1. |
Growing Up
03:35
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Street lights on, first love's a calling me
Across the bridge, from where she's meeting me
These gas work nights, I dream about all day
I know her name, but won't share it anyway
Growing up, in my town
Growing up in my town
Growing up as the night falls down
Growing up, in my town
Friday night; pool, a pint, a cigarette
At seventeen there's still places that we're not served yet
Underaged and over-boozed, confident like megaphones
We're playing grown-ups now, but none of us as yet left home
I rode my bike down Prinny Avenue
French kissing in the dark with you
From a boy to man, as the clock struck ten
Oh, if your boyfriend only knew
Me and Steve, we fell out over Emily
And ten years on there's still places that we cannot be
We left our town, we never said goodbye
Mistakes you make, can last past closing time.
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2. |
I Hear
01:59
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I hear you're married now
and how was I to know?
I found a photograph when we were 18 years old
At university
that's when we went our separate ways
we left our home town expecting better things
Come Christmas holidays
an emotional return
We swore our love again, exchanging in turn
I really loved you then
and I thought that we would last
But then the summer came and you'd grown and changed, and fast
I hear you're married now
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3. |
Losing Streak
03:04
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I've sold cars, worked in bars
I carried lumber through the timber yard
Picked crops, worked in shops
I sold tobacco working down the docks
I've done what I've had to do
It's two for me but three for you
Door to door, selling doors
Never opened always closed
My own firm, my own flop
It just starts and then it stops
I've done what I thought was right
I worked all day I drank all night
I'm just getting by on a losing streak
I'm the master of my own defeat
I'm 18 to 1 against this horse won't clear another fence
and it's just our lass and me against the world
Stacking shelves with Christmas elves
Kids come in and help themselves
Washing pots, mashing hops
Collecting all the all the bottle tops
I've done all the work I can
There's not much left for a working man
I've driven vans, I've been in bands
I had to buy my own mic stands
Coast to coast on tea and toast
But success had other plans
I've done all the work I can
and there's not much left for a working man
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4. |
POETS Day
04:27
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200 miles apart, away from home with a lonely working heart
a mobile phone and my tools chucked in the car
and I'm up before the dawn, I think of you and how you keep my body warm
I lace my boots up, I pull my overalls on
Now the boys are telling tales of last nights jokes and drinks and flirting with the girls
how Fletch attempts to cheat his wife and every night he fails
and I call each night at nine, sat in the digs you say the kids are doing fine
your mum came round this evening and she drank too much white wine
And you are so beautiful
You're the woman of my making
You are so beautiful
My heart is yours for taking
You are the shooting stars
The aeroplanes the trains the cars
The young men singing in the pubs
The old man's smile of forgotten love
the ocean bed, the mountain top
the village green the corner shop
you are all the words I say
you are my POETS Day
Now I'm working all the time
The house just eats my wages, but you say we're getting by
we're bouncing round the credit cards and selling stuff online
I've twelve days on, two days off
The lads all drink for England or until they all throw up
In the corner of a northern town my kids are growing up
And you are all, beautiful
You're the reason why I'm working
You are all, beautiful
but my heart is slowly breaking.
You are the shooting stars
The aeroplanes the trains the cars
The young men singing in the pubs
The old man's smile of remembered love
the ocean bed, the mountain top
the village green the corner shop
you are all the words I say
you are my POETS Day
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5. |
Our Mate Pete
04:45
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We didn't do that much wrong
Me old man said 'be careful son'
Just kicking down the streets
there was me, Steve and our mate Pete
Climbing over walls
Sarah Jackson used to show it all
and we were just thirteen
We were mystified, with feasting eyes
but we were fucking keen
And that's where I learnt the ropes
and where Pete learnt all his dirty jokes
In Sarah's folk's backyard
we drank Cinzano mixed with 7Up
our music was the charts
And though it only seems like yesterday
It was years ago we grew and moved away
And young hearts always say; they'll stay friends
We didn't know what time brings
We didn't that much right
We were guided by the chip shop light
We Three Musketeers
Through changes upon changes and the pounding of the years
We got told 'get employed'
A mechanic, a scholar and a solider boy
and Pete learnt to drive tanks
while Steve fixed cars and motorbikes
I studied for exams
The second desert war arrived
and Pete went off to battle and to try and stay alive
Then Pete's mum calls
She tells me he's not coming home and she cursed the fucking war
And though it only seems like yesterday
It was years ago we grew and moved away
And young hearts always say; they'll stay friends
We didn't know what time brings
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John Hardy Nottingham, UK
'Driven vans, been in bands, had to buy my own mic stands' goes a line form track 3 on the EP Our Mate John. That's what I've done and it's taken me a long time to be able to write these songs. Trying to find my own voice, not to copy and be original is something not always rewarded in music, but it's something I strive to be. ... more
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