Lyrics and translations

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SAILING TO PHILADELPHIA 

What It Is

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 the 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 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 winkey 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

Sailing to Philadelphia

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 forests of the Iroquois

Now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The moon and tide has raised
The capes of Delaware
Come up and feel the sun
A new morning has begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your star 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

Who's Your baby Now

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 you baby now
The yard is lockd and closed
The old guard has been deposed
Hey baby, who's you 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
And hey, who's laughing now

'Cos the rock you stood upon
Is broken up and gone
Hey baby, who's your baby now
Yeah the rock you stood upon
Is broken up and gone
Hey baby, who's your baby now

Baloney Again

We don't eat in no white restaurants
We're eating 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 these country towns
You better 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 Sheperd
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

The Last Laugh

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 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've learned
You neither lost nor won
Dreams have crashed and burnt
But you're still going on
Out on the highway with the road gang working
Up on the 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 when you came up flying
They had you crying but 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

Silvertown Blues

On Silvertown way the cranes stand high
Quiet and grey 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 sign

From the poisonous drains a vision appears
A new circle of cranes, a new reason to be here
A big silverdome 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 upon cinderblocks
Men with no dreams around the fire in a drum
Scrap metal schemes are rusting 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
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 Caning Town train I see a billboard high
There's a big silver plane rising up into the sky
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

El Macho

Your date has gone home
Now you're left on your own sweet own
Your 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

You 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

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 are 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

Prairie Wedding

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

Do you think that you could love me Mary
Do you think we got a chance of a life
Do you think that 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 to the farm she laid her 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

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

Wanderlust

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 a cloud of dust
Me and the wanderlust

And I'm on the egde
Of an endless fall
Sure enough
He's come to call
Got to go now

Get on that bus
Me and the wanderlust

Speedway at Nazareth

After two thousand came two thousand and one
To be the new champions, we were there for to run
From springtime in Arizona, till 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 and put me in the wall
I drove Long Beach California with three crack vertebrae
And we went on the Indianapolis, Indiana in May

Well the Brickyard's there to crucify, anyone who will not learn
I climbed a mountain to qualify I went flat throught the turns
And 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
And it was on to Portland Oregon for all the G.I. Joe
And I'd blown up 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, were we burned up at the lake
But at the speedway at Nazareth I made no mistake

Junkie Doll

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
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
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

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
Junkie doll was stuck on you my junkie doll

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
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

Sands of Nevada

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 countin'
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 broken even
On a empty horizon
No reason for folding
No reason to stay
It's too soon to be leaving
Too late for criticising
And the sands of Nevada
They go drifting away

One More Matinee

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's 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 is 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 gonna 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

Do America

Well I have been it every since I was a kid at school
Now they love me in Newcastle and in Liverpool
I am as hard as a pistol I can't do no wrong
I've been to Birmingham and Bristol playing my song

Take a 777 to the USA
Gonna party all night I'm gonna sleep all day Seen 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 a 777 over to LA
Gonna party all night I'm gonna sleep all day
Wake up and drive around
I 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
Do America do do America
Do America do do America now

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