1. |
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There's a crack of light in all the darkness
I found a girl, I found a friend
There on the stair holding each other
In the hope the day would never end
In a room down by the seaside
Through the wind and through the rain
Beneath skies of marble grey she chipped the ice away
Till I could feel something again
As I walk up the old canal
It's just me and my old pal
She's running up ahead to see
What lies in store for me
Driving down to Holloway
Supposed to be on holiday
Past that Chinese Takeaway called Happiness
I called her up just on the off-chance
Maybe she was still around
She came to meet me on the hillside
We gazed out over the town
She came back to my apartment
She had those rainbow trousers on
In the fading light of day she locked my fears away
Between the bars of a Leonard Cohen song
As I walk up the old canal
It's just me and my old pal
She's running up ahead to see
What lies in store for me
Driving down to Holloway
Supposed to be on holiday
Past that Chinese Takeaway called Happiness
Oh happiness
Underneath October skies
Happiness
Oh happiness
I feel so happy I could cry
And as the lights go out on London Town
And come on in New Orleans
You're like a book that I just can't put down
And a painting by the sea
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2. |
Outsiders
05:18
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We are the tempest-tossed, the tired and maligned
We are the underdogs, we are the scene of the crime
We are the refugees encamped on the borderline
No-one seems to be on our side, nor fate nor luck nor time
The faces at the window
The ghosts at the door
The inevitable casualties of war
And it's ok
They'll never find us
They can take our lives but they'll never take our kindness
And it still burns
The fire inside us
You and me will always be outsiders
We are the circus freaks, the battered and the bruised
We are the underground, forever born to lose
We walk with ragged clothes and holes in all our shoes
Forever holding on to that invitation to the blues
And we live in the shadows
And we're up for the fight
We are the dead, we own the night
And it's ok
They'll never find us
They can take our lives but they'll never take our kindness
And it still burns
The fire inside us
You and me will always be outsiders
You and me will always be outsiders
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3. |
Bonnie
04:32
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Way down south in the fields of Avalon I fell for a travelling girl
We had one long glorious Indian summer and then came the end of the world
She left in a violent temper, there was thunder and lightning all night
And I can still hear every step on the stairs and the click of the light
Oh Bonnie let's have an adventure
Let's run to the hills for a while
I'll bring the money and you can bring the style
Oh Bonnie it's just you and me now
And maybe that's how it should be
Love only works if you can set each other free
Oh Bonnie
Way out west in a Bristolian underpass I was put under a spell
She took my money and my clothes and my dignity and then stole my heart as well
When I awoke in the morning, not a stitch or a penny to my name
How many times have I said that I'm too old for this game
Oh Bonnie let's have an adventure
Let's run to the hills for a while
I'll bring the money and you can bring the style
Oh Bonnie it's just you and me now
And maybe that's how it should be
Love only works if you can set each other free
Oh Bonnie
Sometimes I wonder what happened to everyone I used to know
All shacked up with gardens and children
Some of us just let it all go
I am the spirit of freedom
I am wherever I've been
I am the sound of the wind and the engine
I'm whatever the cat dragged in
Oh Bonnie let's have an adventure
Let's run to the hills for a while
I'll bring the money and you can bring the style
Oh Bonnie it's just you and me now
And maybe that's how it should be
Love only works if you can set each other free
Oh Bonnie
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4. |
O Fisherman
03:20
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I am a fisherman
In the Mediterranean
And now I fish for men and women and children
Sometimes this little boat
Can barely stay afloat
Under the weight of the tired and hungry and injured
O Fisherman throw me a line
Only you can save my life
And I will go wherever you're heading
O Fisherman reel me in
Don't ask me where I've been
Unless you want tales of horror and armageddon
I am a fisherman
And I'm doing all I can
Trying to keep the lambs and the sheep
From the slaughter
Sometimes this stormy sea
Puts the fear of god in me
And I ask myself what would I do
If that were my son or daughter
O Fisherman throw me a line
Only you can save my life
And I will go wherever you're heading
O Fisherman reel me in
Don't ask me where I've been
Unless you want tales of horror and armageddon
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5. |
Kings Cross Baby
06:18
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I saved the last until the best
A face lights up a room and you know the rest
This is the real thing this is not a test
Boy meets girl and east meets west
Oh my Kings Cross Baby you saved my life
In the heat of the moment in the heat of the night
We were staying in hiding we were staying alive
She looks to her left and I look to my right
I mumble something like you and me we'll be alright
Oh my Kings Cross Baby you saved my life
I was caught in the crossfire of 2005
As the carnival ended you brought me to life
And I still see you there as I turn out the light
We slip through the curtains into the night
We spread our wings and we take flight
She looks in the mirror and I look to my right
No one leaves here without a fight
Oh my Kings Cross Baby you saved my life
I was caught in the crossfire of 2005
As the carnival ended you brought me to life
And I still see you there as I turn out the light
Both of us we emerged unscathed from the joy and tears
And the casualties of the warehouse years
Both of us we made it through the storm somehow
Oh and I can see clearly now
Oh my Kings Cross Baby you saved my life
I was caught in the crossfire of 2005
As the carnival ended you brought me to life
And I still see you there as I turn out the light
x2
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6. |
The Caledonian
06:45
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Fumbling through my pockets I've just a pick and the bus fare home
Stumbling up past the Archway bridge where ghosts are said to roam
I could have been in there if I'd stayed for just one more beer
Now it's just me and the rain hangs over my head like a chandelier
And it's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye
Then it's still fun and games, put some shades on, you'll be fine
And meet me tonight at the Caledonian
And we'll put all this to rights at the Caledonian
Bring us a bottle of that old Napoleon
And we'll dance till it's light at the Caledonian
Well It's been another long fucking December but at least I can't feel the cold
There's not even a soul up and down either side of the Holloway Road
I could go and find somewhere for to fix my crooked heart
Or I could wind back the clock to the days before it all fell apart
It's all fun and games but then somebody always gets hurt
Take my hand and we can go to where the streets are paved with drt
And I fell in love at the Caledonian
And I made a stand at the Caledonian
We started a band called The Old Draconian
Oh take me back home to the Caledonian
When the girl in the corner lights up and starts playing with her hair
It's not even midnight boys but it's all gone quiet over there
And all of my pick-up lines they're as tired and old as the hills
Would somebody take me away from these bottles, these bars and these pills
And it's all fun and games but only if you want it to be
And it's all fun and games then you die eventually
Let's go back to the start at the Caledonian
And I'll give you my heart at the Caledonian
Play me a tune on that old melodeon
See you in barlight at the Caledonian
I'm down on my knees at the Caledonian
Charge your glasses please for the Caledonian
Here we all are in the pandemonium
And it's time at the bar of the Caledonian
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7. |
Carondelet
04:26
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Once upon a time in New Orleans on a stormy night in May
Two old souls well met by moonlight, two old steamboats in the bay
Like moths drawn to the gaslight, masked lovers at the ball
He said 'just like the heat out on Canal Street, you hit me like a wall'
Oh put your head on my shoulder
And we'll dance the night away
Here we'll never get older
Oh Carondelet
Oh my sweet Louisiana, my Mississippi child
Your days are full of magic and your nights are hot and wild
I found eternal sunshine here among the brass and blues
Your the artist and the artwork, the musician and the muse
Oh put your head on my shoulder
And we'll dance the night away
You're the eye of the beholder
Oh Carondelet
I watched the credits the credits rolling and I replay all the scenes
Once upon a time in New Orleans
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8. |
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Well it's time to throw the towel in
It's the death of afternoon
She said I don't mind you howling
But only if it's at the moon
I was looking for a lover
Who could catch me when I fall
And things could have gone one way or the other
Instead they didn't go anywhere at all
And I'll just take the punches and move on
I left my heart in a part of Seven Sisters
When all our lives were still scattered on the floor
If you find it there and it's not been torn to splinters
You can keep it for I don't need it anymore
She said love is just a fire
It'll burn out in the end
So I threw on some firelighters
And I watched it die again
She said you could have tried a little harder
My whole heart was on the line
I said there's literally nothing you cannot fix with gaffer tape and time
And I'll just take the punches and move on
I left my heart in a part of Seven Sisters
When all our lives were still scattered on the floor
If you find it there and it's not been torn to splinters
You can keep it for I don't need it anymore
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9. |
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The sun shines back off the Irish Sea
It's time to leave it all behind
Last night an old man said to me
Nothing is real son, it's all in your mind
I've been burning all the candles
And now I sit here in the dark
I'd like to see the world before it disappears
No more chasing squirrels in the park
Down to the bones of all this irony
This life I wish I could extend
We spend our days just fighting gravity
It'll get us all in the end
I found a friend in a girl from Arabia
And the signs don't look too good
Today she smiled just like Ava Gardner
And said 'I'd hold you if I could'
I wish I was back on the streets of Dublin
In a little doorway of my own
Instead I'm here consciously uncoupling
From the only train I've known
Down and I don't know anything of history
I can only pretend
The only thing I know about gravity
It'll get us all in the end
And at the end of another season
Once again we go down to the wire
Everybody seems to want a reason
To set themselves on fire
I drink to you oh Ava Gardner
And all this beauty past compare
Maybe one day I'll find a partner
To hold my hand and cut my hair
Down to the last throes of depravity
And a roof I cannot mend
The rain is another sign that gravity
Will get us all in the end
It's another day of going round in circles
Tracing my footsteps round the wood
We're all a-waiting' for the deluge
Though we've never had it so fucking good
I had a fling with a Venezuelan
She said one day you'll wish you'd stayed with me
Because your dog can never have a conversation
At least she listens I said, and that'll do for me
Down in the darkness of our vanity
Drives us round the bend
Oh it's only arrogance and gravity
That'll get us all in the end
I have this dream I'm up in California
An open road ahead of me
I've got this old Bonneville America
I'm gonna ride it to the sea
Farewell to you, my princess of Arabia
Farewell to my place in history
So long to that dream of Ava Gardner
And farewell to the Irish Sea
Down to the final strands of sanity
And my last true friend
Oh that's the thing about this gravity
It'll get us all in the end
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Quarterman England, UK
QUARTERMAN is the name for the solo project of Man The Lifeboats’ lead singer and songwriter Richard James
Quarterman.
Simple acoustic ballads, lyrical and earthy roots and americana from the moorlands of Yorkshire and the streets of London Town, and everywhere in between.
Debut album 'Carondelet' releases on 26th March 2021.
... more
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