1. |
The White-Washed Blues
02:50
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I wrote a line about a ship destroyed in a storm. The imagery’s nice but the story is so worn. Plus, I’ve never seen the sea. I’m metaphorically landlocked so I make up waves in the gutters where I walk.
Like an abandoned building’s walls, can’t I stand until they bring a wrecking ball? So cut me up, tear me down.
Well, my bus was so late and my tea ain’t that great, you’d swear I’m the target of genocide. And yes, I’ve always lived in the castle. I’ve never gone outside.
I won’t blame a privileged life on the reason why I can’t survive one. So cut me up, tear me down.
Yes, I know that it’s all relative, but these are the palest shade of blues. And they’re easy to hum along to, that’s how they got passed onto you. I know I’m not as tough as the bricks of Aughrim Street. But I’ll outlast your sails as you drown in a puddle. That’s it, I swear I’ve had enough of this.
So cut me up, tear me down.
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2. |
Uprooted and Booted
01:59
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We’re swimming in different directions. But all our ankles, they are tethered to home.
I can see in your pale complexion that you want to see places I’ve never known. I was glad to have been a part of your shedding skin, to be a shell you used to live in.
But now I know. I’ll pull my roots from the ground. Yeah, I’m back up and I’m ready to go.
But I’m no single cell, sometimes it’s hard to tell. If I told you, I swear I’d fall through.
When I hold you, I am just crushed by the weight of your world. It’s too hard a hand to hold.
But now I know. I’ll pull my roots from the ground. Yeah, I’m back up and I’m ready to go.
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3. |
Forty Shades of Grey
04:17
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All shades are grey with no end in sight, so we turned the lock and key and held the night-light tight. When it feels just like the sun will never touch this place, we spent our lives just counting lines and pulling out greys.
Keep it up, son. Keep it up. You’re doin’ alright, it’s just a broken heart in a dole queue line. You’ll never teach an old dog, teach an old dog new tricks. You watch your grave get deeper with every shovel you dig.
I met an old man on the street the other day. He taught be about the right and wrongs of having your way. He said “You’ll never win it if you play life like a game, or if you look straight through a person just for something to gain. There is no baby born in this life that is better than you, there is no feudal forced agenda in the womb, it’s true. The cross and crown have left it a little hard to cope. But you’ll never lose sight if you never lose hope.”
There are billions of other people in this world and no-one has a clue. Take these words please don’t keep them to yourself, because these words are all I have to give to you.
We have all been down, that’s the way life is. We have all worn frowns instead of smiling, kid. We have all been down, but we’ll get up again. Not all kings wear crowns, at least you have your friends.
Intelligence seemed a solid ground, but when you try to pin it down you see that holes are found. “Dumb” just means you missed the point, or else you’re working on a different level. Never let them tell you that you’re thick, or that you’re underachieving. They’re the ones who picked your goals, so don’t believe them when they say “You’ve let yourself down, let us all down.”
Beside my college is an unemployment office, there’s a nightclub next to a funeral home.
Sometimes it’s in one door and it’s out the other, sometimes it’s in one door and I’m goin’ home.
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4. |
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And I’m movin’ on, but I don’t wanna let it show. So I move real slow.
You travel the world. I watch from my home. I wake up in the evening and tip-toe around my comfort zone. Tell me what it is like to not know the street on your right. Is it different in the morning from how it looked at night? I heard that the pavement can contort in the light. Do you marvel at monuments you pass by?
‘Cause I’m movin’ on, but I don’t wanna let it show. So I move real slow.
When you realize your footsteps have been worn into the ground, It’ll make it so much easier for your body to be found. Is the concrete as cold one million miles away, or somehow with the climate did it manage to change? I heard it’s a backdrop, all the world is a stage(dive).
It’s easier to get away when man-made walls disintegrate, and lines on maps begin to fade. You’ll see this street for the first time. I’d love to remember what that is like.
‘Cause all I have are empty teacups to base my opinions on. All I have are empty teacups, will you tell me that’s enough? Cause otherwise, I’ll have to see it for myself.
And I’m movin’ on, but I don’t wanna let it show. So I move real slow.
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5. |
Shaving
03:42
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I’ve been dragging razor blades over my face for about ten years straight, from the week I turned thirteen. Well, yesterday I turned twenty-three. Dad used to joke that he could shave with a knife. I’ve never seen a cut on his face in all of my life. I hope my skin thickens into the kind of man I want to be.
You’re numb? Yeah, sure, I’ve been numb. It’s when you have so many choices, you end up choosing none. And you’re bored, I think I know the sort. As long as you don’t end up there as your first resort.
One time a drunk news presenter from RTE, took the time out of her busy night to explain to me, that boredom is a pretty recent term and forty years ago, no one used the word
And there is so much more than this, some people survive by the skin of their wrist. And I had to let you know.
I saw what was basically a child propped up on stage. He proceeded to say nothing in the loudest way. I lock my jaw so tight, point my eyes at the ground, in a futile effort to repel the sound.
As my mind starts to wander away, it calls back just to ask me was I ever this way?
The chords seem so familiar, although his speech is slurred. I notice we’ve the same shaving lines as he utters the words:
And there is so much more than this, some people survive by the skin of their wrist. And I had to let you know
Things won’t be the same again.
At six a.m., eight years ago, I was lying in the middle of the Old Bawn Road, singing “I don’t care if any cars come, I won’t rise before the sun.”
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CHEWIE Dublin, Ireland
DIY Punk from Dublin, Ireland.
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