Swim away

 Swim away you Whales

Swim away today

Swim away you porpoise dolphins

Swim away you may

Be free from net or barbed spear

Swim from jetty or the pier

Swim, now swim away

Swim away you swimmers

Swim across the bay

Swim away to freedom

Swim away today

Swim around the headland

Swim on through the waves

Swim away to freedom

You no longer are the slaves

The day we went to catch the whale

Oh the ropes were singing in our hands

The soap suds were a rubbing

Upon the decks with our arms and hands

The planks and boards a scrubbing

Gleaming were the gunwales

Taught strung our bright sails

On that morning it was all aboard

The day we went to catch a whale

Oh laddie, bet your britches daddy

Get harpoon and fork or spoon

We're off to land a baddy

Oh Mammy, you sent him off your Sammy

Now he's aboard with a scope and swore he spied a tail

The day we went to catch the whale

As we put out the salty locks

Of seaweed slapped our faces

The flow tide from the Bristol docks

Put us through our paces

Then just between Flatholm and Steepholm

We saw the spraying traces

Of Whale flukes like Royal Dukes

Off to see the races

Oh laddie, bet your britches daddy

Get harpoon and fork or spoon

We're off to land a baddy

Oh Mammy, you sent him off your sonny

Now he's aboard with a scope and swore he spied a tail

We'll never got bored as the seagulls soared

The day we went to catch the whale

As we approached the whales broached

A certain conversation

They gave forth their spume and froth

Like every whale nation

But our boats answered back in a likewise forthright manner

And towed the line of harpoon twine

And rowed out to meet them tongs and hammer

Oh laddie, bet your britches daddy

Get harpoon and fork or spoon we're off to land a baddy

Upon the deck we craned our necks to be first to spy a tail

It all was all aboard, then sally forth

the day we went to catch a whale

The first mate threw his harpoon screw

And it skewered itself in

The Right whale's side but he couldn't abide

The whaleman's avaricious grin

The whale came in, the whale went out

It dove down and pulled us about

The whale went out and it came back in

The day we went to catch a whale

Back and forth the whale fought

In and out the harbour

Never better a whale man's sport

Than for something he must labour

Coming round the headland coming up the leas

We were nearly in Newfoundland

By the time he began to wheeze

Down he dove like a Jove

Then like a Jupiter ascending

He came back up and stove-in

our hull as if to him offending

The captain hopped upon his toes

The first mate danced a jig

To think of all the damaged blows

done to his precious rig

But the devilish whale never left the water

so we never did the tonguing and slaughter

But he beat his tail like a gale 

The day we went to catch a whale

Oh laddie, bet your britches daddy

Get harpoon and fork or spoon

We're off to land a baddy

Oh Mammy, you sent him off your Sammy

Now he's aboard with a scope and swore he spied a tail

We'll never get bored as the seagulls soared

The day we went to catch the whale

He towed us back to Bristol docks

And round the rocks of Portishead

In ebb tide we nearly died upon the estuary bed

But the flood of new blood lifted us from our slumber

The whale now freed from seaweed towed on his lumber

Upon the pier, a crowd appeared to cheer us on our return

Seeing our sorry manner they took down their banner to burn

The whales eye did seem to spy our state of poor appraisal

And enjoyed how he had toyed with us by his fierce assail

But his was a tale of a fluke not a fail, for safe back home we'd sailed

And no one railed but drank deep his ale

They day we went to catch the whale

Oh laddie, bet your britches daddy

Get harpoon and fork or spoon

We're off to land a baddy

Oh Mammy, you sent him off your Sammy

Now he's aboard with a scope and swore he spied a tail

We'll never get bored as the seagulls soared

The day we went to catch the whale

A swinging good time

 Oh we had a swinging good time

Swinging on the Strawberry line

Swinging billhooks and swinging scythes

Swinging axes and taxes and tithes

Swinging dog poo in its bags

Into hedges makes Steve mad!

Swinging dogs and hogs and do

Swinging horses, boar thistle and ragwort too

All about on a Friday morn

While Jane was swinging her strimmer at the corn

Grasses and weeds and dandelion dawn

That brightened over the ridge rise

Where the orange men marched their bridge with pride

Detecting swinging bricks and bats

Detecting swinging cricks and cracks

Everything was swinging 

We had a swinging good time

As the birds were singing

In the sweet sunshine

A town called Mallet

Looking for some life about

Walk up and down the road

Walking to the North or South

But all I see are frogs and toads

Oh it's a town called Mallet

Looking for some life about

Crossing the roads and paths 

Hearing the sounds of parties 

But I get lost walking in the park

In a town called Mallet

Falling out with everyone

Everyone I ever knew

Because let's face it, there is not much else

Not much else for folks to do

In a town called Mallet

Every boring evening 

should be filled with life and joy

But when it comes to believing 

I become your like your little toy

In a town called Mallet

Dum, dum de da, dum dum de da dum

Neighbours in their windows

As nosey as can be

Lookin' out at what the wind blows

Down the streets so ill-at-ease

Here comes the love again

Behind Shapes and figurines

Here comes the love again

Just daggers and smoke screens

In town called Mallet

Here love is just a dog's bark

That goes echoing down the alley

And the river flows in the dark

Down the Sheppey valley

In a town called Mallet

I should have left here years ago

No, I should never have came

But I followed where the wind blows

No I just ran away in shame

To a town called Mallet

I think I have to leave here now

It's broken and it's torn

And all the love is an illusion somehow

All love since I was reborn

In a town called Mallet

The right side of love

 Keep me on the right side

Always on the right side

Keep me on the right side of love

Don't want to be on the wrong side

The tracks bent, the rails rent

Black is every night I spent

Walking on the wrong side of love

So keep me on the right side

Every cloud has a silver side

Keep me shining like the sun above

I might walk in the moonlight

But never in the doomed delight

Oh keep me on the right side of love

Talking Willow blues

 Well the wild willow

Did whip me

Slapped me in the face 

Gave me a bruise

Well I should have known

What I was stalking

Now I'm talking about 

The wild willow blues

I went out hunting the tree monster

 A talking tree gave me the news

That there was this willow walking

Eating up people with its root shoes

So I put my ax upon my shoulder

I paid my tax to my muse

And took off a chip the size of a boulder

As I stepped out to hunt the Willow blues

This willow monster was a weeping

Crying out "I've been abused!"

By all the peat men who lie a sleeping

Down in the land where love is used

This willow woman went a whipping

all the men who she had confused

And lulled into her path by lovely lipping

Yet now she sings her Willow blues

Talking willow, do not trick me

I've listened to your sad song you've no excuse

To be eating your willow lovers in the lea

When they follow your song of Willow Blues

This Singing Willow then sang like a Siren

She sang of sallow hearts and sweet profuse

Of flowers growing in an Eden's Garden

Where two lovers Adam and Eve got the blues

She sang now I was there with the Apple tree

And I talked to her, she could not refuse

To join the poison snake of the Chapelry

And add its spice to the Willow tree blues

She was dancing in a river when I caught her

With the nymphs and pan pipes that they use

And she put up quite a fight when I fought her

But in the end I sung the ax swingers blues

I chopped up her branches and made logs

I burnt them on a pyre of refuse

But her trunk sang a song of howling dogs

As her salty bark sang her last Willow Blues

Willow Walking

 Take me where the willows meet the highway

Take me where the wind whispers my dreams

Take me on a walk for a while away

Take me to the other side of the stream

I'm in a land made of water

I'm on a lake made of reeds

And as the aspen shimmers I sort a

Know a change of scene is what I need

They cut heaven out of the skyway

They put it down on a lake of green

And if you are ever going my way

You'll know exactly what I mean