So Much to Defend: RUFCD014
So Much To Defend
Sharon loves her cook-in sauce
Her daughter lives upstairs
Wednesday night is choir practice
Sharon does the chairs
On Monday they’ll mince up their Sunday roast
They neither borrow nor lend
The bloke out back flies a union jack
There’s so much to defend
Maureen locks her garage door
She keeps their old car safe
She’s got a little place for everything
Everything’s in its place
Wednesday night is yoga night how the ladies twist and bend
She’s just learned to Skype her grandchildren
There’s so much to defend
Abigail orders tuna steak “Ever so slightly charred”
She’s in the gym most evenings
She hits that treadmill hard
In the summer she’ll go surfing
With her boyfriend near Lands End
They’ve got a beautiful vintage camper can
There’s so much to defend
Bella’s zero hours contract means she won’t turn on her fire
But she pays full rent since her boyfriend went
There’s a lot there to admire
She says she’s learned a thing or two from her scary new best friend
Her little gecko sheds and eats its own skin
There’s so much to defend
Victoria saves her kitchen scraps for the chickens in her yard
She says the online Woody Guthrie shop won’t recognise her card
But she keeps in trim with her fundraising
She’ll be out there this weekend
A muddy young mum on a charity run
There’s so much to defend
When Svetlana talks about her work
She’s nothing but up front
She’s always carrying something sharp and always something blunt
She says she never gives herself away
But she lets them have a lend
Pepper spray takes the taste away
There’s so much to defend
Terry got laid off today
Now he’ll have to improvise
He says his season ticket’s not for sale
He’s Ebbsfleet till he dies
But his girls’ll get to stay in their bunk beds
They were hoping to extend
He’ll have to dust his mobile disco off
There’s so much to defend
Meanwhile Tomas
He’s got four rods out with an hour of daylight left
His little girl laughs to see such fun
But his wife looks scared to death because you see he’s trying to catch their evening meal from the swiftly flowing Thames
As the sun sets on Canary Wharf
There’s so much to defend
This Love Won’t Let You Fail
It’s your very first top floor flat and all that
Your shower runs hot or too cold
The hoover’s broke and the wiring is toast
It must be a hundred years old
Your mad landlady turned your waterworks on
When she stole your birthday mail
Take it all on the chin my little darling
This love won’t let you fail
There’s a job at the pub next door but one
They say they need a bright young thing at the bar
Get up little darlin’ and put some shoes on
Show them what a bright young thing you are
Twenty odd years ago on a misty autumn morning
I knew this day would come
There’s a postcard here in the window, says ÒHoover for SaleÓ
This love won’t let you fail
Now you ride through the city at four a.m.
Living the life of the night
A little drunken text every now and again
Lets us know that you’re alright
You get to bed as the sun comes up
Your mother’s worried because you’re looking so pale
You’re looking so pale
This love won’t let you fail
There’s a Photograph of a tired little girl
Up on the Downs with her dad
She’s flying their kite
She’s all grown up now but he’s still there
He’s trying to let go with all his might
Catch the wind now darlin’ and run like hell
Over hill and over dale
You’ll be a speck on the horizon before too long
This love won’t let you fail
Only A Friendly
There was all the old chaps up the back where they always sit
Their heads went down as the brand new signing slipped again
He’d been jogging to & fro to virtually no acclaim
Making little impression on a highly forgettable game
Under antediluvian floodlights both teams looks the same
But it was only a friendly
As the full back brought the visiting striker down
They said they heard the crunch from the dump at the edge of town
We all heard the words as they fell on stony ground
It’s only a friendly
They were fishing for pike on the telly in the club house bar
When young Luke came in he’d just written off his uncle’s car again
Now Luke is a lad with a gift for devastation
This time the young brave had crossed the central reservation
Sure enough the police came in looking for information
But it was only a friendly
‘Cos we were on our best behaviour we were queuing up to be polite
As we all stood and we swore Luke had been at the match with us all night
We walked them out to their car and we wished them both goodnight
It was only a friendly
They had just scored again when she said ÒI ain’t a bleedin’ pikey
Thought I have demeaned myself a time or twoÓ
She had a laugh like a bowling ball
As she slid down the gentleman’s toilet wall
It wasn’t exactly a fall but that was definitely all for tonight
It was only a friendly
Young Luke had meant to play the gent as went to try and catch her but he missed
She said “you’re gonna need to be quicker than that if you want to get kissed”
He said “I don’t care, you’re still on my to do list”
Then the tannoy voice said something about man of the match
I think it was their slippery little substitute absolutely no one could catch
Then all around the ground the final whistle blew
Somebody shouted something we already knew
“Oi referee
It’s no always all about you!””
It was one of the old chaps up the back where they always sit
The Flail
The flail came by
The flail came by today
Took away the things that took so long to grow
Before it went away
The flail came by
The flail came by today
Knocked us back to where we all were years ago
Before it went away
The flail came by
The flail came by today
Split our shins and left us for the winds to blow
Before it went away
The flail came by
The flail came by today
The pages of the history books will never show
What happened here today
The flail came by
The flail came by today
Strange Cadence
The lark is singing in the wind
Strange cadence in her throat
The Earth grows warm while we below
Ignore her darkening note
She heralds in our dancing day
We lose all gotten gains
Like horse and rider gone astray
The Earth takes back her reins
We fail to love what we must love
She knows what must be done
She takes our hand and leads us to the purifying sun
Our voices they may sound no more
And our eyes forever dark
But high above the deserted shore
The clear note of the lark
The Shallow End
If you hold your breath
Can you swim a width but
Can you make it back
Pruney little fingers in the queue for the Bovril shack
We were pushing
Splashing
Running
The summers we did spend
All the noise was coming from the shallow end
Where were all our fathers as we played in the sun
Their noses to the grindstone
Every single one
Well now I am my father’s age
Now I comprehend
All the noise is coming from the shallow end
If I am a good boy I’ll have a brand new car
I’ll spend my weekend shopping
Down at Mammon’s bazaar
Because the answer to my problem is
Spend spend spend
All the noise is coming from the shallow end
I’ll sit and watch the ice disappearing in the sun
While I’m listening to the voices saying it’s nothing that we’ve done
Even mother nature she cannot hear her friend
All the noise is coming from the shallow end
But if I hold my breath and I let my body sink
Down here on the bottom I can hear myself think
Please don’t come and rescue me
The quiet is my friend
I can’t hear the noise coming from the shallow end
If you hold your breath
Can you swim a width
But can you make it back
More Fool Me
This pen will be worn out before too long
There’s a mile or two in every single song
Now they say that everything’s for free
More fool me
I took up the life before I’d even finished school
How could any other life be even half so cool
Sometimes I like to tell myself I’m free
More fool me
You got the best part of the show down on your phone
Such a nice surprise for me when I get home
The sum of my life’s work on the screen
For all the world to see
More fool me
I dropped myself into the gears of the machine
You might think that after all these years I might not be so keen
But there’s still nothing else I’d rather do or be
More fool me
With a sha la la la la and a shooby dooby do
For the price they’re paying that’s the best I ought to do
But for the real true believer
That’s just blasphemy
More fool me
You May Stand Mute
When faith is true
‘Tis not for you to stand and ask it why
Or measure out in your balances
The weight of by and by
You may stand mute
While others choose to praise the stars above
But none dispute the desert of a life lived without love
When faith is true it will not stand in straight and serried tanks
There is no number for the ways
The faithful offer thanks
You may stand mute
While others choose to praise the stars above
But none dispute the desert of a life lived without love
When faith is pure
‘Tis folly then
To stand and ask it how
No length nor breadth
Nor height nor depth to the wonder that is now
You may stand mute while other choose to praise the stars above
But none dispute the desert of a life lived without love
By phospher shells and human bombs
Our broken children cry
While beneath bells in cathedral tombs
The old crusaders lie
You may stand mute
While other choose the praise the stars above
But none dispute the desert of a life lived without love
