1. |
O Jordan
03:25
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Where'd you go, where'd you go Jordan?
Did you climb, did you fly to the centre
And what did you see there?
How'd you fall, how'd you fall, Jordan?
Was it hard? Was it fast?
Was it all in slow motion?
Was it just like the movies?
Did you tie that final straw
To the camels back?
Did you look for the colours
But only see black?
O Jordan
Did your feet tap the beat, Jordan?
Did the beat keep your feet planted firm on the ground?
Did it make that ole' familiar sound?
Where's that hill, where's that hill Jordan?
Did it mask the best parts of the sky?
Did you see you mother? (cry)
Did you marvel at the moon
Or did it make you feel lonely?
When you look to the horizon
Can you see you’re the only
Jordan?
I'm not sure what that kind of lonely looks like
I'm not sure what that kind ugly feels like
I'm not sure what that kind of poison feels like
When it's traveling traveling traveling
Unravelling your veins
Did you marvel at the moon
Or did it make you feel lonely?
When you look to the horizon
Can you see you’re the only
Jordan?
O Jordan
O Jordan
O Jordan...
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2. |
Celluloid Girl
04:50
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There’s a celluloid girl waiting for the tide
To come and cover over her picture of the bride
She made the veil herself out of shells of virgin white
Her dress, a shade of seaweed
To float her down the aisle
…
Though torn around the edge and faded at the sides
She looks to the horizon to where her lover died
She cries the tears of ages and ancient wounded pride
Then dips her little toe in to keep the cold alive
…
Now there’s a digital girl moving just so slightly
She’s staring at the ocean, so messy and untidy
What did mother see that could have kept her here
Whatever could have held her down for sixty years…
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3. |
Swollen Pride
03:42
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I lay awake for several hours
Thought of all the plans we’d laid
How we would topple all the towers
With the music we had made
And we would reach the stars together
And we’d pick one for ourselves
Let the bigots keep their heaven
We’re much happier in hell
So let us drink
Let us drink
Let us laugh until we cry
Let us stroke each other’s
Swollen pride…
I've bit my tongue so many times now
That it’s getting hard to speak
The truth you're seeking in the darkness
Is a game of hide and seek
You talk to strangers for a living
But can never phone a friend
I hope you’re happy, hope you’re happy
I hope you’re happy in the end
So let us drink
Let us drink
Let us laugh until we cry
Let us stroke each other’s
Swollen pride…
If you want it that bad it’s yours
Just take it
I don’t want it back
If you need it so bad
It's yours.
Just take it, just take it.
If it hurts this much
You keep it and hold it
And I’ll wish you luck
If you’d kill for it
Really kill for it, be careful
It might kill you back.
So let us drink, Let us drink
Let us laugh until we cry
Let us stroke each other, stroke each other, choke each other
So let us drink, Let us drink
Let us laugh until we cry
Let us stroke each other, stroke each other, choke each other
So let us drink, Let us drink
Let us laugh until we cry
Let us stroke each other’s swollen
And foolish…
Pride…
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4. |
Sad For The Weather
04:27
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By the coffee table
You wait
Blue in your eyes
A lock on your gate
In the summer you smile
In the winter you cry
He said
"maybe we'll give England a try"
Your mother, she called it a seasoned depression
Your father can't cry from years of repression
Your youngest of brothers thinks it shouldn't matter
Your friends are inclined to agree with the latter...
But that was months ago
Though he sometimes writes
And in your replies
You would give him your nights
You'd surrender your days
And relinquish control
You'd fill any form
And pay every toll
Your mother, she called it a seasoned depression
Your father can't cry from years of repression
Your youngest of brothers thinks it shouldn't matter
Your friends are inclined to agree with the latter...
Back at the cafe you wait
The table
We'll sit and tell stories
As long as we're able
I'll cry, then you'll cry
We'll all cry together
Sad for the distance
Sad for the weather...
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5. |
The Itch
03:42
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I felt the chill
My skin grew tired from the motion
I fell to bed
For fifteen years
But couldn't sleep...
I need my rest
My heaving chest, it is still broken
I stuck my fears up all around me
For fifteen hours
But couldn't weep
(so I whisper to myself)
I felt the urge
So I called the strangers to my linen
They held me close
For fifteen minutes
Then they'd leave
I have no church
Not many gods that I can worship
Who will love me back
For fifteen seconds
Without commitment
or need
(So I whisper to the godly stranger)
You feel the itch?
No-one can scratch it like I can
I'll make you weep
Before you know it
You'll be asleep
For fifteen years...
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6. |
Green Paper Heart
03:19
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The green man is saying
“Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk”
But I don’t walk, I don’t walk
I don’t work anymore
I don’t get what they do it for…
The green fairy’s yelling
“Drink, drink, drink, drink, drink
Drink it down, drink it down”
Though the ship is sinking now
I’m not useful anyhow
There’s a green paper heart
In the space between my lungs
Pull my ribcage apart
For there’s an addict in the attic
Of this house that we built
Beneath the ashes and the silt
So if you search very hard
You’ll find my small green paper heart…
The wizard paints his city in the colour of his envy
In the colour of the wings I fly I away on
For a time I just saw red at all the things that he had said
Until I recognized he’d written them in schoolyard crayon
There’s a green paper heart
In the space between my lungs
Pull my ribcage apart
For there’s an addict in the attic
Of this house that we built
Beneath the ashes and the silt
So if you search very hard
You’ll find my small green paper heart…
She said “you’ve got to stand for something”
“We used to stand for something”
Well you've got to stand for something
Before you can ever sell out…
There’s a green paper heart
In the space between my lungs
Pull my ribcage apart
For there’s an addict in the attic
Of this house that we built
Beneath the ashes and the silt
So if you search very hard
You’ll find my small green paper heart…
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7. |
Ocean Today
03:28
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I need the ocean today
The rains not wet enough
To wash this dirt away
I need the ocean today
This wind can break my branches
But I won't ever sway
I need the ocean today I need it I need it...
I need the ocean today
This body is still warm
I can't keep the vultures at bay
I need the ocean today
The tide has turned into
A tiring old charade
I need the ocean today I need it I need it...
Beware the cracks
They will break your mothers back
Avoid the lines
They will take your fathers spine
Drain the seas
For they will take you far from me
Put out the stars
They will take you very far… away.
From me
I need the ocean today
To protect this little heart
To keep me from decay…
Beware the cracks
They will break your mothers back
Avoid the lines
They will take your fathers spine
Drain the seas
For they will take you far from me
Put out the stars
They will take you very far… away.
From me
I need it I need it I need it I need it I need it I need it I need it I need it.
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8. |
Miss You Already
04:29
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I miss you already
And it’s only been five hours
Five hours since I held you tight
Against my mother’s car
Wherever you are
I miss you already
It’s been five hours
And a quarter of a minute
Since I kissed you
And I miss you now
You’ve got the sweetest taste
And a full embrace
I miss you already
Time it waits
For reason to break
When you’re not ready
It fades away
Don’t you wait
For another day
The world moves too fast
It goes on
See you on the other side
Where even stars
They seem different
I hide behind things
A book, a map, a guitar,
A phone call that might distract me
From wherever you are
Under the southern stars
I miss you already
It’s not real to me
That these feelings could be void
That this love could be destroyed
I played my own part
I broke my own heart
I miss you already
Time it waits
For reason to break
When you’re not ready
It fades away
Don’t you wait
For another day
The world moves too fast
It goes on
See you on the other side
Where even stars
They seem indifferent
Time it waits
For reason to break
When you’re not ready
It fades away
Don’t you wait
We won't wait for another day
We'll be a circle
And we'll go on
And on
And on
And on
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9. |
Without Exit Strategy
03:46
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I've learned to cook for one
And drink for three
Of how to wear a mask
And make it look like its still me
Of how to run so fast
That I can't feel
To distinguish all the differences
Between the fiction and whats real
And I lie all the time...
...you were never mine
I've learned to grit my teeth
And how to take it on the chin
I've learned to bear a grudge
And bear the weight and the waiting
I've learned the stunning truth
That I you are really not so bad
But If you can't see the good in me
Then you really must be mad
and I lie all the time...
...you were never mine
This house is mine
These things are mine
This body's mine
I like it fine
You've left behind
A love of wine
A lack of time
These things are mine
These things are mine
The hurt is mine
Mistakes were mine
The flaws are mine
The house is mine
The things are mine are mine are mine
This house is mine
These things are mine
This body's mine
I like it fine
You've left behind
A love of wine
A lack of time
These things are mine
These things are mine
They're all mine
All this time
You were never...
I'm not responsible
For your inability
To fall for someone fully, without exit strategy
To falter when you're confronted with something more than skin deep
It's not mine. It's not mine. It's not mine.
It was never mine
It was never mine
All this time...
...You were never mine...
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10. |
Half Full Of Ourselves
04:31
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Spent the day in a laneway
Lost the night in a lame way
Powerless in the same way
As this flat made of scratches and cracks
Lived a week out of boxes
All my food came from boxes
I don’t quite fit any boxes
But can’t fill this box of wood and glass
The next one’s half empty
While I am left half full of myself
The months passed like a lover
Who is ignored but not forgotten
The empty bottles in the kitchen
Are the only indication of time
I house parties like a secret
And give counsel like a father
“Hearts are broken to be mended
And my spare key is in the letterbox”
Your next one’s half empty
While you are left half full of someone else
But you’ll find another
Look, I found a lover
Time is a stranger thing
Than I had ever known
We hold hands with our choices
Then we dance with consequences
Sing the songs that hold the answers
To the questions we’d forgotten to ask
We say goodbye like a parent
To a child on excursion
We make plans with abandon
And make changes when the needs arise
Our next one’s half empty
While we are left half full of everybody else
Our next one’s half empty
While we are left half full of ourselves…
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11. |
Dream Of Waking Up
03:35
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I had a dream all about you
You held a gun to my head
With eyes of remorse
You said "well, of course
This is how is has to end
I used to dream of the water
Filling our house like the sea
The TV was dead
The waves made my bed
The sky was calling out to me
Calling:
When you wish upon a star…
I dreamed that the sun had exploded
Starting a fire at the school
But we were okay
Hiding beneath the stage
While it killed all the bigots and tools
Then in my dream, this one lady
With a red dress and helicopter hair
Was killing them all
At the shopping mall
With the sentences that you never had said
Like:
When you wish upon a star
The city lights are all they are…
You sometimes talk in your sleep dear
In languages spoken no more
Though you never wake
My only mistake
Is wanting to know what you're longing for
Now I drink too much to sleep softly
So dreams, when they come, are of chores
Of process and work
The monsters that lurk
Are in newspaper headlines once more
When we wish upon a star
It’s just the headlights of a car
So when I wake I'm still dreaming
Of waking up again...
Wake me up again…
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12. |
Dusty Stars
03:59
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On that dusty wooden floor
We said the things we'd never spoken before
Through the cobwebs on the glass
We saw reflections of a thing that's built to last
And on a mattress on the floor
We saw a ceiling just beginning to crack
And where our younger selves would run
We now were walking hand in hand not looking back.
And in the middle of the night
We fight for honour and for glory and for love.
And there is little hesitation
As we build our little nation from above
This story's just begun
So we took our little boat
Just to see if it could float, but it could fly.
And it took us by surprise
By just how quickly it could rise in the sky
And with little scars or scratches
We had bought a book of matches just to light
And we moved as quick as smoke had spoken
Telling us to flee where we could fight
And in the middle of the night
We fight for honour and for glory and for love.
And there is little hesitation
As we build our little nation from above
This story's just begun
This story's just begun
With little need to speak
We sneak the glances that we need to carry on
You are everything I wanted
Everything I never thought I'd chance upon
So darling take my hand
And dance with me. This night was made for us
And together let us keep on looking up
As we continue to build stars
From the dust.
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Tom Dickins Melbourne, Australia
Musician. Maker of things. Breaker of other things. Sometimes alone. Sometimes with co conspirators. Most recent album with the Punintentionals.
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