Christy Moore

[fox69]

"Hard Cases"

"Hard Cases"


You're in the pub at half past ten, the money for the cure all spent again
Trying to figure out who's carrying and where they'll be that day
Forget about the night before when you were flying for an hour or more
And move across to the Central Bar hoping that you'll see

One of them hard cases, soft faces, who grip you with their deadly smile
The grip it slowly tightens and the grin gets slowly deeper
And beads of perspiration stand out upon your cadgilation
Someone takes the pressure off and calls out more porter

Soon enough the tap runs dry and the afternoon goes slowly by
The Barman looks on warily as your mates come drifting in
Someone says there's a session on, a tarnished bard has just hit town
Move across to the Widows, see if you can rustle up the entrance fee from

A woman you know buys you your last and the evening goes flashing past
Bridie's screaming as your eyeing the slops behind the bar
The party crowd is gathering, the banjo, fiddle and mandolin
The cider flagon hunt is on, if you haven't got a tosser
Won't you bring along a dozen of...

 

[fox69]

"Hey Sandy"
(originally by Harvey Andrews)

"Hey Sandy"
(originally by Harvey Andrews)



The sun was hot and the air was heavy and the marching men came by
You stood at the door and you watched then pass you asked the reason why
The sound of steel on their Jackboot heel came pounding through your head
Your reason is past, they’ve come at last, with the blessings of the dead

[Chorus:]
Hey Sandy, hey Sandy why are you the one?
All the years of growing up are wasted now and gone
Did you see them turn did you feel the burn of the bullets as they flew?
Hey Sandy, hey Sandy just what did you do?

At the college square they were standing there with flag and with the gun
And the whispered words as the young ones stirred, why are these things done
And the air was still with the lonely thrill of now the hour is near
And the smell of sweat was better yet than the awful smell of fear

[Chorus]

The awful shout as you all ran out, why are these things done
And you stood and stared yet no one cared for another campus bum
Your songs are dead and your hymns instead are to the funeral pyre
And the words of youth, like love and truth are just ashes on the fire

[Chorus]

Did you throw the stone at the men alone with their bayonets fixed for hire?
Did you think that they would kill no one did you scream as they opened fire?
As the square ran red with your bloodstains spread and the darkness round you grew
Did you feel the pain did you call the name of the man that you never knew?

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Hiroshima Nagasaki Russian Roulette"

"Hiroshima Nagasaki Russian Roulette"


They dropped the bomb in '45 to end the world war
No one had ever seen such a terrible sight before
The world looked on with eyes wide to see where it might lead
The politics of power, they passed around their seed
It was a time to remember, we never can forget
They were playin' Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Russian Roulette

They arose like the saviours of our modern human race
With radiation haloes, that hung about their face
With the key to the sure-cure, the treatment of our ills
A hot-shot of cobalt, and a pocket-full of pills
Speaking always of the enemy, who lurked across the sea
While they crept in among us like a carrier disease

Deep down inside the bunkers of the concrete and the lead
Einstein's disciples working steadily ahead
Making heavy metal power-plants to fire the city lights
All you can hear in the underground is the humming through the night
And the walls of tight security, circle all around
Where they spill out their poison and bury it in the ground

Holed up in the harbours hidden secretly away
War-heads and submarines await to make their play
The military masterminds improve on their design
The soldiers get all doped up and stumble through the lines
While the spills into the rivers get carried out by the tide
They call this security but we're not satisfied

Our statesmen and leaders and politicians pay
Quick to heed the hand that feeds, they're careful what they say
They call out experts to assure us, to wave their magic wands
This is the power of the future, And the future marches on
And they call in their favours, all their political gains
While the spills fill the rivers and settle in the plains

I know the minds behind them, they are riddled full of holes
Not to be trusted with their hands at the controls
Their eyesight it is twisted by the glory of their careers
The heaped praise and flattery is music to their ears
To listen to them talk about how it hasn't happened yet's
Like playing Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Russian Roulette

 

[fox69]

"How Long"

"How Long"


When you look in to a child's face
You are seeing all the human race
And the endless possibilities there
Where so much can come true
And you think of the beautiful things
A child can do

How long can a child survive
How long if it was up to you

When you think of all the money spent
On defence by the government
And the weapons of destruction we build
We're so sure that we need
And you think of the millions and millions
That money could feed

How long can you hear someone crying
How long can you hear someone dying
Before you ask yourself why
How long will we hear people speaking
About missiles for peace and just let it go by
How long will they tell us these weapons are keeping us free
It's a lie

If you saw it from a satellite
With its green and with its blue and white
The beauty of the curve of the earth
And the oceans below
You might think it was paradise
If you didn't know
You might think it was turning
But it's turning so slow

How long can you hear someone crying?
How long can you hear someone dying?
Before you ask yourself why
How long will it be till we've turned
To the tasks and the skills that we'll have to have learned
If we're going to find a place in the future
Have something to offer where this planet is concerned

 

[fox69]

"I Wish I Was In England"

"I Wish I Was In England"


Oh I wish I was in England, in France or even in Spain
Or wherever dwells my own true love, to hold her near again
Wherever dwells my own true love to hold her near again
Oh long time I had been roaming, in country and in town
But never in my wanderings met, a maid with such renown
No never in my wanderings met, a maid with such renown
Until I met my true love on the shores of Knocknashee
Her brown hair in the howling wind, a-blowing wild and free
Her brown hair in the howling wind, a-blowing wild and free
Oh my true love she did promise me some land with rambling kine
And on her ample pasture land to build a mansion fine
And on her ample pasture land to build a mansion fine
But then my love she left me, and she wandered far away
And I've been searching for my love for many's the night and day
Yes I've been searching for my love for many's the night and day
Oh I wish that I was in England, or wherever she may be
That I could go and call my love, and together we would be
That I could go and call my love and together we would be

 

[fox69]

"Jack Doyle (aka The Contender)"

"Jack Doyle (aka The Contender)"


When I was young and I was in my day
I could steal what woman's heart there was away
Sing and dance into the morning
Blaze a trail until the dawning
Long before I was the man you see today

I was born beneath the star that promised all
I could have lived my life between cork cobh and youghal
But the wheel of fortune took me
From the highest point she shook me
By the bottle live by the bottle I shall fall

But there in the mirror on the wall
I see the dream is fading
From the contender to the fall
The ring, the rose, the matador, raving

And when I die I'll die a drunk down on the street
You can count me out to ten in clear defeat
Rap the starry plough around me
Let the pipers air resound me
There I'll rest until the lord of love I meet

But there in the mirror on the wall
I see the dream is fading
From the contender to the brawl
The ring, the rose, the matador, raving

 

[fox69]

"James Connolly"

"James Connolly"


Where oh where is our James Connolly?
Where oh where is that gallant man?
He is gone to organize the union
That working men they may yet be free

Oh who then who will lead the van?
Oh who then who will lead the van?
Who but our James Connolly
The hero of the working man

Who will carry high the burning flag?
Who will carry high the burning flag?
Who but our James Connolly
Could carry high the burning flag

They carried him up to the jail
They carried him up to the jail
And they shot him down on a bright May morning
And quickly laid him in his grave

Who mourns the death of this great man?
Who mourns the death of this great man?
Oh bury me down in yon green garden
With union men on every side

So they buried him down in yon green garden
With union men on every side
They swore they would form a mighty union
That James Connolly's name might be filled with pride

Where oh where is our James Connolly?
Where oh where is that gallant man?
He is gone to organize the Union
That working men they may yet be free

 

[fox69]

"James Larkin"

"James Larkin"


In Dublin City in 1914 the boss was rich and the poor were slaves
The women working and the children hungry then on came Larkin like a mighty wave
The workers cringed when the boss man thundered seventy hours was their weekly chore
They asked for little and less was granted lest getting little they'd asked for more

Then came Larkin in 1914 a mighty man with a mighty tongue
The voice of labour the voice of justice and he was gifted, he was young
God sent Larkin in 1914 a labor man with a union tongue
He raised the workers and gave them courage he was their hero and a workers son

It was in August the boss man told us no union man for them could work
We stood by Larkin and told the boss man we'd fight or die but we'd never shirk
Eight months we fought eight months we starved we stood by Larkin through thick and thin
But foodless homes and the crying children, they broke our hearts and we could not win

When Larkin left us we seemed defeated the night was black for the working man
But on came Connolly came with new hope and counsel his motto was we'll rise again
In 1916 in Dublin City the English army burnt our town
They shelled the buildings and shot our leaders the harp was buried beneath the crown

They shot McDermott and Pearse and Plunkett they shot McDonagh Ceannt and Clarke the brave
From bleak Kilmanham they took their bodies to Arbour hill to a quicklime grave
Last of all of the seven leaders they shot down James Connolly
The voice of labour the voice of justice gave his life that we might be free

 

[fox69]

"Joe McCann"

"Joe McCann"


Come all of you fine people wherever you may be
I'll sing of a brave Belfast man
Who scorned Britain's might though they'd shoot him on sight
And the shot down Joe McCann

In a Belfast bakery in the August of that year
When internment was imposed throughout the land
Six volunteers from Belfast held 60 soldiers at bay
And their leader was Joe McCann, brave Joe McCann

He fought for the people in the markets where he lived
In defence of the rights of man
But the undercover crew told the soldiers what to do
They shot Joe McCann, brave Joe McCann

He had no gun so he started to run
To escape them as many's the time before
One bullet brought him down as he lay on the ground
They shot him ten times more

He fought and he died for the people of this land
The protestant and catholic working man
He caused the bosses fear and for this they paid him dear
When they murdered brave Joe McCann
When they murdered brave Joe McCann

 

[fox69]

"John O'Dreams"

"John O'Dreams"


When midnight comes and people homeward tread
Seek now your blanket and your feather bed
Home comes the rover his journeys over
Yield up the night time to old John O'Dreams

Across the hills the sun has gone astray
Tomorrows cares are many dreams away
They stars are flying your candle is dying
Yield up the darkness to old John O'Dreams

Both man and master in the night are one
All things are equal when the day is done
The prince and the ploughman, the slave and the freeman
All find their comfort in old John O'Dreams

When sleep it comes the dreams come running clear
The hawks of morning cannot reach you here
Sleep is a river, flow on forever
And for your boatman choose old John O'Dreams