the puzzle
they don’t seem to fit
There’s one piece missing - maybe this is it
They stopped playing my favourite song
And I just put my finger on just what’s wrong
I haven’t had a Text Message
on my telephone in oh so long
I listen to the sounds, coming through the wall
The couple next door, they’re having a ball
Can’t help thinking that it’s been a long time since you shouted out that loud
when I was driving you wild
(driving you wild, driving you wild, driving you wild)
Since you shouted out quite that loud when I was driving you wild
I’m lying on my bed, it’s half past ten
Maybe never getting out again
My head’s aching, I think I got ‘flu
and my heart is breaking up for thinking ‘bout you
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10. |
Suitcase Blues
05:20
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You leave the cap off the toothpaste, baby
And my shoes out in the (pouring) rain (again and again)
Better pack up your suitcase, baby
I don’t think that I can take this kind of pain
You say that I spy on you baby
But I’m only asking where you’ve been all day
(that’s a-what I say)
If I can’t rely on you, baby
I won’t go on living this-a-way
They say you never miss your water, baby
Not until your well runs dry
(and that’s no lie)
Come spend some time in the desert, darlin’
you too might get thirsty by and by
You go out in the early morning, baby
You don’t come back till it’s late at night
I’m giving you an early warning, baby
something about the way you’re living ain’t right
You’re never there when I need you, baby
And you never answer when I call you on the (your goddamn tele) phone
(even tho’ you’re at home)
You disappear for days on me, darlin’
might as well be living on my own
You leave the cap off the toothpaste, baby
And my dreams out in the (pouring) rain (again and again)
Better pack up your suitcase, baby
I don’t think that I can take this kind of pain
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11. |
No Purpose
05:30
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Took one last look around the place
that he’d begun to call home
His neighbours left him like he wanted to be left
which was alone
His training days were done time to do what he had to do
His prayers were said, his sights were set his aim was true
Like an avenging angel, out of the blue
It was the sole purpose, of his life
sole purpose and he believed that he was right
The day began like any other day
there was a clear blue sky.
Nobody could have known
how many souls were just about to die
One day was all it took to forever lose the race
What innocence we had has disappeared without a trace
A wake-up call that wiped
the smile from off our face
And all to no purpose, that I could see
no purpose, though some might not agree some might not agree
Last night I saw the parachutes go down behind the battle lines
Extraordinary measures for extraordinary times
One day was all it took to forever change the rules
We don’t know what we’re doing
we are all amateurs and fools
Maybe it’s time to stop and
all go back to school
And find a new purpose maybe start a new degree
New purpose, open up our eyes and see though some might not agree
some might not agree
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12. |
Move On
05:44
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I was invited but the invitation came too late
I got excited but when I came they left me stranded at the starting gate
They said you can go in but you’ll be there on your own
The bar’s just closing and the band is going home
I got to thinking ‘bout the people messing up my life
My no-good neighbours and my crazy ever-loving wife
It’s only alimony holding me back
I’m climbing onto a different track
I’m going to move on
Move on, move on, move on
Feels so good to move on
Don’t keep dragging all the baggage of your past around
Cut those ties because they’re only going to serve to hold you down
You’re going to fly like a bird in the air
Kiss goodbye to all your burdens and your cares
Move on, move on, move on, move on
Fat Larry had a hell of a band,
but they were nothing but a one-night stand
he had to move on
Move on, move on, move on
Felt so good to move on
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The Missing Persians England, UK
Four men, originally from Oxford, play some songs written and sung by Chris. An Americana, bluesy vibe with harmonies aplenty. Third album on its way.
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