1. |
There Are No Strings
02:45
|
|||
There are no strings
We're really flying
If we should falter
We'd really fall
There are no strings
It's what we wanted
So, this is freedom after all
We'd had a plan:
I'd have an office
I'd have a briefcase
And a weekly rail pass
They'd call me "Mister"
And make me coffee
And I'd be happy
Like all the rest
We'd had a plan:
Start with a wedding
Move on to mortgage
And then to babies
We'd had a plan
And then we didn't
And it's that simple
It's that hard
It's hand to mouth
It's heads together
It's prayer and patience
And perseverance
It's on the outside
A little foolish
But on the inside
So very rich
|
||||
2. |
No One Blames the Girl
03:46
|
|||
She packs a suitcase and she leaves him
She takes what's left of her away
She leaves their furniture and promises
The stuff two years accumulates
A girlfriend drives round to collect her
And takes her, wordless, to her room
No on blames the girl
This is the modern world
She'll do much better on her own
The nurses call it termination
Her friends don't talk of it at all
Her parents mustn't hear the story
Her boyfriend won't return her calls
The NHS can keep a secret
But no one really wants to know
No one blames the girl
This is the modern world
She'll have to do it on her own
A social worker has her cases
A doctor lends a listening ear
A preacher tries to know the people
There's troubles legal minds can clear
We plain folk leave it to the experts
They don't disturb our happy homes
No one blames the girls
This is the modern world
They shouldn't think they're on their own
|
||||
3. |
Ashes to Ashes
02:18
|
|||
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
People are made of such natural stuff
Birth is the miracle death is its end
A cycle repeated again and again
Siblings, parents, ancestors
Learning their names and their places because
Family's a gift wrapped in every new birth
But what of the kinship we have with the earth?
Creatures that creep and that swim and that fly
Creatures that love and that talk and that lie
All are embodied and breathe the same air
Essentially, life is the something we share
Villages, townships, cities and states
Modes of community people have shaped
How has it happened we've let them become
A cancerous growth threatening creation?
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
Ready to take all creation at once
Pass me the bottle, I need an escape
Or pass the petition before it's too late
Turn on the TV, I need some peace
Or give me a banner, I'll take to the streets
Visions of power cat their spell and their curse
Now where are the visions of hope for the earth?
|
||||
4. |
Leave the Tree Alone
02:29
|
|||
As long as people have been
Living on this piece of dirt
There've been a few things we should leave alone
Unless we get hurt
Remember Adam and Eve
Living in the garden at peace
The tree looked so nice and sweet
They said "let's have a little piece to eat"
Nobody saying: Leave it
Won't you leave the tree alone
Won't you leave the tree alone
Just leave the tree alone
Remember Babel?
They said,
"Let's build a tower up in the sky
Let us make it tall and let us make it high
We can be like gods you and I"
And so they built it
They built it out of mud and bricks and sticks and stuff
And in the end they found they just didn't have enough
Of what it takes to keep together through the rough stuff
And what about us?
We've got bombs you couldn't fit on a city bus
And the politicians say "Don't worry about it
You can trust us
I don't know why you kids make such a fuss"
But it can burn you
It can take away all your skin
It can rot your body from within
There's just no way you can win with this thing
|
||||
5. |
The Pacific
02:37
|
|||
Let the ocean be water
Let the water be clean
Let the life that swarms in it
Be a trust guaranteed
The Pacific: we live in it
Our home's in the sea
The Pacific: we live in it
Make it nuclear free
Let the islands be places
Where their people can stay
Let their harbours give shelter
On a traveller's way
The Pacific: we live in it
Our home's name means "peace"
The Pacific: we live in it
Make it nuclear free
Take those ships with their cargo
Of a poisonous death
Send them back to the breeders
Of the nuclear pest
The Pacific: we live in it
We will share it, but please
The Pacific: we live in it
Make it nuclear free
And stop that weaponry testing
This is our own back yard
For the gathering of peoples without fear or alarm
The Pacific: we live in it
Let us choose how we'll be
The Pacific: we live in it
Make it nuclear free
We are nations and races
We are family and friends
Our communion is shared
On the tide and the wind
The Pacific: we live in it
Let us choose how we'll be
The Pacific: we live in it
Keep it nuclear free
The Pacific: we live in it
Oceana's our home
The Pacific: we live in it
It's a nuclear free zone
|
||||
6. |
Just Breathing
03:28
|
|||
Just breathing
No reason
Just breathing hard
Saw Steven
His dreaming
Is over at last
Don't worry
It happens
They say that three out of five fall apart
He's leaving
She's screaming
And I'm breathing hard
The houses
They build them
To make a place for two live to cave in
Go nearer
Just listen
The sound of shattering hopes and dreams
The children
They hear it
They're learning love can tear you apart
Me frightened?
Not likely
Just breathing hard
Come hold me
I need to
Touch you to prove to myself that you're real
It's silly
Indulge me
Help me to handle this panic I feel
Some suffer
Some mutter
Some turn away from their love and laugh
But with practise
With patience
We'll keep breathing
|
||||
7. |
In Pieces
02:25
|
|||
I want to say I'm sorry
For all the pain and worry
You know because of knowing me
And my ability to
Give you security
Is not what it once seemed
So here's our life in pieces
Rug puled from underneath us
We, red-eyed, look round for a friend
We, with our dreams in tatters
Our expectations shattered,
Wonder will we dream again
It seems from where we stand
Our journey has no plan
It makes more sense for us to say
It's like a gaming table
Or one of Aesop's fables
Where chance and riddle mark the way
So here's our life in pieces
A jigsaw future greets us
But still we hope it makes a whole
The accidents of living
Bring unexpected meaning
So we can still talk of a call
Someone behind it all
We can still talk of a call
|
||||
8. |
Nothing Missing
03:35
|
|||
There's nothing missing when I'm with you
There's nothing missing here at all
The world's a better place
It takes a different face
The grit become a silky pearl
There's nothing missing when I'm with you
The pieces all fall into place
Your artist's eye and mind
Your healer's hand in mine
I live a life that you create
Look back with no regret
And hope for better yet
There's nothing when I'm with you
You make the day and shape the dream
Love's too small a word
But it's the one I've heard
for nothing missing
Nothing missing
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Andrew Dutney, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp