TRAILER TRASH STAR
I got more dreams than a Hollywood starlet Running around my head leaving me exhausted I'm sitting here staring at the hills From this trailer rocking in the wind And you are crying 'cos you can't stand Any more of my stupid plans And you call me A trailer trash star Well I been brought up in the back of beyond Watching the grey clouds burst on our backs This ain't no tinsel town, this ain't no luxury Just the sound of people who can hardly breathe Trailer trash star Now there's just me in this dusty caravan Watching the moon creep across the downs I watch the refinery flame flicker all night long Burns like my dreams then it is gone Trailer trash star

UNAMERICAN WAY
Did you hear the guns a rattling out on the Kentucky hills As mud spattered up from your prison truck's wheels Did you smile every day as you washed the days away Imprisoned for having nothing to say?*Did you dream in an un-American way? Of diamonds and furs and long limousines in the rain Is that the un-American way? Now the Campsfield wire fences are rattling in the wind And there are stranger's faces pressed against the panes What did they dream they'd find beyond the ghost of empire Were they dreaming of a world of American stars and bars Did they dream in an un-American way Now the holy walls are dripping with the blood of men As guns crackle like whips above their heads And that prison truck is busy carrying away those who're caught Dreaming in an un-American way of diamond rings and furs
*Dashiell Hammett

RIVER CRY
When the words came tumbling out of your mouth today Oh how I wished they would have floated away But here I am alone beneath the gasworks wall Carrying my broken heart in a cradle of straw I walk down by the river and I cry, cry, cry. Well it takes two to tango but only one to fall Why didn't we see the writing on the wall There were too many paper boats floating in the rain Too many dreams that never would have been made Look at my hands they're cut by your tears Look at my eyes they're bloodshot with fear Where did we go wrong, where did we collide What made us ever think we'd ever survive? I walk down by the river and I cry, cry, cry.

COLD OFF THE ROAD
I watch my last match burn away Watch it curl until there is no flame Outside this window the pavement's so cold It's covered over with two feet of snow I didn't realise things could spin right out of reach Just like a truck I'm losing my grip in this sleet Gonna head off the road Gonna drink myself, cold, cold, cold off the road Mary said we had to pay bills we couldn't afford So I grabbed my coat and drove into this wall Now police headlights light up my tracks But I don't care I ain't never comin back What's a regular guy to do in these times One day you're all wrong, the next you're alright Seems like only a rich man can afford to see the light Whilst us poor guys run around like blind dogs in the night

MUD OF '28
The rain of '28 it poured for a month or more, It left a stain right here on the old barn door, And the field you been walking on it used to be all stones, But the mud of '28 has turned it all to corn. And the rain never stopped, it never stopped, Down it came Oh Lord, the mud of '28. They found two dead calves stuck up in a tree, And Mrs.Johnson's furniture out in the street. No-one ever knew what happened to that bridge, Or old Tom that fateful night as he was crossing it, Down it came, it poured and poured and poured, No-one could know how much water fell that day and left the mud of'28, the mud of '28. When I was a boy I would go down to the river, And watch the coal barges creepin' through the willows, But next mornin' in '28 they were no longer floatin' They found one resting beside the general store's window.

DONATI'S COMET
William Turner of Oxford is on his horse, riding between fields and old barn doors. Fields that should be blacker than a widow's dress, but tonight there's a comet burning in the west. The frost is building on the thatched walls as William Turner picks up his pen and draws. The light that falls from Donati's Comet. Well it's the 5th of October 1858 and the cattle are restless behind the wicker gates. There's an owl swooping through the beech trees as the comet light sparkles between the reeds. William Turner is up on the Downs tethering his horse and trying to map that comet's course but as he shields his eyes a tear falls as he realises he'll never catch it all. The light that falls from Donati's Comet. Next morning he's mixing gum and powder on a plate and tracing that comet's tail with a dark stain. Thinking of all that light that flooded his eyes and how he'll never see its like again in his time. Leaves are falling one by one into the Thames and a stonemason hammers at a monument to the dead. On his palette the blues and greens turn to black and the chisel chips time into a dark sack.
( Donati's Comet ( Comet 1858 VI ) Recorded by two English artists. Samuel Palmer on Dartmoor and William Turner outside Oxford of which two watercolour paintings exist. Both depicted it around early October when it was most brilliant. see. R.J.M. Olsen : Fire & Ice : A History of Comets in Art.)

DUSTY TREES
Hail in the ditches, ice on the tyres, We gotta find another road out of here, This way there's nothing but weeds and briars, We're tangled up in a past we cannot clear, Can't see nothing but dusty trees, All around me, nothing but dusty trees. There's no new crop in the far field, There's no more walking through the harvest sheaves, Our river's dead, nothing left to give, A sunken barge is breaking up in the reeds, Above the oily reeds,nothing but dusty trees, All around me nothing but dusty trees. Blood on your finger, a hook in your heart, When you leave here you'll never look back, Beacause you've lost your compass, lost the path And the maps you bought are falling apart. When the sun goes down you can feel the dark, Pouring down through these dusty trees.


POISONED WATER
River leaking all over the road Cant see the barns reflected in the water no Ever since you been gone The clouds been tearing themselves apart Remember all the dreams we had Baby theyre all poisoned water now Theyre poisoned water. I thought you would stay forever But you had your eyes on brighter weather Now the rivers are all flooded Theres an empty space where your boat was tethered How do two people start hurting each other Until those words just start burning their skin Its like love just cant help but leak away And hate start contaminating everything we say If I could walk with you now Up and down through these empty fields Id wash away all of your pain But it cant wash away the stain Of poisoned water Poisoned water

JOHN CLARE'S DREAM
I've been walking these fields since the sun came up, Don't know who I am, I am not gonna give up, Well the corn is ripe, and it's about to fall, There's no need to fight anymore, Walk with me, walk with me, In John Clare's dream. Sky so blue, trees so green, I watch the fish jumpin' in a clear blue stream, I've been walking these fields since the sun came up, I don't know which way I'm going in this world I love, The nitrates are drifting, the pesticide is leaking, They're spraying from the air, I feel I am choking, Somewhere deep in the sap, somewhere on these leaves, I can hear you breathing hard, can hear you scream, Our wells are poisoned, the roots are bare, There's blood on the landing-stage, how did it get there? The sleet is biting now through the old beech trees, We don't know if wer'e headed down a one way street. Walk with me to the edge of this stream In John Clare's dream. Walk with me to the edge of the world.

BLED DRY
Our hearts were always leaking From the day we staggered through these doors Like the engine on our old car We were pouring love all over the floor We never even saw it slip away Until that night We were both bled dry, bled dry Well the night it all ended We were going in circles, the tank empty We ran out of gas in the middle of town I tried to get us some more but there was none around I gave you everything and more But your heart had been broken twice before Now I hold it here in my hand That love we had, its bled dry, bled dry Smaller than the tears we still cry Bled dry, bled dry, bled dry