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Gog Magog


Paper Planes


Who knows why boys build paper planes?

Do they try to climb onboard and fly away?

Because when you’re looking for a part to play

It takes a while to find your stride


But who knows if you’ve been lonely?

You’ve stolen meals to make it through the night

Who knows if you’ve been lonely?

Or watched the world go by with hungry eyes?


Who knows why you take up so much space?

When you are known for knocking heads around these parts

Why do you make us count our steps?

And hold our breath in your company?


But who knows if you’ve been lonely?

You sold your dreams to make it through the night

Who knows if you’ve been lonely?

Hidden bruises from the world outside


But the sun will rise despite your heavy mind

And you don’t know what might wash up on the tide

You can tell yourself these same old tired lines

And force a smile


I don’t know if you know who knows

But you should know that I care and I know that

When your whole life’s been shattered

Your dreams are hacked and battered

Feels like you’re dying deep inside

Your hands are shaking, the whole world is breaking

All you can do is stay alive


But the sun will rise despite your heavy mind

And you don’t know what might wash up on the tide

You can tell yourself these same old tired lines

And force a smile


Ring of Roses


Hold your horses steady

Wait for me - I’m not ready

Just let me take my time

There’s a devil on my shoulder

Watches me growing older


Ring of ring of roses

Fill your pockets up with posies

All fall down

They all fall down


Strange the way that I’ve been feeling

Cut the cards - I’m not dealing them

I need a king this time

Bless the souls our saviour chose

Heaven or Hell, no-one knows


Ring of ring of roses

Fill your pockets up with posies

All fall down

They all fall down

Because it’s lights out, story’s over

Words are better left unspoken

All fall down, they all fall down


You don’t know what hides in the dark

He’s patiently waiting to start

As soon as you turn out the light

A thief takes your day and your night


There’s someone here for you

He’s in the corner of your room

Oh well - I guess we lost track of time

So sleep now don’t make a sound

In the morning all fall down

We’re falling, falling

We’re falling down


Ring of ring of roses

Fill your pockets up with posies

All fall down

They all fall down


Aberdaron


Pan fwyf yn hen a pharchus

Ac arian yn fy nghod

A phob beirniadaeth drosodd

A phawb yn canu ’nghlod,

Mi brynaf fwthyn unig

Heb ddim o flaen ei ddôr

Ond creigiau Aberdaron

A thonnau gwyllt y môr


Pan fwyf yn hen a pharchus

A’m gwaed yn llifo’n oer,

A’m calon heb gyflymu

Wrth wylied codi’r lloer;

Bydd gobaith i’m bryd hynny

Mewn bwthyn sydd a’i ddôr

At greigiau Aberdaron

A thonnau gwyllt y môr


Pan fwyf yn hen a pharchus

Tu hwnt i fawl a sen,

A’m cân yn ôl y patrwm

A’i hangerdd oll ar ben;

Bydd gobaith i’m bryd hynny

Mewn bwythyn sydd a’i ddôr

At greigiau Aberdaron

A thonnau gwyllt y môr


Oblegid mi gaf yno

Yng nghri’r ystormus wynt

Adlais o’r hen wrthryfel

A wybu f’enaid gynt.

A chanaf â’r hen angerdd

Wrth syllu tua’r ddôr

Ar greigiau Aberdaron

A thonnau gwyllt y môr


When Black Shuck Roams


The year is old, and she’s counting down the days

She’s grown so cold in so many different ways

When Black Shuck roams, she steps just out of sight

The shadows glow and the moonlight shines so bright


In churchyard stone the old Gods keep their watch

And heaven knows even the Devil tends his flock

When Black Shuck roams, you see murder through and through

But you don’t know that she’s just like me and just like you


Still waters flow, the sunlight hides away

The fens are cold in so many lonely ways

When Black Shuck roams, the churches shut their doors

And she goes home and waits for one that she sees no more


On moon-blushed evenings sometimes you see your deeds unmade

White bones and starlight in one summer’s bloody rage

When Black Shuck roams, the night birds blunt their song

The year is old now - but the way is long


The year is old, and she’s counting down the days

She’s grown so cold in so many different ways

When Black Shuck roams, she steps just out of sight

The shadows glow and the moonlight shines so bright


Boudicca c. AD 60


I remember the first time we made the sound

Ten thousand voices all crying aloud

Daughter of the heath and the heather

Chariot wheels in cold, bright weather


Fenland queen all draped in gold

Sister to the hare and roe

An ocean sang inside her stare

And fire danced in long red hair


Now the ground trembles and shakes and bodies collide

You fight them as hard as you can but you can’t break the line


They took everything that you had and they drove you away

You were taught never talk back, but that wasn’t your way


She’d ride out fast because she lived to attack

Sometimes the last, but she always came back

Now Colchester’s burning - I still feel the heat

But you’ve not come back yet from Watling Street


Now the ground trembles and shakes and chariots ride

You fight them as hard as you can but you can’t break the line


They took everything that you had and they drove you away

You were taught never talk back, but that wasn’t your way

No that wasn’t her way

And she was so brave


I Thought You Were My Friend


I thought you were my friend

But now I feel like a fool

Thought that I was using you

Not being used

I thought you were my friend


Found you when I was young

You said this might be fun

I found you when I was young

Then you blackened both my lungs

I thought you were my friend


Because you look so bright

Taste just right

Hold me all night long


Well one of you is alright

But two is always better

I stayed up with you all night

Till my insides turned to leather

I thought you were my friend


Because you look so bright

Taste just right

Hold me all night long


Baby can we go slow

I want you but I don’t think I should stay here

Please baby can you hold me all night

Hold me all


Because you look so bright

Taste just right

Hold me all night long


Bedlam Boys


For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam

Ten thousand miles I travelled

Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes

For to save her shoes from gravel


And still I sing bonnie boys

Bonnie mad boys, Bedlam boys are bonnie

Still I sing bonnie boys

Bonnie mad boys


My staff has murdered giants

And my back a long knife carries

But I cut mince pies from children’s thighs

With which to feed…


For they all go bare

and they live by the air

and they want no drink nor money


I went down to Satan’s kitchen

To get me through one morning

And there I got souls piping hot

All on the spits a-turning, a-turning, a-turning


For they all go bare

and they live by the air

and they want no drink nor money


As Green As You


Unready when you came along

I told you that the nights were blue

Unready when you came along

But now the whole world

Yes the whole wide world

Is as green as you


She’s a monastery on a hill

High above the ocean spray

She’s a visionary in her cell

And when the candle dims

She finds words to sing

To drive the gloom away


And how your fingers love to dance

And colour flood a world of grey

And how your fingers love to dance

As if the sirens

Or the seraphim

Had taught you how to play


You’re as green as the season that quickens the breeze

You’re as green as the waves as they sing in the sea

Unready when you came along

Unready when you came along

Gloria


Sixteen and at the seam

well there were headlamps, canary dreams

I was apprenticed to a charcoal art

as I waited for my life to start


They said black blood flowed through my veins

yet in the pit all I knew was pain

those blasted chambers were choking me

and only glory could set me free


But then a woman I chanced to meet

and I felt the coal move beneath my feet

and in the mirror I did stare

at Gloria with the short brown hair


She said what's to come is way past overdue

and it's then I knew what I was born to do


And as she moved through the county fair

not a man in sight could help but stare

so she left them there - watching and waiting

for the sound of a woman's voice

but the look in her eye gave them no choice

so she left them there - watching and waiting

for the sound


I'll leave behind a miner's life

I'll say no prayers, I'll take no wife

I'll busk my way down to Camden Town

for it's there a queen can find her crown


And then one evening she comes around

we tear our way right through the town

and through the sherry, wine and smoky haze

Gloria shows me a woman's ways


So I dress myself as best as I can

and I forget that I was born a man


I find myself in Soho bars

in a world of ashtrays and old guitars

and there were those who said I did transgress

and there were those who saw beyond the dress


Now I clad myself in finery

I sing my song for all to see

and all the people, how they did stare

at Gloria with the short brown hair


So I dress myself as best as I can

and I forget that I was born a man


Haf (Summer)


Eistedd yn yr ardd ar ganol diwrnod braf

gwair gwyrdd dan fy nhroed ac adar yn y coed

a'r awyr yn lasach na welais i erioed


A doedd neb yn gallu amharu ar hyn


Dwi'n cofio wir i chi – ie deunaw oeddwn i

efo amser yn y llaw, yn bell o'r gwynt a'r glaw

a'r glesni yn ymestyn o fan yma i fan draw


A doedd neb yn gallu amharu ar hyn


Haf - Translation


Sitting in the garden at the height of a sunny day

Green grass under my feet and birds in the trees

And the sky bluer than I've ever seen before


And no-one could ruin this


I remember, I swear - I was eighteen at the time

Time to spare - far from the wind and rain

And blueness reaching into every corner


And no-one could ruin this


Gawain


I'm a man who lives alone

these crooked hills I call my home

now I had men and I had meat

and walls that rose a thousand feet


Now not so long ago it seems

I dreamed a dream of a man in green

his breath I've felt, his face I've seen

so come and hear of a Christmas game

how the emerald night begins again

how I risked my life to make my name

So you might sing


Gawain, riding on our hopes out in the rain

just a small town shame

Gawain, for the land that once you loved is not the same

oh Gawain


There's a lady in the sacred lake

she visits me from day to day

tiny hands caress my face

and they take me to the other place


Now there's a hollow tree she hides inside

a place where all the beetles hide

I couldn't go although I tried

now the green knight now before me stands

but I swear to God I killed the man

how does he speak with his head in his hands?


I was young and I was lean

while he was tall and strong and mean

now I hit first and I hit well

and I watched as the green man fell


How does he stand, how does he speak?

How does he say these words to me?

Devil go and let me be

in crashing blows there is no gain

but when the emerald night begins again

I'll risk my life to make my name


Tom Paine’s Bones


As I roved out one evening

by a river of discontent

I bumped straight into old Tom Paine

as running down the road he went


He said I can't stop right now child

King George is after me

he'll have a rope around my throat

and hang me on the liberty tree


But I will dance to Tom Paine's bones

I'll dance to Tom Paine's bones

dance in the oldest boots I own

to the rhythm of Tom Paine's bones


Well I only talked about freedom

and justice for everyone

but ever since the first word I spoke

I’ve been looking down the barrel of a gun


They said I preached revolution

let me say in my defence

that all I did, wherever I went

was to talk a lot of common sense


Well old Tom Paine he ran so fast

left me standing still

and then there was a piece of paper in my hand

standing at the top of the hill


And it said this is the age of reason

these are the rights of man

kick off religion and monarchy

it was written there in Tom Paine's plan


Well old Tom Paine dead he lies

nobody laughs and nobody cries

where he's gone or how he fares

nobody knows and nobody cares


These are the Things


They say there's a mother who cares for us all

who shows us the way when we stumble and fall

trained and educated to the highest degree

but whoever she is, she's not working for me


We've been robbed we've been wronged - counted the years

and now we've been told to dry up our tears

to show "aspiration" and swallow our pride

and these are the things that we cannot abide


For when the walls all go up, then trouble's in store

and reason and justice is all we ask for

but when you're kicking a man for being down on the floor

these are the things that I cannot ignore

These are the things that I cannot ignore


They say there's a nation of more than one tongue

where the children of old foes can sit down as one

they don't give a damn where the other comes from

and this is called marching to the beat of one drum


But while we've all been dreaming of days long ago

we've burnt every bridge and we've shut every door

but no man is an island so far from the shore

and these are the things I cannot ignore


And you say we're to blame but we've heard it before

they've won it this time, but who's keeping score?

When the little eats less so the richer reaps more

These are the things that I cannot ignore


When you live by the day at the market's command

When profit and property's the law of the land

To be held, to be heard, to be dealt a fair hand

These are the things that a people demand


My Love's In Germany


My love's in Germany

send him hame, send him hame

my love's in Germany, send him hame

my love's in Germany

fighting brave for royalty

he may ne'er his Ginny see

send him hame, send him hame

he may ne'er his Ginny see, Send him hame


He's as brave as brave can be

send him hame, send him hame

he's as brave as brave can be, send him hame

he's as brave as brave can be

he would rather fall than flee

oh his life's so dear to me

send him hame, send him hame

oh his life's so dear to me, send him hame


Our foes are ten to three

send him hame, send him hame

our foes are ten to three, send him hame

our foes are ten to three

he would rather fall than flee

oh his life's so dear to me

send him hame, send him hame

oh his life's so dear to me, send him hame


He'll ne'er come o'er the sea

for Willie's slain, Willie's slain

he'll ne'er come o'er the sea, for Willie's slain

and he'll ne'er come o'er the sea

to his love and our country

oh this life's nay more for me

for Willie's slain, Willie's slain

oh this life's nay more for me

for Willie's slain


The Drinkers


My man lived to the beat of a drum

taught me how the West was won

with a merry band he rambled on

but he showed the bar no quarter


Taught me how good living's done

drank pints of ale and seas of rum

with the courage of the dutch and good clean fun

till the morning in September


When he lined them up and he knocked them down

in every little pub and in every little town

oh my friends will he ever slow down?

not while there's life in his body


Old Verlaine was an absinthe man

it didn't leave much for the pension plan

on a drunken boat he reeled and span

and sang us songs of the moonlight


And though that he was a prince of verse

he died all alone of a fairy's curse

with a broken heart and empty purse

as he danced in the starlight


My old dad would tell a tale

how salty dogs on the sea would sail

wrote true and tight, hard as nails

and he never shied from peril


Papa filled his glass to the brim

with bulls did run and in wine did swim

until that bell it tolled for him

when he rolled out the barrel

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