Get all 12 Andy Roberts releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Roll On The Day, Boulevard Days, The Rowan Tree, Unnailed! - The Last Nail, solo acoustic, Sleep, Century - (Tapes Vol 3.), Puddles (Tapes vol 1.), Mazet (tapes vol 2), and 4 more.
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1. |
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“Oh Lord, please don’t let there be shipwrecks,
Let the lighthouse shine out bright and clear.
But if there needs to be an accident at sea,
Please let that ship be wrecked here.
There’s a path all the way from the clifftop
to the rocks and the sea down below
It’s steep and it’s loose and it’s slippery
You gotta mind how you go.
On a moonless night, you need a little light
We don’t want any accidents, you see.
Don’t let there be shipwrecks
Lighthouse shine out bright and clear
If there needs to be a tragedy at sea
then let the cargo be washed ashore here
Oh the living is hard down this way
the soil is all stoney and poor
We don’t have a port, no fish to be caught
There’s just what the tide brings ashore
And the duty free liquor in store.
Next time it happens, don’t let me be late
or allow too much salt water
to infiltrate
Please don’t let there be shipwrecks,
Let the lighthouse shine out bright and clear.
If there needs to be a tragedy at sea,
Let the next one be here.
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2. |
Gernika
08:35
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It was nineteen thirty seven, the revolution already betrayed
But in Catalan and Basque lands,they struggled on, in their seperate ways
Now Franco was in with the Luftwaffe, Von Richthoven had an idea
If we send in enough of our new heavy aircraft,
we can create, mayhem and fear ( blizkrieg, shock and awe )
in Gernika, Gernika untested strategy
to bring down a nation in just a few ho-urs
let’s just try it and see ( just watch us and see)
The first act of modern warfare, where death and destruction
come raining down from the air
With god and his church backing both sides, they like their bread buttered that way
it was decided to saturate Gernica, and they chose to do it on market day
more bangs per buck, that’s the market way
Gernika Gernika firestorm technology,
how much would you need to destroy the whole town
let’s just try it and see
So you say the General was a monster, and the little Austrian mad
but how to explain Sarejevo, and now, what about Bagdhad?
We’ve bombs with onboard computers, to liberate the looters
Gernika, Gernika, New angle new technology (new precedent, new strategy)
What happens after regime change, let’s just suck it and see
I just happened to be in Gernika It wasn’t far out of my way
I heard the air raid warning siren, I didn’t know it was Gernika day
I sang John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, that optimist atheist hymn
When I started the Internationale every woman and man, stood up and joined in
In English and Spanish and Basque barely legal,
Outside the parliament you had to be there,
On Gernika day, in Gernika square
in Gernika, Gernika, assembled under the tree
making plans for Gernika, let’s just try it and see
Well the day after the fascists bombed Gernika the marketplace covered with meat
the architects of war looked down and they saw
a successful experiment
with broken hearts and body parts, strewn all over the streets
So they continued with Warsaw and Coventry, Then Dresden was razed to the ground
In just one night with a blanket of fire, by the RAF bomber command
not the last place, to hear that air raid warning sound
Then the Germans blitzed East London and the Americans bombed Japan
gone nuclear, to increase the fear, Civilian targets They proved that they can,
ever since Gernika, Gernika, new precedent, new strategy,
what happens after regime change Just watch them and see.
Gernika, Gernika, Gathered under the tree,
to remind the world about Gernika, in April 2003
With survivors decendents in Gernika, the last fight let us face,
For the internationale unites the human race.
Translation into Euskadi Basque by Igor:
“Gernika”
Mila bederatzireun ta hogeita hamazazpia zen
Iraultza jadanik saldua
Baina Katalunian eta Euskal Herrian
Borrokan ziharduten, bakoitza berean.
Franco Lutwaffe-arekin goxo zen
Von Richthoven-ek idea bat izan zuen
Nahikoa hegazkin bidaltzen badugu
Zalaparta eta beldurra sor dezakegu
Bat-bateko erasoa
Aztoramendua eta izua.
Gernikan, Gernikan
Gerrate modernoa deitzen dugun horren lehen urratsa
Non heriotza eta txikizioa
Zerutik euria legez datozen.
Jainkoaren Eliza alde biak babesten
Horixe baita gustatzen zaien era
Gernika itotzea erabakia zen
Eta zeregina, merkatu-egunean
Burutzea hautatu zuten
Irabazi handiagoak lortuz
Horixe da merkatuaren bidea.
Gernika, Gernika teknologia badugu
Hiri osoak berdintzeko baina honek zer dakarren
Ikusteko da.
Generala munstroa zela diozu, beraz
Eta austriar ttipia, eroa
Baina nola azaldu Sarajevo, lehen
Eta Bagdad, orain?
Gernika, Gernika
Azken guda-teknologia
Erregimen-aldaketak zer dakarren
Ikusteko da.
Orain ordenagailudun bonbak badira
Arrapakariak askatzeko.
Juxtu Gernikan nintzen
Ez nebilen urruti
Bonbaketa-turruna joarazi zuten
Sarri. Gernikaren eguna heldua zen.
John Lennon-en “Imagine” abestu nuen
Ateoen ereserki baikor hura
Internazionala hasi nuenean
Emakume zein gizon oro
Tentetu eta bat egin zuen
Gazteleraz eta apenas legala den euskaraz
Juntetxearen kanpoaldean
Gernikako plazan.
Gernikaren egunean, Gernikan
Faxistek Gernika bonbakatu biharamonean
Merkatugunea haragiz estalia
Gerraren arkitektoak
Beherantz begiratu eta ikusi zuten
Experimentu arrakastatsua
Bihotz zartatuak eta gorpu
atalak
Kalean barrena.
Warsaw eta Coventryrekin jarraitu zuten
Dresden lurrarekin berdindua izan zen, ondoren
Suzko estalki batez
Britainiarren aginduz
Ez azken lekua
Bonbaketa-turruna entzuten.
Alemanek London ekialdea txikitu zuten
Amerikarrek Japonia, gero
Bonba
nuklearrez
Beldurra handiagotzeko
Jomuga zibilak
Ahal dutela frogatu zuten
Gernikaz geroztik.
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3. |
Winter In Andalucia
05:56
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Down the coast from Alicante,
in some winter fishing port
We watch the working boats come in
just to see what they have caught
But the coast is not so special here,
We turn and face inland
And head up for the mountains
It's a simple change of plan
And the silence at the mountain tops
it takes you by surprise
with the scent of wild thyme
and a feast for city eyes
Beware falling rocks
keep your vehicle doors locked...
In the evenings we go drinking
and they feed us both of course
with every glass of wine
a plate of cheese or olives or pork
That's how they do it in Ugijar
with the orange trees in the street
Next to the desert mountain sides
Far from the city beat
Then it's Christmas time in Ronda
but without any of that fuss
The sun shining into the gorges
is good enough for us
But this time of year can be testing
and the bridge across is so high
One day there's been a leaper
we saw the rescue team go by
Beware falling rocks
keep your vehicle doors locked...
Then it's on down to Tarifa
that's the very end
of two oceans and two continents
we shall return some day my friend
We couldn't miss those southern cities
that were once ruled from the east
but we're getting kind of tired now
Beware the savage beast
With alcohol and menopause
that killer combination
traipsing through the streets at night
disorientation
It's a long and changing road back
but now we've found our pace
to wonder at the landscape
and that strange cave dwelling race
Who made those ancient paintings
of the hunter and the fish
Who dug their homes in the hillside
and then put up a satellite dish
That was winter in Andalusia
and it must have been one of the best
with memories to take away
and keep with all the rest
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4. |
Back In The Field
03:14
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Sometimes I like to wander,
Sometimes it happens anyway
No long view ahead,
I'm losing count of the days
There's a world out there to explore now
A need to set the spirit free
Way to survive
When it's getting hard to just be
And it's good, it's good to be, good to be back in the Field
Oh but the absence takes its toll and a bearing needs to be found
Return has begun, I'm heading back to the ground
When my roaming has been done and my wounds are almost healed
I feel right in my skin again
and it's good to be back in the field
Good, it's good to be, good to be back in the field
Back in the field again.
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Andy Roberts England, UK
Original and unique songs through the decades
in the classic
"contemporary folk" solo
acoustic
singer songwriter style.
Influences: Roy Harper, Mike Chapman, Loudon Wainwright, Beefheart
... more
Andy Roberts recommends:
Just great guitar playing
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