Ralph McTell
Born 3 December 1944, in Farnborough, Kent, England. Having followed the requisite bohemian path, busking in Europe and living in Cornwall, McTell emerged in the late 60s as one of Britain's leading folk singers with his first two albums, Eight Frames A Second and Spiral Staircase. The latter collection was notable for the inclusion of "Streets Of London", the artist's best-known composition. He re-recorded this simple, but evocative, song in 1974, and was rewarded with a surprise number 2 UK hit. Its popularity obscured McTell's artistic development from acoustic troubadour to thoughtful singer-songwriter, exemplified on You Well-Meaning Brought Me Here, in which the singer tackled militarism and its attendant political geography in an erudite, compulsive manner. During live performances McTell demonstrated his considerable dexterity on acoustic guitar. He is particularly proficient when playing ragtime blues.
Subsequent releases included the excellent Not Until Tomorrow, which featured the infamous "Zimmerman Blues", and Easy, but McTell was unable to escape the cosy image bestowed upon him by his most successful song. During the 80s he pursued a successful career in children's television, and his later releases have featured songs from such work, as well as interpretations of other artist's compositions. Touring occasionally, McTell is still able to comfortably fill concert halls.
Have you seen the old man
In the closed-down market
Kicking up the paper,
with his worn out shoes?
In his eyes you see no pride
And held loosely at his side
Yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news
So how can you tell me you're lonely,
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind
Have you seen the old girl
Who walks the streets of London
Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags?
She's no time for talking,
She just keeps right on walking
Carrying her home in two carrier bags.
So how can you tell me you're lonely,
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind
In the all night cafe
At a quarter past eleven,
Same old man is sitting there on his own
Looking at the world
Over the rim of his tea-cup,
Each tea last an hour
Then he wanders home alone
So how can you tell me you're lonely,
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind
And have you seen the old man
Outside the seaman's mission
Memory fading with
The medal ribbons that he wears.
In our winter city,
The rain cries a little pity
For one more forgotten hero
And a world that doesn't care
So how can you tell me you're lonely,
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind
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Oh, the traveler moving on the land, behold I give you
I give you the traveling man.
And he's very heavy laden with the questions in his burden.
Lo, and I give you the traveling man.
He has crossed the mountains, he has forded streams.
He has spent a long time surviving on his dreams.
Many times he's tried to lighten up his heavy load.
But his compromises fail him and he ends back on the road.
Oh the traveler he is weary, the traveling man he is tired.
For the road is never ending in his fear he has cried aloud for a savior
And in vain for a teacher, someone to lighten up the load
And he's heard the sounds of war in a gentle shower of rain
And the whisperings of despair that he could not explain.
The reason for his journey, or the reason it began
Or was there any reason for the traveling man.
At last he reached a river so beautiful and wide
But the current was so strong he could not reach the other side
And the weary traveling man looked for a ferryman strong enough to row against the tide,
And the ferryman was old but he moved the boat so well,
Or did the river move the boat? The traveler could not tell.
Said the ferryman, "You're weary and the answers that you seek,
Are in the singing river, listen humbly it will speak."
Oh, the traveler closed his eyes and he listened and he heard
Only the river murmuring and the beating of his heart.
Then he heard the river laughing, and he heard the river crying
And in it was the beauty and the sadness of the world
And he heard the sounds of dying, but he heard the sounds of birth
And slowly his ears heard all the sounds of earth.
The sounds blended together and they became a whole
And the rhythm was his heartbeat to the music his soul.
And the river had no beginning, as it flowed into the sea
And the seas filled the clouds and the rains filled the streams
And as slowly as the sunrise, he opened up his eyes
To find the ferryman had gone, the boat moved gently on the tide.
And the river flowed within him, and with it he was one
And the seas moved around the earth, and the earth around the sun.
And the traveler was the river, was the boat and ferryman,
Was the journey and the song that the singing river sang.
RBD
Salvame
Extrañarte is my need, live in despair since you no longer check back.
Survive by pure anxiety, with a lump in the throat and is not that you stop thinking.
Gradually the heart is losing faith, losing his voice.
Save me from oblivion, Sálvame of loneliness
Save me from boredom, I'm done to your will
Save me from oblivion, Sálvame of darkness
Save me from boredom, I do not ever let fall
I intend therefore continue, but love is the word that I find it difficult sometimes to forget.
Survive by pure anxiety, with a lump in the throat and is not that you stop thinking.
Gradually the heart is losing faith, losing his voice.
Save me from oblivion, Sálvame of loneliness
Save me from boredom, I'm done to your will
Save me from oblivion, Sálvame of darkness
Save me from boredom, I do not ever let fall
Save me from oblivion, Sálvame of loneliness
Save me from boredom, I'm done to your will
Save me from oblivion, Sálvame of darkness
Save me from boredom, I do not ever let fall
Every now and then I get so sad
cause I miss you since you left me
I'm so disconnected from my life
sometimes I can't stand the morning light
cause I miss you since you left me
I'm just a reflection of your heart
In the middle of this night
I want you back
I really need you
give me love, give me shelter
save my life from this emptiness
give me love, give me shelter
save me now because I'm falling down
There is a lot of things behind my smile
cause I miss you since you left me
everyday I'm trying to survive
In the middle of this night
I want you back
I really need you
give me love, give me shelter
save my life from this emptiness
give me love, give me shelter
save me now because I'm falling down
R.E.M.
The story of the lives of Peter Buck, Micheal Stipe, Mike Mills and Bill Berry before the formation of R.E.M.
Peter Lawrence Buck was born on December 6, 1956 in Los Angeles, California. His family soon moved to San Francisco, where Peter spent most of his childhood. It was there that Buck started his life-long love of music. After a short period in Indiana the Bucks settled near Atlanta in Roswell, Georgia in 1970. Peters musical tastes had evolved from listening eagerly to The Beatles and The Supremes on his radio in San Francisco to buying records by rock stars such as the Rolling Stones and glam rock artists T. Rex and Slade during the early seventies in Georgia.
In 1975 Peter finished high school and left home to study at Emory University in Atlanta. It was then that Peter bought his first guitar, consequently taking lessons from his brother Kenny. Uninspired by his collage course, but inspired by Patti Smith and Velvet Underground, Buck quit collage after less than a year to take up a job in Atlanta record store Doo Dahs.
In 1977 Peter went hitchhiking around America, doing casual work to pay his way. On returning to Atlanta employment was found at Wuxtry Records. Peter harboured intentions of being in the musical scene, either as a critic or playing in a band. Around Christmas 1977 Peter was given the chance to transfer to the Athens branch of Wuxtry, which he accepted. Peter moved in with his brother, who was already living on the outskirts of Athens since he was attending university there. Working in the record store made it easy for Peter the chance to meet people with similar musical tastes to himself, and in late 1978 he got talking to a regular customer named Michael Stipe.
Michael Stipe was born on 4 January 1960 in the Atlanta suburb Decatur. Actually named John Michael Stipe, he didn’t spend much of his childhood in Georgia. Michael’s army parentage meant that he grew up in Texas, Germany, Illinois. Young Michael being shy, probably because of his transient childhood, resulted in his sisters Lynda and Cyndy being his closest friends.
Michael attended high school in Collinsville, Illinois. It was there, as an adolescent that he became a punk music aficionado before punk became mainstream. Gaining in confidence as he grew up he fronted his first band Bad Habits in Collinsville, a brief encounter acting as a prelude to his eventual career in R.E.M.
In 1978 the family moved to Watkinsville, a small town near Athens. The confidence gained in Collinsville was gone and Stipe the first year and Stipe spent much of the first year alone. He said he became "a much quieter person… Much less bombastic." Than the one he had become in Illinois. In late 1978 Stipe moved to Athens enrolled as an art student at the University of Georgia. His own opinion of his ability as an artist was not high. Stipe claims he was "good at going to school, but I wasn’t good at what I was doing. I was able to convince my teachers that what I was doing was worthwhile when I was not really doing anything". Perhaps this is another example of Michael’s lack of confidence, as one teacher disagrees "he was actually one of the better students I ever had".
In late 1978 the new Athens resident was a regular visitor to Wuxtry Records on East Clayton street where he first encountered the sales assistant Peter Buck. The story goes that Buck was intrigued as Michael often came into the store with a girl on each side. Unbeknownst to Peter these were not two girlfriends, but Michael’s sisters Lynda and Cyndy. Peter asked Michael to have a drink with him after work, and the two struck up a friendship. They soon found that they shared similar tastes in music, both being interested in the New York punk scene, and Patti Smith in particular. I didn’t take long to establish that both men wanted to be in a rock band, and although Michael was a quiet and introspective man and Peter was loud and outgoing, their shared musical tastes convinced them that this was a idea they would pursue together.
Michael Edward Mills was born in Orange County, California on 17 December 1958. Mike’s father being of Georgian origin the Mills family moved to Georgia when Mike was still a baby. Mike comes from a musical family, his father was a tenor and his mother a pianist and guitarist. It was surely no surprise that Mike studied piano from an early age and bass guitar at school. It was in 1972 the he me Bill Berry, but the ninth graders did not initially hit it off. Mike was class goody-goody, hard working and a non-smoker. However Bill was dabbling with drugs and despised goody-goodies.
William Thomas Berry was born in Duluth, Minnesota on 31 July 1958. The Berry’s family also lived in Milwaukee and Ohio before moving to Macon, Georgia in 1972. Bill found he had a talent for music at school and decided to learn to play drums.
Mike and Bill first became involved together musically when they both attended an after school jam session at Mike’s house. Despite Bill’s reservations about Mike, they soon found that together they formed a good rhythm section for a band. They went on to play together in the school marching band and a successful lounge trio that were hired for events such as weddings. They also played in a couple of bands, Shadowfax and the Back Door Band, but they had thus far concentrated on playing cover versions to satisfy demand.
On graduating from high school they shared an apartment together in Macon. Without the missing pieces of a good band Mike and Bill struggled to take their musical careers further, so Mike took a job working in the local branch of Sears. In late 1976 Bill went to work as an errand boy for the music acts booking agency Paragon. It was here that Bill made some connections that would prove important in the future. Indeed in early 1977 Berry met two brothers who had come over from the UK to promote British punk music. The men in question were Miles and Ian Copeland. Miles would later found the Record label I.R.S., which gave R.E.M. their first albums deal. Mike and Bill were two of the few people who appreciated what the Copelands were trying to do, and Ian became a friend.
Frustrated with the difficulty in promoting punk Ian formed a band with Mike and Bill called The Frustration, in attempt to demonstrate how much fun punk was. Ultimately Ian gave up his quest, after influencing only two Macon residents. Inspired by his experiences at Paragon, Bill decided to pursue a career as an entertainment’s lawyer. Unable to achieve any more in Macon Bill and Mike moved to Athens in January 1979.
The Great Beyond
I’ve watch the stars fall silent from your eyes
Oh the sights that I have seen
I can’t believe, that I believed,
I wished that you could see
There’s a new planet in the solar system
There is nothing up my sleeve
I’m pushing an elephant up the stairs
I’m tossing out punch lines that we never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground.
In all this talk of time
Talk is fine
But I don’t want to stay around
Why can’t we pantomime
Just close our eyes and sleep sweet dreams
Me and you with wings on our face
I’m pushing an elephant up the stairs
I’m tossing out punch lines that we never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground.
I’m breaking through
I’m bending spoons
I’m keeping flowers in full bloom
I’m looking for answers from the great beyond
I want the humming birds
The dancing bears
The sweetest dreams of you
We’re looking to the stars
We’re looking to the moon
I’m pushing an elephant up the stairs
I’m tossing out punch lines that we never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground.
I’m breaking through
I’m bending spoons
I’m keeping flowers in full bloom
I’m looking for answers from the great beyond
I’m breaking through
I’m bending spoons
I’m keeping flowers in full bloom
I’m looking for answers from the great beyond
Richard Marx
Time goes by fast when you're a busy Grammy-winning songwriter/producer. For Richard Marx, the last seven years have been a time of unparalleled professional success and personal contentment. But during that same period, he worked on a cycle of songs too dark and too confessional, to keep hidden for long. Now, Richard unveils those songs on My Own Best Enemy, his first solo CD since 1997. For those who appreciate the art of the song, it's a welcome return by a modern American master.
"I didn't think I'd do this again," says Richard. "I thought I was OK. My producing career kept me happy." The catalyst turned out to be Richard's friend Bruce Lundvall, a legendary music industry executive and CEO of EMI Jazz and Classics, and Manhattan Records. "We were talking a year ago," notes Richard, "and Bruce said to me, 'Let's make a record.' I said, "Great. Who's the artist?' He said, "You. I'm sure you have songs to record.'"
Lundvall knew his friend well. Richard had those deeply personal songs never intended for other artists, songs born out of quiet reflection and the singer's resurgent interest in classic poetry. "I fell into poets like Rilke, Dickenson and Neruda," Richard recalls. "Not only did they resonate with me emotionally, they made me think that there had to be a purpose to my creativity."
With the songs in place, Richard and co-producer David Cole chipped away at the recording. "I couldn't carve out a block time," says Richard. "We were doing so many other projects, I fit it in when I could." Using various rhythm sections in Nashville, L.A. and Richard's home studio in Illinois, he created a sound so tight, the results seem more like a full-fledged band than anything else. Among the musicians lending their talents, country star/guitarist Keith Urban, guitarists Michael Landau, Michael Thompson and Shane Fontayne, bassist Glen Whorf, and drummer Matt Laug.
At first glance, My Own Best Enemy appears to be a collection of mostly hard-edged rockers and sunny ballads. But appearances can deceive: the lyrics often belie the music's brightness. "I don't like to write happy songs," says Richard. "It's the darkness that appeals to me. That's where the title comes from. I finally admitted that I'm one of those people that tends to throw speed bumps in front of myself."
In twelve songs Richard draws a searing portrait of a soul at war with itself. The album kicks off with "Nothing Left To Say," a midtempo track about love at a standstill ("Days go by in a pulseless haze/Who's that person that's wearing my face"). The edgy debut single, "When You're Gone" features a hot guitar solo from Keith Urban and a clever lyric about impending loss ("Look at me, the guy who's got it all/Trying to read my own writing on the wall").
"One Thing Left" boasts a beautiful melody and taut lyric ("I can always feel the rain/Even when the sun's in the way"). "Love Goes On," one of the album's unabashedly upbeat tracks approaches love from an oblique angle. "Relationships are the hardest thing in the world to maintain," says Richard. "But I believe in the spirit of romance."
"Ready To Fly," a meditation on self-forgiveness, is one of the album's most stirring ballads. "I made myself face some stuff," says Richard. "It hit me that this couldn't be a cookie-cutter pop song." Others, like "Again" and the rocker "Colder" draw on a lifetime of influences. Says Richard, "'Again' is my tip of the hat to Coldplay and U2." But perhaps no song better exemplifies Richard's goal of pinning dark lyrics to incongruously upbeat music than "Everything Good." "It sounds like 'Feeling Groovy,' " he says, "but the guy is literally cleaning the gun."
"The Other Side" is Richard's moving farewell to his late father. Fee Waybill, Richard's frequent writing partner, co-wrote "Suspicion," one of the CD's most finely wrought tracks. "Fee has been the best influence on me as a lyricist," says Richard. "He hates cliches, and he's always pushing me to say things differently." The album ends with "Falling," a beautiful andante with a string section composed by Richard.
While noted in the past for his perfect pitch and polished sound, Richard himself scoffs at the notion these days. "Perfection's boring," he says. "It's the things that are human and wrong that intrigue me."
That human touch is the hallmark of Richard Marx's music. His debut single "Don't Mean Nothing" and self-titled debut album kicked off his career as a solo artist in 1987. He remained a fixture on pop and adult contemporary radio for years, even as he emerged as a top producer working with some of the biggest names in the music business. Among those artists, *NSYNC, Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban, Vince Gill, 98°, Luther Vandross, Kenny Rogers, Sarah Brightman, Lara Fabian, Sister Hazel, The Tubes and SHeDAISY. More recently, he has written and produced records for Emerson Drive, Natalie Cole, Keith Urban, Paulina Rubio, Kenny Loggins, Chris Botti, Michael Bolton, Chely Wright, Meredith Edwards, Hugh Jackman and Sissel.
In February 2004, Richard won the Song of the Year Grammy for "Dance With My Father," which he wrote with Luther Vandross. It was a big night for several reasons. "It was the award itself," says Richard. "For me and more importantly for Luther. I was proud."
With the release of the new album, Richard is gearing up to tour, something he hasn't done in a while. "For years I lived out of a suitcase," he says, "but I'm totally green again. Now I've got a whole new band of young musicians who will kick my ass every night. That will make me better."
His fans around the world probably disagree that he needs any such kick. For years, Richard Marx has had few equals as a songwriter and producer. Now, with the release of My Own Best Enemy, Richard Marx the solo artist is about to make a lot of new best friends all over again.
Hazard
My mother came to hazard when I was just seven
Even then the folks in town said with prejudiced eyes
That boy's not right
Three years ago when I came to know Mary
First time that someone looked beyond the rumors and the lies
And saw the man inside
We used to walk down by the river
She loved to watch the sun go down
We used to walk along the river
And dream our way out of this town
No one understood what I felt for Mary
No one cared until the night she went out walking all alone
And never came home
Man with a badge came knocking next morning
Here was I surrounded by a thousand fingers suddenly
Pointed right at me
I swear I left her by the river
I swear I left her safe and sound
I need to make it to the river
And leave this old Nebraska town
I think about my life gone by
And how it's done me wrong
There's no escape for me this time
All of my rescues are gone, long gone
I swear I left her by the river
I swear I left her safe and sound
I need to make it to the river
And leave this old Nebraska town
Ritchie Havens
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child
A long
Way
From my home, yeah
Yeah
Sing
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Sometimes I feel
Like I'm almost gone
Sometimes I feel
Like I'm almost gone
Sometimes I feel
Like I'm almost gone, yeah
A long, long, long
Way
Way from my home, yeah
Yeah
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands
Clap your hands, yeah
Clap your hands
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, yeah yeah yeah yeah
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey, yeah yeah yeah yeah
I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up from heart
I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up from heart
When I need my brother / (Brother)
Brother / (Brother)
When I need my father / (Father)
Father, hey / (Father)
Mother / (Mother)
Mother, hey / (Mother)
Sister / (Sister)
Yeah / (Yeah)
When I need my brother / (Brother)
Brother, hey / (Brother)
Mother / (Father)
Mother / (Mother)
Mother / (Mother)
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah-yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
Russell Watson
Good evening Wembley”
And a capacity crowd scream their lungs out.
And then Russell Watson wakes up. And he’s on stage and... and... and... well, he has only stood in front of a capacity crowd screaming their lungs out at Wembley. How did that happen?
In four years he has gone, in his own words, “from walking on stage at a working men’s club with five people there, spilt beer and cigarette smoke and joking to them ‘Good Evening Wembley’ to actually saying the same thing to 15,000 people crammed into Wembley Arena”.
It has been some journey.
It started with The Voice. A debut album that went double Platinum in several territories, stayed at number one in the UK classical charts for 52 weeks and announced the arrival of a major new talent. A year later, his second album, Encore, knocked The Voice off the top of the charts and sold over 1.7 million copies.
They are both still in the classical Top 20. And now we have Reprise.
“What are you going to call your tenth album?” I ask him. “Requiem,” he says, before pausing and then cracking a smile. “Or maybe R.I.P. ... I haven’t made my mind up yet.” The decision is not pressing.
In the twelve months since Encore went to the top of the charts Watson has played in front of the 43rd President of the United States, the Queen, Pope John Paul II and over one billion people who tuned into the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester this summer.
He has also played at the Sydney Opera House and both of the big Halls. That is, Carnegie and Albert. It seems like he might have made it. “I’d been told to expect polite applause when I walked onto the stage (at Carnegie Hall), but the roar was like a wall of sound which almost knocked me off my feet... as soon as I feel like the audience are up for it then I’ll respond and for the rest of that night I was on fire.”
His success has walked hand-in-hand with a coming of age in terms of musicianship. There is a new depth to his voice, to the voice. “This album is more classical than either of the others”, he says, “but the way we’ve done it is to take a completely different angle to Pavarotti or Plácido Domingo.”
“On tracks like Granada and the Neapolitan love songs we’ve brought in Nick Dodd to make everything more epic. He is a phenomenal orchestrator and turns any ‘song’ into a ‘big song’. The pop is still on there and a bit more poppy, Cleopatra is back with me doing a duet and, as I have said before, it’s a progression.”
Reprise is the next step. “The Voice was special because it was my first recording” he says. “Encore was a better recording but Reprise is the best thing I have done so far... this album has something for everybody.”
He’s not wrong, you know.
Where My Heart Will Take Me
Its been a long road
Getting from there to here
Its been a long time
But my time is finally near
I can feel a change in the wind right now
Nothings in my way
And their not gonna hold me down no more
No their not gonna hold me down
Cause I’ve got faith of the heart
I’m going where my heart will take me
I’ve got faith to believe
I can do anything
I’ve got strength of the soul
No ones gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star
I’ve got faith
I’ve got faith
Faith of the heart
It’s been a long night
Trying to find my way
And through the darkness
Now I’ll finally have my day
And I will see my dream come alive at last
I will touch the sky
And their not gonna hold me down no more
No their not gonna change my mind
Cause I’ve got faith of the heart
I’m going where my heart will take me
I’ve got faith to believe
I can do anything
I’ve got strength of the soul
No ones gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star
I’ve got faith
I’ve got faith
Faith of the heart
I’ve known a wind so cold
And seen the darkest days
But now the winds I feel are only winds of change
I’ve been through the fire
And I’ve been through the rain
But I’ll be fine
Cause I’ve got faith of the heart
I’m going where my heart will take me
I’ve got faith to believe
I can do anything
I’ve got strength of the soul
No ones gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star
I’ve got faith
I’ve got faith
Faith of the heart
Roger Waters
Home
Could be Jerusalem, or it could be Cairo
Could be Berlin, or it could be Prague
Could be Moscow, could be New York
Could be Llanelli, and it could be Warrington
Could be Warsaw, and it could be Moose Jaw
Could be Rome
Everybody got somewhere they call home
When they overrun the defenses
A minor invasion put down to expenses
Will you go down to the airport lounge
Will you accept your second class status
A nation of waitresses and of waiters
Will you mix their martinis
Will you stand still for it
Or will you take to the hills
It could be clay and it could be sand
Could be desert
Could be a tract of arable land
Could be a house, could be a corner shop
Could be a cabin by a bend in the river
Could be something your old man handed down
Could be something you built on your own
Everybody got something he calls home
When the cowboys and Arabs draw down
On each other at noon
In the cool dusty air of the city boardroom
Will you stand by a passive spectator
Of the market dictators
Will you discreetly withdraw
With your ear pressed to the boardroom door
Will you hear when the lion within you roars
Or will you take to the hills
Will you stand, will you stand for it
Will you hear, ohhhh! ohhh! when the lion within
you roars
Could be your father and it could be your mother
Could be your sister, could be your brother
Could be a foreigner, could be a Turk
Could be a cyclist out looking for work. Norman
Could be a king, could be the Aga khan
Could be a Vietnam vet with no arms and no legs
Could be a saint, could be a sinner
Could be a loser or it could be a winner
Could be a banker, could be a baker
Could be a Laker, could be Kareem Abdul Jabar
Could be a male voice choir
Could be a lover, could be a fighter
Could be a super heavyweight, or it could be
something lighter
Could be a cripple, could be a freak
Could be a wop, gook, geek
Could be a cop, could be a thief
Could be a family of ten living in one room on relief
Could be our leaders in their concrete tombs
With their tinned food and their silver spoons
Could be the pilot with God on his side
Could be the kid in the middle of the bomb sight
Could be a fanatic, could be a terrorist
Could be a dentist, could be a psychiatrist
Could be humble, could be proud
Could be a face in the crowd
Could be the soldier in the white cravat
Who turns the key in spite of the fact
That this is the end of the cat and mouse
Who dwelt in the house
Where the laughter rang and the tears were spilt
This is the house that Jack built
Where the laughter rang and the tears were spilt
This is the house that Jack built
Bang, bang, shoot, shoot
White gloved thumb, Lord thy will be done
He was always a good boy his mother said
He'll do his duty when he's grown, yeah
Everybody's got someone they call home
Rush
Bravado
If we burn our wings
Flying too close to the sun
If the moment of glory
Is over before it's begun
If the dream is won
Though everything is lost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost
When the dust has cleared
And victory denied
A summit too lofty
River a little too wide
If we keep our pride
Though paradise is lost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost
And if the music stops
Leaving only the sound of the rain
All the hope and glory
All the sacrifice in vain
And if love remains
Though everything is lost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost
And if love remains
Though everything is lost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost
