Love Is A Voyage

For all our languages we can't communicate
For all our native tongues we're all native here
Sons of their fathers' dream the same dream
The sound of forbidden words become a scream
Voices of anger, victims of history
Plundered and set aside, grown fat on swallowed pride
With promises of paradise and gifts of beads and knives
Missionaries and pioneers are all soldiers in disguise
Saviors and conquerors they make us wait
The fishers of men they wave their truth like bait
With the touch of a strangers' hand innocence turns to shame
The spirit that dwelt within it sleeps out in the rain
For all our native tongues we can't communicate
For all our native tongues we're all natives here
The scars of the past are slow to disappear
The cries of the dead are always in our ears
Only the very safe can talk about wrong and right
Of those who are forced to choose some will choose to fight

Promesses de paradis terrestre,
Presents de perles et de coutreaux
Missionnaires et poinniers sont des soldats saveurs deguises
Survivants et conquerants,
Ils nous font attendre
Des charlatans ondulant
Leur verite comme un applat
Au toucher d'une main atrange
L'innocence se convertit en deshonneur
L'esprit qui demeure a l'interieur
Dort dans la pluie

Malgre toutes nos langues,
Nous ne pouvons communiquer
Malgre toutes nos langues natives,
Nous sommes tous natifs ici
Les cicatrices du passe sont lentes a disparaitre
Les complaintes des morts resonnent toujours
Dans notre tete le bien du mal
De ceux forces de choisir,
Quelques uns choisiront de lutter

Now that we have come this far
Don't be frightened by the night
Just let me be your guardian angel
You will be my guiding light

We've been on this road so long
And sometimes not know where we are
That's when i'd be your lost horizon
You would be my shangri la

Praise slips out so easily
It may not sound sincere
But it only seems to come to me
Whenever you are near

So thank you for the joy ou bring
Thank you for your love each night
I'll always be your guardian angel
Always be my guiding light

When the sun is far too strong
When the wind is cold as ice
That's when i'll be your life's oasis
You will be my paradise

So thank you for the joy you bring
Thank you for your love each night
I'll always be your guardian angel
Always be my guiding light

Yes i'll always be your guardian angel
As long as you'll be my guiding light

These are the thoughts of a father
On the wedding day of his daughter
As his mind wanders back to the first time he held her
He looks at her now, the same pride in his eyes
As onto the dance floor they glide
It's the dance of the bride and her father.


[Chorus]
Dance with me daughter of mine
On this your wedding day
Dance with me daughter of mine
You'll soon be going away
I've loved you since you first began
Now you've met a new man
But I love you so, and this you must know
That my love won't falter
So dance with me daughter
Beautiful daughter of mine.

We walk down the aisle
On my face there's a smile
But deep in my heart there's a tear
Our friends and relations are here in the church
With smiles ontheir faces they stare
As we walk t'ward the man who has stolen your heart
And to whom I must give you away
BUt I wish you love and happiness too
On this your wedding day

Chorus

The dance has begun
We twirl around the floor
But I know you're not my little girl anymore
A lovely young woman has taken her place
And there's happiness written all over her face
But always remember although we must part
You may leave my arms but never my heart.

Chorus

You could shoot off a cannon
Down the middle of bond
And attract no attention in downtown st. john's
This getting nowhere is getting to me
Wondering where can you go
To be all you can be

No regular joe wants to pull up and go
And wind up homesick
Where there's no one you know
Just a smoke and a beer
And the sports on tv
Being sorry you left
With no choice but to leave

(chorus)
No change in the weather
No change in me
I don't want to leave
But i can't live for free
Can't eat the air, can't drink the sea
No change in the weather
No change in me

You could shoot off a cannon
From the top of long's hill
And a gulliver's taxi might be all that you'd kill
We were promised the sun
And the moon and the stars
We got weathered old clapboard and salt-rusted cars

So i'll join in the leaving like all of the rest
Montreal, calgary, vancouver west
Lay down on the sidewalk
Kick off and die
And watch people not looking
As they hurry by

(chorus)

Time and time again i am asked the same questions:
"john where did you study?"
"are you professionally trained?"
"is it difficult to stay in voice?"

I come by my voice by virtue of my birth. i can honestly say, with great pride, that i have inherited my dear father's voice. "the last rose of sumer", the last track on this album, is
A tape recording of my dad, made in the cabin bar in glasgow, scotland on august 31, 1957.

--john mcdermott

Oh mary this london's a wonderful sight
With the people here working by day and by night
They don't sow potatoes nor barley nor wheat
But there's gangs of them that's what i've been told
So i just ook a hand at this digging for gold
But all that i found there i might as well be
Where the mountains of mourne sweep down to the sea
I believe that when writing a wish you expressed
As to how the fine ladies in london were dressed
Well if you'll believe me, when asked to a ball
They don't wear a top to their dresses at all!
Oh i've seen them myself, and you could not in truth,
Say if they were bound for a ball or a bath
Don't be starting them fashions now, marry machree
Where the mountains of mourne sweep down to the sea

You remember young peter o'loughlin, of course
Well, now he is here at the head of the force
I met him today, i was crossing the strand
And he stopped the whole street
With one wave of his hand
And there we stood talking of days that are gone
While the whole population of london looked on
But for all these great powers, he's wishful like me
To be back where dark mourne sweeps down to the sea

There's beautiful girls here - oh never you mind!
With beautiful shapes nature never designed
And lovely complexions, all roses and 'cream
But o'loughlin remarked with regard to the same:
"that if all those roses you venture to sip,
The colour might all come away on your lip"
So i'll wait for the wild rose that's waiting for me
Where the mountains of mourne sweep down to the sea

You'll never be the sun
Turning in the sky
And you won't be the moon above us
On a moonlit night
And you won't be the stars in heaven
Although they burn so bright
But even on the deepest ocean
You will be the light

You may not always shine as you go
Fearful of the storm
You might be so long together
Or you might walk alone
And you won't find that love comes easy
But that love is always right
So even when the dark clouds gather
You will be the light

And if you lose a part inside
When love turns around on you
Leaving the path behind
Is knowing you'll do like you always do
Holding you blind
Keeping you true

There is a voice in the silence
A voice ever calling
A voice like the song of a far distant sea
A music the soul
Of the wild breakers roaring
If floats like a dream
O'er the waters to me
I hear it with tears
And a heart wildly beating
While far and alone
In a strange land i roam
And i weep as i list
And my prayers give it greeting
The voice of the green isle
My country and my home

(chorus)
Oh green isle of erin
That waits for me yonder
Though fate may decree
T'is forever be part
Still exiled and lonely
Where ere i may wander
The green isle of erin
Remains in my heart

There is nowhere a sea
Like the blue rippling ocean
That surges around
And beside that dear strand
There's nowhere a star
That looks down in devotion
So bright as are those
That shine down on the land

(chorus)

With tears in my heart
Tears beyond all controlling
I wake and remember
An exile am i
And ipray as tho' between us
The wide seas are roaring
To come home to thee
It is only to die

Oh green isle of erin
That waits for me yonder
Though fate may decree
T'is forever be part
Still exiled and lonely
Where ere i may wander
The green isle of erin
Remains in my heart