1. |
DOG
02:58
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DOG
I took the dog today
What an animal
He was nervous on the ferry
As we bumped across the drunken waves
He was glad to be ashore
When we crossed the dock
He was bold up the hill
And along the rock
He was flying through and through the pines
The needles were keeping him up
He was looking back at me from time to time
And wishing me good luck
I was always smiling
Apart from that moment
When I turned and faced the cliff and the sea and the mist on the far headland
And I thought of you and the path we took
How I followed you there
And you followed me here
Lying all the way
And I wished you home safe and sound
And you got there however you did
And I got here
with the dog
And his guts and his heart and my love gone apart and
he got here with me
and he is strong and kind
and he knows my name
do you remember a time
when you knew the same?
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2. |
Sam and Adam's Blues
04:01
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SAM AND ADAM'S BLUES
You put an old man’s eyes
In a young man’s body
Scars across his chest
He never shows anybody
You get all the trust beaten right out of you
You put it on the road
So people come and stare at you
This is how you get here from there
This is how you get here
Ain’t no going back there
This is how you get here from there
You never write a song looking for any money
But god knows we could use a little bit honey?
We took all of our vanity
Left it somewhere south of Granity
And let the wild west coast roar
Crush it on the shore
And we were never quite quick enough
Never quite slick enough
And we were never quite young enough
Never quite dumb enough
We parked the van somewhere between
And we were never quite good enough
Never quite bad enough
But think of all the things we’ve seen
This is how you get here from there
This is how you get here
Ain’t no going back there
This is how you get here from there
Think I’m sitting this one out this year
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3. |
Air Jordans
05:13
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AIR JORDANS
Getting pissed
Running free, Iron Maiden and Eazy E
Stolen ten speed and Bmx free we run run run
You got the Addidas torsions
I stole the Air Jordans
and together we run run run
You joined the white power
Jay joined the black power
but to me you were both brothers
you stood in is lounge and you called him a *******
you say "How the hell am I still living?
he should've killed me,
but he let me go"
sometimes friendship just goes a little slow
and now we put that back in the day all is forgiven
its hard to see the colours when you’re standing with ‘em
Now you got two girls and a partner
Backyard around the fire, laughter
Take it easy, smoke a little weed,
Not a bad life for a bad seed
Keep your pride in your friends and your Fords
Tell me brother ain’t that just what livings for?
My mother died two weeks ago
You boys all said she helped you grow
Of that she would've been proud
I sing her praises every city I go
I sing yours too you know
I sing 'em out I sing em loud
I escaped the factory and the prison cell
But I never escaped the bars
But I just keep the windows low and give em hell
And keep on driving past all them parking cars
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4. |
C-City Street Kid
04:43
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C-CITY STREET KID
We both catch the same bus
The city blue line
You with your red hair
And me with mine
You on the left seat me on the right
If I could have spoken back there
I might’ve said it’d be alright
But this trip it’s a long one
But it’s all that we have
It was so good to see you
And not see that bag
You used to keep hidden
In your blue jackets sleeve
Now that I see you
It’s so hard to believe
That after all these years
We’d still be right here
You with your red hair
And your eyes so clear
And I think of your baby
And where she is now
And I think of your friends
And how they made out
But regardless
I’m glad of this
Long bus ride
to see you still here
to see you survived
And maybe I’ll see you
In the time further down
Just you and me baby
Riding on through the town
Two old relics of a time that never was
Just two riders, because just because
Two old friends, travelling street after street
Just two kids, going beat after beat
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5. |
L.A. To Linwood
05:11
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L.A. TO LINWOOD
She’s running after a four year old
In a Lakers top
L.A. to Linwood in four bus stops
She’s marking out a path
From the library to the Warehouse to Winz
Running head first
To where her life begins
She’s singing a song
All to herself
words are for her and nobody else
“when times get hard, all ya gotta say
all we gotta remember all we got is
day after yesterday”
She’s having a one sided conversation
little one yells out destinations
She’s speaking to his father in her head
“I wish I could have said to you,
before you walked out on me,
we all get so much older
than what we hoped we’d be”
She closes her eyes
and clenches her fists
She gets so tired all this bullshit
But then she gets a kiss right above her eye
“Wake up mum, we’re almost there”
“Ok little man let’s get one thing between us clear
we’re in this thing together
knuckles up no fear?”
Through the window of a red bus
on Linwood avenue
and the color of a green light
things can look brand new
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6. |
Splitters Woe
03:50
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SPLITTERS WOE
I got the splitters woe
Oh where to go?
The passing of the rain becoming part the sea
The turning of the days in anger against me
I try to empty out my longing, let the air come rushing in
A man is simply nothing until he’s gone or given in
I’ll love you forever
And forever’s just today
If that’s what makes it easier then that’s just what I’ll say
I’ve failed in my learning, I have let you down
I make my axe a hammer I refuse to put it down
We can make a circle the circle makes a wheel
The whole thing goes on forever that’s the nature of the deal
I have no understanding, understandings not for me
The sun it goes on burning the wheel is made for turning
Lift my hand
above my brow
shade my eyes
so I can see
like a soldier
salute and rise
it’s the dying life for me
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7. |
Even When It Isn't
03:26
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EVEN WHEN IT ISN'T
Do you remember me?
Like I remember you?
Are you forgetting things?
Like I’m supposed to?
Are you doing fine?
I hope you are
I can still hear you singing
With me at the bar
I wanna say your name but I can’t bear it
cause you’re too far, too far to hear it
but its ok its better just to listen
I say its ok even when it isn’t
Did you find another?
Was he a better man than me?
It wouldn’t be hard to believe
It wouldn’t be hard to see
I tell you though I did my best
Even when I did my worst
I guess I’m as equally blessed
As I’m forever cursed
But being ok it’s a relative thing
But Isn’t that something I’d say
In a song I’d sing
If you went away
But then you went away
I guess it’ll be ok
Even when it isn’t
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8. |
Flies of Cloncurry
04:32
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FLIES OF CLONCURRY
Jimmy Apollo
told his offsider Frank
“If I make it through today
It’ll be you I thank”
but Frank with his bleached blonde black hair
said “Jimmy I know it’s you who got us here”
and frank with his shoes two sizes two large
said “Jimmy I know it’s you who’s always been in charge
but I reckon
if you hang on for nine whole seconds
then I’ll know
we’ll be good to go
we’ll say goodbye
won’t have to worry
the dust will part and clear
we’ll wave our fingers in the air
to the flies
of Cloncurry”
Well Ibrahim Rasheed
an Iraqi refugee
found himself at 12
in the north country
the land with its dry heat he knew so well
but here old age here did the killing not like that other hell
and them sandy haired boys
with their American names
when he rode he wasn’t the same
they put him on that lean cruel wrecking machine
one ton of bad, one ton of him mean
But Ibrahim would ride him like they’d never seen
But he reckons
If he hangs on for 9 whole seconds
then he’ll know
he’ll be good to go
he’ll say goodbye
won’t have to worry
the dust will part and clear
he’ll wave his finger in the air
to the flies
of Cloncurry”
Fury Mihaka
Came from Papanui
With his back pack and his fists
but 17 years later
with a 13-30 record
he found that this was all there is
punching drunks in these outback towns
rope on the ground
Three one minute rounds,
But at night when he’s drinking with his friends
He says “It’ll be ok if this is how it ends”
But he reckons
if he hangs on for ninety seconds
then he’ll know
he’ll be good to go
he’ll say goodbye
won’t have to worry
the dust will part and clear
he’ll wave his finger in the air
to the flies
of Cloncurry”
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9. |
The Great Society
05:06
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THE GREAT SOCIETY
I came south for the mental health
Of my best friend Connor Grey
We’d been friends since we were ten
So when he asked what could I say
I was spraying boats like my father did
till the poison in the paint it wrecked my skin
In the same cruel way, it did my old man’s heart when it caved his memory in
What could I say
For my friend
Connor grey
And my old man just the same
Now who would’ve said
That a working man’s debt
Would be paid with the cost of the brain
I took Connor from a halfway house
And we found a place
A chippy cross the road
We would walk I would talk
But it did no good
And the darkness inside him did grow
he needed more help than I could give
But that help it wasn’t easy to find
Three free sessions
The 80 bucks a time
Failed to ease his mind
So he tried and tried to end his own life
And I found him one day on the floor
a hundred stashed Panadols
And a chocolate milk bottle laying there right by the door
And I called my dad still up in the north
But he couldn’t place Connors name
It’s all going to hell I thought
Nothings gonna be the same
My dad was a man who spoke with his hands
But the meaning was always clear
But clarity’s now a fleeting thing
As he forgets all the things he held dear
He always said
“Men who wear ties
Will buy and they will sell you
Until the day that you die”
and
the bastards and their budgets
And the slashing of such
It gets me all red in the guts
And all them salary boys
With their white wine grins
Tell em all to get fucked
There’ll be no great society
built on the backs of tax cuts
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10. |
Trouble With This City
04:50
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TROUBLE WITH THIS CITY
The trouble with this city, is the fact that you are in it
And I am in it to,
The trouble with this city
I cannot make it separate, separate from you
It’s true it’s me that came here, but now I need to go
Three hours and a plane ride
Till I can get back home
The trouble with this city, is all the people to and fro
The trouble with this city is no one seems alone
The trouble with this city, is amongst all the noise and hum
It could never find the words, or to keep us both from harm
The trouble with this city, it simply never tried
To offer consolation, or a way to just get through
The trouble with this city is the way it’s tied up in you
The trouble with this city
especially now you have another
and I still have you and you both have each other
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Adam McGrath Christchurch, New Zealand
Adam McGrath is a folk singer stationed wherever he can get a key! Described by RNZ as a “National Treasure” and the Herald as “NZ’s toughest minded songwriter”. He has shared stages with and opened for Fleetwood Mac, Steve Earle, Old Crow Medicine Show, Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes and many more. At once raucous and tender, McGrath goes straight for the spirit level in all of us. ... more
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