1. |
Busker's Song
04:36
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Melodies rise as the traffic roars
Well I’d rather be out here than stuck indoors
Harmonies vie for the street side
Oh what a way to ease my mind...
Street side in the summertime
These melodies run through my mind
Lucky me I’ve got the time
To sing as children dance on the street side
Standing under clear blue skies
Sunshine brings the girls and the guys
Lucky me I’ve got the time
To sing as lovers recline on the street side
Outside in the summer sun
The heat is getting to everyone
Lucky me I’ve got the time
To sing as a sax man burns up the street side
Too much work is just perverse
I think I’ll just sing one more verse
Lucky me I’ve got the choice
To sing whenever, wherever I lay my hat
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2. |
Desk Dweller Blues
04:00
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Driving to the desk
Endless phone calls wait for me
I’ll be there all day
Yesterday was warm
Outside in the sunlit streets
Now I’m stuck inside
Stuck inside with the desk dweller blues
Spinning haiku
I’ve only been here three days but I’ve got ‘em bad
I’ve got the desk dweller blues
Northern winds catch dust
Lift it to my window pane
Inside it is still
Repetition bores
One call ends, another looms
Sick of this same line
I’ve got the desk dweller blues
Spinning haiku
I’ve only been here three days but I’ve got ‘em bad
I’ve got the desk dweller blues
Feel like a zombie
Always staring at this screen
Makes my vision blur
Ringtones intersperse
Fairground music, put on hold
It’s driving me mad
Going mad with these desk dweller blues
Spinning haiku
I’ve only been here three days but I’ve got ‘em bad
I’ve got the desk dweller blues
Leaving there in haste
With relief I reach the door
Out in the fresh air
My head starts to clear
As I walk along Southbank
The sun is shining
As I walk away those desk dweller blues
All day long I’ve been spinning haiku
Counting syllables keeps me sane
When I’ve got the desk dweller blues.
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3. |
Nan
04:02
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The last time I saw you, you seemed quite chirpy
Telling me of the world you saw true
Telling me of the comings and goings
Of people and ghosts from a life you once knew
The last time I saw you the girls were on lunch
They’d been sewing all day and all night in your room
They’d been terribly noisy and though you complained
I could see you took comfort in their rattle and hum
The last time I saw you there’d been renovations
Banging to build you a boxing ring
The banging continued when boys came to box
‘Cor what a racket, they don’t ‘alf make a din’
The last time I saw you I smiled at your stories
Though far fetched they harked back to the past
Your beloved Frank and his passion for boxing
Your skills as a seamstress passed down from your mum
The last time I saw you the nurse had been lying
She said it was six when it must have been nine
As time slips and trips you play out your life story
Clearing your mind for the end of the line
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4. |
My Victorian Boyfriend
03:51
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My Victorian boyfriend has a pipe
He bought it with our last blue note
He rarely smokes it, but often sits, pipe in lips
A mock stern expression on his brow
My love was meant for another era
He doesn’t like phones or the Internet
He yearns for a time when people wrote each other letters
When met wore waistcoats and epaulettes
My Victorian boyfriend likes to recite
Poetry prose and haikus alike
He’ll speak with clear diction and accented phrases
He won’t need persuading to take to the floor
My love is now my husband
He wooed me with old-fashioned wit and charm
Here in Melbourne he’s closer to history
He’s a real Victorian man with a wife on his arm
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5. |
Girl With A Trumpet
04:19
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He stood by the boat out on the bay
I stared and hoped he might look my way
He smiled and my heart leapt
But he can’t stay
I moved a if I might go towards him
He turned as if he might come my way
We smiled and my heart bled
For he can’t stay
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6. |
Sweet Guitar
03:49
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My calluses are softening
Nails growing long
Without you to please
I am letting myself go
I want to hold you close
Warm your neglected core
Caress you with my fingertips
‘Til the skin is red and raw
I tried to write a song today
Without you it was bland
I wrote down all the ways you please me
You’re always so understanding
Without your harmonies I become frustrated
Don’t know how to ease this itch
Without your sweet vibrations I’m lonesome
You put my senses at fever pitch
Without you these harmonies wouldn’t even exist
I can’t be without you for too long
My sweet guitar
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7. |
Fred Williams
04:17
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Wondering through the gallery
In a daze
A well of emotions are bubbling and popping within me
This is where I need to be
Each painting is meaningful, beautiful and infinitely calming
As I stand and I look, I can forget.
Forget reality, but live in a new one, a calm one
Surrounded by colour and texture
These Infinite Horizons draw me in
And as I am guided away I feel calmer
But as the hand guides me out towards the door
I feel an urge to turn around and bolt right back
Back to Fred Williams and live inside his paintings
For now
For now, I can forget.
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8. |
Down Time
02:45
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Things were good, I had coins to spare
I sang to all who would listen, without a care
I was learning fast, each day a milestone
But when life threw shit my way, I felt too exposed
Dr Don’t Care didn’t try to see
He just showered me with drugs that didn’t work for me
I tried to stay calm, tried to stay upbeat
But singing in the street isn’t always easy
I need some down time
I need some down time
Life is getting too much
I need some down time
I powered on, didn’t want to give up
Until my body reacted and my glands shot up
Well they say thing come in threes
I grieved for my nan, my broken family
And now my teeth are giving me grief
I need some down time
I need some down time
Life is getting too much
I need some down time
Down time
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9. |
City Synchronicity
04:29
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I met her on my first shift waiting tables
We chatted as she showed me the ropes
She said she’d lived in my new suburb until just last week
But what’s weird is I’d just moved into her old house
Ten thousand miles from home
Here in Melbourne where the cafes thrive
It’s a big city but a small world
When just days ago she slept in this same room
Waiting at the tram stop we saw another couple
And when no tram came they offered us a lift
On the road to the city we ask where they are headed
Turns out we’re all going to one tiny basement jazz gig
Ten thousand miles from home
Here in Melbourne where the culture’s high
It’s a big city but a small world
When these musicians live just steps from my front door
I saw him at the bike shed down the creek
As I put down the spanner to wipe my cheek
I heard
‘Can I borrow that?’
I looked up dumbstruck
Because standing there was a guy I went through school with
Ten thousand miles from home
Here in Melbourne where the streets are flat
It’s a big city but a small world
When Jimmy Keen turns out to be my neighbour
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10. |
Cutlery Shed
04:34
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I’m banished to the cutlery shed where I sing, sing sing as I sort my forks.
Yeah I’m banished to the cutlery shed where I sing, sing sing as I sort my forks.
I sort my forks and I sort my knives
and in them I see clear reflections of my life.
My fake smile and my corporate shirt,
I’ve got to find me some meaningful work,
Where I’m not banished to the cutlery shed where I sing, sing sing as I sort my forks.
Yeah I’m banished to the cutlery shed where I sing, sing sing as I sort my forks.
Polish, polish ’til they’re nice and shiny,
But wait a minute ‘cos this one is grimy.
What’s this smeared all over my spoon?
This cutlery must have been washed by baboons,
Or more likely it was just some guy,
Who spent the night asking how? when? and why?
Was I banished to the cutlery shed where I sing, sing sing as I sort my forks.
Yeah I’m banished to the cutlery shed where I sing, sing sing as I sort my forks.
I try to ignore the rumbling of my tummy,
I try to forget how much I miss my mummy.
I try to remember what I came here for,
Why am I always asking for more?
I left my home for this far-off continent
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s to live in the moment….
That’s why I’m singing as I polish my cutlery and as I sing I compose a song.
‘Cos if I’m singing as I polish my cutlery then at least this shift won’t seem quite as long.
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11. |
Little One
03:47
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Little one as yet unborn
What can I offer as the party ends?
Will you find the beauty?
In this land bled dry as the weather is closing in.
Mother have the courage to bear me
I might be someone who’ll find
Some kind of answer
To the problems past generations have left behind
But baby when you’re ten years old
Will there still be hands to hold?
Who’ll provide the answers?
In a world that’s getting darker every day.
Mother born in this strange time
I will learn to guide us
I will hold your hand
Though dark to you this world is all I ever knew
Darling on your twenty-first
Will your young heart die of thirst?
Will your chest be full of fury?
As the Fat Cats die and they leave their mess behind.
Mother there’s no time for hate
We must push for progress
Now’s the time to act
Though we’ll struggle I see brighter times ahead.
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12. |
Maya's Song
04:14
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Hmmm…As I’m walking you’re humming yourself to sleep
Sleep little monkey girl
Sleep softly as I carry you along
Drift off in the fading light
And when you wake up you’ll be back in your own room
Hmmm…As I’m walking you’re humming yourself to sleep
Hush now my sleepy sweet
Shhh, as if back in the womb
Hug me like a young ape
As we walk dark streets where lamps light up the gloom
Hmmm…As I’m walking you’re humming yourself to sleep
Sleep little happy thing
Sleep as humming courses through our bones
Be lulled by rhythmic footsteps
And the interplay of heart and feet and moon
Hmmm…As I’m walking you’re humming yourself to sleep
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Julia Turner Bristol, UK
City Synchronicity is a collection of songs inspired by a year lived 10,000 miles from home, busking and blogging in Melbourne.
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