Peace And Love

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

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

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

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

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

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 pontchetrain
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 pontchetrain
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 pontchetrain
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

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

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 travelled on
The boat train

I had a couple of drinks in town
A few more at the port
I puked up on the gangway
But some kind folks helped me board
They helped me to a table
Poured whiskey down my throat
They sat me at a table
And i lost my watch and coat

First we drank some whiskey
Then we drank some gin
Then we drank tequila
I think that's what did me in
Then we drank 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 ended up on the other side
Without a penny in my pants
I 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 joints
Then they looked for drugs
Stuck a flashlight up my ass
Told us where there's jobs
Said "fuck off" now paddy
So i headed for [the s]moke
On the boat train


(or then we went through customs
With a couple of crazy thugs
First they looked for [bombs] and joints
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 s]moke
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
"the little cottage by the lee"
He then sang "paper roses"
"boolavogue" "eileen aru"
Somebody started slagging off
The pakis and the jews

First i found some whiskey
Then i found some 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
And i broke my fuckin shin
Next thing that i knew
I was in london in the rain
Staggering up the platform
Off the boat train