1. GRIDLOCK

(Instrumental)


2. WHITE CITY

Here a tower shinning bright
Once stood gleaming in the night
Where now there's just the rubble
In the hole here the paddies and the frogs
Came to gamble on the dogs
Came to gamble on the dogs not long ago

Oh the torn up ticket stubs
From a hundred thousand mugs
Now washed away with dead dreams in the rain
And the car-parks going up
And they're pulling down the pubs
And its just another bloody rainy day

Oh sweet city of my dreams
Of speed and skill and schemes
Like Atlantis you just disappeared from view
And the hare upon the wire
Has been burnt upon your pyre
Like the black dog that once raced
Out from trap two


3. YOUNG NED OF THE HILL

Have you ever walked the lonesome hills
And heard the curlews cry
Or seen the raven black as night
Upon a windswept sky
To walk the purple heather
And hear the westwind cry
To know that's where the rapparee must die

Since Cromwell pushed us westward
To live our lowly lives
There's some of us have deemed to fight
From Tipperary mountains high
Noble men with wills of iron
Who are not afraid to die
Who'll fight with gaelic honour held on high

A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell
You who raped our Motherland
I hope you're rotting down in hell
For the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers
Whom you robbed of their birthright
"To hell or Connaught" may you burn in hell tonight

Of one such man I'd like to speak
A rapparee by name and deed
His family dispossessed and slaughtered
They put a price upon his head
His name is known in song and story
His deeds are legends still
And murdered for blood money
Was young Ned of the hill

You have robbed our homes and fortunes
Even drove us from our land
You tried to break our spirit
But you'll never understand
The love of dear old Ireland
That will forge an iron will
As long as there are gallant men
Like young Ned of the hill

A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell
You who raped our Motherland
I hope you're rotting down in hell
For the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers
Whom you robbed of their birthright
"To hell or Connaught" may you burn in hell tonight


4. MISTY MORNING, ALBERT BRIDGE

I dreamt we were standing
By the banks of the Thames
Where the cold grey waters ripple
In the misty morning light
Held a match to your cigarette
Watched the smoke curl in the mist
Your eyes, blue as the ocean between us
Smiling at me

I awoke so cold and lonely
In a faraway place
The sun fell cold upon my face
The cracks in the ceiling spelt hell
Turned to the wall
Pulled the sheets around my head
Tried to sleep, and dream my way
Back to you again

Count the days
Slowly passing by
Step on a plane
And fly away
I'll see you then
As the dawnbirds sing
On a cold and misty morning
By the Albert Bridge


5. COTTON FIELDS

Now the party's over
And the money's all gone
You remember feeling like
Jesus' son
Your girl has left your side
And now you're gonna get crucified

They're gonna crucify you
Crucify you
Crucify you
Crucify you
In those old cotton fields back home

Too late to joke or crack a smile
You gotta carry
That shit up that drunken mile
When they put the electrodes
In your brain
Even your Mother won't know you're sane
First Lord Nelson's sunken ships
Now Steve Lillywhite's drunken mix


6. BLUE HEAVEN

Alligators snap at your ankles
And branches snap at your brain
If I ever get through this swamp alive
I'll nevermore pray for rain

This must be the place, and still
Somehow it don't seem right
That something in the moon
Could change these endless days
To lonely nights

I take a stroll down by the sea
And walk along the pier
Then I slip and hit my head
Now's the time to fear

See the surface, see the rocks
See my past fly swiftly by
I feel the water in my lungs
And wake up screaming for my life

In my blue heaven
There's a bottle of Pontchartrain
Chalmette by moonlight
To take away the pain

Card sharks and blue harps
And dolphins who can leap
In my Blue Heaven
Where I can laugh
And I can weep

Black shapes zip into corners
The big lads start to crawl
To holes of their own making
In the cracks within the wall

Snakes and rats and spiders
I know that they're still there
I pray to God that I may sleep
Without a hope, without a care

In my blue heaven
There's a bottle of Pontchartrain
Chalmette by moonlight
To take away the pain

Felines and sea lions
And rain on the beach
In my Blue Heaven
With angels who are out of reach

In my blue heaven
There's a bottle of Pontchartrain
Chalmette by moonlight
To take away the pain

Nightingales sing
And the bells they will ring
In my Blue Heaven
The Bells of Hell
Go ding-a-ling-a-ling


7. DOWN ALL THE DAY

Christy Brown a clown around town
Now he's a man of renown from Dingle to Down
I type with me toes
Suck stout through me nose
And where it's gonna end
God only knows

Down all the days
The tap-tap-tapping
Of the typewriter pays
The gentle rattling
Of the drays
Down all the days

I have often had to depend upon
The kindness of strangers
But I've never been asked
And I never replied
If I supported Glasgow Rangers

Down all the days
The tap-tap-tapping
Of the typewriter pays
The gentle rattling
Of the drays
Down all the days


8. USA

When I was young
I watched the cars
When I was older
I drank in bars
When I was young
I chewed the leaves
When I was older
I drank with thieves
I found a love
She gave me dreams
She left me drunk
In New Orleans
So cold and lonely
So all alone
I wished my heart
Was made of stone
I took the cold bright needle
I used it as a sword
My eyes have seen the glory of
The coming of the Lord
I burned across the delta
I swam across the ford
My eyes have seen the glory of
The coming of the Lord
When I was a young man
Standing on this road
My empty belly
An aching hole
An old man said to me
"Kid don't you know
That it's the same
Wherever you go"

I gambled in two graveyards
I won against the odds
With the smiling saints
And the silent saviours
With the maggots and the gods
I cursed the things they showed me
I could never see again
And the howling of the wind at night
I wrote upon the rain

I found the thing
For which I prayed
And came back home
To the USA
With a heart of stone
And now I know
That it's the same
Wherever you go


9. LORELEI

You told me tales of love and glory
Same old sad songs, same old story
The sirens sing no lullaby
And no-one knows but Lorelei
By castles out of fairytales
Timbers shivered where once there sailed
The lovesick men who caught her eye
And no-one knew but Lorelei
River, river have mercy
Take me down to the sea
For if I perish on these rocks
My love no more I'll see
I've thought of you in far-off places
I've puzzled over lipstick traces
So help me God, I will not cry
And then I think of Lorelei
I travel far and wander wide
No photograph of you beside me
Ol' man River's not so shy
And he remembers Lorelei
River, river have mercy
Take me down to the sea
For if I perish on these rocks
My love no more I'll see
If I should float upon this stream
And see you in my madman's dream
I'd sink into your troubled eyes
And none would know 'cept Lorelei
River, river have mercy
Take me down to the sea
For if I perish on these rocks
My love no more I'll see
But if my ship, which sails tomorrow
Should crash against these rocks,
My sorrows I will drown before I die
It's you I'll see, not Lorelei


10. GARTLONEY RATS

The boys from the village were festering sore
For a day on the rant with some music and more
They'd drink porter in Maura's way over in Fore
And never get drunk but stay sober

There was Harry the banjo and Dunne of the swan
With whose bone from the wing he'd beat the bodhran
And the song that he'd sing was of ganders and all
He'd never get drunk but stay sober

There was Woods on the Guitar and auld squeeze box too
Who came from a time before aeroplanes flew
He'd sit in a corner and mule quite a few
And he'd never get drunk but stay sober

There was Mahon the singer who knew all the songs
And never was known to put a foot wrong
He'd sing through the night till the break o' the morn
And he'd never get drunk but stay sober

Then Harry the banjo now there was a man
A bottomless pit if ever there was one
More porter he'd lower that there was in the land
And he'd Never get drunk but stay sober

Well the Gartloney Rats would play away
They'd play for the pints and not for the pay
And the pints they'd go down in the usual way
And they'd never get drunk but stay sober


11. BOAT TRAIN

I met with Napper Tandy and I shook him by the hand
He said hold me up for chrissake, for i can hardly stand
The most disgraceful journey on which i've ever been
The last time that i traveled on the boat train

I had a couple of drinks in town, a few more in the port
I puked up on the gangway but some kind folks helped me board
They sat me at a table, poured whiskey down my throat
Sat me at a table and i lost my watch and coat

First we drank some whiskey
Then we had some gin
Then we had tequila i think that's what did me in
Then we had some brandy and the women had a dance
The steward then announced that we could play the game of chance

We crowded round the table with our money in our hands
I landed on the other side without a penny in my pants
Woke up in the toilet when we got to holyhead
The doors were all a-banging and i wished that i was dead

Then we went through customs
A couple of credited thugs
First they looked for bombs and guns
Then they looked for drugs
Stuck a flashlight up my ass
Told some Irish jokes
Said "fuck off now paddy"
So i headed for the smoke
On the boat train

We got on board the train and then we had a drink or two
Started playing poker but the booze ran out at crewe
Some people started sleeping, others looked for duty free
Some bastard started singing "little cottage by the lee"
He then sang "paper roses," "boolavogue," "eileen aru"
Somebody started slagging off the Pakis and the Jews
Found a bottle of whiskey
Found a bottle of gin
I sat down in the corner and i read the daily news
First i drank the whiskey
Then i drank the gin
I tried to make the toilet
But i broke my fucking shin
The next thing that i knew i was in london in the rain
Staggering up the platform on the boat train


12. TOMBESTONE

The night is dark, the moon is full
Across the blood red plain
Every step and every breath
Brings me nearer home
The spirits watch me on my way
They whisper on the wind
And when the dawn lights up the sky
I'll see my land again

A hot wind blows the scrub and dust
across the barren land
Trees stand bare like skeletons
The mountains all torn down
The water holes are dry as bones
No birds are singing now
And faraway a city stands
Tombstones against the sky


13. NIGHT TRAIN TO LORCA

Across the dark and dusty plain
Where scars of old dry rivers run
Night unfolds, a coal black shroud
Across the hard and stony ground

Distant stars shining bright
In the cavern of the night
All is still and silence screams
To the thunder of the Lorca train

Flaming steal swift as wind
Wires hum the rails ring
Smokestack burning fiery sparks
Rise up to the stars

Towns asleep by empty roads
Churches rise from crooked roofs
Cloaked in darkness nothing stirs
Grow smaller darker disappear

See the moon so still and cold
A million stars that shed no warmth
Your nightmares all come out to play
In the silver light

Wait for sunrise in the east
Long shadows crawl across the plain
The ghosts of night will disappear
And lay your fears to rest

Steam hissed up, the hot coals glowed
The furnace blazed, the wheels they rolled
On tracks of iron, straight and cold
The silver moonlight danced

The flames are in the fireman's eye
Orange in the engines glow
Gleaming pistons whirling cranks
Wait for dawn the rooster's crow


14. LONDON YOU'RE A LADY

Ah London you're a lady
Laid out before my eyes
Your heart of gold it pulses
Between your scarred up thighs
Your eyes are full of sadness
Red busses skirt your hem
Your head-dress is a ring of lights
But I would not follow them
Your architects were madmen
Your builders sane but drunk
Among your faded jewels
Shine acid house and punk

You are a scarlet lady
Your streets run red with blood
Oh my darling they have used you
And covered you with mud
It was deep down in your womb my love
I drank my quart of sin
While chinamen played cards and draughts
And knocked back mickey finns

Your piss is like a river
Its scent is beer and gin
Your hell is in the summer
And you blossom in the spring
September is your purgatory
Christmas is your heaven
And when the stinking streets of summer
Are washed away by rain
At the dark end of a lonely street
That's where you lose your pain
'Tis then your eyes light up my love
And sparkle once again


15. STAR OF THE COUNTY DOWN

Near to Banbridge Town, in the County Down
One morning last July
Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen
And she smiled as she passed me by
She looked so sweet from her two bare feet
To the sheen of her nut-brown hair
Such a coaxing elf, sure I shook myself
For to see I was really there

(Chorus)
From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay
And from Galway to Dublin town
No maid I've seen like the brown colleen
That I met in the County Down

As she onward sped sure I scratched my head
And I looked with a feeling rare
And I says, says I, to a passer-by
"Who's the maid with the nut-brown hair?"
He smiled at me, and he says says he
"That's the gem of Ireland's crown
Young Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann,
She's the Star of the County Down."

(Chorus)

At the harvest fair she'll be surely there
And I'll dress in my Sunday clothes
With my shoes shone bright and my hat cocked right
For a smile from my nut-brown rose
No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke
Till my plough turns a rust coloured brown
Till a smiling bride by my own fireside
Sits the Star of the County Down

(Chorus)


16. THE LIMERICK RAKE

I am a young fellow that's easy and bold,
In Castletown Conners I'm very well known;
In Newcastle West I spent many a note
With Kitty and Jenny and Mary.
My parents rebuked me for being such a rake
And spending my time in such frolicsome ways,
But I ne've could forget the good nature of Jane,
Agus fagaimid siud mar ata se.

There's some say I'm foolish, there's more say I'm wise,
For love of the women I'm sure 'tis no crime;
For the son of King David had ten thousand wives
And his wisdom is highly recorded.

If I chance for to go to the town of Rathkeel,
The girls all around me do flock on the square,
Some give me a bottle and others sweetcakes,
To treat me unknown to their parents,
There's one from Askeaton and one from the Pyke,
And another from Ardour, my heart was beguiled,
And being from the mountains, her stockings were white,
Agus fagaimid siud mar ata se.

John Damer of Shronel had plenty of gold
And Devonshire's treasure was twenty times more,
But he's laid on his back among nettles and stones,
Agus fagaimid siud mar ata se.

And when I'm on my back and I'm laid to rest
The women will crowd for to cry at my wake,
And their sons and their daughters will utter their prayers
To the Lord for the sake of their father.


17. TRAIN OF LOVE

(Instrumental)


18. EVERYMAN IS A KING

In search of a good life the Pilgrims set sail
Then all through the new land they blazed their brave trails
The iron horse speeding down freshly-laid rails
Brought settlers determined to prosper

From the far corners they made it their home
The ities and germans, the paddies the poles
Goin' down in the dirt comin' up with the gold
Like Bill Fuller, the Kennedys and Corleones

Life is so good in the US of A
Live out you dreams in Amerikay
If you've gut the guts and the bucks, it is said
Every man is a king in the US of A
Every man is a king in Amerikay

The pilgrims these days they are called astronauts
They seek new battlefields on the moon and beyond
To wage their star wars in the sky by-and-by
And to shit on us all from on high

Then when it's all over and the world is no more
When the White House and Kremlin have settled their score
The stars and stripes flag will fly high, proud out there in space
And that's why we all love the United States

In the land of Republican automatons
Uncle Sam's forces so gung-ho and bronzed
Just waiting their orders from Washington
To fight for your peace and your freedom

Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador
How foolish of you not to open your doors
To the Hersheys, Budweisers, McDonalds and more.....
This wonderful life could be yours.


19. YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH

I didn't show it I was a fool
You were burning I was cold as ice
And baby now I realize
Oh yeah

(Chorus)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah (yeah yeah yeah yeah)

Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh

I gave you misery I gave you lies
I never hurt you, apologize
I love your lips I love your eyes
I love your breasts I love your thighs

(Chorus)

Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh

Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh

Now all I can do is hope and pray
That you'll forgive me before it's too late
There's only one thing I can say to you
You know I love you you know it's true
Oh yeah

(Chorus)

Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh

Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh
Wooo-oooh-oooh-oooh

(Chorus)...


20. HONKY TONK WOMEN

I met a gin-soaked barroom queen in Memphis,
She tried to take me upstairs for a ride.
She had to heave me right across her shoulder,
Cause I just can't seem to drink you off my mind.

It's the honky tonk women,
That gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.

I laid a divorcee in New York City,
I had to put up some kind of a fight.
The lady, then she covered me in roses,
She blew my nose and then she blew my mind.

It's the honky tonk women,
That gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.
It's the honky tonk women,
That gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.
It's the honky tonk women,
That gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.