Concerning Great Big Sea: My Hand, My Heart (Rusell Crowe) Lyrics

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My Heart, My Heart

Weight Of A Man
How Did We Get From Saying I Love You?
Land Of The Second Chance
Raewyn
Mickey
Worst In The World
My Hand, My Heart
One Good Year
Mr. Harris
I Miss My Mind

Weight Of A Man
(written by Alan Doyle / Russell Crowe)
"It's a statement of understanding, an expression of love and appreciation (for Dani). It's important to be able to say, as a bloke, that I know what you do for me to make my life better and I just wanted to let you know that I know." - Russell

This could be heavy,
Not as easy,as it seems.
Quite tough to carry,
A lot more inside,that no-one has seen.

But you lying there,
You're not one bit scared,
To shoulder,
A burden like me.

CHORUS:
So don't close your eyes,
Turn your face to the skies,
And breath me as deep as you can.
Your strong heart won't break,
Are you ready to take,
The weight of a man.

I'm so hard to handle,
My life's a suitcase that's never been closed.
Don't know how you stand me,
Oh how you love me,
God only knows.

There's ghosts and there's witches,
There's black eyes and stitches.
They come with me,
It's part of the show.

CHORUS

Suspended on air,
Because you're lying there.
Pou shift me slightly and find inspiration.
Cause those witches and ghosts,
Play some havoc with their host,
You make me lighter,
You're my salvation.

This could be heavy,
Not as easy as it seems.
Quite tough to carry,
A lot more inside,
That no-one has seen.

But you lying there,
You're not one bit scared.
To shoulder,
A burden like me.

CHORUS

How Did We Get From Saying I Love You?
(written by Alan Doyle)
"I just always had loved the song and to me it's one of those songs that I can't understand why every person my age can't share that (experience)." - Russell

This song was originally recorded on Great Big Sea's album, Play.
Go here for the lyrics.

Land Of The Second Chance
(written by Alan Doyle / Russell Crowe)
"It's a novel in a song. It speaks to anyone who has emmigrated to Australia. Land of the second chance - its the way I view Australia, the way my parents viewed Australia when they came in the late '60s." - Russell

He didn’t say her name, he described her with a tear
In 1952 he left that girl and he made his way down here
The ocean raged around him, cleansed his soul and sharpened his aim
He was coming down to Queensland to cut the Sugarcane

CHORUS:
Burning Fields
I bow my head and bend my back and I will kneel
I’ll give the angels thanks
For bringing me here and guiding my hand in this land
The land of the second chance

In ’53 he bought a car with the proceeds of the season
He travelled three states, coast and bush wandering without a reason
He was driving away her memory, driving himself insane
Then he drove back up to Queensland to cut the Sugarcane

CHORUS

Troppo is not tropical it’s Italian for crazy in the heat
He got arranged to a Spanish girl but she didn’t like his canecutter’s teeth
That season he tripled his workload to prove he was worthy of her hand
When he got back up to Rockhampton, she’d taken off with a handsome man
Five or six years on a gambler’s drunk, he woke up in Sydney one morning
A thousand miles south of his last night out so he took it as the angels warning
That car got him a job fitting aluminium window frames
Floating above the big city, far away from the Sugarcane

CHORUS

Forty-five years of married life,
Children and children’s children
He can still point to where he fitted the glass
And smiles when you recognise the buildings
Most of his mates have seen the pearly gates but there’s a few that have survived.
They sit here and drink espresso
Like it’s Florence – "Firenze, prima della guerra" (Florence, before the war)
Back in 1935

On a front table at Bill and Toni’s he told me his story on Stanley Street
A little hard to understand that day Mario got brand new teeth
Fifty-three years he’s been here and he says he’s never looked back
A fortunate find for a lucky guy
The land of the second chance

CHORUS

The land of the second chance (x2)

Raewyn
(written by Alan Doyle / Russell Crowe)
"It's a statement of connection within a family over generations, from my father's father through to myself as a father." - Russell

There's a black and white photograph of Raewyn,
I know the place and the year that it was taken.
Gosford before all the houses, Forrester's was still uncrowded.
Footprints, often only your own.

Over the sand dunes and into the mangroves,
He gets his camera out, and that's where Uncle Peter goes.
He took this photograph of you, with your wild hair.
Just back from America, in your print top and your flares.

So much light in your eyes, noone read the despair.
A scream in the night, my mother shaking with tears.
Her little sister, pouring down the stairs.
Oh Raewyn, is no longer here.

How little do I know of the pain of my Mother,
If I'm now just thinking if I'd lost a brother.
How many nights has she lain awake shaking,
When I could of held her, shared the pain she had taken.
I should have held her and told her that I loved her.
A son needs to say it when he loves his Mother.

Jolly Jack Crowe was out on the ocean,
His Charlie asleep alone, deep within the motion.
Jack's eyes hollowed from the inside,
His life and his heart had been pulverised.
Guilt's not so loud in a bottle.

Taking risks had bought four sons and good fortune,
How could he know that was the tide his luck was leaving on.
Nobody talked of beauty lost and undone,
Everybody baulked, when we named our son.

But it's time to stop blaming Jolly Jack Crowe,
Whose grief knew no boundary,
And swallowed him whole.
Fighting for the dead, fighting for his soul.
I love him more, thanks to my Charlie Crowe.

How little do I know of the path of my Father,
If I'm now just thinking, if I'd lost a brother.
How many nights has he lain awake shaking,
When I could have held him, shared the pain he had taken.
I should have held him and told him that I loved him.
A son and a Father should always be talking. (x3)

Mickey
(written by Alan Doyle / Russell Crowe)
"It's about a friend of mine, about the fact that redemption is available to anybody if you seek it. Don't matter what colour your God is or what jumper he wears on the weekend, faith will reward you." - Russell

God's flashlight, catches all us sinners,
Sunlight, pours the truth on what’s been hidden.

Jesus on my skin,
The ink is fading but not undone
I’ve told him all my sins
I am not brave, but I won’t run

I’ve never been the guy
But I know what he’s thinking
I might tell a lie
But I can keep a secret.

CHORUS:
If God asked me too, I'd do it all again.
I wouldn’t long for something else,
Or change a single thing.
You can't eat your pride,
Or cleanse your soul of what is you.
I’d rather regret the things I've done,
Than the things I didn't do.

Temptation makes a mockery,
Of all my good intentions.
I’ve served myself and flayed myself,
I am my own invention.

I can’t believe this body has held on for so long,
There’s many a man of lesser hungers,
Long since come and gone.

Faith has never left me,
Though my common sense can wander.
And I will seek his guidance,
No matter what shape the stars I’m under.

CHORUS

Guilty I am,
I won’t defend it.
I am still a sinner and
Will be until it’s ended.
He has let me love and lose,
And lose and love again.
The fact that I’m still breathing,
Means God, understands men.

CHORUS

I’d rather regret the things I've done, than the things I didn't do. (x2)

Worst In The World
(written by Alan Doyle / Russell Crowe)
"It's about Prince Harry. I think it would be a terribly narcissistic process to write every single song from your own persepctive." - Russell

I am only as I am, not Satan, I'm not a super-man
Cut down like a fighter, my face in the dirt.
How did I get to be the worst in the world

Front page cries the prince must die he’s the Devil in disguise
No one doubts a single word they’ve read
Lonely prince, lonely castle wonders if it’s worth the hassle
Would they even believe me if I said

CHORUS:
I am only as I am, not Satan, I'm not a super-man
I am only as I am, no smoke and mirrors no slight of hand
Cut down like a fighter, my face in the dirt
How’d I get to be the worst in the world
How’d I get to be the worst in the world
The worst in the world.

Paint his face scarlet red. Draw a black hat on the bad guys head
It makes him so much easier to see
When a hazy picture tells a story the truth can often be so boring
And isn’t always as easy to believe

CHORUS

Here’s one thing you’ll never read. The prince is just like you and me
He’s not blessed and he’s not cursed. He’s nothing better nothing worst
Than we’re prepared to believe

I am only as I am, not Satan, I'm not a super-man
Cut down like a fighter, my face in the dirt
How’d I get to be the Worst in the World
Cut down like a fighter my face in the dirt
How’d I get to be the worst in the world
How’d I get to be the worst in the world
Worst In The World
The Worst In The World (x3)

My Hand My Heart
(written by Russell Crowe / Hunter)
"My contribution to the genre of drinking songs which is a very important genre in the history of rock and roll. The central sadness of that song is the acknowledgement that not all your friends stay with you all your life." - Russell

I can never understand
Why when a drink is in my hand
Time accelerates and leaves me still

With one more drink right in my hand
Am I the last man here who’ll stand
We had a meeting – I said I’d see you,
And you know one day I will

It’s so much better when it’s unplanned
To find a drink right in your hands
And we make a pact to kill the afternoon

And we salute the dead marines
then through the laughter and the screams
We remember all the songs we used to sing

So I raise my glass to you,
My hand, my heart and all that’s due
To all the friends that I still know
And those who have passed through

I can never understand
Why when a drink is in my hand
Time accelerates and leaves me still in love with you

Once Good Year
(written by Cleaves / Brooks)
"This song is important to me because it contains two of the great single lyric lines I have ever heard; one of which is 'I've been chasing grace, grace ain't so easily found'. The other is, 'Will your darkest hour write a blank cheque on your soul'." - Russell

It’s New Years Day just like the day before
Same old skies of grey, same empty bottles on the floor
Another years gone by, and I was thinking once again
How can I take this losing hand and somehow win

CHORUS

Just give me One Good Year. To get my feet back on the ground
I’ve been chasing grace. Grace ain’t so easily found
One bad hand can devil a man, chase him and carry him down
I’ve got to get out of here, just give me One Good Year

I’m burning oil, engine’s running rough
I drive from job to job, but it’s never enough
I can’t find the will to just up and get away
Some kind of chain is holding me down and making me stay

CHORUS

Just give me One Good Year. To get my feet back on the ground
I’ve been chasing grace. Grace ain’t so easily found
One bad hand can devil a man, chase him and carry him down
I’ve got to get out of here, just give me One Good Year

Bridge

It’s a bitter wind in your face every day
It’s the little sins that wear your soul away
When you start giving in, where do the promises all go
Will your darkest hour write a blank check on your soul

It’s New Years Day just like the day before
Same old skies of grey, same empty bottles on the floor
Another years gone by, and I was thinking once again
How can I take this losing hand and somehow win

CHORUS

Just give me One Good Year. To get my feet back on the ground
I’ve been chasing grace. Grace ain’t so easily found
One bad hand can devil a man, chase him and carry him down
I’ve got to get out of here, just give me One Good Year

Fade

Mr. Harris
(written by Russell Crowe)
"It’s a choral requiem for a dead friend (the actor Richard Harris) sung in the idiom of a football song you may hear at Lansdowne Road." - Russell

Mr. Harris take the field
And play the 16th man
We’ll sing of Athenrae
And you’ll do all you can
For the green
The glorious green
The emerald green
Of Ireland's pride
We’ll take the fight
We’ll never yield
For Irish sons have Irish hearts
And Mr. Harris, Mr. Harris take the field

I Miss My Mind
(written by Hyde)
"When I heard the song I always saw it as that moment when you have come through a hard time. Times when the way out of it is to keep your head down and push through." - Russell

Victory was not mine to have it came to other men
No daring feats on foreign streets no history making pen
The ship I sailed was lost in fog, some distance from the coast
Of all the things I lost that year I miss my mind the most

I broke my back on boredom’s rack, like this my time was sold
Like every moment was my last, spent like fools gold
Wasted now the passing years of little I can boast
Of all the things I lost that year I miss my mind the most

When spring was young I had a thirst for standing proud and tall
I drank the summers full of wine and fell right into fall

But winters chill with vengeance came and proved a cruel host
Of all the things I lost that year, I miss my mind the most.

The ship I sailed was lost in fog, some distance from the coast
Of all the things I lost that year I missed my mind the most

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