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Moon Over The Downs

by Various Artists

/
1.
My Little Town There's a road that runs straight through my little town A movie-theatre about half way down in my little town But now they've turned it into a bingo palace They don't show films there no more, no more There's a railway line runs through my little town And all the kids can think about is getting out of this little town See them on the platform on a Saturday night About half past eleven there'll always be a fight What can a poor boy do But get drunk and play the fool In my little town, in my little town.
2.
November Morning Sun The trees shine in the morning sun There's a blue sky and the clear rivers run No more frost on these sticks and stones The wind don't cut through to the bone La la la la la November morning sun Flowers are bright in the graveyards Bells are ringing through the farms The whole green country's turning red The birds are all headed out west I filled up my suitcase with clothes Headed down a gravel road The dog followed me to the gate As I walked off into a brand new day Don't even miss me now or try to say What it was that made me leave today Weren't no money problem or lover's tiff Was just the sight of a morning like this
3.
Drowning Moon I made a cross out of sticks and bone Then I walked to town Kept it in a pocket hid So the devil wouldn't see it I was shivering like a drowning moon Talked to a crow in a sycamore tree He said now go carefully 'Cos I seen the devil walking in front of thee I was shivering like a drowning moon The devil better be aware I'm not gonna let him stop me Seeing my darling Marie 'Cos she means the whole damn world to me And I'm shivering like a drowning moon The crow said he'd seen better men than me Thrown by the devil in that cold dark stream But I feel no fear with my cross on my chest I'll see her because I feel blessed The devil took my baby away from me Now I'm shivering all over
4.
The Devil's Address I'm in heaven that's what the sign says This bar's more like hell, everything painted red Every once in a while a truck goes by headed north Headlights flashing across these smoky walls If you want to find me Post a letter to 'Happiness' Mark it care of the devil's address I started driftin' when I couldn't pay the rent That mobile home was more like a shed I spent every winter watching the rain Turn that gravel path into a lake Now I'm fine and dandy but I'm all alone Just me and the sparkle of the tarmac road Thousand miles behind me, wife's in another man's bed Thousand miles ahead before I'll ever rest
5.
Dusty Trees 03:27
Dusty Trees Hail in the ditches, ice on the tyres We gotta find another road out of here This way there's nothing but weeds and briars We're tangled up in a past we cannot clear Can't see nothing but dusty trees All around me, nothing but dusty trees There's no new crop in the far field There's no more walking through the harvest sheaves Our river's dead, nothing left to give A sunken barge is breaking up in the reeds When the sun goes down you can feel the dark Pouring down through these dusty trees Blood on your finger, a hook in your heart And the maps you bought are falling apart Because you've lost your compass, lost the path When you leave here you'll never look back
6.
Desert Dust 02:52
Desert Dust Five years ago we slid across the bridge at dawn I kept waking up to see the black All I could taste, all I could taste was desert dust I woke with the dust in my teeth We carry our countries in our blood like a disease All I can taste, all I can taste is desert dust, desert dust Every winter words have crept into my mouth Still I struggle on and on I stare at the back of another in the rain I stare at the roads as summer clogs my brain But all I can taste, all I can taste is desert dust desert dust, desert dust
7.
The Lynton Flood Well no-one knew where all the water come from on that fateful day But it came down like a wall and it washed all them houses away And some of them poor folks were drowned and some of them poor folks survived And to this day no-one knows the reason why But that water ran so fast and high On the night of the Lynton flood My daddy was just a boy of twelve, but he did not look his age In a picture taken there but a year before The road beneath his wheel just slipped away And the house behind disappeared in the mud and clay But that water ran so fast and high On the night of the Lynton flood Well I was there in '76 with another bunch of kids Just some poor art students drawing pictures with our charcoal sticks When I see the monument upon the wall Showing where them flood waters came pouring through and all You know that water ran so fast and high On the night of the Lynton flood
8.
Ghost of What Might Have Been She carries a sack full of money In hands that are wrapped in beautiful silk gloves She whispers in my ear" time to leave" And I wake in another city without my love I'm waking from a bad dream Waking with the ghost of what might have been She knows my heart is shot full of holes Because she was the one she never was gun shy She calls to me and she points out to sea And I wake up with a echo of her sighs She's haunted me on the midnight streets I want to wake up on the other side She's haunting me on the midnight streets A love that lives on after it has died
9.
Clown's Car 02:25
Clown's Car Driving through the night Rain on the windscreen Black clouds hanging over the city Ships in the harbour tugging at their chains There's a forest out in California I saw it on the news They were still damping down the flames When I crashed into you And everything fell apart Just like a clown's car And we sat there hand in hand Looking up at the stars From our clown's car No more engines, no more wheels Hey hey into the world we tumble No more falling apart In our clown's car When you're alone at night And the full moon starts to shine Look out across these hills See the stars raining down on the fields As your world and mine collide In a thousand sparks tonight My heart still starts to race Don't fall apart any more Come for a ride In my clown's car
10.
Bled Dry 03:44
Bled Dry Our hearts were always leaking From the day we staggered through these doors Like the engine of our old car We were pouring love all over the floor We never even saw it slip away Until that night We were both bled dry, bled dry Well the night it all ended We were going in circles, the tank empty We ran out of gas in the middle of town I tried to get us some more but there was none around I gave you everything and more But your heart had been broken twice before Now I hold it here in my hand That love we had, it's bled dry, bled dry Smaller than the tears we still cry Bled dry, bled dry, bled dry
11.
The Devil's House I live in a house on top of a hill I've been here for years and I'm here still And I watch you every day you go by Every day of my life And the rain pours down like tears From the coal black clouds my dear On to the devil's house Well I've done things that I don't understand I've been confused but I've worked and I've planned Then along came a girl with a pretty smile And before you know it you're already mine And the rain pours down like tears From the coal black clouds my dear On to the devil's house I live in a house on top of a hill I've been here for years and I'm here still And I watch you every day that goes by Every day of my life
12.
These Wishing Fields Can't shake the mud from my heels Feel like a tractor sunk up to its wheels Every time I try to quit and run away I keep coming back to this old clay Further out I go the deeper in I plunge Feel this soil deep inside my lungs Never gonna escape these wishing fields I'm tied to these wishing fields Now my father and his father before him Believed in this land, believed in everything But one man can't turn a failing farm around I'll die a poor man, laid in this cold, cold ground
13.
One Horse Town I come from the wrong kind of town The kind I always hear you putting down Wrong side of the tracks that's where I was born Now I'm going back where the streets are worn All my life I've heard people like you sneer Bet you don't like my kind hanging out here Someday I'm gonna make something of myself I'll get there just fine without your help Don't you write me off now mister 'Cos I'm from a one horse town Don't you write me off now mister 'Cos I 'm from a one horse town My daddy spent all day mending your roads My mama spent all day cleaning your coats My little sister clears away your kids plates Me I don't do nothing but get up late I can hear you laugh I can hear your jeers But my time to shine is nearly here Some day you'll probably brag that you knew me when Even though you never had a kind word then Well I been called rough for the way I talk The rich folks way of talking always sounded false So take your fancy cars and your country estates 'Cos I know one place where I ain't out of place Where I come from no-one laughs at me It ain't too hip but it lets you be Your glamour and your wealth are nice to touch But if you ask me it ain't worth that much
14.
Donati's Comet William Turner of Oxford is on his horse, riding between fields and old barn doors. Fields that should be blacker than a widow's dress, but tonight there's a comet burning in the west. The frost is building on the thatched walls as William Turner picks up his pen and draws. The light that falls from Donati's Comet. Well it's the 5th of October 1858 and the cattle are restless behind the wicker gates. There's an owl swooping through the beech trees as the comet light sparkles between the reeds. William Turner is up on the Downs tethering his horse and trying to map that comet's course but as he shields his eyes a tear falls as he realises he'll never catch it all. The light that falls from Donati's Comet. Next morning he's mixing gum and powder on a plate and tracing that comet's tail with a dark stain. Thinking of all that light that flooded his eyes and how he'll never see its like again in his time. Leaves are falling one by one into the Thames and a stonemason hammers at a monument to the dead. On his palette the blues and greens turn to black and the chisel chips time into a dark sack.
15.
English Country Heart ( instr. inspired by this lyric) Living in the middle of England But I can't understand a thing Sometimes I think I'm American Then I look at these fields in the wind And I know you could take these broken parts And build an English country heart When the barn roof collapsed no-one did a thing When these fields were bare they just left it rotting Now there are no more people living off the land round here All we got is city businessmen busy developing Look over there and you'll see the rusting rails Of a line that used to carry coal from Wales Look over here and you'll see the crumbling walls Where a thousand men built cars for Mr. Ford Pick up the pieces and build An English country heart

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Released in 2003 for Cancer Research UK the tribute to the star who never was....

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released July 1, 2003

All songs copyright individual artists.

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trailer star Nottingham, UK

It’s hard going at times but glory can come from misery. The fragility and the feeling of being on the edge of toppling over is balanced by the skeletal beauty of the songs.
Paul Kerr - Blabber n' Smoke

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