1. |
Well Well Well
03:46
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Well Well Well
It’s like your heart’s done time in jail;
after all these years, you have to let it out on bail.
And if the past goes down the drain,
I put my head in the clouds, and pray for rain.
CHORUS:
Well well well, turn my face up to the lights.
Well well well, hope the days outnumber the nights.
We held hands and we talked the whole night long.
We knew the mood was right, but the time was wrong.
Now the memory won’t let me be,
I’m like a plastic bag that’s caught in a tree.
CHORUS
And I know it’s been a long, long time.
I guess tonight you’re just on my mind.
Think of all the moves you had to choose;
pick the day you win, not the thousand times you lose.
There’s no sense in looking back -
just ask William Shakespeare and Fleetwood Mac.
CHORUS
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2. |
The Road to Fivemiletown
04:18
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The Road to Fivemiletown
She was the youngest of four daughters,
and she married way too fast,
in the days when vows were iron -
and you had to make them last.
But her father was a bruiser,
and he bruised them twice a week.
She couldn’t live the life her mother had,
and turn the other cheek.
So when she turned sixteen, she started counting off the days
- til she could find herself a husband, and finally get away.
He was a farmer with big farmer’s hands,
and she met him at a dance.
She set her sights upon him,
and he never stood a chance.
She thought the price of being choosy
was to live upon the shelf,
and she thought he’d do the job
as well as anybody else.
And when they both stood at the altar, he said he’d never let her down -
he had a farm and forty acres, either side of the road to Fivemiletown.
That first year the river burst its banks,
and half the countryside was drowned.
all the food that he had planted
lay and rotted in the ground.
He’d come home at night exhausted,
and lie dead between the sheets,
and she’d lie all night and listen to
the roaring of the beasts,
and it was dark - as dark as being lost and never found.
You wouldn’t even know your eyes were closed or open on the road to Fivemiletown.
Once upon a time she thought the world
would be hers to wrap her arms around.
Now she makes the bed, and lies back down.
She drew a disappearing heart, when there was no-one else around,
on a steamed-up kitchen window - looking out on the road to Fivemiletown.
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3. |
Exit Wounds
02:52
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Exit Wounds
My friend’s dad had this pistol,
and he kept it in a bedroom drawer.
Now this was life during peacetime,
I don’t even know what he had it for.
It wasn’t even in a holster,
or any kind of presentation box,
it was just… lying in this drawer,
between his underpants and socks.
Well he checked the safety catch,
and he squared up like a man -
and then he told me it was loaded,
and he placed it in my hand.
My friend had seen this all before,
and he sat at the foot of the bed.
He knew when his dad was on the rum & coke,
it would sometimes turn his head.
Now I’d seen a thousand guns on TV,
held by cowboys and detectives -
but this was real, and black and heavy,
and much more serious than expected.
But I pointed at the wardrobe,
and I practised looking grim,
and then I waved it at the curtains -
and gladly gave it back to him.
His wife was absolutely furious,
when she found out what he’d done - I mean,
come on – a grown man and two twelve year olds
in a bedroom with a loaded gun?
She knew better than he did
how teenage minds unfold -
how if you hold a loaded gun, it’s something
you never quite un-hold.
But my friend and me grew up loaded,
with our safeties mostly on,
and it’s strange that now the pistol and
the father are both gone;
and the underpants in the drawer,
even the bedroom we stood in.
The bullets, and the trigger and the firing pin.
And in this country full of exit wounds
and heartaches by the ton –
to this day that’s still the only time
I ever held a gun.
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4. |
The Way Love Goes
03:58
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The Way Love Goes
It starts with a kiss and it ends in tears -
it might take a week, or it could last for years,
and that’s the way love goes.
Hey, that’s the way love goes:
Sometimes it’s a thistle and
sometimes it’s a rose.
You’re lying there thinking about your ex-wife
and you could cry for all the things
you could have done with your life,
and that’s the way love goes.
Hey, that’s the way love goes:
Sometimes it’s a thistle and
sometimes it’s a rose.
(all the lonely people in the world tonight,
all over the world tonight:
All of them wishing on these
distant points of light)
You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without.
It turns your sleeping pattern inside out,
and that’s the way love goes.
Hey, that’s the way love goes:
Sometimes it’s a thistle and
sometimes it’s a rose.
(all the lonely people in the world tonight,
all over the world tonight:
All of them wishing on these
wavering points of light)
You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without.
It turns your sleeping pattern inside out,
and that’s the way love goes.
Hey, that’s the way love goes:
Sometimes it’s a thistle and
sometimes it’s a rose.
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5. |
Boy Struck by Lightning
03:19
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Boy struck by lightning
Driving home through towns
full of broken glass and rusty shopping carts,
I wind my window down,
and the radio fills the car with broken hearts.
And the news tells the story of a kid
in a thunderstorm that rolls out of the blue,
by some factory gate, where nobody waits for you.
CHORUS:
Boy struck by lightning,
lay your hands upon me now;
Boy struck by lightning,
Lay your hands upon me now.
I see him years from now,
with his grandkids hanging on his every word.
‘Everything went POW,’ he says.
‘It was the loudest thing that I have ever heard.’
Here come your fifteen minutes of fame -
make them last your whole life long.
You’re the patron saint of this housing estate from now on.
CHORUS
Because if nothing ever happens in this life,
in these ring roads and dormitory towns,
where you fly your little flag, and the world
wants to tear it down.
CHORUS
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6. |
Sailortown
03:08
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Sailortown
Me and Elaine we’ve been hanging around in what was once Sailortown,
drinking cheap red wine by the light of the Belfast moon,
There’s nobody left here that works at the docks,
it’s all urban renewal and apartment blocks.
Summer is fading, winter will be coming soon.
The walls in the city have a lot to say about the UVF and the IRA.
It’s cold by the river, but the sky is full of stars.
But these walls say nothing about who I am,
when I’m singing in the garden at the Rotterdam,
doing ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ and ‘Whiskey in the Jar’
And I know they’re tearing it down, street by street;
Look out below, there goes the ground beneath your feet…
Elaine’s mother thinks I’m some kind of crook,
she meets me at the door with a dirty look.
My welcome round there is starting to wear thin.
Cause I promised everybody I’d knuckle down,
but my grades weren’t good enough this time round.
All my time runs out in the end.
And I know they’re tearing it down, street by street;
Look out below, there goes the ground beneath your feet…
Me, I can’t wait to be rid of school,
but Elaine’s got a place at Liverpool.
By the time September comes, she’ll be gone.
And she says she’ll text me every day,
but that’s something she feels she has to say.
She’ll call me once at Christmas, and then move on.
Me and Elaine we’ve been hanging around
in what was once Sailortown.
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7. |
An Alphabet
03:30
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An Alphabet
When I hug my father we hold on tight.
If he forgets who I am, well that’s all right -
A is for Alzheimer’s.
B is for books,
C is for coffee.
You ponder your choice and you place your votes -
you get the same old knives at the same old throats.
D is for democracy.
E is for Elvis.
It’s an army based on blood connection,
armed to the teeth with love and affection:
F is for family.
G is for guitars,
H is for hard work.
You type it or you write it, but you get it down -
it’s all there’ll be left when you hit the ground.
I is for ink.
J is for jazz,
K is for kindness.
It’s an investment you just won’t believe:
The more you put in, the more you receive -
L is for love.
When you think you can’t face another day,
they’ll pick you up and carry you all the way:
M is for mothers.
N is for north,
O is for the ocean.
P is for poetry,
Q is for Quebec.
Sunshine, windscreen, rolling fields -
wind and rain, and the way that is feels:
R is for the road.
S is for sugar,
T is for television.
U is for up,
V is for Valentine.
And if W stands for all kinds of weather,
and X is a kiss that you send in a letter,
Y is for yes.
When you enter this life, this is what you bring,
and it’s what you take with you after everything:
Z is for zero.
When I hug my father we hold on tight.
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8. |
Grateful
03:58
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Grateful
You don’t mind drinking, but you hate the coming round -
and you don’t mind flying, but you hate the coming down,
you’re glad to land, anywhere that ain’t too hard.
Your broken heart’s the perfect crime, and you go looking for clues.
But you turn up nothing and it gives you the blues,
and you should know – you catch yourself red-handed every time.
CHORUS:
I know the story of love,
and as for eating humble pie, I’ve had a plateful.
If there’s a light below the door,
you should open it for sure…
And if it’s luck that saves your ass,
just be grateful.
Your friends mean well, but there’s always a price,
you get to pay for all this free advice,
it’s your heart, and nobody knows it more than you.
They get a secret little kick from your hard time –
they like reading the cards on the roadside shrines,
and they say, ‘there but for the Grace of God…’
CHORUS
Stand tall and hold your hand in mine
CHORUS
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9. |
Cousins at Funerals
02:58
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Cousins at Funerals
I’m always meeting my cousins at funerals.
We’re always saying we should get together,
but we never do – we never do.
We’re always swapping our telephone numbers,
sharing memories of childhood summers
forever blue, forever blue.
Someday you know, this is going to be me and you.
Someday you know, this is going to be me and you.
You get married and you move away,
the distance grows a little every day
and you never call, you never call.
You settle down and you raise your kids,
you still dream, but you keep it hid,
and you have a ball – or so you tell them all.
Someday you know, this is going to be me and you.
Someday you know, this is going to be me and you.
You go back when the old folks die,
the rooms are smaller when you walk inside
than you ever knew, than you ever knew.
You shake hands and you say hello,
you look like your dad 20 years ago,
well, so it goes – I guess you never know.
Someday you know, this is going to be me and you.
Someday you know, this is going to be me and you.
I’m always meeting my cousins at funerals,
we’re always saying we should get together,
but we never do.
Oh, we never do.
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10. |
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Conversation with a Hurricane
I never skipped out of school,
or got round out of town.
I never really got drunk,
or screwed around.
I never rode any rails.
I didn't walk the wire.
But like everybody else,
I put my hand in the fire.
CHORUS:
Spirits of the ones who went before,
Throw me down a key to my own front door:
My big plan was all in vain,
Like striking up a conversation with a hurricane.
Well I pulled a little trouble,
and they put me in a cell.
I tied a stone to my prayer
and I threw it down the wishing well.
I try to do my best
as an only son,
cause you can wear out your shoes,
dancing for everyone.
CHORUS
Well I bet you thought I'd have given it up by now.
But I'm too far gone to want to come back,
and I wouldn't if I even knew how.
I never went to the crossroads
to make my name,
but the Devil came and found me
just the same.
Chorus
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11. |
Cathy
03:46
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Cathy
You ended up where your mobile phone
was out of range.
Down in among these hills,
where the light is strange.
Somewhere there’s a meeting
you can re-arrange.
You put your case on the bed,
but you won’t unpack.
Stare at the wardrobe, and it
stares right back.
Sleep won’t heal your broken
heart attack.
Cause you dream of Cathy, lying alone
in the room you painted, years ago.
Everywhere you’ve been becomes
a photograph.
You’re incomplete and she’s
the other half.
She sends the lawyers for
your autograph.
And you dream of Cathy lying alone
in the room you painted, years ago.
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12. |
Miles and Weather
03:10
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Miles and Weather
I've been spending too much time in the car.
Things feel like they're passing me faster than they are,
rolling backwards
in my rearview mirror,
miles and weather.
I've been spending too much time on screens,
without figuring out what much of it really means.
Calculations
of erosion over time
miles and weather.
I've been spending too much time in the wind
and it steals away my words as I begin
a conversation
between distance and love,
miles and weather.
I've been spending too much time without you,
I've been leaning on my luck and I'm overdue.
Saint Christopher:
Put my hands on the wheel,
miles and weather.
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Anthony Toner Belfast, UK
An independent singer songwriter and guitarist, based in Belfast.
Anthony Toner recommends:
Superb songs - always arresting and haunting work, recent album 'Plz stay bb' is his best work yet - and there's more to come.
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A gifted writer, player and producer, Matt's 'Lessons of War' is a fascinating collection of collaborations - but he has a great back catalogue, too - and new songs due soon...
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