| LYRICS
01. Rip It Up
02. Freedom By Degrees
03. From Sea To Sky
04. A Cave Of Stars
05. Sandusky
06. Red Dirt
07. Unlikely
08. Hermannsburg
09. For The Diamond
10. Half A Million Miles
11. This Desert Earth
12. The Same But Different
Rip It Up
© 2008 Phil Dolby
Take a pen and draw a line
Mark it out then subdivide
And when everything around you
Is all perfectly designed
Rip it up and start again
Use a map so you can find
All the places you reside
And when everyone decides
That it’s the blind leading the blind
Rip it up and start again
He took his readings from the wrong side of the sun
He hadn’t noticed that the transit had begun
And when the ink on all his paper starts to run
And all his data’s not backed up
Rip it up and start again
Rip it up and start again
Fast forward or rewind
Choose your place in space and time
And then calculate the angle
Where the planets all align
And leave your mark upon the land
Leave your mark upon the land
Rip it up and start again
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***
Freedom By Degrees
© 2008 Phil Dolby
They had no money left
‘Cos they spent it all on the war
I used to think that they had a point
I don’t think that anymore
They had no ideas left
That was so plain to see
They abandoned their principles
They abandoned diplomacy
(chorus)
So don’t let them sell you
Untruths to convince you
Don’t let them lie through their teeth
And don’t let them take away your freedom
Degree, by degree, by degree
They had no strategy
It was flawed to the rotten core
With the thinkers all scratching heads
In their desert home from home
They had no allies left
Just the same old two or three
So I’m starting to wonder
What the whole damn point has been
(repeat chorus)
They tried to introduce ideas of liberty
They’re still enchanted by their version of democracy
But the problem with freedom is...
It takes a little time to grow
It doesn’t just happen on
The presidents say so
George Orwell made the point in 1984
Bad leaders like to keep us on the brink of war
So they invent a threat
Just to keep us on our toes
It’s the oldest trick in the book
It’s the way the story goes...
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***
From Sea To Sky
© 2008 Phil Dolby
Look at them working for miles
The Pacific Highway Womens’ Union
Build the road from sea to sky
Silhouettes blinking headlights
Cut away the heavy timber
Stretch the curve to two lanes wide
(chorus)
My world has been undone
Where are they from these windward brides
Westwards into the sun
Into the bay of breath and sighs
Look at them speaking in signs
Slowing us towards the corner
From the ledge and from the line
Look at them linking arms high
Pass along the flame of wonder
Build the road from sea to sky
(repeat chorus)
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***
A Cave Of Stars
© 2008 Phil Dolby
So many roads left untravelled
So many nights have been slept away
So many dreams remain unfulfilled
So many days
How many souls will no gather
To see the start of a breaking day
To feel the heat of the shifting sun
And shadows play
(chorus)
We were not looking for a cave of stars
No Universes or Galaxies
Deep underground where the rain cuts scars
And icy water will hide the light and me
So farewell Aotearoa
And goodbye to this Shadowland
To the stories you told us
Of the gods who carved out by hand
Every river and valley
Every mountain of this domain
And the ice that will melt and fill
The bluest lake
(chorus)
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***
Sandusky
© 2008 Phil Dolby
Well we’re heading south through Canada
Across the great Erie
Heading to a land that talks of Life and Liberty
But the country I’ll return to
Is so far across the sea
No amusement park
Could every make me stay in Sandusky
Oh mosquito, you have come to take a bite
Oh mosquito, you’re attracted by the light
Oh mosquito, you are cunning in your flight
Oh mosquito, you’re a victim of the night
Well we’re heading south through Canada
Across the great Erie
No amusement park
Could ever make me stay in Sandusky
No amusement park
Could ever make me stay in Sandusky
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***
Red Dirt
© 2008 Phil Dolby
I will never turn my back on the red dirt
I will never turn my back on the red dirt
Red dirt’s gonna flow with rain
Red dirt’s gonna mark and stain
I will never walk away from the red dirt
Red dirt’s gonna mark my days
Red dirt’s gonna turn me to clay
Never more to walk away from the red dirt
I will never turn my back on the ocean
I will never turn my back on the ocean
Ocean’s come to dance in waves
Ocean tide will take me away
I will never float away on the ocean
Ocean’s come to dance in waves
Ocean tide will take me away
I will never float away on the ocean
I will never turn my back on the desert
I will never turn my back on the desert
Desert sun will burn in flames
Strip my skin and heat my veins
I will never walk my way through the desert
Desert sun will burn and rage
Dry my lips and steal my shade
I will never walk away from the desert
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***
Unlikely
© 2008 Phil Dolby
Sat in a coffee shop waiting for service
We look out the window at the trams down below us
Then you look up at the clock on the wall
And it tells you quite clearly - the temperature's rising
The waitress comes over and brings us the order
She doesn’t smile much, but that’s not her fault
You say it’s because she’s got one of those faces
That doesn’t reveal all her thoughts and her feelings
So unlike me
You say it’s so unlikely
It’s one of those days where the world keeps revolving
A head full of ideas but none that are solving
The issues at hand, even though they’re not urgent
We like to go through them, just to be sure
And the man in the corner who’s reading the paper
Calls over the waiter and asks for some water
They joke with each other about something and nothing
But we go on thinking - we can’t understand them
So unlikely
You say it’s so unlikely
I say when we come back we must learn the language
You nod in agreement - we’ll save up some money
But maybe we’ll live in some far away place
Where they speak the same language - or maybe we won’t
The trams go on running outside on the plaza
We finish our coffee and gather belongings
It’s one of those days where the world keeps revolving
It’s one of those days where the world keeps revolving
And unlikely
You say it’s so unlikely
Unlikely
You say it’s so unlikely
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***
Hermannsburg
© 2008 Phil Dolby
They are shadow people
Who hide in the trees
Where no one can see them
They just don’t exist
But they’re dreaming in colour
By the light of the day
But they hide in the shadows
And the dark of the shade
I first met Namatjira
Some place overseas
But the landscape and colour
Didn’t mean much to me
So I went to his birthplace
That was tidy and clean
And the Ghost Gum I saw there
Was the picture I’d seen
So I asked him a question
If he could please explain
How he left behind shadow
For the light of the day
But his words didn’t ring true
For the ghosts of these streets
And a town that is ravaged
By refuse and heat
They are shadow people
That shuffle and creep
Through the alleys and doorways
Through the margins of life
But they’re dreaming in colour
By the light of the day
But they hide between shadows
And the dark of the day
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***
For The Diamond
© 2008 Phil Dolby
They drove all night
In search of Saturn
With the chair unfolded
And the belt unbuckled
They hopped that night flight
Hith-hiked to venus
With the frame all blown up
And the focus softened
They drove only for the diamond
They drove only for the diamond
But they never saw the slider coming
From the only place left in the world
The only place left in the world
The only place left in the world
The only place left in the world
They’re a little grayer
But so much wiser
They said they’d meet here
In the warmth of spring time
But they missed that comet
And the cold of winter
So they kept their promise
And they reconsidered
They drove only for the diamond
They drove only for the diamond
But they never saw the slider coming
From the only place left in the world
The only place left in the world
The only place left in the world
The only place left in the world
What was her name?
What was her name?
Was it in Rome
Or then again...
He wrote her name onto a piece of card
Put it in a box and passed it over the bar
Of the...
...only place left in the world
The only place left in the world
(repeat)
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***
Half A Million Miles
© 2008 Phil Dolby
Six o’clock and workers are all heading for their cars
For the evening migration home
Staring into tunnel vision, pumping on the gas
Push the air conditioned zone
They have no idea that the time
Is getting ever nearer death
But the engines keep on humming
As the clock just keeps on ticking
To the planets last resentful death
Half a million miles away
His kids are playing truant
So he takes another long haul flight
From the demons in the middle of the night
Eight a.m. and mothers are all escorting their sons
And daughters in their four-by-fours
To school gates where the teachers
Just look on in grim despair
And wait for them to take them home
They have no idea that these wheels
Were not designed for city crawl
But the engines keep on running
And the clock just keeps on ticking
As they plough on through the urban sprawl
Half a million miles away
His wife is being nailed
By a salesman with a pack of lies
So he turns his head up to the sky
Another day another place another kind of heaven
For the businessman so far from home
Another hotel lobby for a meeting that could happen
By Internet and mobile phone
They have no ideas that the deals
They broker now will make no sense
On a planet still revolving
Where the problem they are solving
Is of mankind in the former tense
Half a million miles away
The place he loves is empty
He never stopped to wonder why
He took another long haul flight
Took another long haul flight
Took another long haul flight
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***
This Desert Earth
© 2008 Phil Dolby
Said the farmer to the man -
“How can I pay you when I cannot grow my grain?”
Said the farmer to his son -
“I cannot leave you this ground so full of pain
Someday
We’re waiting for the day it rains
Or takes us to an early grave
Someday....”
Said the farmer to his wife -
“I am no longer the provider in your life
If we stay here, the world may never know
How we waited to see the river flow
Our way
We’re waiting for the day it rains
Or takes us to an early grave
Someday....”
There was a time when once a year
He’d take his cattle to market
A simple task that paid him well
Some money in his pocket
But now the beasts are withered thin
He knows not how to stop it
No flesh can grow from eating dirt
These bones will yield no profit
So now he takes the only shot
To deliver him from torture
He drives his cattle from the land
And leads his lambs to slaughter
And as the last one falls away
One bullet still remains
He puts the barrel to his mouth
Now tears where once was rain
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***
The Same But Different
© 2008 Phil Dolby
When you get lost on the open highway
And you think of the cost you’re not willing to pay
At a Buddha in Bangkok a Nokia tone
A monk on a mobile; a 3G cell phone
(chorus)
It’s all the same
It’s all the same, but different
It’s all the same
It’s all the same, but different
When you look down on a city landscape
At the far points of light going different ways
You’re a rooftop reporter with a digital feed
And a pixel distorter to control what is seen
(chorus)
It’s all the same
It’s all the same, but different
It’s all the same
It’s all the same, but different
It’s one of those things, an incalculable thing
But it’s driving me to distraction
We let it go on, even though it’s so wrong
Without ever a call to reaction
How can we sit while the people who
Work the land with their hands
Are broken and shattered
How can we sit while the people who
Work the land with their hands
Don’t seem to matter...
When you come home at the end of the day
And your energy’s gone and you’re fading away
There’s a man on a moped on a muddy highway
Going nowhere and slowly with a puncture delay
(chorus)
It’s all the same
It’s all the same, but different
It’s all the same
It’s all the same, but different
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