Get all 15 Helen McCookerybook releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Drawing on my Dreams, Feminist Jingles, Daisychain, The Cutty Wren, Equal Parts, Helen and the Horns etc., Pea Soup, Green, and 7 more.
1. |
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This rainbow of the colour green will fade my fears away
I know what never could have been, the mistakes of yesterday
The morning mists of century will cool my burning heart
And clear to show the road ahead, that's where I'm bound to start.
Baptise my body in the breeze of blossom scented air;
The sun it brings me symmetry; there's no dark sky anywhere.
I'll be an atom in a raindrop, a leaf upon a tree
The silver clouds pass silently while I wait patiently
More colours than I've ever seen, and every one fo them is green
More colours than I've ever seen, and every single one is green.
This rainbow of the colour green's a pleasure to my eyes.
Upon a rocky hill I'm standing breathing in the sky.
At every dawning daybreak, I forgive the day before
The troubles I had yesterday can't hurt me any more.
More colours than I've ever seen, and every one fo them is green
More colours than I've ever seen, and every single one is green.
More colours than I've ever seen, and every one fo them is green
More colours than I've ever seen, and every single one is green.
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2. |
These Streets
03:37
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These streets are paved with ghosts of yours from years ago
I hear their voices calling with a dark echo.
Go home, they whisper to me as I walk by your side
Buried in the graveyard where your old love died.
You couldn't resurrect her when you walked with me,
Cos everyone abandoned has a history.
You'll never find the past again, try as you might;
What's been is lost forever, yes it's gone from sight.
It's gone from sight.
You mirror the abandonment you felt back then;
The women come and go and go and come again'
I felt their ghosts, they made a map, they made a plan:
They left you with these shadows, you're a haunted man.
A haunted man.
These streets are paved with ghosts of yours from years ago;
I hear their voices calling with a dark echo.
Go home, they whisper to me as I walk by your side,
Buried in the graveyard where your old love died.
Your old love died.
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3. |
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From a seed there grew a sapling
From a sapling grew a tree
And on that tree there grew an apple
And how it tempted me.Not all fruit has to be forbidden;
I heard this one grew just for me
That's why I chose to pick that apple
From the apple tree.
Time went by that rosy apple
Began to lose it's lovely shine
But I still loved it with all it's wrinkles,
Loved it's laughter lines.
Yes I tried to live a good life with a bad apple
I tried to keep a shine
I tried to live a good life with a bad apple
Cos at least that apple was mine.
Time's the same for everybody
we all change as years go by
But the taste of a beautiful apple
That taste should never die.
I tried to live a good life with a bad apple
I tried to keep a shine
I tried to live a good life with a bad apple
Cos at least that apple was mine.
Oh bad apple!
One day I reached out for that apple
Other hands were reaching too
That's when I lost that shiny apple
That's when I lost you.
Shiny apples have many faces
Shiny apples have many sides
The side of the apple that I couldn't see
Was the side where truth had died.
I tried to live a good life with a bad apple
I tried to keep a shine
I tried to live a good life with a bad apple
Cos I thought that apple was mine.
I tried to live a good life with a bad apple
I tried to keep a shine
I tried to live a good life with a bad apple
Cos I thought that apple was mine.
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4. |
21st Century Blues
03:44
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I went looking for truth and I found lies
Buried deeply in truth's disguise
Buried deeply in truth's disguise
In the 21st Century
Everyone's flaky as fake can be
Everyone's flaky as fake can be.
Wearing kindness's smile
Honesty's vanished without a trace
Stealing honesty's style
Falsehood's taken it's place.
Gliding serenely across the pond
All the geese we perceived as swans
All the geese we perceived as swans.
All my swans have turned into geese
Breaking into my blissful peace
Breaking into my blissful peace.
Wearing kindness's smile
Honesty's vanished without a trace
Stealing honesty's style
Falsehood's taken it's place.
Tell me the words of a truthful song;
How do we drive our lives along?
What's the story of it all anyway?
Do you see us as we see you?
We don't see you the way you do;
Yours is a game we don't know how to play.
Wearing kindness's smile
Honesty's vanished without a trace
Stealing honesty's style
Falsehood's taken it's place.
21st Century blues, 21st Century blues.
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5. |
So Long, Elon
04:04
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We're building a big rocket with space for all our shoes,
With bitcoin in our pocket, we've nothing left to lose.
We're training up the robots to fight the final war
With obsolescent humans that we don't need any more.
Now we've messed up the planet let's throw it in the bin,
Cos there's no future in it, so let's begin again.
We'll fly the flag of fortune, abandon everyone
Cos only perfect people should circle round the sun.
One day there will be life on Mars
All trillionaires in swanky cars
On Mars, there'll be no working class;
It's the perfect place for psychopaths.
If you're rich and famous, or you're in the news
And you're not ashamed of your reactionary views
If you see no evil when evil's on parade,
Why don't you come and join us
In our noble cavalcade?
One day there will be life on Mars
All trillionaires in swanky cars
On Mars, there'll be no working class;
It's the perfect place for psychopaths.
A planet swathed in poison gas
A psychedelic orange mass
Yes, we'll have won the human race.
Is that a smile upon your face?
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6. |
Where Is Home
02:55
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Build me a home where I can live forever
Out of infinite stone and magical wood,
Where friends and my family can all live together
The way that all humankind certainly should.
Build me a future so I can look forward
With a heat full of hope and blue sky on the way;
End the destruction of all of my old world
All I want is some hope and a safe place to stay.
Where is home?
Home is here,
In my heart
When I'm free from fear;
Where is home?
Home is here,
In my heart
When I'm free from fear.
Let me grow up with some fun and a future
Let me grow old with my family and friends;
You keep your cash and your greed-driven culture
Keep your dishonesty, keep your pretence.
Where is home?
Home is here,
In my heart
When I'm free from fear;
Where is home?
Home is here,
In my heart
When I'm free from fear.
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7. |
Danse Macabre
03:25
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Shoplifting books by the ton
Piling them up in his room;
We sat on the teetering towers
He kept us amused for hours.
Loving a laddie or two
Got him in trouble, it's true;
Taking us all by surprise
Wooed by his sparkling eyes.
Danse Macabre, Danse Macabre,
Danse Macabre, Danse Macabre.
Darkness came in with a cloak:
Five thousand books up in smoke.
Holding my baby he smiled,
Joyful to see my chid.
Danse Macabre, Danse Macabre,
Danse Macabre, Danse Macabre.
Falling like spent autumn leaves,
Everyone brought to their knees;
Keeping a positive smile:
Love in a different style.
Danse Macabre, Danse Macabre,
Danse Macabre, Danse Macabre.
Once your romantic conceit,
Now it consumes the sweet.
Stolen away from his friends
Every song has to end
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8. |
Soldier Joe
03:11
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You tell him you're his spirit guide from heaven
You put him into service for your cause
If he ever turns away
You'll make him regret the day
You'll curse him and you'll ban him from the brethren.
You tell him he's your brother to make him love you
He gives his blood to help you because he cares
You move into his head, you buy him boots of lead
But still he puts nobody else above you.
Killer, striker, trooper, fighter, warrior, sniper:
Soldier Joe.
You build him up, you break him down, you chase his ass right out fo town
He gives you love, he gives you his life
You pay him back with a cold steel knife in his heart.
And now he's at your mercy, you're his controller
When you give the signal then he moves
With orders from above
You disconnect his love
Born to need a leader, he's a soldier.
Killer, striker, trooper, fighter, warrior, sniper:
Soldier Joe.
You build him up, you break him down, you chase his ass right out fo town
He gives you love, he gives you his life
You pay him back with a cold steel knife in his heart.
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9. |
At The Bathing Pond
03:32
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Natural feelings synchronised by the trees;
The freshwater mermaids drift on the breeze.
And they swim under cloudy skies
The pondweed pulls at their feet;
Fatigue drags at their arms and thighs,
But the water is brown and sweet.
At the bathing pond, at the bathing pond,
At the bathing pond, at the bathing pond.
Overhead, the kingfishers jive
First a swoop and then a dive;
Air kisses in the evening light
As the air hisses through their wings in flight
At the bathing pond, at the bathing pond,
At the bathing pond, at the bathing pond.
Should I try to dip my toes or is the water far too cold?
Should I jump and take a chance and join the other swimmer's dance?
At the bathing pond, at the bathing pond,
At the bathing pond, at the bathing pond.
In a gap between the bushes the voyeur stands
A pair of binoculars clasped in his hands.
His wife stands beside him abetting his lie,
as he lifts the binoculars up to his eyes.
He's watching at the bathing pond, at the bathing pond,
Peeping Tom at the bathing pond, at the bathing pond.
At the bathing pond, at the bathing pond,
At the bathing pond, at the bathing pond.
Splash!
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10. |
Change the DJ
03:12
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For forty days and forty nights the rainstorms gathered together
I was in pain, I was in pain
At the end of my tether,
And the clouds welled upon the sky and I started to cry.
The DJ at the mixing deck was mixing up the weather
To make it rain
For ever and ever;
Still the clouds welled up in the sky and I started to cry.
Change the DJ,
Spin the sun,
Change the DJ,
Give me a clear blue sky get me out of this fog that I'm in.
Change the record, change it soon
I'm out of time an out of tune
Change the track, make the music flow
Will the sun come back?
Well I just don't know.
Change the DJ,
Spin the sun;
Change the DJ,
Give me a clear blue sky get me out of this fog that I'm in.
A brand new DJ hits the decks and starts to mix the weather
Here comes the sun! They've turned it on
For ever and ever!
No more clouds welling up in the sky, there's no need to cry.
No more clouds welling up in the sky, there's no need to cry.
No more clouds welling up in the sky, there's no need to cry.
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11. |
New York
00:58
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New York
The trees so green
The sparrows fly in Central Park.
New York
The homeless and explorers
Wander after dark.
They're searching for their souls
In the busy traffic's flow
Dreaming in the rain
And walking far too slow.
New York
Can you give them what they need:
Another start in life and a sense of being freed?
They're waiting for that feeling
In the early morning glow;
Oh New York,
Don't take to long to let them know.
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12. |
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Saturday night with the London Set
The times have aged but you haven't yet;
Let your hair down, climb aboard and join us for the ride.
Every street, every city light,
Carries the blood through your veins tonight;
Every black box holds a band
The spotlit faces and the clapping hands,
So come on out with the London Set
Remember the things that you wanna forget
Fill up your glass, light a cigarette
And set the night on fire.
Got a thousand contacts on your mobile phone;
They'll steal you heart and stuff it, and brand it as their own.
Major setbacks, minor keys, a lifetime in a day.
Your smile is false but your teeth are not;
At least, that's what you tell me, but you lie a lot.
Every black heart holds a star,
A streetlight not a soul,
So come on out with the London Set
Remember the things that you wanna forget
Fill up your glass, light a cigarette
And set the night on fire.
Saturday night with the London Set
the times have changed but you haven't yet.
The gaps appear within the crowd:
You look the other way.
One of these days it'll come to an end,
The constant parties and the fickle friends.
Alone in a bedsit with the cat,
Your mind's as frail as a party hat,
But come on out with the London Set
Remember the things that you wanna forget
Fill up your glass, light a cigarette
And set the night on fire.
Come on out with the London Set
Remember the things that you wanna forget
Fill up your glass, light a cigarette
And set the night on fire.
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Helen McCookerybook UK
Helen McCookerybook is an outstanding songwriter who's beginnings formed in the punk era, old associates The Monochrome
Set/The Pirhanas her first band was The Chefs (John Peel fave) She later signed to RCA with her band The Horns and had a couple of minor hits
Helen took 20 years out to become a Mum and PHD, taking up her songwriting again in 2003. Suburban Pastoral was her 1st solo record.
... more
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