The Lucozade Set

This is an instrumental tune.

The Same Old Story

I was just about nineteen
When I landed on the shore with my eyes big as headlights
Like the thousands and thousands who came before
I was gonna be something
Smiled at the man scrutinizing my face
As I walked down off of the gangway

Went down to that city
Where I worked for many's the year
Built a hundred houses
Must have poured off a million pints of beer
Living under suspicion
Putting up the hatred and fear in their eyes
They can say that you're nothing but a murderer
You're nothing but a bunch of murderers

So hey Johnny
Can't wait for Saturday night
Got a thirst that's raging
Know a place where we can put that right
Wash away the confusion
Hose down these flames inside but look out
That's right I said look out
'Cause I'll tear you all to pieces if you cross me

Sick of watching them break up
Every time some bird brain puts us down
Making jokes on the radio
Guess it helps them all drown out the sound
Of the crumbling foundation
Any fool can see the writings on the wall
But they just don't believe that it's happening

But there's a crowd says I'm all right
Say they like my turn of phrase
Take me round to their parties
Like some dressed up monkey in a cage
And I play my accordion
Oh but when the wine seeps through the facade
It's nothing but the same old story
No no no it's nothing but the same old story

Got a brother in Boston
Says he'll send me on the fare
Just wrote me a letter
Making out that he's cleaning up out there
With two cars in the driveway
And a summer house down on the cape
Says he'll fix me up in the morning

Now I've been thinking abut it
But it seems so far to go
People say in the winter
You can get lost underneath the snow
And there's this girl from my homeplace
We've been planning to move out and give it a try
But I never got around to going
No no no I never got around to going.

Walkin' on a Wire

I hand you my ball and chain
You just hand me the same old refrain
I'm walkin' on a wire
Walkin' on a wire
And I'm fallin'

I wish that I
Could please you tonight
But my medicine just
Won't go down right

Too many steps to take
Too many spells to break
Too many nights awake
And no one else
This grindstone's wearin me
Your claws are tearing me
Don't use me endlessly
It's too long too long to myself...

Where's the justice?
And where's the sense
You know the pain's always on my
Side of the fence

It scares you when you don't know
Whichever the wind wants to blow.

'49

Nineteen hundred and forty-nine
Was when the deal was made
It's ironic that April fool's
Was when the game was played
Who'll ever know if the vote was rigged
Or was it all a fraud
By's you can all go burn your boats
Well you might as well by God

So join up now act fast call soon
Before you're all flat broke
It was pulled off on April fool's
But no one got the joke
But no one got the joke

The politicians at your door
They got us on the rack
And once it's all been added up us
No there ain't no turning back
Once you sign away the right
To manage your own sea
You just set yourself up for
Beurocratic misery

Ain't it great that a land locked state
Can run a fishery
How five thousand goofs in Armani suits
Can understand poverty

So don't wait for the welfare state
To turn it all around
Hold your head as steady as she goes
Don't let the bastards grind you down
Now forty odd years have come and gone
That's a lot of wasted time
Hindsight's a great thing to have
So remember forty-nine

Polkas That Haunt Us

This is an instrumental tune.

Like Ya Would

It was just the other night
In a foggy hazy dream
Joe Smallwood appeared and said
Things just aren't as they seem
The fish is gone the flour is high
And Granny Snooks she must have cried
The arse is out the cod are gone
But Joey's words still linger on

Like ya would

Well then next upon the scene
Now buddy lets out roars
I'm the one no one remembers
But my name tag says Frank Moores
Now just like my term in office
I have nothing good to add
So remember what Joey told you
And know that you'd been had

Like ya would

The door it swings wide open
And his nibs is right on cue
Its Brian Peckford walking
In a velvet leisure suit
Now don't listen to theses other bys
They're plainly mad you see
If Newfoundland is getting you down
Just move out to BC

Like ya would

Well the premiers kept on at it
As this songs it plainly tells
But you ain't seen nothing till you've seen the fuher
The honourable Clyde Wells
Now don't listen to those other bys
Compared to them I'm God
Now pardon me I'm off to Ches's
For chips and Russion cod

Like ya would

So here ends the story of my paranormal dream
Of Joey Frank Brian and Clyde
Our Newfoundland dream team
So in our next election
You must carefully take note
Do nothing sit home read a book or get loaded
But don't even bother to vote.

Like ya would

How Long?

How long are you gone this time?
To where? Who cares? Why?
So far in your mind
Don't know what you'll find

Don't you think it through
They broke and drained you
It's almost like they knew
That's what you would do

They're leaving but they know they got the right to stay
But those in power wouldn't have it any other way
Just vacating - erasing every trace in sight
And I wonder if you'll make your flight.

But you'll pull through up there
You'll find your kind somewhere
You'll get together
And you'll rant and roar
And talk of when you'll return

They're leaving but they know they got the right to stay
But those in power wouldn't have it any other way
Just vacating - erasing every trace in sight
And I wonder where you'll sleep tonight

Why do they want us gone?
What are we sitting on?
But we will take their bait
And leave through that swinging gate

They're leaving but they know they got the right to stay
But those in power wouldn't have it any other way
Just vacating - erasing every trace in sight
And I wonder if they think that's right.

Julia Delaney / The Banshee

This is an instrumental tune.

Faith in You

Loaned you my car keys, bought you a ring
You left at 4 am with every single thing
I came home to an empty house now you erased all hope
Stringing me on a line and hanging on a rope

So where have you been and what you been into
I must be Crazy for putting my faith in you...

So I was insensitive we had a little fight
And both said nasty things but what gives you the right
To take some souvenirs as memories of our time
Which would have been ok 'cept most of them were mine

I took good care of you when you were so alone
And you repay with a policeman on the phone
They said they'd need a recent photograph of you
But your picture was in my wallet and I think you took that too

Ferryland Sealer

Our schooner and our sloop in Ferryland they do lie
She is already rigged to be ready for the ice
All ye lads of the Southern we will have ye to declare
She is going to the ice in the spring of the year

Laddy wack fol the laddy laddy wack fol the day

We had food enough to last a month or 2 months at the least
And plenty of good rum stowed away in her chest
We all gave a rally to praise all of her fancy
Our seals to be collected by the William and the Nancy

Our course be east north east for 2 days and 2 nights
The captain he cries out boys look ahead for the ice
He swung her around standing in from the land
It was in a few hours were were firm in a jam

Our skipper he cries out come on now by's lend a hend
The cook he'll make the breakfast every man he'll take a dram
With their bats in their hands twas early to go
Every man would show his actions at the missing of a blow

Some were killin some were sculpin some were haulin on board
And others they were firing bout the missing of their load
In the dusk of the evening all hands in from the cold
Til we counted 900 fine sculps in our hold

Our sloop now she is rigged and our schooner she is sound
And the ice is now open and to Ferryland we're bound
We all gave a rally to praise all of her fancy
Our seals to be collected by the William the the Nancy

We are now off Cape Spear and in sight of Cape Broyle
We'll dance and carouse my bys in just a little while
We'll soon enjoy the charms of our sweethearts and our friends
And it will not be long til we're comin round the bend

Full Emile Deal / The Gypsy

This is an instrumental tune.

Bonnie Brown Hair

It being early one fine summer's morning
Just a little before it was day
It being down by the banks of a river
I heard a fair maiden to sing
And I stood there in greatest amazement
For to gaze at this charming one fair
She appeared to be brighter than Venus
T'was the maid with the bonny brown hair

Well her eyes sure they shone like the diamonds
And her cheeks like red roses in bloom
And her skin was a white as the lily
And her breath had the rarest perfume
And a dreass of the fine speckled velvet
This charming fair dame she did wear
And strands of fine gold and find silver
Were entwined in her bonny brown hair

For a long time we courted each other
Till at legth we named our wedding day
Then one day while conversing together
The charming fair dame she did say
Oh tis I have another far better
My land and my fortune to share
So good luck to you now and forever
Said the maid with the bonny brown hair

So at length I went over the ocean
Being bound for the fair land of Spain
Some were singing and dancing for pleasure
But mine was a heart full of pain
As the ship she sailed down to the river
I spied my own darling so fair
So content in the arms of another
Was the maid with the bonny brown hair

So good luck to you now and forever
For perhaps I will see you no more
But when I'm in some far foreign nation
I will think on my own native shore