1. |
Death of a Heart
05:18
|
|||
Outside
I hear the river raging
The streets are filled with thieves not worth saving
My heart now rides a hearse
The poor thing died of thirst
And now it's raining
Inside
I wish your face forgotten
You're memory from me is barred from top to bottom
I'm searching for a trick
To somehow spin your silk
Into cotton
Bring me a surgeon not a priest
Or this hurt will never cease
Draw the curtain
But there's no such thing as peace
It's war from west to east
And that's for certain
I'm weary
And the road is endless
Broken down, penniless, and friendless
If it wasn't for my doubt
If I found a cowards way out
I'd end this
Shame
And humiliation
And the distance between the tongues of every nation
It's the heart that must be slain
To kill the phantom pain
Of separation
Bring me a surgeon not a priest
Or this hurt will never cease
Draw the curtain
But there's no such thing as peace
It's war from west to east
And that's for certain
Love
Offered no resistance
The sky's alive with gunfire in the distance
The kiss didn't leave a scratch
Tenderness is no match
For deaths persistence
Still
I love you more than ever
I could no more change my heart than change the weather
This head will always need
This heart will always bleed
To be together
Bring me a surgeon not a priest
Or this hurt will never cease
Draw the curtain
But there's no such thing as peace
It's war from west to east
And that's for certain
Outside
I hear the river raging
The streets are filled with thieves not worth saving
My heart now rides a hearse
The poor thing died of thirst
And now it's raining.
|
||||
2. |
Your Gods Won't Tell You
06:48
|
|||
Everyone who breathes here is guilty
He who's blood runs holds a grudge
In this prison nothing gets forgiven
Everyones a witness and a judge
So take care who that you talk to
Choose well who that you serve
Your Gods won't tell you though they aught to
We get the world we deserve
They're taking down the banners midsummer
The snow came early this year
They're hanging heads from the edge of every window
To cure the children of their fear
The hunter looks along his rifle
His moral compass never swerves
The luck of the draw, the fight for survival
We get the world we deserve
There's a riot in the heart of the city
Two tigers born inside a cage
Father and mother, vengeance and mercy
Schizophrenics born of faith and rage
The bars were torn down from the prison
The warden's lost his nerve
And all the inmates cried to the sky
We get the world we deserve
Some believe that all chains should be broken
Some believe that freedom is a curse
While lies are sold and the truth remains unspoken
Hearts are emptied just to fill a purse
There's time enough to serve your endless sentence
To laugh and cry around this endless curve
But know your words are wasted on repentance
We get the world we deserve
There's a fire in the garden of eden
Like a sun it burns through the night
Like Maria who holds back her tears
For the darkness when he turns out the light
So take care who that you talk to
Choose well who that you serve
Your Gods won't tell you though they aught to
We get the world we deserve.
|
||||
3. |
Song of a Prisoner
05:44
|
|||
My name means next to nothing
I was born in north Iraq
Now I wear the name of immigrant
Like a chain around my neck
Born into bad luck
Born with nothing more than this
All I know is cruelty
I feel the teeth behind the kiss
My homeland was a battleground
I barely left alive
Traded all that I have loved
All just to survive
Born into bad luck
Born with nothing more than this
All I know is cruelty
I feel the teeth behind the kiss
I sold the family business
Now my brother isn't here
My father too was a murdered man
And I fled my home in fear
Born into bad luck
Born with nothing more than this
All I know is cruelty
I feel the teeth behind the kiss
I paid the driver all I had
To take me far away
Destination no idea
Just that I would stay
Born into bad luck
Born with nothing more than this
All I know is cruelty
I feel the teeth behind the kiss
I arrived to be arrested
A policeman pulled me free
Told me this is England
Where I had come to be
Born into bad luck
Born with nothing more than this
All I know is cruelty
I feel the teeth behind the kiss
They said I'd be deported
But I begged that I could work
And I found a roof and labour
Picking carrots from the earth
Born into bad luck
Born with nothing more than this
All I know is cruelty
I feel the teeth behind the kiss
I wait to hear my fate
Saving every coin I find
To pay the driver once again
For the one I left behind
Born into bad luck
Born with nothing more than this
All I know is cruelty
I feel the teeth behind the kiss
I've lived life as a prisoner
Of the politics of man
Of people I will never know
Or ever understand
Born into bad luck
Born with nothing more than this
All I know is cruelty
I feel the teeth behind the kiss
I recieved a letter yesterday
To say I had a son
All I feel is pity
As here comes another one
Born into bad luck
Born with nothing more than this
All I know is cruelty
I feel the teeth behind the kiss.
|
||||
4. |
||||
Her mother named her Annie
Her father didn't care
He once bit the lord mayor's son
And threw him down the stairs
Annie had her mothers eyes
And her fathers fangs
There'll never be another like Annie of the elephant gang
Annie saw the poor
Who lived to work and worked to live
Annie saw the rich
Who'd take and never give
She saw the chains of poverty
That ran across the land
There'll never be another like Annie of the elephant gang
In nineteen and fourteen
Annie signed for war
Not to fight in France
But to fight for her front door
When she joined that night on old kent road
All the kings head sang
There'll never be another like Annie of the elephant gang
She went from rags to riches
With stealing as her game
She stole from Oxford Circus
She stole from Park Lane
She had a brain for robbery
And a gamblers slight of hand
There'll never be another like Annie of the elephant gang
Annie hit the headlines
In nineteen seventeen
It read the roughest diamond
The world has ever seen
She liked the way that sounded
She liked the way it rang
Then she was known all over as Diamond of the elephant gang
Diamond was a natural
She soon became the boss
And gave a home to every orphan
The gang would come across
The orphans all had mother
Tattooed on a diamond on their hand
There'll never be a mother like Diamond of the elephant gang
They once arrested Charlie
Diamonds friend for life
She waltzed into the jailhouse
With just a carving knife
No one said a word
As she led him free by the hand
There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang
She said the police think their kings
But they never will see
I make them
As much as they make me
When she handcuffed one inspector
He swore he'd see her hang
But they'll never catch the queen, Diamond of the elephant gang
The men were willing victims
They came from all around
She'd fool them into love
Then steal the ring and gown
She'd leave them at the alter
As the church bell rang
There'll never be a lover like diamond of the elephant gang
The landlords strangled London
They thought they owned the town
But every time they upped the rent
Diamond took it down
She couldn't stand no one
That thought they owned the land
There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang
Some will rob you with a mortgage
Some will rob you with a note
Or rob you of your dignity
Or of your right to vote
But she never hurt no one
Who didn't deserve the back of her hand
There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang
So the rich men got together
Decided diamond had to die
They bought the best assassins
Their money could buy
Diamond always said
She'd leave here with a bang
There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang
They followed Diamond through the fog
Thought they had the upper hand
Little did they know
They'd soon be dead where they stand
There was one assassin less
As the first shot rang
There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang
When the bloody day had ended
All the men were lying dead
Diamond dropped her pistols
And staggered up to bed
There she lay forever
Diamonds in her hands
There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang
Every eye was filled with tears
But no one made a sound
It seemed the whole of London came
To see her in the ground
Everyone just listened
As the orphan sang
There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang.
|
||||
5. |
|
|||
Annalise, Annalise
Did you want it to be
Did you see from the start of
October
Did you plan
With that man
Having kids in Japan
I'll be there if I ever get
Sober
Annalise, Annalise
Do you ever think of me
There's a hole in my chest
Where my heart used to be
I've been up
I've been blue
All thinking of you
Feckless and ship-less
At sea
And when I needed you
You said you're bleeding too
I walk the edge of a blade
But don't dare ask me why
You must lie and die
In the bed you have made
Annalise, Annalise
Did you want it to be
Did you see from the start of
October
Did you plan
With that man
Having kids in Japan
I'll be there if I ever get
Sober.
|
||||
6. |
Black was the Colour
02:58
|
|||
Black was the colour of those endless eyes
Cut from the night of an eastern sky
We counted swallows as they passed us by
Last year
Fortune came and fortune went
I had some luck but the money got spent
I'm going back to where the west wind went
My dear
She found work up in Abberdeen
Trouble found me like I'd never seen
I'm heading off to where I've never been
In fear
And the days run away like wild horses over the hills
And the gifts that you left me are dying on my window sill
Black was the colour of those endless eyes
Cut from the night of an eastern sky
I saw the swallows as they passed me by
This year.
|
||||
7. |
One Man's Land
03:35
|
|||
A soldier says a prayer into his gun
Don't die on me before our job is done
His fingers reach the handle of the door
But theres nothing left to die for anymore
Ruby red sparkles on the sand
As she's rolling loose her golden wedding band
She tastes the colour of her tears
Still married to a stranger after all these years
To live so long
To love so all in vain
She smiles as she steps onto the train
She knows that she'll never need home again
That smile was the last her daddy saw
Now theres no one left to cry for anymore
The priest lifts his hands up to the sky
My God gives me the right to choose who has to die
He kneels and puts his hands against the floor
But theres nothing there to kill for anymore
To live so long
To love so all in vain
I can hear the drumming of the rain
It keeps me from finding that dream again
The nightmares come steady through the door
And theres nothing left to dream for anymore.
|
||||
8. |
Son of a Refugee
05:22
|
|||
On a moonless night
On a dark boat
By a matches light
He wrote a short note
Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free
Not chained to the role of refugee
How the blood was running
From our home town
Every seed was falling
On the hard ground
Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free
Not chained to the role of refugee
Fled one battleground
Found another
Lost my left eye there
And my brother
Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free
Not chained to the role of refugee
We’re just human pawns
In a sick play
But believe my words
When I say
Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free
Not chained to the role of refugee
Seen their fishing nets
Entwined with white bone
Seen the tide turn red
Each wave a gravestone
Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free
Not chained to the role of refugee
Seen some sink before
Seen some make it
If I must stake my life
Then I’ll stake it
Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free
Not chained to the role of refugee
Water rising high
In the stairwell
Ink was fading fast
From his farewell
Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free
Not chained to the role of refugee
On a moonless night
Round about three
Not a thing in sight
On the dark sea.
|
||||
9. |
Winter in Spring
05:34
|
|||
Sunrise on a dead world
Where the wasteland never blooms
Where the hotels are all fully booked
Filled with empty rooms
Where the keys turn slowly in the doors
And no one ever knocks
Where the sundials are too dim to read
And no one winds the clocks
Sunrise on a dead world
Through the grey paper rain
Where the old ones never use them
Where the young ones have no names
Where simple acts of kindness
Go followed by a knife
Where you have to learn to take first
If you wish to keep your life
Sunrise on a dead world
Where prison is the place to be
In there the bars are everywhere
And the drinks are always free
Everyones an inmate
In here or back outside
Born with it all against us
We can say at least we tried
Sunrise on a dead world
Where the children speak in rhyme
Where the judges work the nightshift
Where the hangmen take their time
Some sing of the future
But the songs are all the same
Don't forget tomorrow
Or today is all in vain
Sunrise on a dead world
Where the kings are the ones to blame
They turned the air to ashes
Just to rule the flame
They sold the whole of history
Like so many wasted years
They sold it down the river
Just to buy some souvenirs
Sunrise on a dead world
Our undiscovered home
The crown is for the taking
But who would want the throne
The beggar lifts his head
Still searching for a sign
Just sunrise on a dead world
With nothing left but time.
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Ben Holland, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp