1. |
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Bailouts for bankers handouts for the rich
Blue collar man gets a kick in the teeth
They’re buying us cheap and selling us short
Taking us for everything we got
I’m just one small rock, I’m sliding downhill
Gotta roll with the country, I can’t go where I will
I’m just one stone solo but I’m picking up speed
Moving along just hoping to meet
Another small rock and another small rock and another small rock
Now we’re rolling thunder and we’re never gonna stop
Construction work was destroyed by the suits
Timber trade was torn up by the roots
Seems like the good jobs are no longer made
Not much call for an honest trade
Cos together we’re a landslide
Together we’re an avalanche
Together we’re a landslide
You’re never gonna stand a chance
We’re moving like a freight train
Pulling like a riptide
Together we’re an avalanche
Together we’re a landslide
Steel mills slumber turning to rust
Farmlands tilled and crumbling to dust
Even the oceans and the air that we breathe
Poisoned, polluted for greed
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2. |
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Dear mother I wish I could tell you that I made my fortune in gold
But I squandered away all the money you saved to send me out here with your hopes
I was driven here by despair and hunger
Hard times for family back home
By wind in the sail and wheel upon rail
I came here with fire in my soul
But I never got past San Francisco
Saloons and the opium dens
The card games and girls became my whole world
And I got me a load of new friends
I bought all my comforts with money
For all of my pleasures I've paid
The whores and the whiskey, the tears of the poppy
I spent much more than I made
My friends left along with my money
And the money left a long time ago
It went along for the ride with my health and my pride
Now I’m sick and I’m lonely and cold
Ch: Now all the gold in San Francisco
Won’t buy back the life I wasted away
I’m gonna die here in San Francisco
Please send this letter back home when I’m in my grave
I’ve sold the watch that you gave me
I sold my warm winter coat
I’ll buy one last night of earthly delight
With women and whisky and smoke
My heaven’s a whorehouse in Frisco
An opium pipe is my dream
And a bottle of booze and a hand I can’t lose
Will give me back my self-esteem
So mother I wish I could tell you that I made my fortune in gold
But I squandered away all the money you saved an that story’s about to be told
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3. |
Ghosts Of Caledonia
04:17
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All you ghosts of Caledonia I see you everywhere
In towns and flags and places whose namesakes you share
Embedded into legend and written into song
And by the way, in Elgin Illinois you’re saying it all wrong
All you ghosts of Caledonia rattling your bones
In graveyards around the world the famous and unknown
You haunt the trails and battlefields where you lay down and died
And in the deep I hope you sleep beneath an ocean sky
All you ghosts of Caledonia those whom I won’t speak their names
I hope they feel the weight of all those souls they kept in chains
They built their little empires on the broken backs of slaves
Will those they owned forgive their sorry souls on judgement day
CH: The deeds you did for good or ill echo down the ages still
Time forever judges what we do
We’ll be ghosts of Caledonia too
All you ghosts of Caledonia those who history has erased
Perhaps you spoke sedition or did not know your place
You stood against oppression or spoke the rights of man
Even if I do not know your name I’d like to shake your hand
All you ghosts of Caledonia before Columba came
To put you pagan picts and celts and witches to the flame
If your spirit wanders like a heathen without faith
There’s plenty here who still believe the old gods knew the way
All you ghosts of Caledonia no matter where you roam
If you died with Alba in your heart you’re more than halfway home
Don’t settle for eternity behind those pearly gates
Cos it looks like we might really need your help again today
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4. |
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There once was a lass called Molly MacPhee and she came came from my home town
Her hair was black as the northern sky and her eyes were a bonny nut brown
And when she smiled she could turn the coldest winter to high summer
Oh Molly McPhee will you marry me for I cannot love another
The single men and the married men all wanted her the same
And the preacher lusted after her much to his mortal shame
One by one she turned them down and they could not understand
Why a woman would want to live without the guidance of a man
Molly McPhee was a witch some said and the rumours spread like fire
Her dark charms could snare your heart and fill it with desire
Her bed’s a certain road to hell where your soul will never return
Oh Molly McPhee will you marry me my soul already burns
CH: Molly oh Molly won’t you come away let’s leave this place right now
The men are making a gallows rope the same men you turned down
If you’re a witch I can live with it we’ll dance ‘neath a Halloween moon
Molly oh Molly come away with me and come away real soon
But Molly McPhee stood her ground and said this is my home
And I’ll not run like a thief she said for I’ve done nothing wrong
And if I’m the devil’s daughter as this holy preacher claims
Then why does he come round begging for me to lift my skirts for him
That’s a lie, a lie the preacher screams oh people can’t you see
This witch has cast her demon’s spell to catch my sacred seed
And all the men looked at the ground and said the preacher’s right
Let’s hang this bitch, aye she’s a witch, let’s hang the girl tonight
So they dragged Molly to the hanging tree and there they strung her high
The women cut her long black hair and the crows plucked out her eyes
And some still say if you stand beneath the tree and listen well (you’ll hear)
Remember me I’m Molly McPhee and I’ll marry you all in hell
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5. |
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My bonny boys have gone, there was nothing for them here
They thought about it long and their choices were so clear
They could work the stubborn land or an unforgiving sea
Or they could go in search of hope and grand opportunity
So my bonny boys have gone and I hope they send for me
I don’t want to be alone with just my memories
Their father died last year a bitter broken wreck
And I know that they all feared to follow in his footsteps
CH: To Canada, America, Australia
Scattered to the wind like thistle seeds
When the sons of Scotland sail into the distance
The heart of Scotland bleeds
So my bonny boys have gone and my heart is feeling sore
A mother so afraid she’ll see her sons no more
But I smiled and said farewell as I kissed them one last time
My bonny boys have gone and I am left behind
My bonny boys have gone the miles and time don’t fade
My fierce and tender love for the children I have raised
I hope that they’ll be fine, they’re good and brave and strong
But I cannot help but cry for my bonny boys have gone
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6. |
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Well I’m in love with the miller’s daughter
But the miller said I could not court her
So we would climb where the gears would hide
Words of love and her sweet sighs. My words of love and her sweet sighs
She was young but resolute
Seed could spill but not bear fruit
For the miller had made his plans
To wed his girl to a rich old man. That’s just the way it was and I could understand
CH: When the wind was up and the sails spin round
When the miller worked and the grist was ground
We’d be rolling round and around
Just me and the miller’s daughter
We carried on for a year this way
Until finally came her wedding day
So we kissed our last goodbyes
Then she became another’s wife. He was rich but he was not kind
So every time when the wind was high
And the miller he had corn to grind
We’d be up where the gears would hide
Secret love and secret sighs. You see our young love it had never died
One fateful day we were discovered
The wind had made us careless lovers
The miller climbed up into the gears
His rage and shame were crystal clear and his shotgun warned me to get the hell out of here
So I hear news from time to time
She has a son I suspect he’s mine
Her husband’s rich but he’s getting old
So I’ll just wait till his body’s cold. Then one fine windy day I’ll be going back home
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7. |
Trespass
03:15
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I’m up before the sun
I don’t ask leave of anyone
With a good dog by my side
The game is on and we steal out into the wild
You say you own this land
Your fence gives you the right to bar and ban
Your signs offend my eyes
Your bill of sale is only paper I don’t recognize
CH: So give me a lurcher and the dark of night
Give me the woods and a moonlit weald
Give me a river where the salmon bite
And I will give you trespass through forest and field
Gamekeepers kills the mountain hares
And every bird of prey that they see in the air
With poison trap and gun
At war with nature so rich men boast and have their fun
There was a dairy in this town
Butchers and bakers now they’re all closed down
Now supermarket forces rule
Shrink wrapped and sanitised but the car park’s always full
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8. |
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To Canada you sailed but the winter held you prisoner
So you signed on as a doctor for the Hudson Bay
A humble man prepared to learn the ways of native wisdom
And Canada’s first nations still respect you to this day
CH: John Rae, Orkney shines a light upon her son
And in Canada your name forever lives on
Your wandering is over, you don’t walk this world alone
John Rae Scotland welcomes you back home
You learned the cruel fate of the Franklin Expedition
And the truth of how those brave men met their doom
You found the final answer to the Northwest Passage question
The Arctic route at last revealed for all to sail through
M8: You mapped the Arctic coast, by foot and sled and boat
A thousand miles and more, through lands of ice and snow
To survey and explore where few white men had gone before
Took the heart of a true Scottish hero
But for credit well deserved your claims were cast aside
Stripped of your glory for the part you played
Your good name trampled down by a widow’s pain and pride
Who did not care to sample of the truth that you conveyed
It’s not a name I ever heard at school in history books
Just Livingstone, some kings and queens and Burns
But John Rae’s exploits in the north demand a closer look
His place in history he most surely earned
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9. |
Banjo Lullaby
04:03
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Intro: My daddy liked the whiskey
My daddy liked to drink
My daddy played the banjo
Or that banjo would play him
When drinking and a frailing
He’d let out a rebel yell
And we all knew that we were due
A night of living hell
Go to bed now my sweet children
And I will play something to help you sleep
Then he’d put metal picks upon his fingers
That’s when ma would start to weep
That banjo was so loud could wake the devil
So we would close our eyes and say our prayers
Sweet Jesus save our souls and all the while his fingers rolled
And all our dreams were nightmares and despair
CH: My mama would wail, my brothers would cry
And all the while daddy smiled and played his banjo lullaby
We would lie awake afraid and wild eyed
And all the while daddy smiled and played his banjo lullaby
Mama said he used to play the guitar
Said he used to be a righteous man
But one night he walked down to the crossroads
And he came back with a banjo in his hands
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10. |
North Atlantic Summer
05:01
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Looks like a war is going on between the ocean and the land
A violent sea is clawing at the earth with angry hands
And a cruel arctic wind is whipping up a sandstorm
That blasts across the beach in a cloud of silica and salt
I’m standing on a rocky shore my arms stretched out like wings
Seaspray burns my eyes and flying sand nips at my skin
I’m powerless against this force can’t even stand upright
I know that this is what the song of god must sound like
CH: In a couple of hours the wind will drop
and the sun will turn the sea from grey to green
And the sky will go from black to blue
And a golden light shines on the mountain peaks
Then the sun will run away and hide
Behind a thundercloud that’s darkening the sky
And a wind blows up to make you shiver
This is a North Atlantic summer
Somewhere high in a shady holler snow defies the rising sun
Clinging on against the odds for another winter still to come
And down below the broom turns from green to yellow blossom
Vanilla fragrance sweet and heavy in the air so warm
But the waters all run deep and cold from streams of melting ice
Take the plunge and you’ll come up for air with your skin on fire
And all too soon long daylight hours shorten and cloud over
And as the sun sets lower in the sky winter’s shadow grows longer
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11. |
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Malcolm MacWatt London, UK
“MacWatt will doubtless be considered among the best of the new breed of folksingers and songwriters, who speak of the past
as a way to perhaps understand it and move forward” Stephen Rapid, Lonesome Highway
“He shines as a singer and he shines as an interpreter of the eternal folk songbook,” Tom Brosseau, The Great American Folk Show, North Dakota
... more
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