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City Folk

by Miodes

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1.
Day 03:04
Day – and old Maureen comes With her plastic bags And her fags and beer To sit on a bench And watch the day go by Over the bridge the first trains come Bringing fresh waves of commuters Who ride from the suburbs To sit in offices full of telephones and computers Up in the flats a baby cries for its mother And two lovers cry out to each other Before the alarm tears them from each other’s arms To the world of work – and its folly But this town is full of drinkers and smokers And park-bench-sitters like me All wondering if we’ll ever be What we were meant to be The sun goes down And the clouds drift overhead And day ends as it began, With all the world has left unsaid: Maureen in a daze The baby lulled to sleep And through the darkening terraces The long shadows creep But this town is full of drinkers and smokers And park-bench-sitters like me All wondering if we’ll ever be What we were meant to be This town is full of drinkers and smokers And park-bench-sitters like me Wandering Through their days
2.
Letterkenny 02:39
The streets here have names that recall Some country or county or city or village or town Where the feet that stagger on pavements here Once skipped along a wall Mary came from Donegal If you ask her the reason she ended up her It would seem that she didn’t have any No she cannot recall why she came to east London Or why she left Letterkenny There was a young man she once loved and married And a child conceived and carried But over the years they went their ways And in Bethnal Green Mary tarried Mary came from Donegal If you ask her the reason she ended up her She will only answer you vaguely No she cannot recall why she came to east London Or why she left Letterkenny She claimed from a broken chapel Francis Of Assisi And with pottery boots and geraniums and garden gnomes On her patio stands he And a faded flag of Ireland Flaps in the soft evening breeze Mary came from Donegal And she’s too old and tired To ponder the mystery No she cannot recall why she came to east London Or why she left Letterkenny Why she lives all alone All alone in east London And why she left Letterkenny
3.
Please come now Mr Peters It is time for us to leave At the third left down the corridor There’s a place for you to breathe We’ll make a cup of tea With a biscuit on the side But we cannot make amends for The passing of the bride Church bells were ringing Flowers In her hair It was a blessing she was unaware Oh what became of his lady fair She must be an angel in heaven Oh Mr Peters It is best you did not stay We have done all within our power But she has passed away We’ll telephone a taxi And homewards you will ride May the world go past in silence for The passing of the bride Oh Mr Peters She is dead, she is dead We have another patient Waiting for her bed We’ll make that cup of tea With a biscuit on the side Now you have your life to contemplate The passing of the bride Church bells were ringing Flowers In her hair It was a blessing she was unaware Oh what became of his lady fair She must be an angel in heaven Oh she must be an angel in heaven
4.
Eastside 04:01
Dance for your daddy my little laddie Dance for your daddy my little one You shall have a little fishy on a little dishy When the boat comes in…… All of his dreams were written on slips Slips of white paper, he floated like ships: The scratch-cards, the numbers The race and the draw - Every week they were crumpled And thrown on the floor. Monday the horses, Tuesday the dogs Wednesday the arcade - to spin the fruit cogs Thursday the Bingo, Friday the brokers (With the last of the brass tongues and pokers) Saturday the lottery - and another sod has got the nod Sunday to Church and pray (So help me God) I need some money for plumbers to mend I need some presents for children to send I want a house with a garden I’ll trim Oh when will that bloody boat come in? There goes the brewery. There go the pubs. No rolling barrels and empty the tubs There go the shipyards. There go the docks - And those boats they never more come in. They found him in the evening With a tinny on the go The credits were running on A television show. There were odds – there were evens Down the cracks of his chair And a stack of bills But no winnings there He died, he died Waiting for his boat to come in Down came his sweet chariot But his boat it never did come in.
5.
There’s been another murder in Bow Fourteen police cars went screaming past that’s how I know And I don’t think they were heading out for sandwiches Or catching a cross-eyed teenager with an aerosol can Or an enterprising house-wife dealing blow No there’s been another murder in Bow… (chorus) And they say run run to the country The towns of Kent and Essex are calling you by name But wherever you stray in England today You’ll find it’s just a little less of more or less the same There’s been another murder in Bow And the high street traffic has come to a standstill And the blokes at the kebab lab stand outside the shops And they ask me what was going on, cos I came from that direction I left moments before the cops Gangsters buy their underwear in the designer boutiques round here There’s been another murder in Bow… And tomorrow they’ll be a headline in the local news And a myriad of stories from which to choose: A shove off a tower-block balcony Or a crack-head who killed a man for his broken down TV Or a street-fight that ended with the plunge of a knife Or a husband who’s done in his unfaithful wife There’s been another murder in Bow And old ladies shake their heads and say it’s time to go… (chorus) The gangsters, the strangers, the police-cars The ambulance and the fire-brigade Are chasing down the road wherever you Just remember next time there’s a murder in Bow
6.
Happy Hour 02:42
Roll out the barrel – rolling heads around We’re going to get well out of it – by sundown Cos we’re all good mates and we’re All in it together Making the most of things as they are Its what we live for Yeh we’re keeping the economy going Keeping the hops and barley crops growing Simply by drinking in the happy hour The beer is cut-price – they’re fighting over us Us losers we’re valuable customers Drinking in the summer sun They can call us what they want… Dilute reality if you see what I mean So God bless the breweries and God save the queen We’ll raise a glass to you all Cos it’s the happy hour… (chorus)
7.
Pigeons 03:04
It was the bidding of the London Mayor To stop feeding pigeons on Trafalgar Square But if you want to feed some pigeons You’ll find plenty her On a Stepney roof overgrown with creeper That in Winter looks like wiry hair And an old lady from Russia Who has lived there for thirty years Well she scatters bread on the ground And the circling pigeons flutter down And oh they have no beauty and no song Such hateful birds – They shit on cars and wreck the pavements They nest under blackened arches And up on the ledges of untidy tenements And oh they have no beauty and no song I’ve lived in Birmingham and London And everywhere I go I see old immigrants with plastic bags full of crumbs Wandering to and fro And they scatter bread on the ground And the circling pigeons flutter down An oh they have no beauty and no song Just shabby grey With no colours but to their own They flock the parks, crowd the ramparts But some people take them to their hearts Although they have no beauty and no song Although they have no beauty and no song
8.
Goldfish and terrapins swim in the canal And parakeets have been seen in the trees Turned out by owners who didn’t want them anymore That’s why they’re living free It’s a hot summer night And there have been many And it’s a wild life in the city The water is clear And the weather is warm And it’s a new life for you, Julie Lonely hearts, divorcees, students and refugees Parked on the parched grass outside The Palm tree The places where they came Couldn’t hold them any longer They had to find another way to be Goldfish and terrapins are fully-grown Living a wild life in the city All of the wild things have fled and flown And it’s a new life for you, Julie And Phil whizzes up In his mobility machine And blasts his stereo To the crowded scene And there’s nothing stopping him or you From doing what you want to do So just do What you want to do It’s a new life for you, Julie…. It’s a new life for you, Julie…. It’s a new life for you, Julie….
9.
Well the man in the chemist spoke Like he’d had a few He’d been sent by the police ‘Cos there was nothing they could do He’d been diagnosed With some disease or other But someone had stolen his prescription For his aches and pains Oh and it as was a Sunday And he couldn’t face going to the doctor’s again Anyway he knew his medicine TEMAZEPAM was its name For his aches For his aches For his aches and pains Well the chemist Couldn’t give the thing that he was after And he couldn’t give out CODEINE either Not without that little piece of paper That was signed by a doctor… So the customer began to get stroppy And made as if to go - But could he have some KAOLIN & MORPHINE For his trouble down below For his troubles And his aches For his aches For his aches and pains Oh what’s the world coming to? What’s a poor man meant to do? Someone stole his prescription And on a Sunday too! Oh I’m sorry said the pharmacist He held up a mallet – but I do have this. Oh go on then, the old boy said Just a nice, neat, quick hard bang on the head For my aches For my aches For my aches and pains
10.
His face was ghost-like in the glow Of the computer screen And his mobile and desk phones Were ringing They wanted a man with unbridled ambition… Now London is calling London is hauling you in And the cleaner is waiting to wipe down your desk And empty out your bin How do you turn shit into gold? (For the first is his current position) In a hole, Dig it deeper Throw in another few million Oh London is calling London is hauling you in And floor by floor the janitor Turns off the lights in the building Oh Life is short, but the day is long. People toil, till the soil, hammer steel Clamber down the mines But he had no knowledge of such things The security guard lets the staff Out of the door But Mr Dean went by way of the stairs To the 25th floor Oh London is calling London is hauling you in But Mr Dean has left the building Oh life is short, but the day is long Life can be so short, but the day is long A farmer plants a grain of rice Into his paddy field And he has no knowledge of Such things Such things Such things
11.
Come with me my friend From the King of Burgers to the World’s End Past the signs for Quicksilver And The Fair Game Keeper Fly fly away for Holidays To Remember We’re taking a trip down Eliot’s streets Of mutters, retreats and sickly sunsets So glad to have you with me In this bid to fight my misery Come with me my friend From the King of Burgers to the World’s End Come with me my friend From the King of Burgers to the World’s End Through these desperate streets we walk… (Break) Come with me my friend Through the swing doors to the World’s End To the corner we take our chair Beneath the neon’s livid glare Where I will try not to sigh Too long into my beer We’re taking a trip down Eliot’s streets Of mutters, retreats and sickly sunsets So glad to have you with me In this bid to fight my misery
12.
Sweet child of the world Talking to me Under a tree in the sun Your voice bouncing Off a satellite to me from Under a tree in the sun Nothing but sky and air Between you and here Nothing matters to me But this thought I have of you Under a tree in the sun Over these dust tracks These ridges, ravines I roam It’s like the surface of the moon How I wish that I could be with you now Under a tree in the sun Oh these roads, these roads That take me away Will one day lead me home Where I’ll sit beside you Under a tree in the sun

credits

released January 15, 2020

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Miodes London, UK

London-based songwriter on the fringes of experimental folk, pop and electronica!

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