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Here a tower shinning bright
Once stood gleaming in the night
Where now there's just the rubble
In the hole here the paddies and the frogs
Came to gamble on the dogs
Came to gamble on the dogs not long ago
Oh the torn up ticket stubs
From a hundred thousand mugs
Now washed away with dead dreams in the rain
And the car-parks going up
And they're pulling down the pubs
And its just another bloody rainy day
Oh sweet city of my dreams
Of speed and skill and schemes
Like Atlantis you just disappeared from view
And the hare upon the wire
Has been burnt upon your pyre
Like the black dog that once raced
Out from trap two
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Have you ever walked the lonesome hills
And heard the curlews cry
Or seen the raven black as night
Upon a windswept sky
To walk the purple heather
And hear the westwind cry
To know that's where the rapparee must die
Since Cromwell pushed us westward
To live our lowly lives
There's some of us have deemed to fight
From Tipperary mountains high
Noble men with wills of iron
Who are not afraid to die
Who'll fight with gaelic honour held on high
A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell
You who raped our Motherland
I hope you're rotting down in hell
For the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers
Whom you robbed of their birthright
To hell or Connaught may you burn in hell tonight
Of one such man I'd like to speak
A rapparee by name and deed
His family dispossessed and slaughtered
They put a price upon his head
His name is known in song and story
His deeds are legends still
And murdered for blood money
Was young Ned of the hill
You have robbed our homes and fortunes
Even drove us from our land
You tried to break our spirit
But you'll never understand
The love of dear old Ireland
That will forge an iron will
As long as there are gallant men
Like young Ned of the hill
A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell
You who raped our Motherland
I hope you're rotting down in hell
For the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers
Whom you robbed of their birthright
To hell or Connaught may you burn in hell tonight
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I dreamt we were standing
By the banks of the Thames
Where the cold grey waters ripple
In the misty morning light
Held a match to your cigarette
Watched the smoke curl in the mist
Your eyes, blue as the ocean between us
Smiling at me
I awoke so cold and lonely
In a faraway place
The sun fell cold upon my face
The cracks in the ceiling spelt hell
Turned to the wall
Pulled the sheets around my head
Tried to sleep, and dream my way
Back to you again
Count the days
Slowly passing by
Step on a plane
And fly away
I'll see you then
As the dawnbirds sing
On a cold and misty morning
By the Albert Bridge
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Now the party's over
And the money's all gone
You remember feeling like
Jesus' son
Your girl has left your side
And now you're gonna get crucified
They're gonna crucify you
Crucify you
Crucify you
Crucify you
In those old cotton fields back home
Too late to joke or crack a smile
You gotta carry
That shit up that drunken mile
When they put the electrodes
In your brain
Even your Mother won't know you're sane
First Lord Nelson's sunken ships
Now Steve Lillywhite's drunken mix
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Alligators snap at your ankles
And branches snap at your brain
If I ever get through this swamp alive
I'll nevermore pray for rain
This must be the place, and still
Somehow it don't seem right
That something in the moon
Could change these endless days
To lonely nights
I take a stroll down by the sea
And walk along the pier
Then I slip and hit my head
Now's the time to fear
See the surface, see the rocks
See my past fly swiftly by
I feel the water in my lungs
And wake up screaming for my life
In my blue heaven
There's a bottle of Pontchartrain
Chalmette by moonlight
To take away the pain
Card sharks and blue harps
And dolphins who can leap
In my Blue Heaven
Where I can laugh
And I can weep
Black shapes zip into corners
The big lads start to crawl
To holes of their own making
In the cracks within the wall
Snakes and rats and spiders
I know that they're still there
I pray to God that I may sleep
Without a hope, without a care
In my blue heaven
There's a bottle of Pontchartrain
Chalmette by moonlight
To take away the pain
Felines and sea lions
And rain on the beach
In my Blue Heaven
With angels who are out of reach
In my blue heaven
There's a bottle of Pontchartrain
Chalmette by moonlight
To take away the pain
Nightingales sing
And the bells they will ring
In my Blue Heaven
The Bells of Hell
Go ding-a-ling-a-ling
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Christy Brown a clown around town
Now he's a man of renown from Dingle to Down
I type with me toes
Suck stout through me nose
And where it's gonna end
God only knows
Down all the days
The tap-tap-tapping
Of the typewriter pays
The gentle rattling
Of the drays
Down all the days
I have often had to depend upon
The kindness of strangers
But I've never been asked
And I never replied
If I supported Glasgow Rangers
Down all the days
The tap-tap-tapping
Of the typewriter pays
The gentle rattling
Of the drays
Down all the days
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When I was young
I watched the cars
When I was older
I drank in bars
When I was young
I chewed the leaves
When I was older
I drank with thieves
I found a love
She gave me dreams
She left me drunk
In New Orleans
So cold and lonely
So all alone
I wished my heart
Was made of stone
I took the cold bright needle
I used it as a sword
My eyes have seen the glory of
The coming of the Lord
I burned across the delta
I swam across the ford
My eyes have seen the glory of
The coming of the Lord
When I was a young man
Standing on this road
My empty belly
An aching hole
An old man said to me
"Kid don't you know
That it's the same
Wherever you go"
I gambled in two graveyards
I won against the odds
With the smiling saints
And the silent saviours
With the maggots and the gods
I cursed the things they showed me
I could never see again
And the howling of the wind at night
I wrote upon the rain
I found the thing
For which I prayed
And came back home
To the USA
With a heart of stone
And now I know
That it's the same
Wherever you go
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You told me tales of love and glory
Same old sad songs, same old story
The sirens sing no lullaby
And no-one knows but Lorelei
By castles out of fairytales
Timbers shivered where once there sailed
The lovesick men who caught her eye
And no-one knew but Lorelei
River, river have mercy
Take me down to the sea
For if I perish on these rocks
My love no more I'll see
I've thought of you in far-off places
I've puzzled over lipstick traces
So help me God, I will not cry
And then I think of Lorelei
I travel far and wander wide
No photograph of you beside me
Ol' man River's not so shy
And he remembers Lorelei
River, river have mercy
Take me down to the sea
For if I perish on these rocks
My love no more I'll see
If I should float upon this stream
And see you in my madman's dream
I'd sink into your troubled eyes
And none would know 'cept Lorelei
River, river have mercy
Take me down to the sea
For if I perish on these rocks
My love no more I'll see
But if my ship, which sails tomorrow
Should crash against these rocks,
My sorrows I will drown before I die
It's you I'll see, not Lorelei
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The boys from the village were festering sore
For a day on the rant with some music and more
They'd drink porter in Maura's way over in Fore
And never get drunk but stay sober
There was Harry the banjo and Dunne of the swan
With whose bone from the wing he'd beat the bodhran
And the song that he'd sing was of ganders and all
He'd never get drunk but stay sober
There was Woods on the Guitar and auld squeeze box too
Who came from a time before aeroplanes flew
He'd sit in a corner and mule quite a few
And he'd never get drunk but stay sober
There was Mahon the singer who knew all the songs
And never was known to put a foot wrong
He'd sing through the night till the break o' the morn
And he'd never get drunk but stay sober
Then Harry the banjo now there was a man
A bottomless pit if ever there was one
More porter he'd lower that there was in the land
And he'd Never get drunk but stay sober
Well the Gartloney Rats would play away
They'd play for the pints and not for the pay
And the pints they'd go down in the usual way
And they'd never get drunk but stay sober
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I met with Napper Tandy and I shook him by the hand
He said hold me up for chrissake, for i can hardly stand
the most disgraceful journey on which i've ever been
the last time that i traveled on the boat train
i had a couple of drinks in town, a few more in the port
i puked up on the gangway but some kind folks helped me board
they sat me at a table, poured whiskey down my throat
sat me at a table and i lost my watch and coat
First we drank some whiskey
then we had some gin
then we had tequila i think that's what did me in
then we had some brandy and the women had a dance
the steward then announced that we could play the game of chance
we crowded round the table with our money in our hands
i landed on the other side without a penny in my pants
woke up in the toilet when we got to holyhead
the doors were all a-banging and i wished that i was dead
then we went through customs
a couple of credited thugs
first they looked for bombs and guns
then they looked for drugs
stuck a flashlight up my ass
told some Irish jokes
said "fuck off now paddy"
so i headed for the smoke
on the boat train
we got on board the train and then we had a drink or two
started playing poker but the booze ran out at crewe
some people started sleeping, others looked for duty free
some bastard started singing "little cottage by the lee"
he then sang "paper roses," "boolavogue," "eileen aru"
somebody started slagging off the Pakis and the Jews
found a bottle of whiskey
found a bottle of gin
i sat down in the corner and i read the daily news
first i drank the whiskey
then i drank the gin
i tried to make the toilet
but i broke my fucking shin
the next thing that i knew i was in london in the rain
staggering up the platform on the boat train
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The night is dark, the moon is full
Across the blood red plain
Every step and every breath
Brings me nearer home
The spirits watch me on my way
They whisper on the wind
And when the dawn lights up the sky
I'll see my land again
A hot wind blows the scrub and dust
across the barren land
Trees stand bare like skeletons
The mountains all torn down
The water holes are dry as bones
No birds are singing now
And faraway a city stands
Tombstones against the sky
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Across the dark and dusty plain
Where scars of old dry rivers run
Night unfolds, a coal black shroud
Across the hard and stony ground
Distant stars shining bright
In the cavern of the night
All is still and silence screams
To the thunder of the Lorca train
Flaming steal swift as wind
Wires hum the rails ring
Smokestack burning fiery sparks
Rise up to the stars
Towns asleep by empty roads
Churches rise from crooked roofs
Cloaked in darkness nothing stirs
Grow smaller darker disappear
See the moon so still and cold
A million stars that shed no warmth
Your nightmares all come out to play
In the silver light
Wait for sunrise in the east
Long shadows crawl across the plain
The ghosts of night will disappear
And lay your fears to rest
Steam hissed up, the hot coals glowed
The furnace blazed, the wheels they rolled
On tracks of iron, straight and cold
The silver moonlight danced
The flames are in the fireman's eye
Orange in the engines glow
Gleaming pistons whirling cranks
Wait for dawn the rooster's crow
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Ah London you're a lady
Laid out before my eyes
Your heart of gold it pulses
Between your scarred up thighs
Your eyes are full of sadness
Red busses skirt your hem
Your head-dress is a ring of lights
But I would not follow them
Your architects were madmen
Your builders sane but drunk
Among your faded jewels
Shine acid house and punk
You are a scarlet lady
Your streets run red with blood
Oh my darling they have used you
And covered you with mud
It was deep down in your womb my love
I drank my quart of sin
While chinamen played cards and draughts
And knocked back mickey finns
Your piss is like a river
Its scent is beer and gin
Your hell is in the summer
And you blossom in the spring
September is your purgatory
Christmas is your heaven
And when the stinking streets of summer
Are washed away by rain
At the dark end of a lonely street
That's where you lose your pain
'Tis then your eyes light up my love
And sparkle once again
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