1. |
Prologue / Adieu Nancy
04:23
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All you sailors
Out where only planet eyes can see
All you drifters
Sleeping underneath
Hear the mourning bell
Hear the murmured prayers
Of the sleepless
Wrecked upon the land
All you wakers
Restless on your cliffs
Spare a thought for those
Lost in a deeper sea
All the dead kings
And the changelings
With coral bones
And the hopeful children travelling
And not arriving
Adieu sweet lovely Nancy
Ten thousand times adieu
This ship is bound for the rising storm
And I am with her crew
There's nothing to protect us, love
Or keep us from the cold
On the ocean wide
Where we must bide
Like watchful sailors bold
As tinkers, tailors, shoemakers
Are lying fast asleep
We poor souls on the ocean wide
Are ploughing through the deep
I dream of you, I dream of sleep
I dream of being warm
But through the night
I have to sail
To brave this raging storm
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2. |
Underside
04:39
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What should I find
On the edge of the brine
But something I shouldn’t have
The eels glisten and slip through the door
The blackest of casing, leathery pores
Gutting and cutting
Bones in my lap
As I haul in the nets and the traps.
I know you’re waiting on the Underside
On the Underside of the boat
I know I’m going to the Underside
To the Underside, but don’t
Watch me lose my virtue
My fall from grace
Among the mermen and the milkmaids
You’ll be waking up
You’ll coming up
You’ll be swimming up
As they seed the clouds
And it rains down silver
What should I do
In the interlude
Now I’m through the door
The underbelly of the cloud
A sickly marble shroud
You’ll find no answers in this drugged up fishing town
A beastly bird weaves
Between the web
As I haul in the traps and the nets
I know you’re waiting on the Underside
On the Underside of the boat
I know I’m going to the Underside
To the Underside, but don’t
Watch me lose my virtue
My fall from grace
Among the mermen and the milkmaids
You’ll be waking up
You’ll coming up
You’ll be swimming up
As they seed the clouds
And it rains down silver
Oil in the eyes
Of the flounder as it dies
But it comes alive
On the Underside
It will come alive
On the Underside.
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3. |
Little Boat
03:49
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Tim built himself a little boat
And pushed off from the shore afloat
Upon the darkest lake he knew
So dark it wasn’t really blue.
The rustling reeds soon took his oars
And scheming magpies stole his stores
And all his matches got so damp
He couldn’t even light a lamp to read.
But still he carried on, he tried
To use his hands against the tide
But wind and water pushed him out
Spat straight from the river’s mouth into the sea.
And then the sky grew dark and loud
The thunder roared and four winds howled
Then lightening cracked the shell of sky
And Tim cried out ‘I’m going to die.’
But still he held the rudder fast
To make his final moments last
And after days the storm was done
But Tim still couldn’t see the sun behind the clouds.
So Tim’s still on his little boat
Trying hard to stay afloat.
It seems quite like a saddening joke
Except he’s just like you and me
Lost upon the blackest sea.
Don’t you wish you had his bravery?
So pour yourself a glass
And drink to Tim.
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4. |
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Johnny, bring in the rigging
Fold down the wings of the sail
The ropes that burn
Won't turn the stern
Adrift on the water pale.
Johnny, bring in the rigging
Fold down the wings of the sail
The wind is still
Do what we will
Adrift on the water pale.
Johnny, bring in the rigging
Fold down the wings of the sail
You'll only weep
You'll never sleep
Adrift on the water deep.
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5. |
Never Know Sleep
05:30
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In my sleep I am not alone
I see a sailor, drifting far from home
He wraps his arms around his knees
Begins to charm the demons of the sea
And when the tide is low
And the hull rocks and moans
With the longing of a hundred men
And the murmur of the ocean's intent
He cries:
Something moves beneath the waves
And they say:
Why don't you look away
Just look away
For once you've looked beneath the waves
You'll never know sleep again
My sailor is a dreamer
Though he knows not what he's dreaming for
Inborn barreleye pushing through the water
Begin to flood my bedroom floor
And when the tide is high
And my head won't rest or lie
For the terror or a web that bends
And a wager of romance ill-spent
I cry:
Something moves beneath the waves
And they say:
Why don't you look away
Just look away
For once you've looked beneath the waves
You'll never know sleep again
For once you've seen how the web can break
Once you've peered through the cracks of fate
Once you've looked beneath the waves
You'll never know sleep
I'll never know sleep
We'll never know sleep again.
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6. |
The Tower
03:36
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Along the river
On the brightest of mornings
To the cathedral
Up to the tower
Where the bells beat time
Where the ghosts keep time
Where my soul wakes now
For the breakout.
Tell me you love me
Tell me you’ll keep me
Safe from the ravaging, scavenging
Hands of the clock.
Tell me a story
Of old-fashioned glory
Keep me awake
With tales of escape
Light up my mind
With poems that blind me
To numbers and hungers
And time.
- Never, never go
Never, never
No!
Never, never go
Where the ghosts keep time
That’s where you’ll meet time
And you cannot beat time -
And when I am tired
When we’ve admired
All of these statues
And plaques to
Our heroes
When you are thinking
That I am sleeping
In fact I’ll be creeping
Back to the tower
Where my soul waits now
For the breakout
For the fire.
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7. |
The Moon and the Waves
03:42
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Twenty years I was stuck
At the stern of The Tub
And I had the best of the three
And the witch in the water was casting a spell
And casting an eye over me.
I was wrinkled and new
Like a freshly born child
I was wrinkled and old
Like a sage
I was listening to waves
On my radio set
And taking a fisherman’s wage.
And I didn’t know better
I didn’t know how
I hadn’t a thread I could pull
So I closed all the shutters
To shut out the moon
And raged through the house like a bull.
Another long day
For my fisherman’s wage
I pulled up my catch in the sun
And I spoke to a fish
That turned silver and spat
Out the secrets of many an age
So I put away hooks
And I put away nets
And I bevelled the sand with a stick
While I thought of the moon
And the witch in the waves
And the luck of the cursed and the sick.
The three fates align
On your palm when you’re born
At least that’s what happened to me
And I sailed on the sea and I reeled in a dream
Oh I had the best of the three
And I went far inland and I shut myself in
But I still hear the old whispering:
The Moon and the Waves.
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8. |
My Love Went to Sea
03:18
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My love went to sea
A deep sea diver was he
And I followed on the brine
Built a vessel of twigs and twine.
I floated on my raft
But I couldn’t get down to his depth
I sang o’er the edge of my craft
But I couldn’t get down to his depth.
I listened for the sonar call
That would tell me where he lies
And I sent my song down through the salt
So crystalline.
Yes, I floated on my raft
But I couldn’t get down to his depth
I sang o’er the edge of my craft
But I couldn’t get down to his depth.
My love is there
Where the barreleye stare
And the coral wastelands wave
But me, I’ll sing o’er the edge of my craft
For all my living days.
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9. |
Travelling Circus
03:59
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Watch the bluebottle fly
With your myopic eye
While the ringmaster practices
Leading the elephants by.
As you try to sleep
The camp keeps moving east
To face another daybreak
To make another girl fake
Her disappearance in the magic box.
And the big top leaks
And the wagon wheels creak
And the circus keeps travelling.
And the acrobat twists his tethered wrists
But the rope’s not slackening.
The dancing bear looks with despair
As the fiddler plays
And the trapeze sways
And the people shout
And the master spouts his spiel.
And the big top leaks
And the wagon wheels creak
And the circus keeps travelling.
And the lady peers
At her greying beard
How can this be happening?
So they lead you out
For another bout
And they prod and poke
And they tug your coat
And their faces
Like pebbles on the beach
Utter their unanswerable speech.
And the big top leaks
And the wagon wheels creak
And the circus keeps travelling.
And the fortune’s told
But the truth’s been sold
And the road’s unravelling.
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10. |
Weathering
03:45
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Peggy Jones found a lump of coal
Exchanged it for a glass of gin.
She paddled past a Roman coin
Her eyes just couldn’t see the shine.
No one knows when she disappeared
Nobody knows where she went.
Maybe she drowned in the mud
When the tide was low
Or maybe she drowned in the bottle.
This is the life we are weathering
This is the game you can never win.
How many souls turn to the mercy of the mother?
She brought them all here
She’ll take them all away
All of these fragments that survive us
These ruins are the pens that will write us:
The pipes and the buckles
The bones and the blood
The wipes and the bottles
The phones on the flood
The rings and the rope
The beads and the boats
The things that we broke
Held in the hand of the widowed mud.
This is the life we are weathering
This is the game you can never win.
Gone, like the trail that a ship has sailed.
Follow the river - does it make you shiver
To know she was here, as you are here?
And you’ll disappear.
This is the life we are weathering
This is the game you can never win.
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11. |
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It happens first
When the clocks invert
And the hushing of night
Pulls stars over my sight.
But I can't rest
As the lighthouse goes red
Searching for a body
But I can't feel my body.
And so, I'll walk down to the coast
And in the fairy tales
In the fables
I'll be declared unstable
And I know I am long gone
Hovering over
The corpse of Dover.
No bluebirds in sight.
Something blows
Beneath my window
The circus left town
But forgot to sweep the ground.
And I can't see
How my mariner loves me
But I'll stay awake
Always awake.
And so, I'll walk down to the coast
And in the fairy tales
In the fables
I'll be declared unstable
And I know I am long gone
Hovering over
The corpse of Dover.
No bluebirds in sight.
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Life is but a dream
Or so it seems.
And so, I'll walk down to the coast
And in the fairy tales
In the fables
I'll be declared unstable
And I know I am long gone
Hovering over
The corpse of Dover.
No bluebirds in sight.
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