Christy Moore

[fox69]

"Mercy"

"Mercy"


We used to sit and watch the kids belly flop divin' in the river
Share a bottle a scrumpy by the neck, lie in the sun and you'd make me laugh
Take of early and head on home to get dolled up for the Casino
We'd head out lookin' all shiny and new, we were Teddyboys we had to be cool

Later that night we'd go down to Mario's for fish and chips and vinegar
A smile for the camera man got me and you in a photograph
But time goes on and on and nothin' beautiful lasts forever
I know what you've done and what you've been through
But I don't understand why you do what you do
I give you my hand, it's a hand you can hold on to
Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy

We drifted apart and you grew strange, you were more into whisky then women
The first time you got lifted you loved it, you wrote your own epitaph
Here lies a wanted man, couldn't take the rules when they hit him
Here lies a man with an attitude and a Polaroid shot of a hand he could hold onto
Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy

The older you get the harder it bites, when you fight you go kamikaze
It hurts so bad to see you fall back from your tender ways
Now all you've got is in a police bag beside a row of walkie-talkies on the mantlepiece
I know what you've done and what you've been through
But I don't understand why you do what you do what you do
I give you my hand it's a hand you can hold onto
Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy

 

[fox69]

"Messenger Boy"

"Messenger Boy"


I'm goin' to saddle up me old grey mare
I'm goin' to ride through the night without a worry or a care

I'm a messenger boy bringing my love to you
I'm a messenger boy bringing my love to you

I see the light in the bedroom
I pray to God that I didn't come too soon

I'm a messenger boy bringing my love to you
I'm a messenger boy bringing my love to you

Two big dogs and a man shouts "Who goes there?"
I've ridden trough the cold and the wind and the rain and the frost and the snow and I'm in love and I do not feel the pain

I'm a messenger boy bringing my love to you
I'm a messenger boy bringing my love to you

 

[fox69]

"Metropolitan Avenue"

"Metropolitan Avenue"


First days in the loft I thought I might live, new faces, new streets
No cash in the hand was making me thing, what now? what's coming next?
That's not to say I wasn't welcomed, I was welcomed, I was taken in
I took the bait when I was hunted, I was wretched, I was freezing
Metropolitan avenue standing tall in the winter rain
Will I ever see your face again?
Don't run like a dog I know how it feels without heat, without love
Ran free in the park like Jekyll and Hyde, me and Pete, me and Pete
Up half the night unwilling witness to some strangers feud
Deep underground I hear the notes of some old gamblers blues
Metropolitan avenue standing tall in the winter snow
I just didn't have a place to go
This road will never take me out, I've been stopped in my tracks
There goes the night and now the dawn begins to filter through
I took the bait when I was hunted, didn't know that I was failing you
Metropolitan avenue standing tall in the winter sun
I'll be back with you before I'm done
Metropolitan avenue standing tall in the winter sun
I'll be back with you before I'm done

 

[fox69]

"Middle Of The Island"

"Middle Of The Island"


Everybody knew, nobody said
A week ago last Tuesday
She was just fifteen years
When she reached her full therm
She went to a grotto
In just a field
In the middle of the island
To deliver herself
Her baby died
She died
A week ago last Tuesday
It was a sad slow stupid death for them both
Everybody knew, nobody said
At a grotto
In a field
In the middle of the island

It was a sad slow stupid death for them both
Everybody knew, nobody said

 

[fox69]

"Minds Locked Shut"

"Minds Locked Shut"


It happened on a Sunday afternoon
On a lovely bright crisp winters afternoon
On a perfect day for walking
There was gunshots, stones and bullets
On a lovely bright crisp winters afternoon
There was chaos, panic and death
Disbelief upon the faces
Fear and bewilderment
The seconds seemed so long
They're firing bullets at us
It was not supposed to be like this
Awesome to behold

And then our minds locked shut
And then our minds locked shut
And then our minds locked shut
And then our minds locked shut
And there remains...

Jackie Duddy and Willie Nash
Gerry Donaghy, Willy McKinney
Gerard McKinney and Jim Wray
Johnny Johnston, Barney McGuigan
Paddy Doherty, Kevin McIlhenny
John Young, Mickey Kelly
Hugh Gilmore, Micheal McDaid
Let us remember...

It happened on a Sunday afternoon
On a lovely bright crisp winters afternoon
On a perfect day for walking

 

[fox69]

"Miracles Of Nature"

"Miracles Of Nature"


I took a rocky road up Croagh Patrick
And a mossy path up Sliabh Gallion Braes
And I plunged in the deep at Brandon Creek
And slept in a glade beyond Dún Maebh
All alone along the Wicklow Way Peace and solitude I found
When I reached the slopes of Mullaghmore
I could have sworn that was the holy ground
Minister, minister
Pause for reflection
As you fly by helicopter
In pursuit of re-election
An obsession with affairs of State
And legislature
Leaves little time for us to share
In the miracles of Nature
Like the fairy foxglove
And the rusty-back fern at Poll Na Gollum
The silver cranesbill
And columbine at Caher Connell
The juniper at Bellharbour
The wintergreen around Slaibh Carron
These miracles of nature
Surviving in the crevices of the Burren
There's gonna be sewerage schemes
And septic tanks, tarmac and concrete mixers
And rumours circling Co. Clare
Promising lots of nixers
And car parks to be levelled
Infills and elevations
And when the dust is settled
A handful of jobs and relations
Nature took two million years
To sculpture Mullaghmore
Carved from the ancient rock
By the freezing ice and snow
As the sun shines down on the mountain
At the broad Atlantic ocean
You can hear the small birds singing
On the Burren round Mullaghmore

 

[fox69]

"Missing You"

"Missing You"


In nineteen hundred and eighty six
There's not much for a chippie but swinging a pick
And you can't live on love, on love alone
So you sail cross the ocean, away 'cross the foam

To where you're a Paddy, a Biddy or a Mick
Good for nothing but stacking a brick
Your best mate's a spade and he carries a hod
Two work horses heavily shod

Oh, I'm missing you
I'd give all for the price of a flight
Oh, I'm missing you
Under Piccadilly's neon

Who did you murder, are you a spy?
I'm just fond of a drink, helps me laugh, helps me cry
So I just drink red biddy for a permanent high
I laugh a lot less and I'll cry till I die

Oh, I'm missing you
I'd give all for the price of a flight
Oh, I'm missing you
Under Piccadilly's neon

All ye young people now take my advice
Before crossing the ocean you'd better think twice
'Cause you can't live without love, without love alone
The proof is round London in the nobody zone

Where the summer is fine, but the winter's a fridge
Wrapped up in old cardboard under Charing Cross Bridge
And I'll never go home now because of the shame
Of misfit's reflection in a shop window pane

Oh, I'm missing you
I'd give all for the price of a flight
Oh, I'm missing you
Under Piccadilly's neon

 

[fox69]

"Morrissey And The Russian Sailor"

"Morrissey And The Russian Sailor"


Oh come all you true born Irishmen, wherever you may be
I hope you'll pay attention and listen unto me
I'll sing about a battle that took place the other day
Between a Russian sailor and gallant Morrissey

It was in Tierra Del Fuego in South America
The Russian challenged Morrissey these words to him did say
I hear you are a fighting man you wear the belt I see
Indeed I wish you would consent to have a fight with me

Up spoke Johnny Morrissey with heart both brave and true
I am a valiant Irishman that never was subdued
I can whack the Yankee, the Saxon, Bull or Bear
In honour of old Paddy's land the laurels I'll maintain

They shook hands and walked around the ring commencing then to fight
It filled each Irish heart with joy to behold the sight
The Russian he floored Morrissey up to the eleventh round
With Yankee, Saxon and Russian cheers the valley did resound

A minute and a half he lay before he could arise
The word it went around the field he's dead rang out the cries
But Morrissey recovered and rising from the ground
From that up to the eighteenth the Russian he put down

The Irish offered ten to one that day upon the grass
No sooner said that taken and they covered all the cash
They parried away without delay up to the twentieth round
When Morrissey received a blow which brought him to the ground

Up to the thirty-second round 'twas fall and fall about
Which caused them Yankee tyrants to keep a sharp look out
The Russian called his seconds to pour a glass of wine
Begod sez Johnny Morrissey this battle will be mine

The thirty-seventh ended all when the Russian smelt a fart
When Morrissey with a dreadful blow struck the Russian on the heart
They sent for a physician to open up a vein
The doctor said 'Tis useless, he will never fight again'

Our hero conquered Thompson, the Yankee clipper too
The Benica boy and Shepherd he also did subdue
Let us fill a flowing glass and here's a health galore
To noble Johnny Morrissey who came from Templemore

 

[fox69]

"Motherland"

"Motherland"


Where in hell can you go, far from the things that you know
Far from this concrete sprawl that keeps crawling it's way
About a thousand miles a day

Take one last look behind, commit this to memory and mind
Don't miss this wasteland, this terrible place, when you leave
Keep your heart off your sleeve

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe, lie with me stay beside me don't go

My five and dime queen, tell me what have you seen
The lust and the avarice the bottomless cavernous greed
Is that what you see?

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe, lie with me stay beside me don't go

It's your happiness I want most of all and for that I'd do anything at all
If you want the best of life and the most of love
If there is anything I can do at all

Come on shotgun bride, what makes me envy your life
The faceless the nameless the innocent the blameless and free
What's that like to be?

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe lie with me stay beside me don't go
Don't you go

 

[fox69]

"Musha God Help Her"

"Musha God Help Her"


Ah sure, musha, God help her
She's in an awful state
She's got that husband fellow's run away
A teenage daughter in the family way
And she can't pay her bills to nobody

Poor Mrs. Donoghue
Out there by Ballynew
She used to be a King from Davitt Street
All of them were spotless in their parent's home
Till she got married to that animal

According to all accounts
They never go to Mass
He's with that young one out in Ballyhack
She don't have a stitch across her back
But she can well afford to drink

I really don't know
What's to become of them?
All the street is up in arms at them
They make more noise than an army
When she starts throwing all the cups at him

I really wouldn't mind
If they were friendly
But they don't say hello to nobody
You'd really think that they were somebody
It makes me laugh you know
At the back of it all

Ah sure musha, God help her
She's in an awful state
She's got that husband fellows run away
A teenage daughter in the family way
And she don't pay her bills to nobody