LYRICS

Morning’s come and Mariah’s gone
Morning’s come and Mariah’s gone
Morning’s come and Mariah’s gone
And it’s early in the morning.

Oh she’s gone and I can’t go….

Never did I know her mind….

Trouble, trouble is my name…

Lay by your pleading, law lies a-bleeding
Burn all your studies down, and throw away your reading
Small power the word has, and can afford us
Not half so much privilege as the sword does

It’ll the foster the master, plaster disaster
This’ll make a servant quickly greater than the master
Ventures, enters, seeks and it centres
Ever the upper hand, never the dissenter

Kruger, Krugerrand-a, whither do you wander?
Gone to the suborning of Hastings Banda
Kruger Krugerrand-a, tear you all asunder
Beira to Luanda, Gaborone to Nyanga

Talks of small things, it sets up all things
This’ll master money, though money masters all things
It is not season to talk of reason
Never call it loyal when the sword says treason

Balm for the whaler, balm for the the furrier
This’ll get the measure of an eco warrior
Incognito, come and sink a Rainbow
President will never know, I should bloody coco

Build a drone, fly it, governments will buy it
Devils in the desert sand give us a chance to try it
Don’t need their ident, propaganda strident
Blow them up remotely with a Hellfire or a Trident.

Subtle deceiver turns calm to fever
See the pilgrim flay the unbeliever
It’ll make a lay man preach and to pray man
It’ll make a Lord of him that was but a drayman

Conquers the crown too, grave and the gown too
Set you up a province but it’ll pull it down too
No gospel can guide it, no law decide it
In church or state, till the sword sanctified it

Take books, rent ’em, who can invent ’em?
When that the sword says there’ll be no argumentum
Blood that is spilt, sir, has gained all the guilt, sir
Thus have you seen me run my sword up to the hilt, sir

Hand me down some changing rhyme
Some embraces never bind
Oh hand me down your dancing line
Then I’ll know I’m home
Then I’ll know I’m home

When I arrived in this old town
Hand me down oh hand me down
When I arrived in this old town
Some forty voices they gathered round
And I was coming home
I was coming home

Some go ahead, some stay behind
Hand me down oh hand me down
Some go ahead, some stay behind
We navigate by the souls we find
And I am coming home
I am coming home

I’m navigating by one more star
Hand me down oh hand me down
I’m navigating by one more star
It’s shining bright to show I’ve come this far
And I am coming home
I am coming home

Nightmares, Mother had, of navvies in the cellar
And dark eyes looking through the window outside
How we used to vex her, how we used to taunt her
How we would laugh and chant to her dismay

‘Ware out Mother there’s a navvy in the cellar
and two more looking through the window outside

Mother heard there was to be a river builded
Just a stone’s throw away from the window outside
How we hugged each other, as we told our mother
“It’s a canal, there’ll be navigators too.”

We told Mother there’d be barges full of jewels
And wondrous things past the window outside
But where’s this river from? we said it flows from China
“Woah” thought Mom, “there’ll be alligators too.”

One night Jimmy led the navvies into town
and they looked like beggars through the window outside
There were navvies in the ale house, arguments and street fights,
Mother was delicate, she stayed in bed all week

One night Jimmy had a gentle way with words
and more pairs of hands than was decent, alright.
“Will you come along, me saucy little Susie,
Just let me put a few arms around your waist.”

Soon our mother saw the navvy with her daughter
and she locked her up in the cellar downstairs
“Do you come along, me naughty filthy hussy,
Else I’ll put this stick about your back.”

Jim gave a wink, or it might have been a blink,
and he organised a tunnel ‘neath the window outside
Not a body saw them, then they struck foundations
“Right” thought Jim, “I shall blow little hole.”

Muffled bang, and there was dust and rubble everywhere
And Jim was in the cellar of his Susie once more
How they hugged each other, yet no-one told our mother
She still has her dreams, yet she’s never learnt the truth.

When I was a little girl I knew that I could do it all
Now that I’m a woman grown, I just want some time at home

All my life is hurrying, worrying
All my life is busy ’cause I just can’t let go

When I was young and in my prime I’d read to while away the time
Now the books stay on the shelf, the laundry doesn’t do itself

I once had freedom every day to choose when I would rest and play
Now my time’s not mine alone, a mother’s work is never done

Stress and headaches sometimes hit, knock me back a little bit
I’ve got to change before I break or kill myself with too much cake

I sowed the seeds of love
It was all in the spring
In April May and in June likewise
While small birds sweetly sing

My garden was planted well
With flowers everywhere
But I hadn’t the liberty to choose for myself
The flowers that I loved dear

My gardener he stood by
And I asked him to choose for me
He chose me the violet the lily and the pink
But those I refused all three

In June there’s a red rose bud
And that’s the flower for me
For often have I plucked at the red rose bud
Til I gained the willow tree

Come all you false young men
Don’t leave me to complain
For grass that has often been trampled underfoot
Given time it will rise again

What mired Jonah’s creature
To see her rise no more?
What fate conspired to breach her
One hundred miles from shore?
For our children stand in silence
And view her bones in awe
This heart unreal, these ribs of steel
Shall sleep and rise no more

Rise no more oh rise no more
We shall not meet my friend on Canaan’s shore
Where heav’nly arcs our souls restore
So sleep and rise no more

Like a drunken man still drowning
Work’s thirst long gone before
The veins within her pounding
Not blood but molten ore
For she drew no dragon’s bonus
To burn all England’s poor
All those who bleed this earth for greed
Go sleep and rise no more

The legend of her shining
Dark carols only sing
Of casting ore and grinding
The echoes only ring
Bright tears upon us raining
From steelos gone before
For all that streamed is nought but dream
So sleep and rise no more

The Widow Cross had but one son and indeed he was his mother’s pride and joy
So she knitted him a gansey, cable stitched both fine and fancy
and it looked like royal robes upon the boy

How we knew his bright blue eyes
How we knew his golden hair
And the gansey that his mother madewas fine beyond compare

Tall and bright was Davy Cross, with a smiling face that never bore a frown
How the lasses smiled and sighed, at his strong and manly stride
On a Friday when the fishing fleet left town

For they…

At the dance on Saturday, the lasses fairly swooned to dance with him
How they fluttered at his charms, as he held them in his arms,
And their hearts beat faster at his boyish grin

For they…

Then one dark October day, there came a storm which drove us hard to lea
And our fishing fleet was tossed, yet just one single craft was lost
Leaving Widow Cross a gazing out to sea

Well she…

When just ten weeks had passed and gone, they finally brought us news about the loss
Seemed a body had been found, of a sailor lost and drowned
And in our hearts we knew ’twas Davy Cross

For we…

But it wasn’t eyes of blue, nor that hair as pale as foam
It was the gansey that his mother made that brought young Davy home

It’s one day we’ll go sailing
Just you my love and I
We’ll take us down to the waters
Where fair the waters lie

And then with good intentions
We’ll try our debts to pay
But the sun will swing the seasons
And ever win the day

Then one day we’ll go flying
Get closer to the stars
And pray that those in spaceships
will leave them as they are

Then one day we’ll start building
We’ll use what comes to hand
We’ll twine what needs entwining
And bind what needs a band

Once there was a man and he had no song
He felt his head was empty and his voice was wrong
And though he often tried, his songs were trapped inside
He couldn’t find the place where they belong

But raise your voice with mine
For now’s the perfect time to join the song

Once there was a woman and her songs were loud
She sang them in the shower and she sang them proud
But when her friends were near, her voice it shrank with fear
And left her shaking mute before the crowd

But raise…

Now if you want to sing but don’t know how or why
Don’t listen to the ones who say you should not try
There’s bound to be a way you’ve not tried before today
To free your voice to soar beneath the sky

So raise…

Once there was a singer and he made his choice
To leave his doubts behind him and to find his voice
The journey that he’s on is to learn just one more song
And sing it out and make his friends rejoice

So raise…