Lyrics for "Dispossessed" CD
by Roger Marshall
The Dispossessed One and only man Into the Unknown Sleepwalking Child's play Risky Business
Mystic #2 Somewhere in the street What else could I do (but fall in love)? Jazz in the breeze Until next time
Slave to the street One of the stars Day of leaving
Won't someone open up this door?
My legs are tired and my feet are sore
This was once my home
I carved my name in the stone
I knew every cranny I knew every nook
Give me one more look.
I know you're there I can sense you breath
Don't leave me here while I catch my death
That was once my room
the one now shrouded in gloom
it once was white, once was bright
used to keep me safe at night
Let me in I beg of you
you may be many and we are few
This was once my land
I know you won’t understand
I knew every flower I knew every tree
give me back the key
Let me in we are the dispossessed
This was once my home address
This was my street
I knew everyone I'd meet
I knew old Pedro, I knew old Joe
Where did all those people go?
He fell into the evening, it descended onto him
in the old town bar, they’d changed nearly everything
where they’d planned a revolution, read the works of Marx
now the place is full of pokies, like an amusement park
he ordered up a beer and watched the dead men feeding coins
he wondered if she’d come, had that feeling in his loins
haunted by the years that span the one and only man.
She crawled up from her basement, she was ready to emerge
The day had been too hot, it was getting on her nerves
just the other night, his handwritten note
slid under her door, she studied what he wrote
so in the coolness of tonight, she felt good to be alive
to meet up with the man, the only one who had survived
haunted by the years that span the one and only man.
She slowly recognised him and he sat down next to her
her eyes made him uneasy and her voice still like a purr
she'd been over in England, now she was vaguely la-di-da
she'd been working on the stage she might have gone far
she said do you remember how we damned the bourgeoisie
do you remember how peoples’ lives were meant to be?
haunted by the years that span the one and only man.
They both went back a long way, they began to reminisce
she leant over to him, pressed against him for a kiss
but he was somewhere else, his heart was eaten out
he was numb, he said what’s it been all about
look at what we are, whatever we’ve both become
look at the world, we couldn’t have been so wrong?
haunted by the years that span the one and only man.
she said do not be bitter, she held onto his hand
we are but bits of spindrift, all you can do is what you can.
She said it’s kind of funny, that we should now converge
there’s depth to my feelings that must have been submerged
we could have done something, but something got in the way?
we just lived out lives and both got led astray
living in a nether land the one and only man.
I was walking the plains where the landscapes are bare
among total strangers who did nothing but stare
and the shadow's were long and I didn't belong
and yet I couldn’t go home
with nowhere to go
but into the Unknown
The Last One Out, had better turn out the light
there’s not a soul to be seen, on the streets tonight
I've put back my clocks and I’ve tried taking stock
but I don’t have whole lot to show?
so I might as well go
into the unknown
sometimes friends are like strangers, strangers are your friends
sometimes the beginning feels like it’s the end
when they hand back your heart, and say "here just take it and go".
into the unknown
I was walking the decks of the Marie Celeste
my hotel was a cell, I was under arrest
I’ve borrowed the night and in the bright city lights
there’s a million lost souls on loan
with nowhere to go
but into the unknown
In the summer sultry heat
I stumbled though the midnight streets
The night women looked at me and sweetly smiled
their fingers like razors, their faces like dials
I turned away from them posing in fishnet tights
thought about the things got said that night
As if in fog and I kept on stumbling
aware that the whole world around me was crumbling
I walked on by the old museum
it stood there like a mausoleum
inside, some ancient artefacts
from people ‘gainst whom the cards were stacked
I thought about the Pygmies and the Eskimos
about a hundred different words for snow
and the lost tribe could only count up to three
and I started thinking ‘bout my math’s degree
I stumbled onward through the dark
and found my way into the park
an old man lay asleep on a bench
I saw the bottle, I could sense the stench
I must have disturbed him from his quiet reverie
he opened one eye and looked at me
I'd seen that face somewhere before
in those Holocaust pictures from the second world War
I kept on walking in the hot sticky night
it clung too me like leeches bites
I felt the anger and pain subside
imagine being washed up on the morning tide
I kept right on through the early hours
down in the valley of concrete towers
I came at last to the city graves
someone had trampled on the flowers and broken the bouquets
sleepwalking the streets.
They've put me up chimneys put me down mines
I'm small I’ve crawled through sewers and slime
I've been used and abused it happens all the time
they've put me up chimneys put me down mines
I'm sleeping in drains, living on streets
I've begged and I've sold my body like meat
I've grovelled in the gutter for something to eat
I'm sleeping in drains living on streets
my mama and my papa died of HIV
no one gives a damn what’s gonna happen to me
my big sisters too are working on the street
my mama and my papa died of HIV
they gave me a Kalashnikov and stuck me in a war
I never knew what I was fighting for
they told me to kill or I’d be one body more
they gave me Kalashnikov and stuck me in a war
I'm sifting through rubbish someone else has thrown away
one of my brothers died the other day
in the jaws of the truck, we never knew how to play
I'm sifting through rubbish someone else has thrown away
they took me from my home and turned me to a slave
working in sweatshop, I never get paid
at night we sleep like dogs in a cage
they took me from my home and turned me to a slave
they dumped us in a desert in the blistering heat
flies in my eyes I've got nothing to eat
my legs are like sticks I can’t walk I'm too weak
they dumped us in a desert in the blistering heat
When you fall in love its like walking a wire
there’s no safety net for wanton desire
its like falling through space on a swinging trapeze
lucky are those who land on their feet
When you fall in love it is being alive
but everything has a risk, some live, some die
Its like drawing a straw, its a gamble you take
when you meet someone who keeps you awake
You take a risk in the destiny you chose
there may be many regrets and much that you rue
love has never been nothing but a toss of a coin
it may be your salvation may be your ruin
That the sun is gonna rise is never in doubt
but if you can fall in love you can just as soon fall out
it may wither and die or bloom like a rose
you never can tell whoever knows?
She emerged at Rotorua exactly at the spot
where sulphur was escaping from a fissure in the rock
He was fixing up the fences had to rub his eyes
when from the vapour she materialised
saying I’ve been looking for you, you’ve been searching high for me
His fence became electric, his cows all lowed and mooed
she said it’s only my persona, a kind of the aura I exude
He tried to focus on her face and her rouge red lips
but she stood before the sun like a solar eclipse
saying I’ve been looking for you, you’ve been searching high for me
She said I am looking at the soul of a hollow man
You may be flesh and blood but you’re more like a hologram
He wiped the sweat off of his brow and said lady leave it out
I got a fence to fix, I don't know what you're talking about.
saying I’ve been looking for you, you’ve been searching high for me
It was nine in the morning, on the ninth of nineteen ninety nine
he'd lost one of his fingers it was just another sign
The tension in the air was the tension in the wire
It’s number nine he said and she glowed as if on fire
saying I’ve been looking for you, you’ve been searching high for me
Then he saw his life flash by before his very eyes
every moment, every minute, every truth, every lie
she said let go of the wire, let the animals roam free
the numbers are as one, some things are meant to be
I’ve been looking for you, you’ve been searching high for me
The comrades of my old life have all gone away
I wouldn’t know 'em if I saw 'em I wouldn’t know what to say
if I met 'em on station if they were standing next to you
would they even recognise me would they say how do you do?
when I’m walking down a tunnel to the sound of running feet
or maybe I’ve walked by you many times in the street?
Andy Douthwaite, what a hard case! What about old Mickey Child?
went out to Chicago started living wild
they said he owned a corporation come a long way from the Mount
got everything he needed in a Swiss account
when I’m down a blind alley with too many human beings in retreat
or maybe I’ve walked by you many times in the street?
Rosie Sweeting, what a sweetheart! , she worked a wimpy bar
I’d prowl the streets for her driving in my old man's car
I took her to the pictures and we were rolling in the aisle
the thread between us was just the twine of smiles
you were just a young girl and we danced to the Mersey beat
and I maybe I passed by you many times in the street.
Back among the council houses, down by the shady lanes
in the backwoods of my memory in the shadows of the rain
seen a lot of people, made a lot of friends
hurt a lot of feelings, mostly made amends
from the crowded streets of London town to the lands across the sea
maybe I’ve walked by you many times in the street?
What else could I do? (but fall in love)
We sat outside in the evening sun
thinking 'bout the lotto that I never won
drinking warm champagne and sweet red wine
but I didn't care I didn’t mind
'cos when you said well c'est la vie
what else could I do?
but fall in love with you
the sun went down and the moon came up
and we said this world is so corrupt
outside in the night a squad car sped
and the eye in the sky circled overhead
and you said to me, que sera sera
what else could I do?
but fall in love with you
you said we could be whatever we wanted to be
you’ve always been you, somehow I ended up as me
there's a world out there we might have explored
but I’ve never been no kind of conquistador
and you said what will be will be
what else could I do?
but fall in love with you
the stars came out and a new moon was a rose
and we got bitten by the mosquitos
and we went inside and and I started to stress
and the dishes weren’t done and the place was a mess
but you and said there you go
what else could in do?
but fall in love with you
People lying in the sunshine, music in the park
Boys and girls, all kitted up
They were talking to each other and to-ing and a-froing
"goodtoseeya, watchadoing, whereyaliving, howyagoing"
Jazz, jazz, jazz in the breeze
There was a woman in a sari, olive coloured skin
No-one in hurry people drinking coke and gin
The sky deep blue the air see-through
atmosphere was charged the world at large
Jazz, jazz, jazz in the breeze
The drummer did a solo, they took it up a notch
The perfect couple came while everybody watched
He couldn't keep his hands off her, she couldn't keep her hands off him
Once the world was young, I saw the old men grin
Jazz, jazz, jazz in the breeze
I lay there incognito had to move into the shade
Guitar man virtuoso, I knew I'd never make the grade
Children playing with each other and the sushi-man showed off
Then I took my leave, I'd had enough
Jazz, jazz, jazz in the breeze
I have flown over oceans so wide and so deep
Over the red burning deserts
And the world's been there stretched at my feet
My past my future and present
I must have lost track of the airports I’ve been
To the women that who said I love you
In a life that has been one long round of good-bye
Until next time
I am here with the sun and jet planes and palms
Where the chain link fences are broken
I am waiting forever with my head in my arms
I was sleeping until I was woken
They looked at my passport and x-rayed my bags
They said to me “don't I know you?”
And they said just wait at your place in the line
Until next time
I once knew a woman in the back of beyond
We never spoke the some language
One day I woke and the job had moved on
I hope that somehow she managed
And I don’t even know the name of my son
And the people I do know just pass through
On the merry go round of good-byes
Until next time
My life is a sham but I don’t have no shame
I just do what I do to exist it
I am one of the vapour trails up in the sky
If you'd of blinked maybe you would have missed it
It’s getting too late this journey is long
I’ve got a plane to catch to somewhere new
I wish you well, may the sun on you shine
Until next time
With your almond eyes
your soft and silky skin
with your dress pulled up around your thighs
for the men who bought you in
torn from your palm trees and paddy fields
forced to suffer, forced to yield
slave to the street
to the men on heat, slave to the street
You’re not much more than a child
under the neon sign
your eyes and your lips force a smile
on this cold and windy night
Slave to the men who bought you here
slave to them as they grunt in your ear
slave to the street
to the men on heat, slave to the street
How much does your sweetheart know?
is he even aware ?
up in the mosquito groves
of the savage ravaged air
Slave to neon, slave to sleaze
slave to the guys when you're on your knees
slave to the street
to the men on heat, slave to the street
I’m standing on a river bank
can only vaguely see the other side
where tiny little matchstick men
are waving their arms cross the river so wide
walkin over the ancient bridge
with it’s rusting steel and dripping spars
with you so far away from me
you might just as well be one of the stars
I’m walking through some countryside
I ain't never been before
fragments of old history
leftovers from the last world war
drinking in lonely town
with a stranger in a station bar
with you that far away from me
you might just as well be one of the stars
you might be living in the back of beyond
where no human being has ever gone
with no footprints in the sand
with a lion eating out of your hand
I’m walking on a lonesome beach
with the waves crashing down on to the shoreline
Hermann out in front of me
Hand in hand with his little frauline
I imagine you somewhere else
on a lazy beach in Zanzibar
with you so far away from me
you might just as well be one of the stars
He was only just out of his teens, picking at his blackheads
with his sweetheart sleeping sound, down by the pithead
He gazed out at the empty street, it was 5 o’clock in the morning
the street lights loomed, men trudged to work, waiting for the
dawning
The morning shift the dismal dawn on the day leaving
on their way to who knows where, she still disbelieving
By the slag heaps, slime and grime, could only be a man's place
and then at last a yellow glow came creeping cross the landscape
He vowed he never would return, his heart began to harden
Saw the early morning men digging up their gardens
"Up you sonny" be on your way leave what you never started
black holes are for us olds, we’ll stay and be the martyrs
they took a ship across the sea, vast oceans and through time zones
to the back blocks of way beyond where life was hard as than mill stone
she missed her street and missed her dad and missed her weeping mother
what kind of life is this she said to him, why did we even bother
The years rolled on babies came, his blackheads turned to leather
the virgin soil ripped and raw, she longed for moors of heather
she barely recognised him now he’d grown so cold, and empty
a man of means, a man of land, she said there’s nothing here to tempt me
she felt the chill of the northern night, the neon gloom of winter
the marketplace its cobbled stones, just a sister there to greet her
every one else had either died or disappeared or would not brave the evening
neither here and neither there as on the day of leaving
A walking man, an alien, against the sunlight fading
the blue sky was streaked with gold, he’d said the sun had saved him
the jagged edge, the silhouette, the empty lands new vistas
he never thought of her or of the dust of his old existence