Christy Moore

[fox69]

"Another Song Is Born"

"Another Song Is Born"


I looked over my shoulder but not for too long
It's no place to look if you're writing a song
Some songs grow ancient and live through the years
While others die off and dry up like tears

You open the cloak and lift up a veil
The hammer is raised to drive home a nail
The flesh is torn open, the bone is revealed
Wounds that fester seldom get healed

Songs written for love and written for gain
Some make you laugh, soothe a bad pain
Songs have a heart, a body, a soul
You lay one to rest and another song is born

While we rescue banks and Royal Kilmanham Halls
Hell on this earth means nothing at all
My hands are all withered and I cannot breathe
The nightmare of indifference to suffering and need

The elite on the plinth maintain status quo
Marble and granite their movements are slow
The silk stays unruffled as the eyebrows are raised
Satin and mohair the good lord be praised

 

[fox69]

"Avondale"

"Avondale"


Oh have you been to Avondale and lingered in her lovely vale
Where tall trees whisper low the tale of avondale's proud eagle
Where pride and ancient glory fade
Such was the land where he was laid
Like Christ was thirty pieces paid
For Avondale's proud eagle

Oh have you been to Avondale and lingered in her lovely vale
Where tall trees whisper low the tale of avondale's proud eagle
Long years that green and lovely glade
Have lost for now our grandest Gael
And Cursed the land that has betrayed
Our Avondale's proud eagle

 

[fox69]

"Back Home In Derry"

"Back Home In Derry"


In 1803 we sailed out to sea
Out from the sweet town of Derry
For Australia bound if we didn't all drown
The marks of our fetters we carried
In the rusty iron chains we cried for our wanes
Our good women we left in sorrow
As the main sails unfurled, our curses we hurled
On the English and thoughts of tomorrow

At the mouth of the Foyle, bid farewell to the soil
As down below decks we were lying
O'Doherty screamed woke him out of a dream
By a vision of bold Robert dying
The sun burned cruel as we dished out the gruel
Dan O'Connor was down with the fever
Sixty rebels today bound for Botany Bay
How many will reach their reciever?

Oh, oh oh oh-oh, I wish I was back home in Derry
Oh, oh oh oh-oh, I wish I was back home in Derry

I cursed them to hell, as her bow fought the swell
Our ship danced like a moth in the firelight
Wild horses rode high as the devil passed by
Taking souls into Hades by twilight
Five weeks out to sea we were now 43
We buried our comrades each morning
In our own slime, we were lost in the time
Endless night without dawning

Oh, oh oh oh-oh, I wish I was back home in Derry
Oh, oh oh oh-oh, I wish I was back home in Derry

Van Diemen's land is a hell for a man
To end out his whole life in slavery
Where the climate is raw and the gun makes the law
Neither wind nor rain care for bravery
Twenty years have gone by and I've ended my bond
My comrades' ghosts walk behind me
A rebel I came, I'm still the same
On a cold winters night you will find me

Oh, oh oh oh-oh, I wish I was back home in Derry
Oh, oh oh oh-oh, I wish I was back home in Derry
Oh, oh oh oh-oh, I wish I was back home in Derry
Oh, oh oh oh-oh, I wish I was back home in Derry

 

[fox69]

"Beeswing"

"Beeswing"


I was 18 when I came to town they called it the summer of love
Burning babies burning flags the hawks against the doves
I took a job at the steaming way down on Caltrim St.
Fell in love with a laundry girl that was workin' next to me

Brown hair zig zagged around her face and a look of half surprise
Like a fox caught in the headlights there was animal in her eyes
She said to me, can't you see, I'm not the factory kind
If you don't take me out of here, I'll lose my mind

She was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child, she was runnin' wild (she said)
So long as there's no price on love I'll stay
You wouldn't want me any other way

We busked around the market towns fruit pickin', down in Kent
We could tinker pots and pans or knives wherever we went
We were campin' down the Gower and the work was mighty good
She wouldn't wait for the harvest, I thought we should

I said to her, we'll settle down, get a few acres dug
A fire burning in the hearth and babies on the rug
She said, oh man you foolish man that surely sounds like hell
You might be lord of half the world, you'll not own me as well

She was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child, she was runnin' wild (she said)
So long as there's no price on love I'll stay
You wouldn't want me any other way

We were drinking more in those days, our tempers reached a pitch
Like a fool I let her run away when she took the rambling itch
And the last I heard she was living rough back on the Derby beat
A bottle of White Horse in her pocket, a Wolfhound at her feet

They say that she got married once to a man called Romany Brown
Even a gypsy caravan was too much like settlin' down
They say her rose has faded, rough weather and hard booze
Maybe that's the price you pay for the chains that you refuse

She was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
I miss her more than ever words can say
If I could just taste all of her wildness now
If I could hold her in my arms today
I wouldn't want her any other way

If I could hold her in my arms today
I wouldn't want her any other way

 

[fox69]

"Belfast Brigade"

"Belfast Brigade"


The black and tans from London
Came to shoot the people down
They thought the IRA was dead
In dear old Belfast town
Those cruel English soldiers
They were seriously dismayed
"No Surrender" was the war cry of the Belfast brigade

Glory, glory to old Ireland
Glory, glory to this island
Glory to the memory of the men
Who found their grave
"No surrender" is the war cry of
The Belfast Brigade

The soldiers came from Holywood
Equipped with English guns
There were men by the thousand
Ammunition by the ton
But when they got to Belfast
They were seriously delayed
By the fighting First Battalion
Of the Belfast Brigade

We have no ammunition
Or no armoured tanks to show
But we're ready to defend ourselves
No matter where we go
We're out for our Republic
And to hell with your Free State
"No surrender" is the war cry
Of the Belfast Brigade

Come all you gallant Irishmen
And join the IRA
We'll strike a blow for freedom
When it comes a certain day
You know your country's history
And the sacrifice it made
Come join the First Battalion
Of the Belfast Brigade

 

[fox69]

"Biko Drum"

"Biko Drum"


And they went home on an Easter road
On a silent night tryin' not to show
Who goes where and who goes when
Thinkin' some day soon they'll get it back again

From the ghetto in Cape Town to dig the gold
Little boy blue can't be sold
Under tin roof and a plastic wall
Thinkin' someday soon we're goin' to leave it all

And the renegades sing all the renegade songs
And the ones who know hope they're doin' wrong
The blacks and the coloreds play the Biko Drum
Listen to the Biko Drum

Transvaal Kids on a Transvaal day
Little by little the show the way
To a city of dreams and solid ground
Thinkin' someday soon we're gonna come around

Steve he's livin' in a prison cell
All the friends that know hope he's doin' well
Down here they listen to the Biko Drum
Down here they listen to the songs he sung

And the renegades sing all the renegade songs
And the ones who know hope they're doin' wrong
The blacks and the coloreds play the Biko Drum
Listen to the Biko Drum

Nelson listen to the people sing
Nelson Mandela the people's king
Twenty-five years in a white man's jail
Twenty-five years we couldn't make him say

And the renegades sing all the renegade songs
And the ones who know hope they're doin' wrong
The blacks and the coloreds play the Biko Drum
Listen to the Biko Drum

 

[fox69]

"Black Is The Colour"

"Black Is The Colour"


Black is the colour of my true love's hair
Her lips are like some roses fair
She has the sweetest smile and the gentlest hands
And I love the ground whereon she stands

I love my love and well she knows
I love the ground whereon she goes
I wish the day it soon would come
When she and I could be as one

I go the Clyde and I mourn and weep
For satisfied I never can be
I write her a letter, just a few short lines
And suffer death a thousand times

Black is the colour of my true love's hair
Her lips are like some roses fair
She has the sweetest smile and the gentlest hands
And I love the ground whereon she stands

 

[fox69]

"Blackjack County Chains"

"Blackjack County Chains"


I was sitting beside the road in Black Jack County
Not knowing that the Sheriff paid a bounty
For men like me that hadn't got a penny to their name
So he locked my leg to 35 pounds of Black Jack County Chains

And all we had to eat was bread and water
Each day we built the road a mile and a quarter
A Black Snake Whip would cut the back of any man who complained
But we couldn't fight back wearing 35 pounds of Black Jack County Chains

One night while the Sheriff he was sleeping
We all gathered round him slowly creeping
Heaven help me to forget that night in the cold cold rain
When we beat him to death with 35 pounds of Black Jack County Chains

Now the whip marks have all healed and I am thankful
There's nothing left but a scar around my ankle
But most of all I'm glad no man will be a slave again
To a Black Snake Whip and 35 pounds of Black Jack County Chains

 

[fox69]

"Blantyre Explosion"

"Blantyre Explosion"


By Clyde's bonny banks as I slowly did wander
Among the pit heaps as the evening grew nigh
I spied a young woman all dressed in black mourning
Weeping and wailing with many a sigh
I stepped up beside her and gently addressed her
Would it help you to talk about the cause of your pain?
Weeping and wailing at last she did answer
Johnny Murphy, kind sir, is my true lover's name
Twenty one years of age, full of youth and good looking
To work down the mine of High Blantyre he came
Our wedding was fixed all the guests were invited
That calm summers' evening my Johnny was slain
The explosion was heard by the women and children
With pale anxious faces they ran to the mine
When the news was made known all the hills rang with mourning
Thee hundred and ten Scottish miners were slain
Mothers and daughters and sweethearts and lovers
The Blantyre explosion you'll never forget
All you good people who hear my sad story
Remember the miners who lie at their rest

 

[fox69]

"Bogey's Bonnie Belle"

"Bogey's Bonnie Belle"


As I went by Huntleigh town
One evening for to see
I met with Bogey O' Cairnee
And with him I did agree

To care for his two best horses
Or cart or harrow or plough
Or anything about farm work
That I very well should know

Old Bogey had a daughter
Her name was Isobel
She's the lily of the valley
And the primrose of the dell

And when she went out walking
She took me for her guide
Down by the Burn O'Cairnee
To watch the small fish glide

And when three months was past and gone
This girl she lost her bloom
The red fell from her rosy cheeks
And her eyes began to swoon

And when nine months were past and gone
She bore to me a son
And I was straight sent for
To see what could be done

I said that I would marry her
But that it would nae do
You're no a match for the bonny wee girl
And she's no match for you

Now she's married to a tinker lad
That comes from Huntleigh town
He sells pots and pans and paraffin lamps
And scours the country round

Maybe she's had a better match
Old Bogey can nae tell
So fair well ye lads o Huntleigh town
And to Bogey's Bonnie Belle