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1. |
The Butcher's Apron
04:56
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The Butcher’s Apron
Who’re the ones who wash the dishes, clean your tables, clean your toilets, mop your floors?
Who’re the ones who nurse the sick, nurse your aged, wipe their arses, dress their sores?
Who digs canals, digs the railways, digs the coal, the gold, the gardens, farms and more?
Who makes the cold cuts and the hot meals, warms your cold hearts, who’re your rentboys and your whores?
Chorus
Who flies the butcher’s apron? Who walks the trail of tears?
Who’re the ones who drive the wagons, trains and cranes and run the warehouse and the docks?
Who weaves the cloth, spins the yarn, picks the cotton for your sweatshop party frocks?
Who learns to kow-tow, to scrape and bow, receives a pittance along with setbacks and hard knocks
Who makes the cold-calls, runs the hotlines, makes you feel good, fakes their pleasure, sucks your cock?
Who’re the ones who dig the trenches, lay the barbed wire, and hold the line in endless wars?
Who’re the ones who police the empires, get down and dirty when it’s time to settle scores?
Who follows orders, breaches borders, a frontline force for powers corridors?
Who’s lost in action, fills the graveyards, and of course, whose name liveth for evermore?
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2. |
The Irony Monger
03:42
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The Irony Monger
When we’re faking raw games in the name of the people
I’m casting aside my soapbox and me
We’re caring for conscience, creating new crimes
Unlocking the matrix with a new vanity
Chorus
The irony monger gave me the news with a smile
That he lived for the minute, and had done so for a while
Now the name that he gave me has never been one of mine
But I didn’t contradict him ’cos till then we’d been getting on fine
We were casting around for the names of some people
With a hidden agenda and an expression of glee
The bypass of conscience led outside the law
But not till we all are is anyone free
The security-code x-rated detector
Bypassed my eyes and implanted my brain
His personality blueprint cost way out of my league
But my token resistance was always in vain
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3. |
A Pyrrhic Victory
05:38
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A Pyrrhic Victory
Here we have the makings of a brand new play
Some jokers even call it Independence Day
Desperate glory in a brave new world
And a lesser-trodden path with these banners unfurled
There’s nostalgic stories and some national pride
The official line ignores the great divide
We have freedom of speech and we have freedom of the press
While the Eton boys create an Eton mess
Chorus
To me it doesn’t look much like a victory
At least a pyrrhic one as we watch the numbers/comrades/markets/empires fall
Vultures pick once more at the bones of history
And freedom locked up safe behind a wall
Laughing boy whips up a whirl of hate
Toward my brothers and sisters at the southern gate
Feudal structures keep you in your place
As the cannon fodder in a global race
I keep my Brexit ears open with an eye for a lie, we’ll take a tooth for a tooth
There are crocodile tears, Cayman Island prizes, allegations of truth
Call it cold-blooded fear, there’s no pie in sky, no burden of proof
There’s a perfect storm a-coming in a shaky house of cards with an unstable roof
Some boast of the strength of our economy
When we ask them to share they plead poverty
Self-seeking souls in a climate of greed
There’s an error message on your Twitter feed
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4. |
Break My Fall
04:17
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Break my fall
It falls to you now to take this opportunity
In the name of progress based on assumptions of normality
The time and the place independent of your fantasy
The outcome is the same irrespective of the jealousy
The fears and the flaws are counted consequentially
The low-lying fields are flooded full eventually
The quick fix is a fallacy based on old brutality
And you’re just standing there trying to mend a broken wing
You can break the ice; You can break my fall
You can break my stride
But they ain’t never never never never
Never gonna break my heart
A scattergun approach is quite unsatisfactory
While time and the tide ebb on a glory-bound trajectory
The elixir of life is found in close community
The cynics and the seekers only seek to atrophy
Despite all protestations suggesting something to the contrary
Eccentric hit and hope reveals a stark availability
Universal subjectivity contradicts it existentially
And you’re just standing there trying to mend a broken wing
If we allow for no acceptance of even partial inactivity
An idealised rejection of a well-thumbed pro-passivity
Brooking no more imperfection than a penchant for banality
And maybe just a weakness for some fragrant-flowered flattery
The battle lines are drawn out on the limits of barbarity
Your cadence and your rhyme resonate a darker subtlety
Repetition and reflection bring poetry from the prosody
And you’re just standing there trying to mend a broken wing
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5. |
Everything Changes
04:40
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Everything changes
I always swore that I would stand tall even hobbling on one leg
All I can do is ask of you not to make me beg
My desperate pride from deep down inside will grant protection from the rain
This old heart of mine’s too fragile, you’ll find, it would never stand the pain
I can trust you with the good times, the laughter in the sun
I thought that misery would never catch up with me, out here on the run
But I can’t trust you with my truth, I can’t trust you with my heart
I’m heading for the border with a heartache in pursuit, I got a couple of hours headstart
Chorus
Everything changes with a blue-bolt flash and a wistful smile
A jealous heart and a brave-faced front have a certain desperate style
Foundations rock in earthquakes, lifeblood pumps still faster
Walking straight in with my eyes wide open to an uncertain man-made disaster
You put your feet in my shoes, I put my hand in yours
Cogs will turn and fuses will burn all behind closed door
I put my feet in your shoes, you put your hand in mine
The signifier and the signified, I never saw the sign
I put my fate in the capable hands of someone who looks quite like you
I’ll apportion the blame, dodge the comeback the same, some say like I always do
Trepidations tense and a foreboding sense run once more in my veins
As nameless towns slide past my window from a speeding southbound train
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6. |
Multitudes
04:51
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Multitudes (written by Jacopo de Nicola)
Multitudes are working every day to become what they are not
Multitudes struggle every day just holding on to what they’ve got
Multitudes meander a thousand miles chasing after a big dream
Multitudes always end up drowning their own souls deep down in the mainstream
Multitudes love killing one another in the name of stupid gods
A thousand years have gone by and we’re still falling for their pointless fraud
Is there anything we can do stop this cyclic mess?
Is there anything we can do? I’m kind of losing hope here, I might confess
Multitudes are marching to the drums of algorhythmic maths
Multitudes live under constant threat of soulless drones and psychopaths
Multitudes cringe at the mere sight of a cute abused pet
Multitudes don’t bat an eye in front of fellow humans falling falling falling through the net
Multitudes the time is now, let’s all rise up and take a stand
And help the world reclaim its spirit its path to human freedom, liberation and romance
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7. |
Little White Lies
03:40
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Little White Lies
A word to the wise under lowering skies and a knitted fog of proof
See the story-tellers and indulgence sellers offer versions of the truth
Between ancient walls nostalgia falls, serving only to confuse
A penny for the guys in deep disguise …who light the fuse
Chorus
White noise, more hope than expectation
At least I can say that I’ve had my say
In the void, no one can hear you screaming
…We fade to grey
As towers fall some hear the call, the pharaohs fan the flames
The illogical becomes possible, the unspeakable the same
The coral dies as the power lies… through its teeth
Sirens sound as we gather round …beyond belief
In an attic space there’s a painted face, they say it looks like you
If a gilded cage is all the rage, it’s time to push on through
Between mirrored walls Narcissus falls, they say he looks like me
We’re up to our eyes in little white lies …just to be free
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8. |
De Vloek
04:56
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De Vloek
On a cold and bleak horizon there’s a beacon shining bright
Haul away for freedom haul away
The black flag flutters proudly in the Scheveningen night
Haul away for freedom haul away
Haul away, haul away, haul away for freedom, haul away
Haul away, haul away, haul away for freedom, haul away
Intolerant of intolerance and those who seek control
For a vibrant rebel culture to feed the body and the soul
Now there’s cracks in sterile concrete where the seeds of freedom grow
They gentrify but we defy by the North Sea’s ebb and flow
Swashbucklers and soapdodgers pin your colours to the mast
We’ll defend De Vloek and freedom, we’ll defend it to the last
Freebooters and freethinkers, wherever you may roam
Stand in pirate solidarity with our comrades across the foam
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9. |
Standing
03:36
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Standing (Ste Kenwright)
There’s the road, there’s the dust and then there’s me… standing
There’s the desert, there’s the sky and then there’s me… still standing
If I were you I wouldn’t start from here
I’m here; doesn’t matter where I should be
If things had worked out right, home would be near
I’m here; what use is could be?
There’s the wind, there’s the rain and then there’s me… standing
There’s the sleet, there’s the snow and then there’s me… still standing
You must feel terrible, poor soul
I must? Not so loudly!
A thing like will surely take its toll
If you have scars then wear them proudly
There’s the heat, there’s the cold and then there’s me… standing
There’s the day, there’s the night and then there’s me… still standing
Looking back, you must have kicked yourself
Not any more, I’ve had a bruising
I always say, “If you’ve got your health…”
It’s not about the past, what are you choosing
Tree at the roadside bent and black
It isn’t quite looking back
There’s the noise, there’s the silence and then there’s me… standing
There’s the light, there’s the dark and then there’s me… standing
There’s the road, there’s the dust and then there’s me… standing
There’s the wind, there’s the rain and then there’s me… still standing
There’s the sleet there’s the snow and then there’s me… still standing
…Standing
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10. |
Bella Ciao
05:00
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Bella ciao
Una mattina mi son svegliato
O bella ciao, bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao
One early morning as I awakened
I saw those bastards at my front door
O partigiano portami via
O bella ciao, bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao
O freedom fighter, please take me with you
For I will fight and I’m prepared to die
E se io muoio da partigiano
O bella ciao, bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao
If I must die there fighting for freedom
Then you must bury me where I fall
E seppellire lassù in montagna
O bella ciao, bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao
And bury me there, high in the mountains
Beneath the shadow of a beautiful flower
E le genti che passeranno
O bella ciao, bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao
Now all the people who pass before me
They will remark what a beautiful flower
Questo fiore da partigiano
O bella ciao, bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao
It is the flower, the flower of freedom
And I will fight and die so it can bloom
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James Bar Bowen Huddersfield, UK
Acoustic folk punk singer-songwriter with attitude. Award-winning songs to make you laugh, cry and rage.
Original, unusual,
controversial, political, heart-felt, tear-jerking, angry, inspired, humorous, iconoclastic, sentimental, anti-fascist, engaging, intelligent
... more
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