Sailing To Philadelphia

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Lyrics

The drinking dens are spilling out
There’s staggering in the square
There’s lads and lasses falling about
And a crackling in the air

Down around the dungeon doors
The shelters and the queues
Everybody’s looking for
Somebody’s arms to fall into

And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now

There’s frost on the graves and the monuments
But the taverns are warm in town
People curse the government
And shovel hot food down

The lights are out in city hall
The castle and the keep
The moon shines down upon it all
The legless and asleep

And it’s cold on the tollgate
With the wagons creeping through
Cold on the tollgate
God knows what I could do with you

And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now

The garrison sleeps in the citadel
With the ghosts and the ancient stones
High up on the parapet
A Scottish piper stands alone

And high on the wind
The highland drums begin to roll
And something from the past just comes
And stares into my soul

And it’s cold on the tollgate
With the Caledonian Blues
Cold on the tollgate
God knows what I could do with you

And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
What it is
It’s what it is now

There’s a chink of light, there’s a burning wick
There’s a lantern in the tower
Wee Willie Winkie with a candlestick
Still writing songs in the wee, wee hours

On Charlotte Street I take
A walking stick from my hotel
The ghost of Dirty Dick
Is still in search of Little Nell

And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
Oh it’s what it is
What it is now

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Lyrics

I am Jeremiah Dixon
I am a Geordie Boy
A glass of wine with you, sir
And the ladies I’ll enjoy

All Durham and Northumberland
Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth
To make my mark upon the earth…

He calls me Charlie Mason
A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born
To chart the evening sky

They’d cut me out for baking bread
But I had other dreams instead
This baker’s boy from the west country
Would join the Royal Society…

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line

Now you’re a good surveyor, Dixon
But I swear you’ll make me mad
The West will kill us both
You gullible Geordie lad

You talk of liberty
How can America be free
A Geordie and a baker’s boy
In the forest of the Iroquois…

Now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The morning tide has raised
The capes of Delaware

Come up and feel the sun
A new morning is begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your stars should guide us here…

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line

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Lyrics

The rock you stood upon
Is broken up and gone
Hey baby, who’s your baby now?

On the slipway of your dream
Stands someone else’s scheme
Hey baby, who’s your baby now?

Your baby now, baby now
Your baby now, your baby now

The ancient trade you ply
Ain’t enough to get you by
Hey baby who’s your baby now?

The yard is locked and closed
The old guard has been deposed
Hey baby, who’s your baby now?

Your baby now, baby now
Your baby now, your baby now

You always had to be the kind
To have to say what’s on your mind
And hey, you really showed ’em how

You used to laugh about
How you used to dish it out
But hey, who’s laughing now?

‘Cos the rock you stood upon
Is broken up and gone
Hey baby, who’s your baby now?

Yeh the rock you stood upon
Is broken up and gone
Hey baby, who’s your baby now?

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Lyrics

We don’t eat in no white restaurants
We’re eatin’ in the car
Baloney again, baloney again
We don’t sleep in no white hotel bed
We’re sleeping in the car, baloney again
You don’t strut around in this country towns
You best stay in the car
Look on ahead don’t stare around
You best stay where you are
You’re a long way from home, boy
Don’t push your luck too far
Baloney again

Twenty-two years we’ve sung the word
Since nineteen thirty-one
Amen, I say amen
Now the young folk want to praise the lord
With guitar, bass and drums, amen
Well I’ll never get tired of Jesus
But it’s been a heavy load
Carrying His precious love
Down a long dirt road
We’re a long way from home
Just let’s pay the man and go
Baloney again

The Lord is my shepherd
He leadeth me in pastures green
He gave us this day
Our daily bread and gasoline
Go under the willow
Park her up beside the stream
Shoulders for pillows
Lay down your head and dream
Shoulders for pillows
Lay down your head and dream

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Lyrics

Don’t you love the sound
Of the last laugh my friend
Don’t you love the sound
Of the last laugh at the end

Down in the gutter with the mad old soldiers
Down in the scuppers with the drunken sailors
Down in the gutter with the metal mad old soldiers
But the last laugh, baby is yours

And don’t you love the sound
Of the last laugh going down
Games you thought you’d learned
You neither lost nor won

Dreams have crashed and burned
But you’re still going on
Out on highway with the road gang working
Up on a mountain with the cold wind blowing

Out on the highway with the road band working
But the last laugh, baby is yours
And don’t you love the sound
Of the last laugh going down

They had you crying but you came up smiling
They had you crawling and you came up flying
They had you crying and you came up smiling
And the last laugh, baby is yours

And don’t you love the sound
Of the last laugh going down
Yeh don’t you love the sound
Of the last laugh going down

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Lyrics

Well I’ve been it ever since I was a kid at school
Now they love me in Newcastle and in Liverpool
I am as hot as a pistol I can’t do no wrong
I’ve been in Birmingham and Bristol to play my song

Take the 777 to the USA
Gonna party all night I’m gonna sleep all day
See New York City ‘cos I’ve never been
New York City in a limousine

Gonna do America do do America
Do America do do America now

Take the 777 over to LA
Gonna party all night I’m gonna sleep all day
Wake up and drive around
Get the coolest girl in town

Do America do do America
Do America do do America now

And all the people go na na
And all the people go ra ra
And all the people go ga ga when I
Do America do do America

Do America do do America
Do America do do America
Do America do do America now

Backstage passes for the food and booze
Sunglasses for my interviews
Statue of Liberty
Everybody looking at me

Do America do do America
Do America do do America now

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Lyrics

Your date has gone home
Now you left on your own sweet own
You’re a tough talking friend
Split on you in the bitter end

And you look like a fine thing Jerry
yeh you look like a fine thing Jerry
They say you’re a star
That’s what the boys all say you are

I don’t see much TV
So you don’t mean shit to me
But you look like a fine thing Jerry
Yeh you look like a fine thing Jerry

But they got a name for people like you
Yeh they do and they got a name for people like me too
El Macho, El Macho

Now they want you to sing
Don’t get shy or anything
The boys all here
Gonna buy you another beer

‘Cos you look like a fine thing Jerry
Yeh you look like a fine thing Jerry
El Macho, El Macho

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Lyrics

We only knew each other by letter
I went to meet her off the train
When the smoke had cleared and the dust was still
She was standing there and speaking my name

I guarantee she looked like an angel
I couldn’t think of what I should say
When Adam saw Eve in the garden
I believe he felt the selfsame way

I handed her up on the wagon
And I loaded up her trunk behind
She was sitting up there with the gold in her hair
And I tried to get a hold of my mind

Think you could love me Mary
Think we got a chance of a life
Do you think you could love me Mary
Now you are to be my wife

We finally headed out of the station
And we drove up the home trail
And when we came on the farm she laid a hand on my arm
I thought my resolution would fail

And I froze as she stepped in the doorway
Stood there as still as could be
I said I know it ain’t much, it needs a woman’s touch
Lord, she turned around and looked at me

Think you could love me Mary
Think we got a chance of a life
Do you think you could love me Mary
Now you are to be my wife

We had a prairie wedding
There was a preacher and a neighbour or two
I gave my golden thing a gold wedding ring
And the both of us said I do

When the sun’s going down on the prairie
And the gold in her hair is aflame
I say do you really love me Mary and
I hold her and I whisper her name

Do you think you could love me Mary
Think we got a chance of a life
Do you think you could love me Mary
Now you are to be my wife

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Lyrics

Big black cloud
On a yellow plane
Sure enough it
Looks like rain
Packin’ up all our
Faith and trust
Me and the wanderlust

Open window
Empty bed and chair
Who’s that callin’
Ain’t nobody there
I look behind me
And I see there’s just
Me and the wanderlust

Dead of night
I had a dream
Sky was bright yes and the
Fields were green
It was down the road
In the cloud of dust
Me and the wanderlust

And I’m on the edge
Of an endless fall
Sure enough
He’s come to call
Got to go now
Get on that bus
Me and the wanderlust

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Lyrics

After two thousand came two thousand and one
To be the new champions we were there for to run
From springtime in Arizona ’til the fall in Monterey
And the raceways were the battlefields and we fought ’em all the way

Was at Phoenix in the morning I had a wake-up call
She went around without a warning put me in the wall
I drove Long Beach, California with three cracked vertebrae
And we went on to Indianapolis, Indiana in May

Well the Brickyard’s there to crucify anyone who will not learn
I climbed the mountain to qualify went flat through the turns
But I was down in the might-have-beens and an old pal good as died
And I sat down in Gasoline Alley and I cried

Well we were in at the kill again on the Milwaukee Mile
And in June up in Michigan we were robbed at Belle Isle
Then it was on to Portland, Oregon for the G.I. Joe
And I’d blown off almost everyone when my motor let go

New England, Ontario we died in the dirt
Those walls from mid-Ohio to Toronto they hurt
So we came to Road America where we burned up at the lake
But at the speedway at Nazareth I made no mistake

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Lyrics

Turnpike Lane, Turnpike Lane
You spiked my arm
But you missed the vein
Now it’s all gone
But the scars remain
Junkie doll, I was stuck on you
My junkie doll

Turnham Green, Turnham Green
You took me high
As I’ve ever been
Now it’s all gone
And now I’m clean
Junkie doll I was stuck on you
My junkie doll

And a little bit of this’d get you up
And a little bit of that’d get you down
And a little bit of this’d get you up
And a little bit of that’d get you down
And a little bit of this’d get you up
And a little bit of that’d get you down
And a little bit of this’d get you up
And a little bit of that’d get you down

Turnpike Lane, Turnpike Lane
You took my heart, Pan American
Now rain or shine
It’s all the same
Junkie doll, I was stuck on you
My junkie doll

A little bit of this’d get you up
A little bit of that’d get you down
A little bit of this’d get you up
A little bit of that’d get you down
And a little bit of this’d get you up
A little bit of that’d get you down
A little bit of this’d get you up
A little bit of that’d get you down

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Lyrics

On Silvertown Way the cranes stand high
Quiet and gray against the still of the sky
They won’t quit and lay down though the action has died
They watch the new game in town on the Blackwall side

From the poisonous drains a vision appears
A new circle of cranes, a new reason to be here
A big silver dome rising up into the dawn
Above the church and the homes where all the silver is gone

If I’d a bucket of gold, what would I do
I’d leave the story untold Silvertown blues
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown

A silver dawn steals over the docks
A truck with no wheels up on cinderblocks
Men with no dreams around a fire in a drum
Scrap metal schemes rusted over and done

If I’d a bucket of gold, silver would do
I’d leave the story untold Silvertown blues
And I’m going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown

When you’re standing on thin and dangerous ice
You can knock and walk in for citizens’ advice
They’ll tell you where you can turn, where you can go
There’s nothing they can tell me I don’t already know

If I’d a bucket of gold, silver would do
I’d leave the story untold Silvertown blues
And I’m going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown

From the Canning Town train I see a billboard high
There’s a big silver plane rising up into the sky
And I can make out the words ‘seven flights every day’
Says six of those birds are bound for J.F.K.

If I’d a bucket of gold, silver would do
I’d leave the story untold Silvertown blues
And I’m going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown

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Lyrics

These tables are haunted
By the ghosts of Las Vegas
Their chips were once mountains
But they came here to play
They could take me if they wanted
But I have nothing worth counting
And like the sands of Nevada
They go drifting away

Lady luck’s still a mystery
With her head on my shoulder
And I don’t know why
I still want her to dance
I guess that’s all history
What it is, is I’m older
And I’m still a fool
For a one-way romance

Her dice were red rubies
They rolled and they tumbled
And I never saw time
Running out with my roll
And in a wasteland of cut glass
My dreams have all crumbled
And I’ve paid with whatever
I had left for a soul

Now the dawn’s has broken even
On an empty horizon
No reason for folding
No reason to stay
It’s too soon to be leaving
Too late for criticising
They go drifting away

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Lyrics

Here’s one of the two of us
In 1954 don’t laugh
I keep all of the pictures
Are you going to take a photograph
Here’s something nice for you
A dear old thing came to a show
Last time here we did
An interview on local radio

Make yourself at home my darling
Come on in
Hand me down that jar love
Can I offer you a gin

We’re proud to be the oldest
Ugly sisters in variety
There’s not the glamour now
You see what happened to society
There’s another light bulb gone
They don’t all answer to the switch
I don’t know how we carry on
And her she couldn’t care the bitch

But in a while the old boys
In the band begin to play
And in a while the houselights
And the curtains slide away

And something’s going to happen
To make your whole life better
Your whole life better one day
Something’s going to happen
To make your whole life better
Your whole life better one day

Now the landlady’s all squared away
It’s just a temporary deal
I’m afraid tonight it’s take-away
You see there is no evening meal
Don’t worry dear you shall go to the ball
I think the fairy said
These suitcases have seen it all
From under someone else’s bed

You want to smile those tears away
Now don’t you cry
You want to know what I say
I say never say die

‘Cos something’s going to happen
To make your whole life better
Your whole life better one day
Something’s going to happen
To make your whole life better
Your whole life better one day