Discography

Thanksgiving

The Birds Are Leaving [lyrics]
Swansong [lyrics]
Hope Is A Name [lyrics]
Lazy Heart [lyrics]
Water Song [lyrics]
'Our Boy' [lyrics]
Bell, Book and Candle [lyrics]
Thanksgiving [lyrics]
Footsteps Fall [lyrics]
Homesick Son [lyrics]
Eve [lyrics]
A Long Winter [lyrics]
Murder In The Dark [lyrics]
Please Don't Ask Me To Dance [lyrics]
New Pretender [lyrics]
The King Is Dead [lyrics]

Produced by John Wood except Clive Gregson (3, 12)
Recorded at Livingstone (London), Studio Frisson (Montreal), Clive's house (Nashville)
Written by Hewerdine except:
Hewerdine / Gregson (3, 12)
Hewerdine / Reader (4, 10)
Hewerdine / MacColl (6)
Hewerdine / Bjërgfeldt (9)

Musicians:
Boo Hewerdine: vocals, acoustic guitar, guitar
Tim Harris: bass (1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16)
Teddy Borowiecki: piano (1, 4, 6, 11, 13, 15, 16), accordion (2, 9, 13, 15, 16), synth (4, 8)
Electra Strings: strings arranged Tony Cox (1, 2, 8, 11)
Martin Barker: drums (2, 4, 7, 9, 13, 15)
Neill MacColl: guitar (7, 10, 14), electric guitar (2, 4, 8, 11, 13, 16), autoharp (7), 6-string bass (9), mandolin (9, 15)
Martha Wainwright: vocals (2, 4, 5, 7, 13)
Clive Gregson: guitar (3, 12), bass (3), accordian (3), keyboards (3)
Michael Pepin: guitar (5)
Joel Zifkin: violin (7, 15)

Notes:
Track 6 is a re-recording of the theme to the one-off BBC2 drama 'Our Boy'.
Tim Harris & Teddy Borowiecki play in Eddi Reader's band.
Martha Wainwright is the daughter of Loudon Wainwright III.
Martin Barker was in Shriekback.

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Lyrics

The Birds Are Leaving

(Hewerdine)

Spinning further from the sun
Here's October in our lungs
Come outside up in the sky
The birds are leaving

Clouds of instinct fill the air
And whatever brought us here
Come next year will bring again
The birds are leaving

Tell me that a lover's touch
Is more than nature planting seeds
Or what am I to believe?

South of here the winter's kinder
So they leave to find fair weather
And how high our spirits rise
On their returning

Tell me that a lover's touch
Is more than nature passing genes
Or what am I to believe?

Heaven knows why you're not happy
And heaven knows why I can't make you
Look outside up in the sky
The birds are leaving

Swansong

(Hewerdine)

You trouble me
You trouble me
Thought I was through the healing time
I feel your shadow against mine
You trouble me

I can't accept you're gone
I can't accept you're gone
Doing things we used to do
I will turn to talk to you
I can't accept you're gone

Is this all that I am?

How can I sleep alone?
How can I sleep alone?
The secrets of our bed
That will not leave my head
How can I sleep alone?

Hope Is A Name

(Hewerdine / Gregson)

Hope is a name that you give to a girl
Something she'll carry with her in this world
All of the things that you never had
All of the loves that you never loved

Hope is a name that we give to a girl
She'll wear it for dancing she'll sway and she'll swirl
She'll turn when she hears it in whispers and sighs
She'll smile as it crosses her first lover's lips

Oh still it goes on
Oh still it goes on
It's always been the same
You're no one until they give you a name

Hope is a name I would pass down to you
Part of the blueprint in all that you do
All of the things that I never did
All of the loves that I never loved

Lazy Heart

(Hewerdine / Reader)

I've got a lazy heart
Can't make it do a thing
Won't go to church on Sundays
I've never heard it sing
No matter what I do
Can't make my heart want you

I've got a lazy heart
Sleeps when the morning comes
Sleep through an earthquake
Walk and never run
I don't know what to say
It's always been that way

My lazy heart and I
Are hostage to the moon
And winter's far too long
And summer ends too soon

Goddamn my lazy heart
It's dumb as an ox I know
Won't go to work on Mondays
Just can't make it go
Whatever's to be done?
My heart cannot be won

I'm not the one to blame
So please don't make me choose
Between a living lie
And the I'm so sorry blues

Water Song

(Hewerdine)

Let the water run by my door
With no clue to where it's been
Did it fall among young summer rains
Or ice cold nights on desert plains

Let the water run by my door
On its way down to the sea
To be lifted into rainclouds
To come pouring down on you and me

Oh you're the saddest one that I've ever seen

Let the water flow by my door
It could go anywhere
Freeze your praying to a window's gaze
Or lap the shore on carefree days

Oh you're the saddest one that I've ever seen

Let the water run by my door
On its way down to the sea
To be lifted into rainclouds
To come pouring down on you and me

Let the water run

Our Boy

(Hewerdine / MacColl)

[Instrumental]

Bell, Book and Candle

(Hewerdine)

The blue around a morning moon
The colour of your eyes
I remember holding you
A fall through summer skies
You're everything that I've become
In every word I say
I need a bell, book and candle
To keep your ghost away

White horses on a troubled sea
Your smile will flash through time
Up ahead a blackbird's wing
Your hair will come to mind
Every night I see your face
When I have to pray
I need a bell, book and candle
To keep your ghost away

Keep your ghost away
Keep your ghost away
I need a bell, book and candle
To keep your ghost away

Just before the thunder roars
I sense you next to me
And as I move through nature
I know where you will be
So I must keep myself apart
And here is where I'll stay
With a bell, book and candle
To keep your ghost away

Thanksgiving

(Hewerdine)

The last time that I held you was
The gate at JFK
I could not break the undertow
It would not let me stay
For you this is Thanksgiving
For me a working day
And I will lie awake tonight
And dream my life away

The letters that you send here
You don't know what they bring
I only have to see your hand
My senses wing
Today may be Thanksgiving
For me no bells will ring
And I miss you more than I thought I
Could miss any living thing

And through each November as
I feel the summer die
I pull my coat around me hard
And will myself to fly
But there is no Thanksgiving
I know the winter's here
I'll lock the door and build a fire
And burn another year

Footsteps Fall

(Hewerdine / Bjergfeldt)

I'm in a new place now
They don't know me next door
Though I can hear their footsteps fall

Every night around this time
Does he take her in his arms?
There'll be Django playing
As they waltz across the floor

And the loneliest sound of all
Is the sound of love through a stranger's wall

And when their laughter fades
When there are no more words
The silence breaks me most of all

And the loneliest sound of all
Is the sound of love through a stranger's wall

I'm in a new place now
They don't know me next door
I wonder where your footsteps fall

Homesick Son

(Hewerdine / Reader)

Somewhere out west you might find
Someone better than I am
If I ever leave your mind
You've been gone too long
My homesick son

In the land of Greyhound dreams
You must grab it while you can
Nothing's ever what it seems
Are you that strong
My homesick son?

And the ciphers you meet
On the roads and the rails
And the traces of love
In the clues and the trails

Even in your best disguise
I can tell there's something wrong
Hell is other people's lives
You knew all along
My homesick son

Eve

(Hewerdine)

Eve lives by the flower market
Where they work all through the night
And there's no dusk and there's no dawn
It's always light

She said you know I've grown to like this
To know the darkness will not come
The birds round here are always singing
To greet the sun

And some of us are born to shine
And some of us are not
Most of us we must accept
Whatever is our lot

Eve was talking to her boyfriend
He said I'll have to move away
He says I don't know how you stand it
No night from day

She laughed and said I'll tell you something
There's worse places I could be
At least I know it's not daybreak
Takes you from me

A Long Winter

(Hewerdine / Gregson)

This is only to explain
How it is to love again
Should I begin
With the touch of a skin on skin

This is but a simple song
The snows have thawed the floods have come
Bitter yesterdays
Have all been washed away

Sorry if I move a little slow
Sorry if my table is bare
I can't remember having anybody here
It's been a long winter
I never thought I'd feel the sun again

Last day of frozen crystal clear
I see your name hang in the air
A stronger pulse will pull me back
The ice will start to crack

It's but a moment to explain
How it is to love again
Should we begin
With the touch of skin on skin?

Murder in the Dark

(Hewerdine)

And I know a game
Two of us can play
And there are no rules
You'd break them anyway
When I reach for you
And you turn away
That's murder in the dark

Did you turn out the light
So I can't see your eyes?
If I can't read your lips
Did you think that you could hide?
When you don't tell the truth
Without ever telling lies
That's murder in the dark

I know I never will again
I know, I know, I know
But the sun will rise
Sun will fall
Heaven spin and fool us all

I thought there'd be a change
I really should have known
Right before the dawn
All the party favours gone
It's a funny thing
But you can play alone
Murder in the dark

Please Don't Ask Me To Dance

(Hewerdine)

Please don't ask me to dance
Please don't ask me to dance
Skin remembers what the heart forgets
I might do something that I will regret

How can you smile at me now
After all the ugly words you used?
Don't you remember anything we said?
Tonight I'm younger and it's going to my head
No I don't want a second chance
Please don't ask me to dance

Skin remembers what the heart forgets
And I might do something that I will regret

Why don't you leave me alone?
Why don't you bother someone else?
What do I care if you've got no one to hold?
What does it matter if the night is getting old?
Oh God if I feel your hand
Please don't ask me to dance

New Pretender

(Hewerdine)

Here comes the new pretender
A Bible in his hand
He thinks he will be happy
He thinks that life is grand
I have learned how to be grateful
For the scraps that fall from your table

Here comes the new pretender
He looks just like the old
He will get a big surprise
When he finds hell is cold
There are thosse who want to own you
Then one day they won't phone you

And in every sleepy town
You'll find heads full of dreams
Heads full of dreams

There goes the new pretender
But he won't last that long
There will be a new face
To sing the same old song
He will learn how to be grateful
For the scraps that fall from your table

Here comes the new pretender

The King Is Dead

(Hewerdine)

In mid August '77
Me and my sister in O'Hare
A voice came on the Tannoy said
The king is dead

I was sixteen in that summer
Of Space Invaders and Disneyland
Still the words rang round my head
The king is dead

No more "Blue Moon"
No more "Hound Dog"
No more "Lonely Street" that's all gone now

The news went out around the world
On waves and wires it was heard
When we got home the papers read
The king is dead

No more "Blue Moon"
No more "Hound Dog"
No more "Lonely Street" that's all gone now

Each of us end up somewhere
Between Vegas and Tupelo
Wish we were somewhere else instead
It goes unsaid
It goes unsaid