A PLACE IN THE SUN


Seven weeks it rained, from June until July
In August we set out for the equator
I sold my red guitar, Joey sold a red-hot car
We crossed rhe channel hidden in a freighter

We hitched a ride to Lyon in an open Mini-Moke
A drunken driver took us to Marseilles

I could say "Bonjour", Joey knew the law
The rest we memorized along the way

Everything we said, everything we'd done
Every cheque we'd saved, every hand we'd won
We put it all on a place in the sun
Every scheme we'd set, every crooked bet
We came to find a place in the sun

The beggars and the thieves swiftly marked us for a
squeeze
We panicked and booked rooms inside a hovel
Hashish in the halls, whisphers through the walls
We found our hotel doubled as a brothel

We heard of work picking fruit down on the coast
We slipped out of the hotel in the night
When we got off at the beach
We had 22 francs each
Joey kept the money out of sight

Everything we said, everything we'd done
Every cheque we'd saved, every hand we'd won
We put it all on a place in the sun
Every scheme we'd set, every crooked bet
We came to find a place in sun

The agency's address was bar in St. Tropez
Between the diet doctor and the bakers
Hanging from the till was God on a dollar bill
A doorway led straight to the undertakers

The work they had in mind wasn't oranges or grapes
A different kind fruit to be exported
Joey thought it wise to check the merchandise
We did, they ran, we ended up deported!

Everything we said, everything we'd done
Every cheque we'd saved, every hand we'd won
We put it all on a place in the sun
Every scheme we'd set, every crooked bet
We came to find a place in the sun

AUSTRALIA


Now you're off in Australia
Have you opened new doors
We said keep in touch but we don't write so much
Have we nothing to say anymore

There were tears at the airport
There were jokes and goodbyes
We said it is clear, just the whiskey and beer
Gone to water our eyes

Then you're gone and I'm thinking
Would I see you again
I felt part of me follow you over sea
I'd lost more than a friend

Does the food taste so good there
Does the air smell so sweet
Is there greener grass
Water clear as glass
Does your life feel complete

They say the world's getting smaller
But at the moment we seem worlds apart
It could have been different
It could have been me
That made the new start

Now you're off in Australia
Now you've opened that door
We said keep in touch but we don't write so much
Have we nothing to say anymore

BARRETT'S PRIVATEERS


Oh the year was seventeen seventy eight
I wish I were in Sherbrooke now!
A letter of marque came from the King
To the scummiest vessel I've ever seen
God Damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barratt's privateers.

Oh Elcid Barratt cried the town,
For twenty brave men, all fishermen, who
Would make for him the Antelope's crew,
The Antelope sloop was a sickening sight.

She'd a list to port and her sails in rags,
And a cook in the scuppers with staggers and jags.
On the King's birthday we put to sea.

We were ninety-one days to Montego bay,
Pumping like madmen all the way.
On the ninety-sixth day we sailed again.

When a bloody great Yankee hove in sight
With our cracked four-pounders we made to fight
The Yankee lay low down with gold.

She was broad and fat and loose in stays,
But to catch her took the Antelope two whole days
Then at length we stood two cables away.

Our cracked four-pounders made an awful din,
But with one fat ball the Yank stove us in.
The Antelope shook and pitched on her side.

Barratt was smashed like a bowl of eggs,
And the maintruck carried off both me legs.
So here I lay in my twenty-third year.
It's been six years since we sailed away,
And I just made Halifax yesterday.

BILLY MORGAN


Morgan, the man with no tan, comes in on the midday
train
Takes a room in the pensione down by the beach
Unwraps his pistol, counts out the bullets beside it
Four bullets, two men, it's certain with two bullets
each

Down in the town the old men sit round by the harbour
Watch as the tourists break all ettiquette in the bars
At twilight the festival starts with a feast in the
plaza
Followed by music and wine, fireworks and cigars

Twilight arrives, the streets come alive
The Mayor and the Chief watch it begin
A girl on a bike turns very businesslike
Leaves fifty grand and a pardon for her sins

Goodbye Billy Morgan
Known from Amsterdam to Tripoli
You can taste your death in every silent breath
Fear the curse, thought the enemy

On Morgan's cheap TV the Ministers agree at the summit
In a room straight above there's a couple making love
with a cheer
Out across the water the statue of Christ throws a
shadow
It falls across the city to the window of the volunteer

On the Avenue de France a beggar does a dance
Sells 'chocolate' to the marching band in masks
The Gaudia Civil get a tip about a kill
Morgan doubts but no-ones out to ask

The festivals begun, Morgan tucks the gun inside his
jacket
Walks towards the plaza singing 'Boys of the Old
Brigade'
Is followed by a rifle, confronted by the guards at the
corner
Lifts his hands like the statue and dies in the
fusillade

Now the gunfire's heard, someone gives the word
Fireworks crash, the marching band turns right
Someone in a mask throws a bomb, does the task
Rides of with the girl on the back of a motorbike

BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE


I went out one morning in the Spring
To Blackfriars Bridge to watch the tide come in
The tide came in and covered up the ruins and the mud
Beneath the sun it flowed like a vein of blood

To the North there lies the Temple and the Tower
The Treasuries and sanctuaries of power
I looked along the river to the shores of Silvertown
Putting up castles, what are they tearing down?

Down to the river, up to the sea
People in the city are making history
Changing history...

One view shows a white Cathedral dome
Galleries and Mansions made of stone
One view shows a ghetto rise beyond the sewerage
One of these views they call our heritage

Down to the river, up to the sea
People in the city are making history
Changing history...

Once from Wapping docks the pirates came
Plundered ships at anchor for the gain
They hung them in the morning from the Northern
riverside
Washed away their memory with the tide

Down to the river, up ro the sea
People in the city are making history
Changing history...

Down to the river, up ro the sea
People in the city are making history
Changing history, changing history...

BOUNTY HUNTER


I stand as a witness to a jury and judge
And for all my sins I will answer
My name you'll know my trade you'll see
I am the Bounty Hunter
I as no friendship, I seek no badge
I always travel alone
I take no partners, lose no friends
I keep my Christian name unknown
My weapons are guns and cunning and speed
My prize is the colour of green
And if my service is easily bought
My faith has never been
Dead or alive I carry them in
The cowardly and the silent
For seeking bounty belonging to you
The rope delivers a judgement
My weapons are guns and cunning and speed
My prize is the colour of green
And if my service is easily bought
My faith has never been
Spirit breaking, widow making Bounty hunter
Mine is the chase and the luck of the draw
Yours is the iron hand of the state
Yours is the book, the bell and the rope
Mine is the Gamblers fate
Debt-collecting sin-inspecting bounty hunter
Never failing devil trailing bounty hunter
I stand as a witness to a jury and judge
And for all my sins I will answer
My name you know, my trade you'll see
I am the Bounty Hunter
My weapons are guns and cunning and speed
My prize is the colour of green
If my service is easily bought
My faith has never been
Debt-collecting sin-inspecting bounty hunter
Never failing devil trailing bounty hunter

COMPANY TOWN


In the town I was born
Things are getting very strange
People there I hardly recognize
All of my old set have packed there bags and left
Since home became a business enterprise

There are jobs going spare
And there's houses being built
The credits good at all the company stores
All the air is clean, and all the pavemenrs gleam
And everyone obeys the Company laws

Mister Company Man on the Company land
Stands every street and building in the town
Every park, every green, every home and dream
The Company owns every piece of ground
And everybody in the Company Town

Now they've locked away the drunks
And gentrified the pubs
Given guns to all the supermarket corps
They've eradicated Crime, and the buses run on time
They've made the act ot love against the law

Mister Company Man on the Company land
Stands every street and building in the town
Every park, every green, every home and dream
The Company owns every piece of ground
And everybody in the Company Town

Some folks say they are lucky in their birth
And their nationality bequeaths them pride
But those who own the earrh are still tethering the
serfs
With Company allegiance fully tied
With Company allegiance fully tied

Mister Company Man on the Company land
Stands every street and building in the town
Every park, every green, every home and dream
The Company owns every piece of ground
And everybody in the Company Town
And everybody in the Company Town

In the town I was born
Things are getting very strange
People there I hardly recognize
All of my old set have packed there bags and left
Since home became a business enterprise

COUNTRY SONG


Some of us are born to lead
Some of us are born to breed
And some of us are born to sing love songs
Some of us are born to win
Some of us are born to sin
And some of us are good old country boys
Chorus:
So when you're feeling blue, here's what I'll do for
you
I'll pick up my guitar and start to play
And when I've made my choice I will raise my voice
And sing you a good old country love song
I'll sing a song of divorce
Or tell of lack of intercourse
Starving kids and tramps along the road
I'll sing about the gamblin' man
And God will save him if he can
Just prove his dominoes a bible
Chorus
Mama used to sing me a fine country tune
As my dinner was a stewin'
Yeah my Ma did everything for me
I thank the Lord above
He gave me life and he gave me love
Chorus
I'll tell you of my prison years
If I can just hold back the tears
Thinking of the bad things that I done
But I can't help a little smile
When I recall that sweet little child
Waiting at the gates when they released me
Chorus
Now she's waiting home hummin' a fine country tune
As my dinner is a stewin'
Yeah that girl does everything for me
I thank the Lord above
He gave me hope and he gave me love
Chorus
Well I don't care about sex or race
So long as you stay in your place
I'll find room for you in my song
I glamourise war and death
I epitomize self righteousness
And I'll never do my country wrong
Chorus

DANCING ON THE PIER


Pick me up at Seven O'Clock
Down by the harbour lights
We're crammed in on the back seat
Like a case of dynamite
We're headed for the dockside
To drown the working blues
In noisy bars and custom cars
And blue suede dancing shoes

Dancing on the pier!
Seven O'Clock till Two!
Kissing in the shadows
Of the avenue
Dancing on the pier!
Start the weekend here!
Friday best, no casual dress
And bring your dancing shoes

There's money in my pocket
A pound for a pound of sweat
But the clock in at the shipyard
Hasn't pinned my balls up yet!
So I'm whirling like a dervish
On this Mecca ballroom floor
My mother met my father here
In Nineteen Fifty Four

Dancing on the pier!
Seven O'Clock till Two!
Kissing in the shadows
Of the avenue
Dancing on the pier!
Start the weekend here!
Friday best, no casual dress
And bring your dancing shoes

Outside the ships are leaving
Like palaces of light
The dockyard horns are sounding out
Their sirens in the night
But back inside the ballroom
Where the bright light music plays
I'm sweating up my troubles
Like the dirt of a working day

Dancing on the pier!
Seven O'Clock till Two!
Kissing in the shadows
Of the avenue
Dancing on the pier!
Start the weekend here!
Friday best, no casual dress and

Dancing on the pier!
Seven O'Clock till Two!
Kissing in the shadows
Of the avenue
Dancing on the pier!
Start the weekend here!
Friday best, no casual dress
And bring your dancing shoes

Bring your dancing shoes

DOVER LIGHTS


Waiting for morning on the ferry boat deck 5 miles out of Calais
Tired and cold and wet to the skin watching the waves and the spray
Ten years have gone by like the roll of the tide since I signed for the
merchant marine
Now all I want is dry land and a home in a country that I've rarely seen
Home, hurry home
To valleys green
And cliffs so tall and so white
Home, hurry home
I can see the lights of Dover through the night
Teachers of England instructed me well, strength comes from iron and fire
Freedom was won from the barrel of a gun, law comes from palace and spire
I carried the wealth of this land 'cross the sea till the ships and the cargoes
grew slack
Now many Jack Tar is washed up in a bar and many ships will never come back
The ship's bar is closed, there's a gang of fifteen talking of flags and of
blood
Drunken with fighting the face of John Bull stands for violence, England and God
Did I dream of a homeland so distantly remembered
Of warmth, work, welfare, peace for all?