1. |
Moore Street Girls
04:18
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I walk along the cobbled streets of Dublin in the rain
The Man selling papers I ask him if he’s heard her name
Notorious are the stories you have to meet the girls
If you ask a sailor they’re known around the world
You can meet them on the corner
They are the Moore Street girls
This is the street their world
Their seducing smiles are nothing you’ll ever know
They will allure you they’ll put you in a trance
Before you know it you’ll be tapping the street
Doin’ an Irish dance
It’s said they have the power to sell a map to a salmon
The tourist from the desert goes home with a bucket of Sandymount sand
Fresh fruit and veggies smelly fish they have them all
Their sad and hardened faces still they smile and have a ball
They’ll make you buy your dog a dozen roses
They are the Moore Street girls
This is the street their world
Their seducing smiles are nothing you’ll ever know
They will allure you they’ll put you in a trance
Before you know it you’ll be tapping the street
Doin’ an Irish dance
Where have all the girls all gone?
We used to love them used to listen to their dirty Dublin songs
Where have all the girls all gone?
They can be grumpy still we love them
Oh what a shame
I stopped and talked to Rosie, I asked her would she sing me a song
She turned to me with angry eyes I ask her Rosie what is wrong?
The foreigners in the market, the vermin of the world
With all their ugly faces from lands you’ve never heard
Oh what a shame you’ll never know them
Oh what a shame you’ll never know them
They are the Moore Street girls
This is the street their world
Their seducing smiles are nothing you’ll ever know
They will allure you they’ll put you in a trance
Before you know it you’ll be tapping the street
Doin’ an Irish dance
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2. |
Hard Line
05:20
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Donaghues closed up tight tonight as I wander the streets of town
Too late to get drunk too early to pray, too cold to lay back down
The union says we’re all for one but the boss man’s locked us out
And the Governor sent the goon squad, showing us what he’s all about
Well I used to work the factory but the lines have moved on
With hand to mouth so far between the golden times are gone
So I called in all my favors, turned over every stone
And ran down every number from my finger to the bone
Now a hard line’s been handed down
From Sligo jail to London town
If ever a time of need my boys, that time is now
After all they’ve taken there’s nothing left
But our lives to lay down
We can leave tonight or bloody well fight
A hard line’s been handed down
Now the loyal opposition is sharpening up their knifes
They got ‘em out to twist and shout and give us back our lives
There’re marching to Jerusalem, there’re fighting in the fields
‘Til the mother’s son comes home again and all will be revealed
Now if anyone has a problem with the noise that we have made
With truncheons and brass knuckles we can easily persuade
The leaders of all nations that grind their people down
With lies and spies and bayonets, we’ll put them in the ground
Now a hard line’s been handed down
From Sligo jail to London town
If ever a time of need my boys, that time is now
After all they’ve taken there’s nothing left
But our lives to lay down
We can leave tonight or bloody well fight
A hard line’s been handed down
This is a protest song about social injustice.
It’s about power from the bottom up, not from the top down
People power vs. corporate power.
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3. |
American Wake
04:17
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In the year of forty seven a new tradition came home
From necessity came a brand new name
For the hunger that stalked their bones
They got their affairs in order
And gathered their friends around
What was left of the food and the whiskey too
Was rounded up from this town
Well they listened to the lies and the stories
A last chance to look them in the eye
Like a walking corpse behind the horse
And you didn’t even get to die
An American Wake was all they had
They never went back to their native land
They left to find a place to stand
With everything they could take
But first they had to face their American Wake
Well the Brits all said it was coming
The famine was willed by God
The Tory crimes of the London Times
Sent many to die in the fog
Some gave gifts for the journey
Some only had tears and a prayer
An eleven week ride when they caught the tide
If they even lived halfway there
An American Wake was all they had
They never went back to their native land
They left to find a place to stand
With everything they could take
First they had to face their American Wake
Then a jig was danced, a one last chance
For the father to face the son
As the keener wailed they could count the sails
In the rising of the sun
There were blessings and toasts, they buried old ghosts
And they drank to the now and then
As the minutes passed by they tried to deny
They would never see Ireland again
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4. |
Saint Kevin
04:12
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St Kevin walks down the path
See a sign for Lynhams Pub and Glendalough this way
He steps in with caution look around
The boys from Clara Lara just in from bailing hay
He seated in the corner sipping a drop of the black stuff
And whiskey they beckon him a cheers
In steps Tony Murphy and with a smile they tip a glass
He tells him of the years
They come from all the Nations to hear your story told
Like the fog that curls around the hills
Life and death they do behold
Your words still speak of promise
Forever they will flock
The valley, the tower, the church and the lakes
The vale of Glendalough
Young Murphy tells Kevin of the legends
Father Cronin always said an angel child was he
The truth is all written in Acta Santorum
Let’s have another glass and I'll drink a pint with thee
We talked on into the night, the barman said it's time me lads
So we stepped out in the cold
In the moonlight as the rain was lashing down
They danced a merry jig with ghosts of old
They come from all the Nations to hear your story told
Like the fog that curls around the hills
Life and death they do behold
Your words still speak of promise
Forever they will flock
The valley, the tower, the church and the lakes
The vale of Glendalough
Oh what a sight, this valley is enchanted land
Oh what a dream, the people really care
Oh where am I? Give us a glass of the black stuff
We’ll walk the misty road and say a prayer
Your words still speak of promise
Forever they will flock
The valley, the tower, the church and the lakes
The vale of Glendalough
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5. |
Men of Erin
04:43
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Fare thee well me boy as you wander this night
Be not feared in the darkness my heart is your light
As you go brave Men of Erin
Faith and love by your side
I will dream of your peace in the night
Please don’t cry my mother as you sit by the hearth
I will dance your memories with joy in my heart
I will go now and pray as I travel this land
And live by the lessons you gave
Fare thee well me boy as you wander this night
Be not feared in the darkness my heart is your light
As you go brave Men of Erin
Faith and love by your side
I will dream of your peace in the night
Please don’t cry my father as you sit by the hearth
I will dance your memories with joy in my heart
I will go now and pray as I travel this land
And live by the lessons you gave
Fare thee well me boy as you wander this night
Be not feared in the darkness my heart is your light
As you go brave Men of Erin
Faith and love by your side
I will dream of your peace in the night
Please don’t cry my children
As you stand by my grave
I have danced your memories all of my days
I will go now and pray as I travel this land
And live be the lessons you gave
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6. |
Big Box Dinny
03:55
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In the winter of sixty one, when the snow came down
The worst in forty years so they gathered their friends around
A turf log on the fire and whiskey in the jar
One lad on his fiddle and one on his guitar
Young Dinny he would listen with his ear up to the door
He knew just what was missing and he knew what he was for
He went straight up to Walton’s and put his money down
On a great big box Bertoni the prettiest one in town
Hey big box Dinny where’d you learn to play that thing?
When the girls find out what you’re all about
Your gonna make ‘em dance and sing
Hey big box Dinny when you gonna come back home?
Since the world found out what you’re all about
They can’t leave you alone
So Dinny went off to see the world and he played for kings and queens
One night found him in a club in the heart of New Orleans
He swallowed all that music and he tasted Etouffe
And after fifteen Mardi Gras, they new that he could play
Well Dinny made some records with a swampy heart and soul
From the delta of the Liffey he would let the good times roll
Given everything a nine stone man could give to the black and white
With his Irish squeezebox rock and roll they packed in every night
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7. |
Nation of Love
04:44
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Sent the pretty ones away, allowed only to pray
To escape the eternal damnation
To labor all day and give ‘em no pay
It was done for the good of the nation
The babies were sent to the poorhouse
The orphans with luck would survive
How bad was the curse could it be any worse
To fold sheets forever alive
A nation of love, a nation of love
Behind yellow walls locked away
A nation of love, a nation of love
In a darkness forever to stay
And they rested on Christmas Day
The authorities came around every village and town
With a list of the girls who might fall
From grace in the place their own families turned out
Behind the high Magdalene walls
The neighbors all filed a consensus
Of those to be taken away
With rumors of nameless offenses
To keep silent the rest of their days
So where did they go almost nobody knows
When they finally got out of the tower
With there disarrayed souls goin out of control?
Or did life pass ‘em by in an hour?
I carried it round in my pocket
Hopin' time could fade it away
I lost all the names but the story remains
Of the Magdalene Laundries today
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8. |
Turnpike
04:13
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9. |
Ballymun Road
03:40
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I didn't start with any plan now I'm free
Didn't choose any way to go it chose me
She's a woman with a few regrets, but sometimes she forgets
The best that she can do is let it be
I signed up with my sergeant on the square
He said I'd see the world over there
I've got to keep believin' in the day our flag will rise again
And hope those widowed mothers even care
So down I go, Ballymun Road
I'm no good to you anyhow
I've got my wits I've got my tongue
It's too late to turn back now
Down I go, Ballymun Road
Now you've got yours and darlin' I've got mine
Let's have that one last round for old times
I know you've got someplace to go
And I'm shippin' out this one man show
And leavin' Dublin city far behind
So down I go, Ballymun Road
I'm no good to you anyhow
I've got my wits I've got my tongue
It's too late to turn back now
Down I go, Ballymun Road
Someday I'll build my house right where I stand
And I'll live within the law if I can
I'll work my field ‘til the sun goes down
And have a drink with the boys in town
It's all that I was born to understand
So down I go, Ballymun Road
I'm no good to you anyhow
I've got my wits I've got my tongue
It's too late to turn back now
Down I go, Ballymun Road
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10. |
Dig Me a Hole
04:13
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It came from out of the lake
A dream so dark it took no prisoners
Put its tail around my neck
And took me to a room with no visitors
I never meant to kill anyone
So put away your poison pen
Just say what's done is done
No questions asked and none to defend
They'll hang an innocent man
In the morning at half past ten
But if I ever do my time
I'd climb the walls to get back in
So dig me a hole to hide away
The story I live with one more day
So speak up now, my fair- weather friend
Or just get out of my way
We worked that graveyard shift
Never left the underground
Your foolproof plan and a cold hard kiss
That sold me out to leave this town
I could cheat that hangman's noose
This punishment fits your crime
With one more chance to cut me loose
And meet at the money in two weeks' time
No surgeon's skillful hand
Could cut away this regret
Someday you'll understand
But a brother could not forget
Those footsteps drawing near
With a rattling jailhouse key
Just ten more steps to feel that fear
Where the story will end with me
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11. |
If I Know Murphy
04:43
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Just a boy of twelve years, he worked in the fields
Behind a plough and a hoe, this land his father before him gave
One of nine barefoot kids, the hardship was cruel
This boy now a man, is mighty and brave
He sent the kids off every day to churches and schools
In the hills and the farms the call to arms raging on foreign shores
Hard taught and honor bound before he's a teen
This man this war with no time to dream
If I know Murphy
His life on the line he would lay
His honor and pride to all who new him was real
If I know Murphy
He'll be singing that song ‘til the end
We'll be counting the days ‘til Murphy comes home again
He brought hell to every coast, the likes never seen
Mr. Murphy when things got too rough they just call his name
More stars than any man more sadness and grief
This man, his life, oh what a shame
The word that he wrote with tears in his eyes
We all look up the hill as he waves goodbye
We'll be counting the days ‘til Murphy comes home again
If I know Murphy
His life on the line he would lay
His honor and pride to all who new him was real
If I know Murphy
He'll be singing that song ‘til the end
We'll be counting the days ‘til Murphy comes home again
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12. |
Haverty Boys
03:38
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In a land so long ago when the giants walked the globe
There is a tale of two men and a dog
They were bigger than a tree and stronger than a rock
They’d guzzle gallons of porter and sleep just like a log
When they walked into the room the barman with his broom
Looks in the mirror and sees a dirty smile
Then the glass falls to the ground there’s havoc all around
The brother Havertys are plastered run a mile
No one knows when a storm is comin’
With just one look we hope and pray that the sun will shine
But the curse of the drink we’re mighty men or so we think
There’s one more demon in a dirty glass of wine
When the dust all settles down the boys go and earn a pound
Its peace and quite it’s safe to walk the streets
The boys are in the hole and there’re digging piles of coal
Tonight they’ll stay at home and feel the heat
No one knows when a storm is comin’
With just one look we hope and pray that the sun will shine
But the curse of the drink we’re mighty men or so we think
There’s one more demon in a dirty glass of wine
I know they will be sorry when they wake up in the morn
Last night they had so many friends and now there’re all alone
Like all good men they mean well with hearts as good as gold
But the poison in the Barley the Devil sold
Well they feared none but one my Granny was the one
She’d whack ‘em across the arse with a big fat stick
For the sake of fragile pride the boys would run and hide
The brother Havertys, wise Eamon and young Mick
Well, no one knows when a storm is comin’
With just one look we hope and pray that the sun will shine
But the curse of the drink we’re mighty men or so we think
There’s one more demon in a dirty glass of wine
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13. |
Seventeen
03:30
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The rumor is out of London, wolf men underground
A couple more in Washington, they wouldn’t be too proud
From Gotham to Los Angeles, we know they come and go
And if there’s any trouble, there’s a man in Tokyo
Forget about the big names, you’ll never find ‘em here
The seventeen behind the scenes of every great career
Use every bribe and treachery, to rule every land
And roundin’ up the infidels who raise their hands
And if we knew the rest my friend, we wouldn’t want to wait
I’d be the first in line to stand them up straight
Who are the seventeen men who rule the world?
We should’ve seen it comin’ while there was still time
But soon every man will have stand in line
To get his daily ration of sufferin’ and war
But the armies of the world don’t know what they’re fighting for
If there was any justice we could stand our ground
Go marching through the boulevards to bring them down
Now if they meet resistance, I’ll sell them on my plan
I’m thinking seven figures but I’ll take a hundred grand
We’ll soften up the country with lies and beer
And then the true believers will have no fear
The wealth of every nation will fall into their hands
And now we know the reason is just because they can
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14. |
The Auld Land
04:32
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I want to know about the land from where we came
The story about the old man I never knew his name
I need to go to see that old house on the hill
Visit ghosts in empty rooms
The Celtic cross that bears my name?
I need to know the truth did we really own a Castle
Was my granddad really king of the clan so long ago
All I want to know, all I want to know
All I want to know, what is my name
I’m going to the old land to find my life before
We’ll sing on steaming dunghills
Cry tears on the shore
I pray my dreams all come true
I’ll walk the path where the righteous men of wars before
Sing a song of freedom and believe it’s really true
I’ll read the signs at the crossroads in the village square
Turn left for Ballykissangel, turn right for Ballycoog
I need to know the truth, did they die for Ireland’s glory
The patriot game they played, all the stories we were told
All I want to know, all I want to know
All I want to know, what is my name?
I’m going to the old land to find my life before
We’ll sing on steaming dunghills
Cry tears on the shore
I pray my dreams all come true
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The Elders Kansas City, Missouri
The Elders were founded in 1998 by six musicians with a passion for music rooted in Irish jigs & reels & American folk rock. Their original songs offer delightful story lines, with vibrant narratives that explore history, legends, tall tales and true-life experiences ... more
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