This page contains lyrics and sound samples from songs on the CD Urban Folk. All of these materials are protected by the laws of copyright, which means you need to read about what you can, can't and must do before you download or copy stuff. If any of your questions are not answered on my copyright page, please email me. Enjoy!
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LYRICS MENU
Voyager
See you
It's Your life
Tales of Sad Romances
The Ballad of Widow Jean
Man Just Like You
Shelter
Charmed Circle
Walkin' the Borderline
Machine
Slow Lightning
Mad
We Touch (like a feather)
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Voyager © Kate Battersby 2005
This is a greeting from another world
Just to let you know we were around for a while
In the universe, just passing through
And though we're long gone
Couldn't let the chance go by
Couldn't let the chance go by
Just to say hello
We were travelling your way anyhow
Hope you like the enclosed
A kind of collage of the way we used to go
Buzz saws buzzing, monkeys chattering, babies crying
Don't know if you'll make much sense of it but anyway
Couldn't let the chance go by, no
Couldn't let the chance go by
Just to say hello
On our long dark voyage
Just want to let you know we lived
We lived, yeah
This is a greeting from another world
Just to let you know we were around for a while
In the universe, now we've passed you by
We say goodbye but you know
Couldn't let the chance go by, no
Couldn't let the chance go by
Just to say hello, just to say hello
Hello
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Voyager (mp3 sample 513KB)
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See You © Kate Battersby 2005
I don't want to see you again, if I do I might tell you the things you're afraid to hear
And I don't want to see you again, if I do I might feel the things I'm afraid to feel
And you're so far away yet I see you again and again, and my thoughts won't obey me any more
And you're so far away when your mask is in place, yet it slips now and then in a sudden wave of joy
And I so want to see you again, but if I do I'm afraid I might never want to leave
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See You (mp3 sample 379KB)
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It's Your Life © Kate Battersby 2005
How long since you made your bed and
How long since you rested your head and
How long since you went to school and
How long since you mended your rules?
Well, I'm not saying that I've got it right
'Cause I'm still learning how to run from a fight
But if you don't know which way is up, which way is down,
which way to go
There's one thing you can count on when you're down on your luck, you're not alone
'Cause I know where you're going and it's never going to suit you, no
And I see what you're doing and I'm seeing it hurt you so
But the longer you go putting your shit on me
You're bringing on the day when I'll break free
'Cause it's your life, yeah, your life
When did you give up on the world and
When did you start going out of control and
When did you expect to grow up and
When did you decide to beat yourself up?
Well, I'm not saying it's for me to choose
But I'll fight to the death your right to lose
So if you don't know which way is up, which way is down, which way to go
There's one thing you can count on when you're down on your luck, you're not alone
But I won't be around forever, got my own ground to gain
And I can't stand still forever, just waiting for you to get sane
And the longer you go putting your shit on me
You're bringing on the day when I'll break free
'Cause it's your life, yeah, your life
But meanwhile...
If you don't know which way is up, which way is down, which way to go
There's one thing you can count on when you're down on your luck, you're not alone
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It's Your Life (mp3 sample 498KB)
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Tales of Sad Romances © Kate Battersby 2005
Gonna shut the door now, throw away the key
Lock out the night, think I've heard too much now
Your stories ringing in my ears, I'm an empty vessel
Don't want to know any more
Was never my business anyway, just an accident
So don't bring around, don't bring around, don't bring around your
Tales of sad romances
You've been bleeding way too long
And now you're drowning
In violent seas of your own creation
Gonna close tight all the windows, draw down the shades
Shut out the light, seen more than enough now
Old loving gone sour – this cat got the cream and they say she lived
Well, I don't believe it, no, no way
Inventing futures every time and every time you're blown away
Still you ask me why I'm
Making love with strangers
When you know I've been bleeding way too long
It's a way of drowning
In violent seas of your own creation
... bleeding way too long
And now we're drowning
In violent seas of our own creation
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Tales Of Sad Romances(mp3 sample 537KB)
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The Ballad of Widow Jean © Kate Battersby 2005
In a little town not so far from here
Where the pub shuts early every day of the year
And the railway gangs drink whisky and beer lived Jean
In an old post office with the 'phone exchange
Somewhere in the middle of the Flinders Range
With two young children there was nothing strange about Jean
Just a gentle soul living there on her own
With a wall of mud round a garden of stone
And a merry little dog fond of digging up bones for Jean
They all got by on the little she made
Selling coffee and cake to the tourist trade
You wouldn't think anyone could be afraid of Jean
The scariest thing that ever she did
When a Western Brown snake came in and hid
Was to shoot it down to rescue a kid, mother Jean
Then everything changed one terrible night
When a bunch of drunks, after some kind of fight
Took it into their heads to deliver a fright to Jean
So they borrowed a truck, raced it through the town
Raising dust so deep a person could drown
At the schoolyard fence they just mowed it down
When they came to her brand new mudbrick wall
They ground it down to nothing at all
Got out of the truck and started to call for Jean
Another woman might have run away
Screamed for help or started to pray
Or begged them not to hurt her innocent babes, but not Jean
No, she saw red, burst out of the place
Up to the boss, pushed her gun in his face
And said 'Have you heard what happens to snakes around here?
'You bastards wrecked my mudbrick wall
I watched you do it and I saw it fall
And this gun says you're going to rebuild it all!' cried Jean
Her eyes they shone unnaturally bright
Could have been a trick of the light
But the boss believed he could die that night 'cause of Jean
No more was said but the story went round
It could only happen in a country town
How the Widow Jean beat ten men down with one hand
And when the new gangs come they're given a brief:
'Do not fight, don't be a thief
And don't cross the Widow or you'll find grief'' and they mean Jean
Where the dust rolls through maybe half a mile high
A house burns fast it's so bloody dry
And months go by without a cloud in the sky you'll find Jean
And her family's doing fine from the little she makes
Selling cups of fine coffee and her home-made cakes
Her shotgun handy for scaring off snakes ... Widow Jean
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The Ballad of Widow Jean(mp3 sample 499KB)
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Man Just Like You © Kate Battersby 2005
I want a man just like you
A man who could tell a woman she was just what he's looking for
A man who isn't scared to say, in a happy way, 'This is perfect'
And how exquisite was the night I took you home
And we lay and touched and talked a bit and laughed at the
surprise of it all
I want a man just like you
A man who's been good and bad and many places in between
A man who doesn't need to ask or take me to task about history
And so I'm sorry, so much more than I can say
That I wouldn't tell you what I meant or whether I could promise to stay
Don't know when the silence grew between me and you
Guess the more we had to lose the less we had to say
But if our strange romance has another chance, yeah, I'll try it once again, knowing what I know
For growing in the wild it was the sweetest and strongest
And I love the man and child you are and could do for the longest time, for the longest time
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Man Just Like You (mp3 sample 345KB)
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Shelter © Kate Battersby 2005
Did they tell you that nothing, no no nothing, nothing can be changed now
And did you wonder what the world is coming to
And when they buried a hundred children when the coalface came tumbling down
Did your mummy cry and could she tell you who to blame
And did your sorrow turn to anger, cold and swift as a surgeon's blade
When they murdered, when they murdered the men and the meaning of peace
And when they called on their very own troopers and their babies came tumbling down
Did you fill your heart with thoughts of forgiveness and burial of shame, no ...
When they told you you're a Christian so do nothing, turn the other cheek now
Did you turn away from the lie that gave them shelter?
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Shelter (mp3 sample 480KB)
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Charmed Circle © Kate Battersby 2005
I've known people a-plenty, though some have passed me by
Others I've left behind
'Cause you know life's a journey through many a borderline
And their way turned out not the same as mine
But times I get to wondering where you might have gone
And sometimes I hear you in my song
Then softly on the wild wind my heart beats out the call
Summoning old friends and lovers all
And if I had a penny for each thought of you
I'd buy us an island where time didn't flow
There'd be singing and dancing and plenty of love to go round
Just shining down on me and on you
Well, I've travelled the lone ways through many a high and down
Looking for a day to call my own
And loving's for adventure, warm is for a friend
And really it's the same thing in the end
But times I get to thinking nothing's as it seems
And sometimes I feel you in my dreams
Then turning back to homeward I'm answering the call
Summoned by old friends and lovers all
(Chorus)
We'll bring on a sunrise to dazzle weary skies
Banish from our land the lonesome miles
Build us a circle of treasure and of charms
And play in joy together free from harm
And when we get to knowing our feasting days are through
We'll summon all our courage and let go
Then drifting back to timelands we know we'll meet again
Proud to greet old lovers and old friends
And when I find a penny for each thought of you
I'll buy us that island where time doesn't flow
There'll be singing and dancing and plenty of love to go round
Just shining down on me and on you
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Charmed Circle (mp3 sample 530KB)
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Walkin' the Borderline © Kate Battersby 2005
7-day Tom the Cheap, Bi-lo, Cunninghams, Target, Arrow and Coles
Trolley pull the other way, screaming kids and sugar spray, marinade and kipper and soles
Day's best buy on red light special, can you check out eight items or less
Please oh please won't someone let me out of this mess?
Car park, multi-storey, home deliver, bumper bars, sideswipe Volvo in the jams (if you can)
Cutesy-pie number plates, suicidal bicycles, diesel trucks and buses and prams
Big mean cop with blue light flashing, can't you read the sign, fifty bucks please
Oh lord, give me can't you give me some peace?
'Cause I'm a peace-loving individual
Just trying to buy me some time
For the kind of things you can't put a price on, drink my fill of good wine
So why do I feel like I'm walking on the borderline?
Dole queue DSS tick the little boxes, get it wrong you've got to wait in line again
Bank playing silly buggers, 'No funds available, what do we care you got to pay the rent?'
Gas Co clerk with green eyes accusing, 'Look at me, get a job, go to work'
Stars above, how do you get to be a full-time jerk these days, huh?
Weekend catch a bus, leave the city, go to Gambier, Barossa, see the trees
Pack a hat and mozzie coil, don't forget the camera, squint into the sun and say 'Cheese'
Campsite rules 'No fire, no singing, can't you keep your children under control – we've got families here'
Oh, won't nothing ease my soul?
(Chorus)
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Walkin' the Borderline (mp3 sample 513KB)
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Machine © Kate Battersby 2005
Funny how people hang up when they
Hear the machine playing my
Recorded message to the world, don't they
Have something to say into a vacuum
Might be your last chance
To have your say to a captive audience
Attention guaranteed when I'm glued to the machine
Not looking for God any more, I
Heard he'd been and gone and left his
Card in secret languages for
Those who keep the score in some old ballgame
You had your last chance
To have your say to a captive audience
Attention guaranteed when they're glued to the machine
Came to me on a Sunday you were
Looking like the one and I could
Even love your promises so I
Hope you'll understand I must reject you
You had your last chance
To have your way with a captive audience
Attention guaranteed but now I'm glued to the machine
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Machine (mp3 sample 310KB)
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Slow Lightning © Sean Mangan 2006 (reproduced with permission)
The clock in the kitchen keeps ticking and ticking, slow lightning
The hands on the table could be twitching, who'd know if it they were
The stains on the fingertips are fading to brown
The eyes tend to linger, but they wander around
And the cat in the kitchen keeps licking and licking at its fur
The rats in the ceiling are scuffling and squealing, slow lightning
This cheap yellow paint, it's not a year old but it's peeling off the walls
The stuff in this bottle isn't fit for a drink
Any other night you'd pour it straight down the sink
But the rats in the ceiling can tell you're not feeling it at all
And oh, here it comes
Years long and a continent wide
Leaves not a mark on your skin
But it burns you inside
From way over yonder comes a drum roll of thunder, slow lightning
It's too late for getting under cover, it's got you in its sights
There's no hiding from a storm that's already here
It was some other country, some other year
And it leaves you to wonder what it was that dragged you under in the night
And oh, here it comes
Years long and a continent wide
Leaves not a mark on your skin
But it burns you inside, slow lightning
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Slow Lightning (mp3 sample 488KB)
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Mad © Kate Battersby 2005
Living is better when you're not on your own
I can't remember who cast the first stone
Your face is the image of a reflection I once had
Now I pay homage to the mirror that tells me somebody's going mad
You came back to me and we noticed we are one
Then you touched me and my skin jumped off and started to run
Run away to a safe little room, so warm inside
Yeah, the walls move, but when you get used to it it's all right, it's all right, all right
It's getting light now, I'll close the door
You'll see I'm right you know, we can't leave any more
'Cause living is better when you're not all alone
We belong together, we can take it in turns to cast the first stone
Forever...
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Mad (mp3 sample 378KB)
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We Touch (like a feather) © Kate Battersby 2005
We touch like a feather
Sudden, soft and sly
Lying together
Who moved, you or I?
We startle away
It's scary to touch
Without your okay
Wanting it too much
If I knew you wanted me
Or you that I want you
It would be easy
To sleep through
If I knew you wanted me
Or you that I want you
It would be so easy
To sleep through
This night
At your side
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We Touch (like a feather) (mp3 sample 203KB)
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