1. |
Blackthorn
03:36
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oh you'll not age well me bonny lad
blackthornx2
across your chest you'll tear a fair old gash
blackthorn and a winters wind will come.
if you run yourself around like that
blackthornx2
a rusty barb would turn your skin to rags
blackthorn and a winters wind will come
C
you cant rid a hound of its desire to chase
once its teeth have tasted flesh
and you cant get the fire from the cracks in your skin
once you've dug your deep dark bed.
and youve turned it now and your on its neck
blackthornx2
when natures here she will demand your respect
blackthorn and a winters wind will come
because a bucks hind leg packs a fair old kick
blackthornx2
as we wait for the twilight to bring its mist
blackthorn and a winters wind will come
C
to see a true wild soul slip from its eyes
blackthornx2
then be elbow deep in gut and hide
blackthorn and a winters wind will come
I love this wildness and I love this truth
blackthornx2
You only know your alive because your death is proof.
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2. |
Splitting Maul
02:51
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One day I will take my splitting maul
tear it through the faces and adverts false
till there's not but splinters lying on the floor
then they'll know how much i disagree
look for your heroes who tread first across
the fires at your dorrstep
or over seas lost
you didn't know you're born in the smothering cloth
of a blind and a sorry place.
C
time draws lines across your face
and the river will make you pay for all of our mistakes
leave the room and see the terrible waste
of a soil so rich and so dark
This here is my song for Alice
arm the children with their own bricks
let them build themselves over Gazas walls
and liberate their people.
C
Thought the world is long and my legs so short
we have skills to reach all far long and broad
and we have half a mind to raise our swords
and drive
the bastards
back.
C
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3. |
It's Not Fast
03:45
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what is the matter love?
your eyes look so dark
so far away from the storm you create.
I brought for you a gift
to guard you on your way
it is not silver but it is strong.
It's a band of hammered steel
for you to wear on your wrist
to keep you from the blade,
of a cruel and bitter world
full of ogres like myself
its not always but it cant be cruel.
and as the hearth burns bright
and reflects your sullen stare
this drink will bring you cheer
tear up our gnarled up roots
bring song to our voices
its not beautiful but it is the truth
if you ever were to need
a soul with which to run away
to ride through time on shaft and dray
as we rattle through the night
rest your head on my shoulder
its not fast
but it will not fail.
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4. |
Wooden Headed
04:04
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I don’t want to become an old man with only death on my mind.
I want to be found in contented labour when i am due my time.
and to be free from that ever setting sun.
to close my eyes once and for all and to know my work here is done.
my greatest fear is to be so fearful that I should fall down to the ground
if only i was still like the heavy mountain, with its cloak of thickening cloud
then i could bear my wounds like the stoic angles might.
did it grip onto my lungs or grip my heart?
or was it just a wavering of my mind?
If you'd walk with me across the limestone then ill show you where we mended the walls.
Where the villagers sheep graze up on the common, all they've known since they were born.
And wether your horizons stretch or you choose to keep them close.
you must tell me my lad if behind my eyes,
I just turn into a desperate ghost.
Because I can be proud and wooden headed, sometimes I am a vicious fool,
But if from every day I could take a lesson, then my temper would be still and cool.
And if I cant look each man in the eye with certainty,
I'd surely loose my footing on this climb and lost I would forever be.
I'd never thought of any ending that i might have headed toward
until i found a new beginning and a new life to carry forth.
Fragile it seems each breath might always be,
but sometimes I'd be blessed to be fearing death
because it has no reason to be fearing me.
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5. |
Sung To Sleep
04:20
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There's no space for you here now, no time to wait for anything to grow
because you cant plant seeds on a main road.
We have hands made for labour, we've learnt to live on natures wits
with bodies made of soil and stone,
and we're sung to sleep by the song of a fire that's keeping us strong and warm.
You have no say in the matter, if your in you will pay if your out you pay too.
There's no chance your getting your voice heard.
Whos signature could mean more than their hand shake?
Who can legislate what you see in a mans eye?
They'd take your money before they'd take your word.
because your sung to sleep by the song of a fire that's keeping you strong and warm.
We are honest people cant we pay our way with our time and our craft?
Cant be wasting our time chasing cash.
Before I go, I want for you to know.
I've never made any money but no money's ever made me
because they cant own the air that we breath.
Sung to sleep, by the song of a fire, that's keeping us strong and warm.
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6. |
Lump Hammer
02:31
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There's nothing so pure as to strike something well with a five pound Gilpin lump hammer.
To drive down a stake and to cleave up a stone, shape glowing steel on an anvil.
To shape glowing steel as the anvil she rings, singing like a nest of young buzzard.
She says I've worked here for you in this old drafty house.
Just to keep the damn thing standing.
It takes slaves and ruthless men to build a place like this
and i feel it every time I'm near.
To see what they made with ther tools so close to fists, with pride and glory. And fear.
And though pride and glory has founded you well, I've only seen you growing weaker.
As blood drips across the hunters tongue. When they rest they are deserved sleepers.
Though I could learn so much from you my friend, my gratitude is more than I'll show.
Each time gravel falls from that limestone face, in the dawn I expect it to go.
It'll fall with ever growing speed until it punches itself into the floor.
And all that was below it will be buried deep to be dug up and shifted once more.
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7. |
Oh My Lass
05:37
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Burning orange in the sunset, the Howgills wear a cap of snow, and though the sun beats down the air is crisp and cold.
I have failed a thousand times, but those failures are my own. Its the only way I'll learn, the only way Id ever know.
I see an old factory, in the distance falling down. Just a big black silhouette for the tiny streetlights to dance around.
As I look in your eyes, I become that old glass and shook free from my frame I tumble past the bricks and I smash.
C
Oh my lass
When your tired and poor
from the ground springs your food, lively hood and cure.
Oh my lass
there are worse things for sure,
though this work breaks your back, it is as hard as it is pure.
As the shoots start to rise at the beginning of the spring, there is nothing in your pockets but a few short lengths of binder string.
Ive learnt something every day, from these people and this place. This is my debt to the earth and my attempt to pay.
I see an old factory in the distance falling down. Its the only thing that marks where the grey fell ends and the dusk sky starts.
And when I look in your eyes, I become that old stone. I am ancient and I am derelict before my stories told.
C
Oh my lass
When your tired and poor
from the ground springs your food, lively hood and cure.
Oh my lass
there are worse things for sure,
though this work breaks your back, it is as hard as it is pure.
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8. |
Where Has It Gone?
03:21
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Where has it gone my friend?
that tool from in your hand?
taken by the machine that stole the work of the man.
Where has it gone my friend?
that muscle in your arm?
weakened when you took to the cities from the dales and the farms
C
So i've took to the woods with an old billhook
To hide from the likes of thee.
with your buy buy buy and your sell sell sell
grabbing at power and greed.
and if I was given a coin for every man you stabbed in the back,
I'd be as rich as you because the money you've made,
is honest as the snow is black.
Where has it gone my friend?
Them legs so fast to run?
taken by all the journeys we took riding on a motor engine.
Where has it gone my friend?
your knowing of time?
rushed off our feet by our growing corporation ties.
C
So i've took to the woods with an old billhook
To hide from the likes of thee.
with your buy buy buy and your sell sell sell
grabbing at power and greed.
and if I was given a coin for every man you stabbed in the back,
I'd be as rich as you because the money you've made,
is honest as the snow is black.
Where has it gone my friend?
your vision so keen?
burnt from our eyes by the flashing television screen.
Where has it gone my friend?
that smile from your teeth?
punched out your face by advertisements and broken dreams.
C
So i've took to the woods with an old billhook
To hide from the likes of thee.
with your buy buy buy and your sell sell sell
grabbing at power and greed.
and if I was given a coin for every man you stabbed in the back,
I'd be as rich as you because the money you've made,
is honest as the snow is black.
Where has it gone my friend?
your place on this earth?
where you'd see the seasons pass and the leaves bud and grow and die and curl.
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9. |
Honest and Plenty
04:38
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when you walk this hill most every morning
you see valley cut by a time free from time
no counted stood, amongst this space
no one declared I’m here and this heres mine.
to be not proud of those coveted things
to stand with your loved ones by your side
well was the woman who knew her worth
as she looked into her childrens eyes
Chorus
There they stood, honest and plenty
and there they were fooled
but now they have hardened
through their labour and will rid your trophy of you.
The september air arrived so soon and became my companion
but the romance of autumn married with the moon
will ever follow the summers heat and sun
though they are voiceless and you speak so loud
what could it be worth?
When to hunt for own food and to build your own shelter,
takes not a single word.
C
as the sun sets, slow and unrelenting
on your painted and revered view
on the horizon of your political vision
i see a strong and defiant few
C
here swung the hammer, there ran the plough
these were warriors and brethren of the truth
but with armies of technology you build walls to keep them out
but they have found a crack and they have slipped through
C
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Sam Robinson England, UK
Sam Robinson is a song writer and folk singer from Kendal, Cumbria.
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