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1. |
The Land Of Holy Joy
04:21
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1. THE LAND OF HOLY JOY
Turn north out of the city
No escape from sleaze and scandal in the provinces
Secrets of the whips laid bare
Them gang of men who pray on child in care
The sordid vision of a celebrity sneer
Whose love of hatred is the thrill of fear
I’m living in the land of holy joy / coughing dancing in the lanes
I am conniving through the land of holy joy / toxins coursing through my veins
Turn east out of the town and head for the sea
Watch the sun rise over grey and dirty expanse of water
I’ve got to uphold myself in this eeting world
Keep my head above the drowning swirl
I am picking through the fraudulent bad
For proper people a good time to be had
I’m living in the land of holy joy / coughing dancing in the lanes
I am deriving through the land of holy joy / to find utopia once again
Turn west from the sea and head for the wooded hills
The sun has set, the night is star bidden and still
Oh peace of mind and now begin to see
The man I was and the man I can be
Turn south again: head towards that city
Take on sodium lights that shine without pity
I’m living in the land of holy joy / coughing dancing in the lanes
I am conniving through the land of holy joy / toxins coursing through my veins
I’m living in the land of holy joy / coughing dancing in the lanes
I am deriving through the land of holy joy / to nd utopia once again
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2. |
Isn't That Just The Life
04:00
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ISN’T THAT JUST THE LIFE
The tattoo on my pelvic bone is fading
Fifteen years displayed on the palest skin
A fragile stem topped by a simple blue flower
It has been with me through the darkest of darkening hours
I am gone today but I’ll be here tomorrow,
I’ll trade all of my joy for some of your sorrows,
I’m a sensitive girl but I’m tougher than you,
it has always been this girl who has seen things through,
isn’t that just the life
Suicide mother gave girls spikey acid drink
Children in the street play with brightly coloured looms
We float about in a dream then the war is brought home
McCann troll found dead in a hotel room
I am gone today but I’ll be here tomorrow,
I’ll trade all of my joy for some of your sorrows,
I’m a sensitive girl but I’m tougher than you,
it has always been this girl who has seen things through
Teenager stabbed on bus dies in best friends arms
Disabled work longer hours because they are grateful
Some nights I break I admit I just walk and I cry
But I’m going to change this world before I die
I am gone today but I’ll be here tomorrow, I’ll trade all of my joy for some of your sorrows, I’m a sensitive girl but I’m tougher than you, it has always been this girl who has seen things through
Isn’t that just the life
Isn’t that just the life
Isn’t that just the life
Isn’t that just the life
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3. |
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ALL THE GIRLS ARE WEARING DESERT BOOTS OF PALE AND SUBTLE SHADE
All the girls are wearing desert boots of pale and subtle shade
All the boys I know still work so hard a hope that never fades
All the beggars on the street know the value of what you give
Politicians though they really do know what it is to live
Everyone they’re staring into phones to pass bus rides away
I’m being told I don’t belong I’m clinging on I’m here to stay
And in this slick new world I hold on to that old passionate thought
That life can be more than cruelty property money fashion and sport, fashion and sport, fashion and sport
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4. |
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MEN WHO DISPLAY A DIFFERENT KIND OF PAIN
All his life he’s been in trouble
He had to make that work for him
Not let others use it against him
That’s the way he always thought
They say they haven’t got a chance
Men conditioned like him
Hard men, loud men, tough men
Men out of sorts with place and time
Men who are born to crime
Compelled to the drama and the grime
Men who go against the grain
The only things that make life worth living are the things that kill
Now that makes sense to him
And maybe this city has a heart
Himself he’s never found it
They say they haven’t got a chance
Men conditioned like him
Hard men, loud men, tough men
Men out of sorts with place and time
Men who are born to crime
Compelled to the drama and the grime
Men who go against the grain
I tried going straight
I just couldn’t make it
I saw another chance
I just had to take it
Nearly died a few times
Never had that need to fake it
Something inside of me
Works best when it is fuelled by hatred
He knows he has made mistakes
But now he gives you his word
All those things
The violence, the theft, the deals
They’re true
But they’re in the past
He will give you confessions if you want them
You can go over every murder one by one
To him, that’s not important, not now
But let it go, and watch you run
And how your love will last
The days of mean and blood and ignorance are over
For now
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5. |
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VIOLENT DRUNKEN STRANGERS
Sordid vicious world
Violent drunken strangers
Seedy careworn rooms
Full personal service
Beaten very badly
Shabby cold bus station
Desperate aching hungry
Fear distress angry
There is no real love here
Home is somewhere over there
A memory of a younger day
Passport they have taken away
First you have your name
Battered out of you
Forced out on the game
Beaten black and blue
And then one day you just vanish
Sordid vicious world
Violent drunken strangers
Seedy careworn rooms
I just want to be with my friends
Sordid vicious world
Violent drunken strangers
Seedy careworn rooms
Oh for a smile from someone I know
Oh tonight if I could just go out dancing
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6. |
Discredited Art Form
03:44
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DISCREDITED ART FORM
I had begun working on “Violent Drunken Strangers” in 2013. It was a project that gathered brutal build. These fractured sentences came from various inner city and suburban locations. My last great poem had been on temperature-distressed pylons and neglected motorway service stations, but that was quite abstract and I found myself getting bored. I never finished the project.
The gritty allure of this assignment kept drawing me back. I had to get to the heart of what these people were going through, as artists that is what we must achieve.
The psychic and geographical reference points are blurred. There was no real beginning and I was beginning to think there would never be an end. The work came from need, but it was a need that was distorted by total subjectivity.
My subjects, being what they are, and let’s not mince words, were rather shy of me, but I pushed and I probed and soon I was capturing pure rare moments of raw sensitivity. I was onto something good and soon I would publish. Was it an expression of my state of mind during those, needy wanting off-moments? I got very close to my subject, and maybe I overstepped certain boundaries, but the next thing I knew I had woken up in A and E with both eyes missing.
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7. |
A Good Close Friend
03:54
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A GOOD CLOSE FRIEND
We look for moments of tenderness and humanity
To shine through the dark moments
This never-ending parade they call the news in our lives
I always wanted to just push away, for my spirit just to fly
And now my heart is hollowed out
My soul is knocked about
My dignity has suffered a rout
My dreams destroyed throughout
The damage caused I can’t say
Tomorrow is another day
Hope is on the way
To help those you have hurt and betrayed
We’re going to see what you’re made of then
I guess I beat my wings
Drank wine with knaves and kings
Pushed against constraints
Gambled with fate always playing a game
Oblivious to hurt or harm and all the same
I abused every charm, I lost that game
Now my heart is hollowed out
My soul is knocked about
My dignity has suffered a rout
My dreams destroyed throughout
The damage caused I can’t say
Tomorrow is another day
Hope is on the way
To help those I have hurt and betrayed
We’re going to see what you’re made of then
And all the hurt I caused
Comes a tumbling in at once on top
Louche clouds appear
Cold sores on mouths and hard cruel tears
One day I will bring this stupidity to an end
But right now I need a strong measured drink and a good close friend.
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8. |
A Place Called Home
05:00
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A PLACE CALLED HOME
Cleaner air, spectacular views
At the things down there that happen on the news
Living and lifestyle
Close to the heart of the city
Virus machine, dream so pretty
A place called home
That I can call my own
Where I can be alone
Surrounded by millions of strangers
Creative flexible workspace
Nothing here to worry me
Space to relax, energy efficient
I’m being a part of it
A place called home
That I can call my own
Where I can be alone
Surrounded by millions of strangers
From a native to a hipster I say to you son
Take pride in the things you do and never run
Don’t be casual in what you throw away
You may regret your careless stance some day
And it’s not where you’re going but where you’re from
That matters around these parts
Nothing beats a pure and loving heart
And if you tire of my beery platitudes
I can just as soon switch to some bad attitude
A place called home
That I can call my own
Where I can be alone
Surrounded by millions of strangers
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9. |
I'm Crass Harry
05:50
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I’M CRASS HARRY
I’m an old man
I shouldn’t be here
I’m out of my depth and bones frail
There are four police wrongly arresting me
I hit the large one first
Before I’m brought down to dirt
And they would lock me away
Where I would be forced to stay
But I would always laugh and crack a dirty joke
We’ll see whose spirit gets broke
I’m Crass Harry
I’m waiting in the reception of the practice
They want to measure my blood
They will inform me my diet is wrong
I will tell them I’m not drinking that much
I only saw out the appointment to score some Viagra
The doctor then tells me I have some form of cancer
They would lock me away
I would be forced to stay
I would always laugh and crack a dirty joke
We’ll see whose spirit gets broke
I’m Crass Harry
The woman from the council arrived at my door
She said they were going to relocate me
I would be gone in the morn
I said I wanted to die in the place I’d been born
She said I had no choice
Harry you have not got a voice
And they would lock me away
I would be forced to stay
I would always laugh and crack a joke
We’ll see whose spirit gets broke
I’m Crass Harry
I don’t know where I got the name Crass Harry
I was a punk in them days but I never liked Crass
Was it because I was working class?
That I did not take to the way they portrayed certain things?
I don’t know, I never liked the Cockney Rejects either
I was out there with the likes of Subway Sect
But a bit too obsessed with fighting and sex
To ever make the grade as a true cultural outsider of heightened sensibilities and general cool demeanour
I beat the cancer by the way
How, I couldn’t really say
But I’m living proof of those who live in hope
Whose spirit just won’t get broke
I’ve ended up in a residential support home
Some nice older women in here it must be said
And I’ve still got those thoughts dancing in my head
But though the mind still flies the flesh isn’t able
Still, Saturday night, I feel alright, I feel alright, I feel alright…
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Stereogram Recordings Edinburgh, UK
We are an Edinburgh based record label run by JEREMY THOMS with press and PR by journalist INNES REEKIE.
Artist roster
includes LOUISE McCORKINDALE, CHRIS REEVE,
THE VINTAGE CALVINOS, THE CATHODE RAY, JAMES KING & THE LONEWOLVES, ROY MOLLER, ST.CHRISTOPHER MEDAL, THE FABULOUS ARTISANS, BAND OF HOLY JOY, LOLA IN SLACKS, NEW LEAF, MILTON STAR, THE EASTERN SWELL, STOOR and THOSE UNFORTUNATES
... more
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