Mummer

O ladybird
I have heard you wish to walk me through your garden
I crave your pardon if i woke you with my thinking
Ladybird

O ladybird
I have heard you wish to walk me through your meadow
You'll spread no wings to fly in fright if i'm beside you
Ladybird

All through the winter time
When wood was warm and splintered
Time seemed longer than a goods train
Now that spring is back again i'll ask your name
Your name

O ladybird
I have heard you wish to walk across my pillow
No weeping willow was ever as beautiful, sad as you are
Ladybird

And as you're walking past
I'm laying on the grass and making chains of thought
To snare you with my wit
But bit by bit you fade to gone
Gone

All through the iron season
Love was hanged and treason became
Something of a parlour game
Now sun is back in power i'll ask your name
Your name

O ladybird
I have heard you have to run to tend your children
No flood can drown nor fire blacken purest longing
For ladybird
Ladybird

Boom goes my heart
Dancing around your daisies
Church bells will start
Sat on you reading your ages
I drift away
In loving memory of a name

Covered in moss
You may have died for your country
Forgotten not lost
You're laid to rest where you're wanted
I stare awhile
In loving memory of a name

England can never repay you
You gave your life to be buried alongside
The place you loved
The sermons attended when you were young
Still echo round these churchyard walls

Heroes and rogues
Together surrounded by nature
Lump in my throat
Sat in the land of your maker
I drift away
In loving memory of a name

Funk pop a roll beats up my soul
Oozing like napalm from the speakers and grill
Of your radio
Into the mouths of babes
And across the backs of its willing slaves

Funk pop a roll consumes you whole
Gulping in your opium so copiously from a disco
Everything you eat is waste
But swallowing is easy when it has no taste

They can fix you rabbits up
With your musical feed
They can fix you rabbits up
Big money selling you stuff that you do not need

Funk pop a roll for fish in shoals
Music by the yard for the children they keep
Like poseable dolls
The young to them are mistakes
Who only want bread but they're force-fed cake

Funk pop a roll the only goal
The music business is a hammer to keep
You pegs in your holes
But please don't listen to me
I've already been poisoned by this industry!

Funk pop a roll beats up my soul

Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Me and the wind are pulling kites and pushing tress
Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Me and the wind are feeling freer than air should ever be
Should ever be should ever be should ever

And when you lured me into your syrup
All i could think of was what a lovely way for me to go
I never really realised that

Just like the struggling summer flies that
I was drowning no matter how sweet or how slow

Have i been such a fool
Have i been sitting on your stool
While you cracked the whip
While you cracked the whip

I danced imprisoned in your drumbeat
Your tune of spring had me whirling like a mad march
Merry hare
It never really came to mind that

The strings of your instrument were strangling me
Inside their snare

Have i been such a fool
Have i been sitting on your stool
While you held the hoop
While you held the hoop

Now that i'm out and i'm shouting in doorways
Freed from a love more like murder
I should be singing but in liberation
Feel like a ship with no rudder

Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Have i been such a fool

Do you know what noise awakes you
Every morning from your bed
A-coming from the farthest hillside
A-coming from inside your head

You have heard
You have heard the loudest sound
In this and every world you can think of

Chorus: louder than tanks on the highway
Louder than bombers in flight
Louder than noises of hatred
Dancing us from darkest night is the rhythm of love
Powered on the the beating of hearts

And did you know you had this power?
Drumming on it always stays
Never try to use it badly
Tunes of good are all it plays

You have heard
You have heard the loudest sound
In this and every world you can visit

Chorus

For a heart without love is a song with no words
And a tune to which no-one is listening
So your heart must give love and you'll find that
You shine like rain on the leaves you'll be glistening

You have heard
You have heard the loudest sound
In this and every world you can think of

Louder than thoughts of dictators
Louder than rattling swords
Louder than loading of rifles
Louder than screaming warlords

Chorus