1. |
Pinned Down
03:50
|
|||
Pinned Down
Here I am again
These four walls feel the same
Bring it shine or bring it rain
No longer can I feign
Just wanted something new
Another side of you
Joys they seem to few
There must be more to do
CH
Pinned down to the ground
What’s this living we have found?
How is it that we can grow?
Seems like we’ll never know
Your own way is there to take
Not for anyone else’s sake
Escape the grip that holds
Put your head up and stand bold
Things just move around
Put them on another piece of ground
They come with us wherever we’re bound
Like dragging a millstone round and round
What does it all mean to us?
Is it really worth the fuss?
For uselessness we have such lust
To fill the spaces is a must
The screen holds life on a string
There’s a monotone to everything
Peaks and troughs take a levelling
And you only get what you can bring
Just need a break from the norm
To weather out the storm
If things could take a different form
Would you want to be reborn
|
||||
2. |
Hiring Fair
03:40
|
|||
Hiring Fair
Just trying to make my way
To the other end of day
When I can lay this body down
Been walking every street
Trying to make ends meet
But nothing have I found
On a corner we all stand
Making up a motley band
There’s fifty men or more
And for hours we wait there
Could be a hiring fair
But what’s fair about dying poor?
CH
Everywhere I am shown what can be mine
The world’s my oyster so they say
But where’s the treasure for a man who waits in line?
Praying for a working day
I’ve broad shoulders and strong back
I can carry load and pack
I will labour I won’t rest
And when they come round with a van
Looking for a handyman
I’ll stand tall to look my best
CH
Everywhere I am shown what I can get
All on credit if I choose
But I’ll be working several lives to clear this debt
For this bet I’m sure to lose
If my children saw
What I leave them for
Would they feel pity more than pride?
I’m a hopeful man
But hoping cannot pay to live
I’ve tried
So I get up with the sun
Wishing I’m the chosen one
Sometimes luck comes my way
But these feet and back are tired
And the days I don’t get hired
I gamble my soul away
CH
Everywhere I am show what can be mine
The streets are paved with gold they say
But I have walked these streets a thousand times
And all that gold has worn away
|
||||
3. |
Human Cost
04:45
|
|||
Human Cost
Explosions rip apart the city and
Parents slip into despair ‘cos their
Children die crushed under buildings, their
Lives denied for someone else’s gain
The imprint lies there in the rubble of
External ties to the enlisted groups of
Mercenaries who cause the damage
They’re paid to please the global lords of pain
CH
Who will hold out a helping hand?
So many leave now from their homeland
Who will receive these banished people?
Whose rights decrease at every border
With no bird of peace to bring a branch of hope
Danger waits around the corner the
Trader’s rates steal any savings, go
Only by night, head for the shore
Squeeze in tight just breathing cargo
Some are lost during the crossing
A human cost of foreign policy
The pirates make more than a killing and the
Waves will take down what they overload
CH
And the consequences stand
People forced from their own land
Who will hold out a helping hand?
Those empty buildings we could open, there’s
Space to fill if there’s the will but there’s
Other things on the agenda the
Corrupted rings have all the traps laid
And so these lives look for a foothold
But the problem lies at our door ‘cos we’re
Party to their home’s destruction taxes
Paid that do get lethal weapons made
CH
And the consequences stand
These actions force them to be damned
There is blood upon our hands
Who will hold out a helping hand?
|
||||
4. |
Valley of Green
04:44
|
|||
Valley Of Green
The search goes on
For what has gone
That giving resource
Quietly changed its course
Water’s drained away
Leaving hard baked clay
Now arid and dry
Only vultures fly
CH
The drought it hides away the will
Beneath the sand
Does the life lie dormant still
There in the land?
Will the rains come
Awaken the buried seed?
Leaves stretch to feel the sun
When they take up what they need
Will the river return?
Or will this all burn?
Oh that valley of green
That once was seen
Can be found for a new day
Need not fade away
Here is now time for action
Escape the tools of distraction
|
||||
5. |
The Undesirable
03:21
|
|||
The Undesirable
They gave the body a sheet of white
Rolled it away then into the night
Who was this figure all out of breath?
Slumped in the graveyard, death meets death
And have they kindred, anyone to grieve?
Someone to notice that they’ve taken leave
It’s just a form now, to sign them off
Packed in drawer down in the morgue
Was it the man sometimes I would pass?
Sat by the shop front leaning on the glass
Businesses would say that he’s affecting trade
Can’t show the cracks in this façade we made
CH
And so they slip the net
All are not cared for yet
The undesirable must disappear
So turn away and just forget
There’s just a few night shelters left in town
Ever since the council cut the funding down
And so the doorways become occupied
Everyone needs a place to close their eyes
They gave the body a sheet of white
Rolled it away then into the night
It’s just a form now to sign them off
Packed in a drawer down in the morgue
|
||||
6. |
In Your Cave
04:52
|
|||
In Your Cave
Rising up to take a look
See the care you could have took
Why don’t
You take a little time
Only ever surface deep
And hindsight makes you weep
So now
You’re going to have to climb
The vision of yourself you see
And how you turn out to be
Don’t always
Meet so you feel true
Wish that you’d said this or that
Performed another act
You’ve got
To live with what you do
CH
You could be on your way to something good
So you must show you want to know
Don’t want to mourn the choices you could have made
Just let go
Crawl out of your cave
Chances lost of feeling love
Oh to go back and give a shove
Strike out
Push for what you want to get
Bottles rattling round your mind
Pressure builds till you go blind
Release
Put your head above the parapet
You look back and it brings you a tear
There’s a place where your heart lives
Is it because you find it hard to steer
From where you still think your home is
Cast off put your sail to wind
Let it take you to a new place
Lay the memories to rest within
So you can wear a fresh face
Then when you’re turning back to look
You can see the care you took
No need
To put yourself on the rack
|
||||
7. |
A Classic Cut
04:55
|
|||
A Classic Cut
How much of ourselves must we sell now
What can we keep on the shelf that we can show
I’m hoping that bridges will still be there
I’m hoping that bridges will still be there
What you held up high you must forget
Throw it down as if your life depends on it
I’m hoping that I can regurgitate
I’m hoping that I can regurgitate
All that’s fed to me
CH
And so we spin it out to you
The weave so tight that you’d never know
A classic cut that we’ve made look new
So we can shine on parade
I took my scruples out to incinerate
Who gives a damn if you can get a better rate?
I’m hoping no-one will think less of me
I’m hoping nobody will think less of me
Play the game, talk the talk then you’ll get somewhere
Stay on the script or you’ll be walked right out of there
Re-create what you made that sold before
Keep that design that you know they’re looking for
Product must conform
If the façade holds you’ll get your just rewards
Shown by the belief of the spending hoards
I’m hoping that I’ll get a piece of pie
I’m hoping that I’ll get a piece of pie
I’m hoping that I’ll get a piece of pie
The suited pimps they know what to do
Got the plan got the formula
Got the papers that don’t favour you
As you walk on parade
While you shine on parade
|
||||
8. |
Stuck In The Loop
04:40
|
|||
9. |
Back To The Fold
04:58
|
|||
Back to the Fold
As I drove away that night
The moon rested on the misty hills
Now she was out of sight
But her eyes they looked into me still
Only knew her for a week
Her face was open as the sky
Seemed my look she’d always seek
Couldn’t turn away as hard as I might try
CH
But I left her in the cold had to go back to the fold
I had bonds where she was free
But when she held my gaze unflinching and unfazed
Melted my heart did she
And when she left the car
Wish I’d felt her close embrace
Now I look up at the stars
Should I have kissed her lips and touched her face
CH
Marianne was her name
And oh, to feel her warm skin against mine
Did she feel the same?
The glance she threw me when she gave me wine
Will we ever meet again?
She said she’d like to keep in touch
Will she only live for me through the pen?
I could have loved her so much
|
||||
10. |
Fill My Heart
04:23
|
|||
Fill My Heart
When you come back to me
I don’t know who you’ll be
You stayed away, kept me in the dark
Show me light, let me see
CH.
Feels like it has been a thousand years we’ve been apart
Waiting for you to send someone here to fill my heart
So I can make a new start
You used to stir up my fire
The flames would rage reaching higher
I’d yearn so strong felt like burning inside
Wished that heat would never tire
When I thought you had come
You recoiled then were gone
Cupid’s arrow was to pierce another heart
While mine was left struck numb
Your fickle touch I await
Without your crutch I’m heavy weight
Your gift of happiness could right so much wrong
And yet you still hesitate
|
||||
11. |
Just Another Burn Out
05:53
|
|||
Just Another Burn Out
What goes unsaid
Hangs heavy in the room
Those things unknown
Are left just to be assumed
Can truth be revealed?
Or silence allowed to endure
Is it a shield?
To conceal what may be impure
We try to solve
Those unspoken riddles we leave
But the effort involved makes you
Retract
And close down
Can’t give anything when you’re broken
We’ll just be a memory in space
The faintest glow our only trace
Just another burn out
Just another burn out
The knot it unties
The boat is let loose to drift
Until it finds
An ocean between the cliffs
Can it be retrieved?
Who will open their sail to the wind?
Are we just deceived by what
We read
Of the state
To which we’ve let this escalate?
All we’ll be is a memory in space
The faintest glow our only trace
Just another burn out
|
||||
12. |
Got to Be All Mine
02:21
|
|||
13. |
Life Of Leaves
04:38
|
|||
Life Of Leaves
When the storm comes in and you feel the wind
Open your soul and go whistling in
A little respite to take away the bite
Where to retire the pan or the fire
Oh, for an in-between
The dust from what you have known blows into your eyes
Time it has shown you were in disguise
Future is not sown it can take a turn
When the leaves are all grown in autumn they’ll burn
And fall like flies
CH
Oh let your leaves fall and break down
Feeding your steps as you move to new ground
A king dies and another is crowned
So we can walk on with the knowledge we’ve found
From that way to this I fluctuate
Guilt can tell me I miss the known place
Then I hear the hiss of the coiled snake
That’s a loaded kiss a cheap pleasure to take
You walk on the blade
How to know where to plant the new seed
What to grow what is it you need
Let the wind blow for there’s a garden to tend
Helping it grow maybe will mend the
Wounds you have made
|
Benji Kirkpatrick & The Excess UK
Benji is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Key member of folk big band Bellowhead, Benji has been performing solo for 25 years. Lauded releases such as Boomerang (2008), Hendrix Songs (2015) and Gold Has Worn Away (2019, with own band Benji Kirkpatrick & The Excess) have punctuated his work alongside others – Seth Lakeman, Steeleye Span, Faustus, Oysterband etc ... more
Contact Benji Kirkpatrick & The Excess
Streaming and Download help
If you like Benji Kirkpatrick & The Excess, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp