1. |
The Bee
04:00
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The bee moves on light
From flower to flower
When will he stop?
In an hour?
What moves the bee
From here to there?
Doubts? Sadness? Happiness?
Desire? Despair?
What sort of hunger
Or Instinct burns?
What sort of timing?
What sort of turn?
I’ll never know
What thinks the bee.
I wear my clothes,
I drink my tea;
I have a hunger
That spurs me on.
Goads me, chafes me,
Comes at dawn.
What sort of hunger
Or Instinct burns?
What sort of timing?
What sort of turn?
“Oh,” sings the bee.
“Where is my honey?”
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2. |
Beardy Boy
02:57
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Beardy Boy
Well I go to the village and I go to the town
And all those kids run around.
I go to the farm and I clean out the barn
And all those kids run around…
I go downtown to check out the sound
And all the kids run around…
Kids run around kids run around
Kids run around kids run around
Chorus:
It’s always raining on the angel’s hair
It’s always snowing when the peach blossoms are bare
It’s always sunny at the break of dawn
It is always dark when the lights go on
O Beardy Boy! O Beardy Boy!
He was a goat on a spree
An undisplined mind caught up in a tree
Unruly hubbub adrift on the sea
Beardy Boy come back to me!
Well everywhere I go the show is set up
To give some kids a laugh
Got a crazy hair doo or a new pair of shoes
Or bubbles for the bath.
Got a new tattoo and a nipple ring too
And a car that goes too fast
Get a karaoke Joe, two pennies for a show
All to give some kids a laugh.
Chorus:
I’ve been through the fires of youth to say
That hollow fortunes await.
A temporary palace of crimson and blue
Torn down in a day: built up in two!
The difficulty lies in finding desire.
A palace worth building that won’t catch on fire
A palace that builds itself day after day.
A palace that crumbles but comes back to say…
O Beardy Boy! O Beardy Boy!
He was a goat on a spree
An undisplined mind caught up in a tree
Unruly hubbub adrift on the sea
Beardy Boy come back to me!
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3. |
Peaceful and Quiet
03:57
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Oh you wretched thing I’d die for you.
Oh, you wonderous thing I’d laugh and cry for you…
Borne on the wind like a tethered balloon
Oh I would sing my praise to you.
Oh, you wrestless thing you’ll never know
How high the heights, how far the cold winds blow.
Never ending, always moving, shadows sway beyond
The lovely end to a perfect day.
I almost can’t bear
All the things I’ve forgotten.
Lining up down the street
With all that’s gone rotten.
I’m hoping to make
A discovery there;
I haven’t forgotten
All the things I can’t bear.
Peaceful and quiet we sleep thro’ the night,
All day a riot of colour so bright.
They asked us to try it; they asked so polite.
You can’t deny it they asked for a fight!
You stop here and turn!
You stop here and burn!
You stop here and turn!
You stop here and burn!
Every broken man and every woman on the wagon;
All the faded mini vans and all the bungalows;
Wave good by to every good idea
That’s drifted slowly out to sea…
Jawbone of a man!
Grinding toil grinding rubble!
Jawbone of a man!
Toil and trouble! Grinding rubble!
Jawbone of a man!
Grinding toil grinding rubble!
Jawbone of a man!
Toil and trouble! Grinding rubble!
I almost can’t bear
All the things I’ve forgotten.
Lining up down the street
With all that’s gone rotten.
I’m hoping to make
A discovery there;
I haven’t forgotten
All the things I can’t bear.
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4. |
Black Hammer
02:26
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When they walk across the park
In unlikely coloured skirts
Like an orange tambourine
Or a mango desert
When he walks up the street
With a gait like his dad’s
In a little black hat
That makes him look mad
When I go to Paris,
I see the light.
Turn around baby!
Turn up the night!
Sour puss man
Gravy boat baby
Get me a coffee!
Get me a lady!
Black Hammers Ring!
Black Hammers Sing!
Over the noise and over the din,
Black hammers ring and black hammers sing!
When she comes around the corner
In persimmon and grey
I nod at her dog and her
Dog turns away
A certain breed of animal
A certain type of thing
Shows me the weather
And tides to bring
Call up Esther
Call up the queen
Where are the husbands
Where have they been?
Sour puss man
Gravy boat baby
Get me a coffee
Get me a lady!
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5. |
Dry and Bony
04:38
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Dry and bony, dry and bony
Everything’s hard, everything’s stony
Drop me a line, bring me a pony
Ride to the ridge where it’s chalk on stone
Ride to the ridge where I’m all alone
In the night when all brims up and over
In the stillness and the tumbling darkness
All regrets are fair play
All the horrors come my way.
Oh, it’s really not so bad,
It’s just a bad dream I had.
I hope it never comes again
I hope it never comes again
We were filing in and lining up
To take a sip from Mammon’s cup
I was even there on time
But I couldn’t find the line
They divided up the room
But they never got around to me or you.
When the bees are grazing in the clover
Sending messages of love and delight,
All the good things are mine
All my troubles are at bay.
When I’m feeling in the pink
I leave my troubles by the door.
I hope they never come again
I hope they never come again
That fat singer was a real hum dinger
He brought home the notes that he thought he could bring her
He sat on a bee and got stung by a stinger
When he finished up he was a dead fat singer
They divided up the room
But they never got around to me or you.
Dry and bony, dry and bony
Everything’s hard, everything’s stony
Drop me a line, bring me a pony
Ride to the ridge where it’s chalk on stone
Ride to the ridge where I’m all alone
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6. |
Glory
05:02
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Glory
She walked down
And Glory was her name
Blown by ghosts
And torn bits of flame
Lost under starry sky
Worn out by and by
Glory was her name
And she flew high
Shiny pearls
Were her trademark and desire
Tiny gems
They were made from mud and fire
Born on the winds of change
No way for us to tame
The Glory in her name
As she flew high
Chorus
Over there
Where she laid her body down
You can still see
The mark of her gown
Never one for fashion
She was boiling with compassion
And she never did
Recover from the glare
She went to the ocean
And she met the water there
She became the sea
And the salt became her hair
Gone to the ocean
Gone to wrestle with devotion
Gone to drink a cup
Of poison and despair
Cruel stares
Were her companions til the end
The needle and the bottle
They were her only friend
Gone to the ocean
Gone to wrestle with devotion
Gone to drink a cup
Of poison and despair
She walked down
And Glory was her name
Blown by ghosts
And torn bits of flame
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7. |
If I Believed
03:16
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If I Believed
If I believed I’d shed a tear for you
If I believed I’d lift the walls and banish fear
If I believed I’d tie a ribbon ‘round that tree
If I believed I’d call my children home to me
If I believed I’d put another in my place
If I believed I’d lift the walls and fall from grace
If I believed I’d wander sleepless in the desert
And make a list of all the wrongs they’ve done to me
I’ve packed my bags I’m drifting out to sea
What the waiting current has for me
How convenient it would be to believe
How convenient it would be if I believed
If I believed I would go home
If I believed I’d have a home to go home to
If I believed I’d count my blessings
If I believed I’d make a sacrifice
If I believed I’d hear a baby cry
If I believed I’d shed a tear behind my eye…
If I believed I’d sing a song, I’d sing it long
And there’s a good chance that I would get it wrong.
I’ve packed my bags I’m drifting out to sea
What the waiting current has for me
How convenient it would be to believe
How convenient it would be if I believed
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8. |
Will You Wander
04:13
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Will You Wander?
Chorus:
Will you wander
Lightly through the air?
Finding who you may
Traipsing without care;
Never coming home
In winter, summer, spring or fall;
Will you never walk the dog again
Or will you ever call?
My first place
Was an awful place to crash
We’d sleep out upon the roof
And we’d get covered in ash.
Plenty of redemption at the junction.
The crossroads of your life are burning there.
An ugly pile of bricks where no one ever stopped to think
What they were doing there or how they would return.
Chorus:
I traveled here and there
Never getting very far
I traveled to the edge and
Then I went to Montreal
Why was everything so grey?
Everywhere I went the rooms were cold!
The money was spent
A bathtub full of me
A ticket to Prince Rupert
Was sitting on my knee
There was a gypsy at the bar
With a big mustache
He said not to trust him
With any kind of cash
What could he know
He was just a living there
He had a nice place
At the top of the stairs
(An ugly pile of bricks where no one
Ever stopped to think what they were
Doing there or how they would return…)
My second place was a little barge
On the bay, living large
Floating on the sea,
Working in a bar;
Digging clams and oysters
Finding who we are.
I went over
To the cove across the harbour
I tried to find the wire
That they were living under
I came upon a fellow
Who had torn himself asunder
I sat down upon the rock
That he was living under.
He’s in the deep
His soul to keep
His mother never weeps
And father never knew.
He had come from Sudbury
Many summers long ago
Fishing first, then drinking
Had kept him on his own
Then some trouble came to town
And took him down below…
He’s in the deep
His soul to keep
His mother never weeps
And father never knew.
Chorus:
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9. |
The Bells
04:33
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The Bells
The bells ring
In the village square, that’s where
My love confessed to me
That she was once a he, oh-
The bells ring
Sanctified and holy sounds
As lovers cross the square
The forbidden’s now laid bare, oh-
The bells...the bells...the bells!
The bells ring
Chiming out so desperately
Tribunale, court sauvage
Tristesse, joie sera mélange, oh-
The bells ring
De nous personne ne saura
Dans ses yeux, suave a lui
-ou est il elle?
C’est quoi, depuis...oh,
The bells...the bells...the bells!
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10. |
1981
03:50
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1981
I remember nine teen eighty one.
You were selling records one by one
The ocean was so far away
But all my thoughts went
Back to you that day
In your flat above the record store
You had saved up memories from before
Hidden from the light of day
You brought your memories out to play
Like records from the record store below
Chorus:
And we would dance
On the ceiling of the record store!
Everything was upside down;
The floor would shake! We’d yell for more!
The floor of your apartment
Was the ceiling of the record store…
And we would dance…
I was looking for another kind of music
Something that would take me far away
You came out from behind the counter
And said “I’ll take you far away. Far away.”
I remember nine teen eighty one
Love had gone and so had all the fun
The ocean was so far away
But all my thoughts went
Back to you that day
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11. |
Wasteland
02:57
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Wasteland
I was on in years when I met a man
Who claimed he didn’t have a name
He remembered the day that he went away
And he knew that he’d never be the same
He told me to watch for the horses
I nodded and glanced at the ground
He saw that I didn’t quite follow
And he filled up the air with his sound
He sang: “Shall we stand on the border
“And talk about the things we saw there?
“That’s a mighty tall order;
“That’s going to give the kids a scare.”
I stood there by the salty sea
And watched the horses panic
I couldn’t believe they had come for me
They couldn’t believe I could stand it.
All around was a wasteland
A place where devils went for tea
Ghostly apparitions made of gold and steel
Fought hard to make themselves believed
There was a strange smell of fire and fury
And a choking dust was in the air
A strong man or woman could endure it
The rest of us were held on the air
Is this my time?
Is this Jerusalem?
Are you my wine?
I will give you everything.
Believers become prisoners in this place
Many lives are lost and laid to waste
Very few return and when they do
They speak softly and have no name
At the edge of this place is an ocean
A sea made of salt and desire
I was trapped in the jaws of devotion
When ten thousand wild horses caught fire
I stood there by the salty sea
And watched the horses panic
I couldn’t believe they had come for me
They couldn’t believe I could stand it.
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12. |
With These Lips
03:25
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With These Lips
If you were a long and lonely story
And this was a long and happy life
If I were a long and lonely highway
Would we ride? Would we ride?
If you were a rolling field of grey and green
And I were all the sweet vermillion in between
Would this song be the colour of the morning?
Would it be? Would it be?
With these lips will I kiss you
And smile for my eyes are your eyes
And your lips they tell me that
This is true
With these lips will I kiss you
And smile for my eyes are your eyes
And your lips they tell me the truth
Paint me the portrait of an angel
The canvas is these rolling amber hills
The earth meets the sky
In my true love’s eye…
If we were to watch the water rolling by
Passing under shade of autumn light
Would we still see the colours of the morning?
Would we see? Would we see?
If all our dreams simply unfolded
Blossoming without a shade of doubt
Would we still be lovers in the evening?
Would we be? Would we be?
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13. |
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If I could say I love you…
If I could say I love you
Like a cloud swept day in June
I would I would
If I could sing a sweet goodbye in a lovely worn out tune; I would I would.
Chorus:
I can not say I love you
Because I don’t know how to croon
I’m lost inside the gloom
Like Lazarus How sad but true
Have you ever locked your heart away
In a secret on the moon?
I have I have
Have you ever not seen a flower at the crystal of it’s bloom? I have. I have.
Did you ever have this quandary
Or is it only me?
Did you? Did you?
Did you ever waste your life away
Like a ship wrecked stow away
Did you? Did you?
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