1. |
Lover/Lyre
03:28
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Lover/Lyre
Lover mine, tell me true
How long must a woman have to worship you
To learn you’re a liar,
Lying with the voice love sang you
Lying through the teeth love carved.
Lyre mine, kisses hang
Between us like birds strung on a wire again
Poised to, at the slightest noise, take flight.
I know you’ll parrot all of my promises tonight.
You don’t want to be a wicked man
But such wicked coloured thoughts
have stained your head and hands…
Lover/Liar. Lover/Lyre.
Lover mine, we dance like
A bean pod shaking on a vine in the night
Secret swelling seeds trapped between us.
I’m close to bursting- I’m feeling dangerous.
I don’t want to be a wicked girl
But in the middle of my forehead is this little curl…
Lover/Liar. Lover/Lyre.
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2. |
Tram
03:26
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Tram
My heart had split when the black dog bit
I forgot where I was when the howling hit
I couldn’t meet their eyes.
Who wants to see a grown woman cry?
I was curled on my seat with my knees pulled tight
I’d been lonely all day, would have cried all night
Then you came along with your heart healing song.
Through my tears, I could hear the songs
from better days, when I belonged to someone.
The words poured like stars in my ears
the Mersey beat dried my tears
Don’t let me down, they’re going to crucify me
Take those sunken eyes and learn to see…
And in the end, the love you make
is equal to the love you take.
This one is for that wonderful man
Who lent me a song on the 96 tram
And sang ‘Here comes the sun’.
There came the sun.
Through my tears, I could hear the songs
from better days, when I belonged to someone
the words poured like stars in my ears
the Mersey beat dried my tears
He dried my tears with the Mersey beat
I fared him well on Ackland St.
I should have gone with him.
I should have gone with him.
Through my tears, I could hear the songs
from better days, when I belonged to someone.
The words poured like stars in my ears.
The Mersey beat dried my tears
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3. |
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Letter to Conor, September ‘05
I don’t know why I’m writing you- this isn’t who I am.
I’m not the kind of girl who writes letters to a strange man
But that’s the thing about baring your soul to the whole entire earth:
Every body seems to think he knows you better than you know yourself.
The buds on the backs of my ankles are itching worse than ever.
Wings threaten to burst through and fly me off forever.
In and out of days and weeks and months and maybe years.
Until even treasured memories dry up like all the tears.
Holly wood is calling in that ancient voice that sings
Into the hearts of artists who know too well it only brings
A fleeting phantom feeling that the world has seen your worth.
Only with your death will they celebrate your birth.
And I wonder.
La de dah dah
I wonder- la de da dah
I wonder…. Who I’m going to be next.
Now I’m searching for the sadness that your words have caught and maimed
And lodged hard in my sternum with an ache that can’t be named.
Makes the heart both soar and break anew with every breath I steal.
A celebration of the pain of love, the bravest dare to feel.
For I am a words woman- YES! A woman built from words.
Adjective hips, my lips a pair of plumply snuggling verbs.
My spine is a conjunction, my knees: two nobbled nouns.
I’m easy to read darling if you croon the correct sounds.
And I wonder.
La de dah dah
I wonder- la de da dah
I wonder…. Who I’m going to be next
as it spreads from my heart to my head…
And now I wish to thank you, you articulate my soul.
And if the world were ending, I would put your record on.
I would play it through from start to end and try to sing along…
And maybe hear what God was trying to tell me all along.
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4. |
Wild Wandering Girl
04:54
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Wild Wandering Girl
My mama wishes I weren’t a wanderer.
The way I wander breaks her house-big heart.
She dreams of the day I’ll come home and lay
my head in her lap and swear we’ll never part.
But this world of ours won’t be here for much longer.
And every step I take makes my legs so much stronger.
Oh mama, I see now that your longing
is more a desire to be free
So mama- next time that I come home-
Pack up and come a wandering with me.
Pack up and come a wandering with me.
My Daddy- he was once a sailor.
He held the wet wild world inside his hand.
Now he holds a tiller in his memory.
My Daddy was a wild wandering man.
He said ‘this world of ours won’t be here for much longer
and every song we sing makes our voices so much stronger”
Oh Daddy, I see now that your longing
Is more a desire to be free.
So Daddy- next time that I come home,
Pack up and come a wandering with me.
My lover wish I weren’t a wanderer.
But my feet, they ache to search the world
for some secret thing that still eludes me.
I’m sorry Darling. I’m a wild, wandering girl.
This world of ours won’t be here for much longer.
And every step we take makes our hearts so much stronger.
I’m sorry Darling, I’m a wild, wandering girl.
I’m sorry Daddy, I’m a wild, wandering girl.
I’m sorry Mama, I’m a wild, wandering girl.
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5. |
Chinese Proverb v2
04:52
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6. |
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Come for the Berries if Not Quite for Me
Branches bleed berries and moan beneath their loads
The burden of beauty must test each tender tree
Winds paint red the golden roads
Come for the berries, if not quite for me
I know you’re not for me
I’ve weathered a broken heart or two
In a fort of halcyon quinces and easter tides
Away down the ocean road my great pain flew
Above the bomboras rolling like drowning brides
I know you're not for me
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7. |
Cleopatra Speaks
03:43
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8. |
The Swine Wife
05:18
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The Swine Wife
They swapped me for a pig, traded with a greater swine
That bastard father, that gin blind mother, that spineless lover of mine.
This stained white dress means nothing anymore
I’ll drape it as a warning on the Oak front door of my pen.
14 years I bounded free until the day I met a lad
his hands so strong and lips so rare I verily fell mad.
The stars lit all his corners; the moon shaped my new curves
And I prayed as I lay counting days that they’d never breathe a word.
His father watched like Hades, as we waltzed amongst the trees
Declared me fine, eve hipped and eager to please.
They swapped me for a pig, with a beast less man than porcine,
That bastard father, that gin blind mother, that spineless lover of mine.
They came for me when the moon was black
No corner or curve could I spy
But I could smell the sin on my mother’s tongue
and knew my father’s hungry sigh.
My lover’s father chained me, and handed them a swine
Said ‘there’s no sight keener in this whole land than that boys- except mine.’
He told me we would marry come the glowing of the dawn-
To forget his son (my lover) and my family to scorn.
He bound me in a chamber, stole more than a kiss
I feared my lover must lie dying so I prayed to Artemis.
The moon burst through like silver; from her light I forged a key
I scrambled across that black land until my lover captured me
He dragged me to his father’s door, weeping all the while.
‘Though it’s you I love, I fear him more’ and left me a t the aisle.
The moon poured down like silver; from her light I forged a knife
I slew the man who stole me- I would be no swine’s wife.
I fell upon his son while the storm within me raged
And carved away his feeble heart- still my fury boiled unassuaged.
I held it high before them and tore it clean apart
They who stole my freedom, my soul, my mind, my heart….
You see they swapped me for a pig
Surely, this you must malign?
That bastard father, that gin blind mother….
That spineless lover of mine.
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9. |
Blood Stained Rag
02:55
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Blood Stained Rag
I will not rejoice in the theft of life.
blindfold and scales
effaced by the knife.
With murder grow martyrs
And monsters alike
A sky devoid of stars
On a cold, black night.
Go preach patriot games- I’ll sew my own flag
There ain’t no pride in a bloodstained rag.
We’re teaching them numbers-
Our beautiful babies-
So they might grow up
Grow up to count
The millions of bodies
The bodies of babies
Whose names (if we knew them)
We wouldn’t try to pronounce.
Go preach patriot games- we’ll sew our own flag
Ain’t no pride, in a blood stained rag.
Together we’ll count all the holes in our pockets
The holes in our bellies
The holes in our heads
Nothing plus nothing makes nothing I’m told
But if we cling to each other it might keep out the cold.
The holes in our hearts are much harder to thaw.
The edges are jagged and raw.
Do do do do do do do do do do
They left us so, left us so, left us, left us so left us so sore.
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10. |
Groupies for Governesses
03:10
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Groupies For Governesses
Let’s start with the stillest Autumn evening you can remember
when I sang out the first line of your life:
‘There once was a girl who was capable of great love
though it took her many years to realize this’.
When she realized this, she knew that all was well.
She sang
‘Grant me the strength to hold on and the strength to let go when the moment is gone. ‘Cause when that moment is gone- it’s gone.’
We need Groupies for Governesses to teach us how to love.
Let’s end with the stillest Autumn evening you can remember
When I sang out the last line of your life:
‘There once was a girl who was capable of great love but it took her many years to realize this.’
When she realized this, she knew that all was well
and she sang.
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11. |
A Bad Day for Frankie
04:00
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A Bad Day For Frankie
Frankly darling, You don’t really love me
You know it’s just another addiction- it’s a game.
Pure and vital, you see a conjugal saviour.
A kind word coaxed your heart embers to flame.
Little teardrop, sorry that I brushed you aside
No, it nearly crushed me inside to see you tremble and fall
Frankly darling, you don’t really need me
I understand now why you think you do.
Inured to tweakers, users, force and cruelty,
a smile filled the void inside of you.
Little teardrop, sorry that I brushed you aside.
You know it nearly crushed me inside to see you tremble and fall.
Little teardrop, sorry that I brushed you aside.
You know it nearly crushed me inside to see you tremble and fall.
Frankly darling, your future’s golden
But you’ve got to mine down deep to stake your claim.
Forget me now- I leave this world tomorrow.
Believe me, you won’t recall my name.
Little teardrop, sorry that I brushed you aside
You know it nearly crushed me inside to see you tremble and fall.
Little teardrop, never meant to brush you aside.
You know it nearly crushed me inside to see you tremble and fall.
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Younis Clare Port Campbell, Australia
From intricate fingerpicking and haunting cliff song vocals to full metal jacket riffs, YC embraces a lifetime's worth of genres.
Younis Clare recommends:
Sleeping Patterns
by Jordie Lane
Jordie's song 'I could die looking at you' is just the most beautiful thing I've heard written by a person of my era.
go to album
Now THIS is singing (and epic beat boxing)
go to album
Goodnight Berlin
by Kelly Dance
This voice will haunt your heart. It will break it then mend it- break then mend, over and over 'till you plead for her to stop. Oh maybe just one more listen...
go to albumIf you like Younis Clare, you may also like:
Looking Out My Window
by CARLENE
Drift away with these dreamlike songs from reclusive folk singer CARLENE, who pairs evocative lyrics with hushed arrangements.
go to album
Tense, moody, guitar-forward songs from VanWyck that emphasize tension and fragility.
go to album
Meet Me at the River
by Dawn Landes
On “Meet Me By the River,” Dawn Landes’s self-described “Nashville record,” buoyant country melodies settle deep into lush instrumentation.
go to album
