Frank Turner

[fox69]

"Little Aphrodite"

"Little Aphrodite"



I remember the first night I met you
You brushed past my arm at the bar
And suddenly it was like somebody somewhere
Scraped their keys down the side of my heart
Heart that been stuck in traffic
And someone interminably unchanging red light
You've beckoned me off down a side street
And I followed you into the night

You're weary and you wise like Athena
Like Artemis, you're wild and you're free
You're carrying yourself like you're Hera
But quietly you'll always be little Aphrodite to me

Now I remember on the first night I met you
How could I ever forget?
You were trading my drinks for across-the-bar winks
Like some rumour that I haven't heard yet
When I stumble onto you outside
I said I was sorry but that was kind of a lie
I've been waiting for you
And I knew that you knew
You still laughed, you still acted surprised

And it's lamely ridiculous for me to be said that I'm sure
But if I had an apple to give
Then it would be yours
And the others would rage as I turned them away
But you've followed me down to the shore
And for you I'd start a war
So darling, yes, I'm sure

Cause you're weary and you wise like Athena
Like Artemis, you're wild and you're free
You're carrying yourself like you're Hera
But quietly you'll always be little Aphrodite to me

 

[fox69]

"Live And Let Die"
(originally by Paul McCartney & Wings)

"Live And Let Die"
(originally by Paul McCartney & Wings)



When you were young and your heart was an open book
You used to say live and let live
(you know you did, you know you did you know you did)
But if this ever changing world in which we're living
Makes you give in and cry

Say live and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die...

What does it matter to you
When you got a job to do
You gotta do it well
You gotta give the other fellow hell

You used to say live and let live
(you know you did, you know you did you know you did)
But if this ever changing world in which we're living
Makes you give in and cry

Say live and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die...

 

[fox69]

"Live Fast Die Old"

"Live Fast Die Old"



I bought my soul back from the devil,
and now I’m keeping it all to myself.
I’m checking myself out of the program,
because I know what’s best for my health.
So why live the dream like you’re running out of sleep?
I’m not playing to pass time, I’m playing for keeps.
We only just started and you’re throwing the fight.
You’d rather burn out than fade away?
Well why not both, I plan to stay.
So let’s do this once and let’s do it right.
I used to act like none of this mattered,
I used to say that I didn’t care,
that we wouldn’t be doing this forever,
but the truth is that I was just scared.
So you put up a front to protect yourself,
but if we’re down on the floor, why get back on the shelf?
You can’t change your outfit now the night has begun.
But we’ve still got the fuel,
we still have the fire, so me and you, Jay,
let’s never retire, let’s keep on making mistakes till we’re done.
I’m going to live fast and I’m going to die old,
I’m going to end my days in a house with high windows
on the quiet shores in the South-West.
So you sort the tunes and I’ll bring the beers,
and on my seventieth birthday I’ll see you right here,
and together we’ll watch the sun set.
There’s no one in my coffin, there’s nothing in my grave,
I’m tired of being damned, I’d rather be saved,
and we can never sell out because we never bought in,
and if they build it back up,
then we’ll swing back through town and burn the whole thing down again.
It won’t last so be bold, choose your path, show soul, live fast and die old.

 

[fox69]

"Long Live The Queen"

"Long Live The Queen"



I was sipping on a Whiskey when I got the call
My friend Lex was lying in the hospital
She'd been pretty sick for about half a year
But it seems like this time the end was drawing near
So dropped my plans and jumped the next London train
I found her laid up and in a lot of pain
Her eyes met mine and then I understood
That her weather forecast wasn't looking too good
So I sat and spun her stories for a little while
Tried to raise her mood and tried to raise a smile
But she silenced all my rambling with a shake of her head
Drew me close and listen this is what she said now

"You'll live to dance another day
It's just now you'll have to dance for the two of us
So stop looking so damn depressed
And sing with all your heart that the Queen is dead"

Yeah she told me she was sick of all the hospital food
And of doctors, distant relatives, draining her blood
She said "I know I'm dying, but I'm not finished just yet
I'm dying for a drink and for a cigarette"
So we hatched a plan to book ourselves a cheap hotel
In the centre of the City and to raise some Hell
Lay waste to all the clubs and then when everyone else is long asleep
We know we're good and done

"You'll live to dance another day
It's just now you'll have to dance for the two of us
So stop looking so damn depressed
And sing with all your heart that the Queen is dead"
And South London's not the same anymore
The Queen is dead, and the last of the greats has finally gone to bed

Well I was working on some words when Sarah called me up
She said that Lex had gone asleep and wasn't waking up
And even though I knew that there was nothing to be done
I felt bad for not being there and now, well, she was gone
So I tried to think what Lex would want me to do
At times like this when I was feeling blue
So I gathered up some friends to spread the sad, sad news
And we headed to the City for a drink or two
And we sang

"We live to dance another day
It's just now we have to dance for one more of us
So stop looking so damn depressed
And sing with all our hearts, long live the Queen"

 

[fox69]

"Longing For The Day"

"Longing For The Day"



I've been trying to find a way that I could say it you -
Say it you, all that I've been trying to say.
I've been stuttering my way from here to anywhere -
Anywhere you can hear me stutter away.

I've been longing for the day, when you would say "Hey,
I feel a little fragile today, and I was wondering if I could drop on by?"

I've been talking to total strangers in the middle of the night,
Because I get so nervous when I dial your number
That I never quite punch it in right, in spite of me.

So I haven't been as strong as I had thought I'd be,
But I think I've been stronger than you would concede.
So let's do that exercise where you close your eyes
And fall back onto me, and you will see I'm strong after all.

I will lift you up if you'll lay me down.

So today could be the day when we both say "Hey,
I feel a little fragile today, and I was wondering if I could drop on by?"

So I won't be nervous when I dial your number in the middle of the night.
I will clear my throat, then I'll sing this song,
And I'll be out the door and round before the first of the new day's light.

 

[fox69]

"Losing Days"

"Losing Days"



Oh my broken battered body,
In the days when I was younger,
Used to fix itself quick sharp
After every slip and stumble.
But these days I'm collecting scars that don't seem to fade,
Cuts and bruises that won't go away.

And I used to think that I
Would never live past twenty five,
And when you think like that, each day
Is a gift if you survive.
But I've survived too long for my side of the deal,
And as I reach that shore I'm not sure how to feel.

I keep losing days
That used to take a lifetime
In the blinking of an eye.
And all these small ideas
Are suddenly commitments,
As greatness slips on by.

I remember well the day that I got my first tattoo:
I was so scared before and after I was so proud when it was new.
But these days I've gone and got me many more,
And sometimes I get more when I get bored.
One for every year I've lost

 

[fox69]

"Love Forty Down"

"Love Forty Down"



I'm love forty down
As the match slips away from me, I need the crowd to pray for me
To turn this one around
I've worked far too hard to be this far from victory

I'm battered and I'm bruised
And I can't afford to lose

I'm love forty down
As the day slips away from me, I have to say that honestly
I still haven't found
The person who can take the strain of deuce and fine it's back again
So, I'll do this on my own
There's no one waiting when I'm done

In the time it takes for the serve to rise and fall
We'll find out if I am man or mouse, if I am set to stand or fall

I'm love forty down
And I can well recall the day my father reached the ancient age
That's now baring down
Through the barrel of my fourth decade and honestly I am afraid
I'm long in the tooth
But I'm ready for the truth

In the time it takes for the serve to rise and fall
We'll find out if I am man or mouse, if I am set to stand or fall

In the time it takes for the umpire to flip his coin
We'll find out if I can take the strain if I can make it through break point

I'm love forty down
I'm gonna turn this one around
I'm love forty down
I'm gonna turn this one around
Break point (I'm love forty down)
Break point (I'm love forty down)
I'm gonna turn this one around

 

[fox69]

"Love Ire & Song"

"Love Ire & Song"



Well, a teacher of mine once told me
That life was just a list of disappointments and defeats
And you could only do your best,
And I said, "Well, that's a fucking cop-out, you're just washed up and you're tired,
And when I get to your age, well, I won't be such a coward."
But these days I sit at home, known to shout at my TV
And Punk Rock didn't live up to what I'd hoped that it could be
And all the things that I believed with all my heart when I was young
Are just coasters for beers and clean surfaces for drugs
And I packed all my pamphlets with my bibles at the back of the shelf

Well, it was bad enough the feeling, and the first time it hit
When you realised your parents had let the world all go to shit
And that the values and ideals for which many had fought and died
Had been killed off in the committees and left to die by the wayside
But it was worse when we turned to the kids on the left
And got let down again by some poor excuse for protest
Yeah by idiot fucking hippies in 50 different factions
Who are locked inside some kind of 60's battle re-enactment
And I hung up my banner in disgust and I head for the door

Oh, but once we were young, and we were crass enough to care
But I guess you live and learn, we won't make that mistake again, no
Oh, but surely just for one day, we could fight and we could win
And if only for a little while, we could insist on the impossible

Well, we've been a good few hours drinking
So I'm going to say what everyone's thinking
If we're stuck on this ship and it's sinking
Then we might as well have a parade
Cause if it's still going to hurt in the morning
And a better plan's yet to get forming
Then where's the harm spending an evening
In manning the old barricades?

So come on, old friends, to the streets
Let's be 1905, but not 1917,
Let's be heroes, let's be martyrs, let's be radical thinkers
Who never have to test drive the least of their dreams
Let's divide up the world into the damned and the saved
And then ride to the valley like the old light brigade
And straighten our backs and we won't be afraid
And they'll celebrate our deaths with a national parade

So come on, let's be young, let's be crass enough to care
Let's refuse to live and learn, let's make all our mistakes again, yes
And then darling, just for one day, yeah, we can fight and we can win
And if only for a little while, we could insist on the impossible

Leave the mourning to the morning
Yeah pain can be killed
With aspirin tablets and vitamin pills
But memories of hope, and of glorious defeat
Are a little bit harder to beat

 

[fox69]

"Mittens"

"Mittens"



Wandering lonely through the snow streets of New York
I stumbled on a thrift store that sold postcards by the yard
I bought a mile and shipped them home so I could read
Ten thousand ten-word tragedies, the lives these strangers lead
To remind myself the things I need

Cause I once wrote you love songs
You never fell in love
We used to fit like mittens, but never like gloves

You left me feeling like
We'd never really been in love

Huddled home down in my place, in Holloway
I wondered if you even heard those songs I used to play
I wrote them as a gift for you and in return
You gave a pair of hand knit mittens to keep my fingers warm
So I could play more ignored love songs

I once wrote you love songs
You never fell in love
We used to fit like mittens, but never like gloves
And I once wrote you postcards
You never wrote back
You promised me you would and I'm still waiting for them

You left me feeling like
We'd never really been in love
Don't wanna fit like mittens
I wanna fit like gloves
Wanna fit like gloves

I once wrote you love songs
You never fell in love
We used to fit like mittens but never like gloves
Never like gloves

 

[fox69]

"Mr Richards"

"Mr Richards"



One fine day near the end of the tax year
Mr Richards was gripped by a new fear
Who would be at his retirement party
And though he still had years to go before he
Slipped over the edge of the workforce
The question remained and in his wake there came an army

What price creature comforts – what is this life really all about?
He drew a line between work and living, and work was winning out
And he worked for half his life, to spend the end just feeling tired out
That’s when his roof caved in

And so he made a list of all the people he worked with
And cut it down to the ones he got on with
Paired each one off with the decade of his career
And then he thought of all his friends from back home
The crazies, the ladies, the lovers he’d known
And then he looked around his office and wondered why he was still here

What price creature comforts – what is this life really all about?
He drew a line between work and living, and work was winning out
And he worked for half his life, to spend the end just feeling tired out
That’s when he realised that he scrimped and saved all his precious days
So he could buy icers and microwaves
And he only looks forward to his holidays

That’s when his roof caved in

And it would be nice to have holiday homes and healthy bank statements and fat little kids,
And I guess you can be happy to dream all your dreams as camcorder records of the things that you did,
But as soon as your sleeping does it really matter what mattress you happen to be sleeping on?
As long as your living and your having fun; he always laughed at the drop-outs, that he could never live that way.
But the truth is Mr Richards was a coward, he was afraid.

Mr Richards decided on the very next morning
To make his life and work the same thing
Cleared his desk, he hit the road and he never retired.