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Racing the Tide

by The Elders

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Oynque
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Oynque Another platter of the Kansas City Celtic Rock special please! Favorite track: Story of a Fish.
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1.
Send a prayer out there into the universe And wait for an answer my friend Maybe you will hear from me an echo in the wind And a song that has no end With a head full of books he’d forgotten Bad memories from days in the war Crowded out by the tales of tall cotton Why can’t all things be just like before The world though the eyes of my father Repeating mistakes that he made Refusing to lose the illusion That one day he would lead the parade Now he sits in the library day after day With a wire a compass and pen Uncovering a secret so long lost away That will never be spoken again Inventor of stories so deep in the heart That will only come out in a dream We can carve out a place or reverse into space In the next world we’ll know what they mean We were climbing the steps to the graveyard With regrets and our baggage in tow From the cliffs of the Ardarine mountains You can see the sweet memories below There was nothing here left but a portrait On a mission here only to serve An empty room with a glass and a bottle It’s all that us free men deserve
2.
He grew up in a field by a mountain and a rock Don’t care about the world he couldn’t see In trouble he was in drinking whiskey beer and gin Talking shyte around a hightop with McGee Working Pubs and restaurants I’ll dig a ditch what do you want We plan to leave the shores of Loch Morne Applications in we toast good luck to all our Kin Got to leave this dump where I was born He’s a bad little Irish boy playing games and telling only lies To make his dreams come true Astronauts and Holocausts sad story’s just as cruel as he can tell To be here with you Climbing on an airbus a fat girl by my side The story of her life I don’t care Landing in the city lady liberty waves to me All her different colored people stop and stare From China town to dirty town just looking for the best Please tell me how I find that row of green The familiar music playing loud Black banners make us fenians proud We’re home again tell stories keep it clean An expert on the troubles oppression from the crown We know it all and never read a word No history or apathy we’re hiding from the Law We tell a tale we’ve never ever heard
3.
Dear God 03:41
Ragged hymn of beauty melody high and wide I only wish I’d written it myself She sang it to my brain gorgeous and strange Impossible for anybody else From the mountains of Killarney to the desert of Khartoum With beauty truth and rhythm she will call From a boom box out in Spain to an ear bud in my room Her anthem made believers of us all Dear God turn your radio on I surrender from this moment on A gift to all humanity forget your pride and vanity Three minutes of heaven and then she’ll be gone Dear God turn your radio on With her secret no fear what we needed to hear When it hit me like she turned on the sun What universe was I in where the hell had I been Every bard and poet knew she was the one Inside every foreign nation it was spoken in tongues Every president and king did understand Even if she was denied when they laid down and died Conversion on the deathbed to a man When at last she is passed to every corner of the world The music writing history unseen They will move among the living to the broken and the curled From every pub and valley in between
4.
It doesn’t go any further than this room No fly on the wall will ever know You know what they say you only dressed in grey And a sign from you could seal a man’s doom Your help for a widow would dry away her tears And the legend only grew with the passing of the years Cousin Charlie won’t you tell us a story Of criminals and days in the wars Tell us all about the heroes high wide and tall That would lay down and die for the cause Cousin Charlie won’t you tell about it all Now they say you kept it under the radar The business was all underground With the help of twenty martyrs and some friends overseas They could turn this country around There was blood before it’s done it’s always hit and run When it got from bad to worse the curse was reversed So now you’ve settled down in that sleepy little town The heart of mother Ireland to surround you Did you ever exist could you do more than this My friend we were lucky just to find you You were slippery as a whale escaped from Lincoln Gaol And somehow you’re still here to tell us the tale
5.
When the river flows up to the mountain When the crooked turn into the curled There’ll be plenty too many for countin’ my friend When everything’s right with the world When we ride off into the sunset When the hero comes home with the girl We’ll be ridin’ with queens in their long limousines When everything’s right with the world Not a word will be spoken in anger We will hold every loving cup high We will look our old enemies straight in the eye As we drink to you and I When the presidents fold up and go home When the flags of the battle are furled We’ll tear down the temples of concrete and chrome When everything’s right with the world When the arrows all fall away harmless And the slings have already been hurled We’ll unravel the road that we traveled from home When everything’s right with the world When the rumor turns into a reason And the ghosts of rebellion have swirled We won’t need any proof to follow the truth When everything’s right with the World
6.
The sirens wailed at midnight in that old Viking town We all ran out to Princess Street to see what’s goin’ down The train pulled in from Gorey at twenty after one And seven hours later the dirty work was done The sailors stumbled down to the river They were all three sheets to the wind There’s a name for them out in Milwaukee But in Queenstown we just call ‘em Jim Casting off from the docks at a half past three They made off for the open sea Out into the black if they’re never comin’ back With the ghost from the past they were hoping to see The ladies stumbled down to the river They were all three sheets to the wind So they dreamed up a demon and gave it a name Just to have someone to blame With no battle to fight they sailed into the night With only one mission in mind As many have tried and many have died They were only racing the tide Their heroes had left them behind Strung out on the decks with nowhere to hide Heads filled with stories of fish that could fly And rumors of dragons that would not die
7.
Banshee Cry 04:46
I walk in the door a call from my friend Tall tale the legend never ends I hear the fear in his voice I think he gone so crazy I enter the room the panic in his eye The Banshee wail her spirit in the sky A shrouded figure with a veil flying in the Moonlight We all know the story told a whispered voice We hear the Banshee cry Is she a beauty or a raddled old Hag A beautiful princess or one eyeball in a bag Your name is Kavanagh, O’Toole O’Brian, O’Neil or O’Grady There’s something wrong let the roll call begin A saggy sleepy eye blood red from dry Gin I said all is well all is well We all know the story told a whispered voice We hear the Banshee cry I’m walking home on Sunday night The rain is soft upon my face The moon was full and dancing with the trees The blinding light I turn in fright And all you can do is run away The fiddler in his chair one more tune Phantom orchestra he’ll dance with the moon We hear a Madrigal of voice His soul will now take a long journey We all know the story told a whispered voice We hear the Banshee cry
8.
I never made the top ten on anybody’s list Of those who played it cool just to see what I had missed Or be the boy most likely to make the hall of fame By dreaming up a story I never could explain Now maybe I was too proud to open up my veins The heartache come and gone although the memory remains Young dumb and fearless while leading that parade I’m living with the choices that I made Now I need a miracle to get me through I’m halfway round the world again I’m halfway back to you Halfway through the whiskey and out of my mind It’s gonna take a miracle this time So put me on the open sea with no place to hide With steady wind to drive me home the stars will be my guide All the way from Liverpool with this crew of five I did it all the hard way a love that will survive If there was no Graceland they would never make me King If I had to do it all again I wouldn’t change a thing If I had a brand new Cadillac parked in my Garage I’ll never ever chase that Mirage I’m standing in a hallway my mug shot on the wall We made it through the wreckage holy cow we had a ball The medals and apologies we wear with pride No need for us to run and hide
9.
Austrailia 03:45
From Adelaide to Arklow she carried out her quest A shrine with many trophies on the wall Every night she ran her traps from the east to the west Like a legionnaire sent off to fight the war She called it a blessing she called it a curse Madonnas and her amulets she wore She followed her Magellans to the edge of the earth But Rathfarnam was as far as she could fall Australia did she say she was from Australia they thought she was the one She could work the room with Danny boys That she was shinin’ on I give her six months and she’ll be gone She fell for the line about the holy water Hook line and sinker boat deck dock and pier She thought a misadventure would make it all real But she didn’t know she had to close the deal He was the great persuader with time on his hands He was money with a suitcase waitin’ for a train To take him back to Dublin so she asked about his plans And when would she see him again The next one had some tales about some nuns and a dog They walked along the levee by the bay Some whisky and a chipper all they’re lookin’ for And a fiddler to take them all the way But she lived every day for the hour on the stage Singin’ Al Jolson for the sailors If the drummer copped a kick she would show a little leg To the Stuka boys who crashed into their prayers
10.
You could tell these boys were trouble Even though they were so young In the hills of Avoca thank god they had no guns With echoes in their laughter amadons just out for thrills No end in sight for mischief these boys with hidden skills One summer day at the Wooden Bridge we planned to fill our net All the fish were sleeping looks as though I’ll lose my bet Just pennies in our pockets it’s enough to see the farm We kick a stone into the pond you know we mean no harm It’s a story of a fish I told by the fireside To be with our two heroes on that day Where from that mighty hole it’s a cannibal they stole You should have seen the one that got away Just as the sun was dimming ‘twas a monster we did see The biggest fish I’d ever seen a cannibal was he I asked if we could take him just to show him to your man He said be sure to hold on you will need to use both hands I tied him to my hand made bike and peddled through the wind Young Miley by my side we both had devilment in our grin Off to the house we washed our hands and doth our Sunday best Nine miles the ride to Arklow with a story to impress The front page of the papers I heard my Mother cry Into my eyes she looked right through to her I could not lie Our fame was known throughout the land for all the world to see To this day the record holds I sing this song with glee
11.
The Wicklow hills are silent the grip of winter chill The birds have left the valley the snow is thick and still A long way from the village and home we long to see My wife and child in my heart only God can see Stevens’ day has passed us the time has come and gone Say farewell to Christmas a New Year’s desperate dawn A hunger in my heart for the peace that I once knew Before our march to freedom Five long years against injustice we fought to hold this land The hunger and pain-hath stricken every man We’ll never - we’ll never bend a knee To a Red coat Englishman Last night we dined on coddle soup a bowl of nettle tea We drank a toast to absent friends the ghosts that walk Glencree I dreamed that I was young again your beauty in my eyes The ocean serenades with song With guns and their drums as the banners fly high The trumpets they sound and I look to the sky ‘Tis here I’ll surely die The soldiers are much closer now these hills of Glenmalure What deed can fuel the hatred their hearts are so impure We know the end is near Michael would be proud Together we will sing the freemen’s song Together we will sing the freemen’s song
12.
All of us on good behavior we met down at the bridge That Sunday on O’Connell Street we listened to the pitch Another lockout comin’ they’ll surely break us here No help from a citizen army or Irish Volunteer The troops came in to seize us taunted by the crowd They retreated back to safety the rabble stood their ground They opened fire and killed a few while back behind closed doors In London town they sold us out to soldier on no more Will there ever be a nation soil sky and stone With one human soul and a voice to call our own Will we ever be free mountains to the sea Always be forever an Irish home The executions followed at a prison camp in Wales They put to death the sixteenth man in a soggy London jail Conscription by Westminster united every tribe Together we could raise hell now from every side Bolder then in spirit we moved through every town Hidin’ from the Black and Tans they brought to put us down How long will we run from this thing we have begun To be more than just a fist and a crowd A hundred bad years later and the struggle still goes on A hundred bloody Sundays and their funerals come and gone No victors only victims and survivors left to mourn Our children need to know this Island is their home
13.
With their riddles off the tongue did come the Sons of Gael The ancient Druid kings feared by many men With a crack of light that fell upon the warriors To win it all with a poet’s poison pen They fought the devil’s mother to the death for forty days When they came down from the mountains it was done Twenty oars on either side when they put out with the tide Their adventure only knew tomorrow’s sun One mighty mast of beggar’s oak their vessel proud And a rumor of those islands to the west One winter’s whisky ration all that steerage would allow So they left behind for Kerry all the rest With only stars to navigate their big black sea Till by accident one lookout heard the sound By this time their only compass was a rosary And after twenty weeks the coastline stared them down On the year of their return by the lips of every man Their solemn oath of secrecy was sealed Reunited with their clan not a breath about the land That this journey on the ocean did reveal Not a word was written down not a map was ever drawn For the captains of ten centuries to borrow

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"Racing the Tide is thrilling, pulsing, propulsive, fantastic Celtic-pop. These guys are a real find ... a band to shout from the rooftops about." - MUSIC ROW Magazine

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released July 1, 2006

All Songs written by Brent Hoad, Steve Phillips, Ian Byrne & Norm Dahlor © Elders Pub Music 2006

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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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