Get all 31 timlane releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of So Very Far From Home, Fantasmes Analogiques et le Reve Numerique (2023 remix and remaster), Them That Do The Work, GOLEM, Songs From The Big Sky, As Sure As the Sun Rises in the East, A Bough of Mistletoe, The Theme From Great Expectations, and 23 more.
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A Hole in the Ground
There lives a girl to the north of here
With hands as cold as the snow
She’ll reach right inside you and freeze your heart
But it’s not such a bad way to go
But like the snow she’ll just drift away
Until she’s nowhere to be found
And all you’ll have left is a memory
And a box in a hole in the ground
There lives a girl to the south of here
With eyes made of smouldering coals
She’ll gaze right inside you and burn your heart
And then she’ll move on to your soul
But like those embers she’ll fade away
Until she’s nowhere to be found
And all you’ll have left is a memory
And a box in a hole in the ground
There lives a girl to the east of here
Her sister, she lives in the west
They’ll reach right inside you and grab your heart
And tear it right out of your chest
But like your life they’ll just fade away
Until they’re nowhere to be found
And all you’ll have left is a memory
And a box in a hole in the ground
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2. |
The Big Sky in the East
04:42
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BIG SKY IN THE EAST
CHORUS:
Wish I could go back to the big sky in the east
That ribbon of horizon and the sense of righteous peace
I’m tired of the city, I’ve been away too long
The big sky on the east coast that’s where I belong
I was barely fifteen years of age when I ran away from home
Though truth to tell there weren’t much home to leave
Stole a twenty from the old girls purse and hitched a ride down south
To a new life in the city or that’s what I believed
Leicester Square at midnight and I’m blinded by the street life
Confused and hungry and cold down to the bone
All the neon and the noise and all the people walking by me
Never felt so lost before and never so alone
CHORUS
The day that I turn seventeen, some station on the northern line
Shivering and sweating and trying not to cry
Down upon my knees amidst the piss and prophylactics
Doing what takes round here for a young man to get by
CHORUS
Last night I had a dream I was walking down the coast road
Coming out of Salthouse on my way to Cley
My heart was fit to burst at the sight of Blakeney Marshes
And that wide-screen panoramic canopy of sky
INSTRUMENTAL (CHORUS)
Liverpool Street Station ten years older ten years wiser
Sitting in a Burger king waiting for a train
Screwing up the courage to walk down to the platform
And go back to the place I thought I’d never see again
Wish I could go back to the big sky in the east
That ribbon of horizon and the sense of righteous peace
I’m tired of the city, I’ve been away too long
The big sky on the east coast that’s where I belong
The big sky on the east coast that’s where I belong
The big sky on the east coast that’s the place that I call home
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3. |
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THE GHOST OF ALLAN SMETHHURST
The ghost of Allan Smethurst stood on Blakeney Quay
Looking out across the marsh to where the big sky meets the sea
With the devil on his left hand, Jimmy Rodgers standing by
As the mist came creeping in I swear I saw a dead man cry
What’s happened to this place in all the years since I’ve been gone?
There’s nothing here I recognise, have I been away so long?
Where are all the crab boats, the fishermen and their wives?
Where are all the local folk living out their lives?
The world that I grew up in vanished years ago
The playground of my childhood’s gone, where to? I do not know
Sherringham and Stiffkey and Cley next to the Sea
A theme park for the well to do too rich for folk like me
Half remembered half imagined and lost forevermore
I said you can’t keep living in the past, now I’m dead I’m not so sure
Stookey Blues and samphire and dommies in the bar
It’s the places that dream of that make you what you are
The Ghost of Allan Smethhurst stood on Blakeney Quay
Looking out across the marsh to where the big sky meets the sea
With the devil on his left hand and Jimmy Rodgers on his right
He picked up his guitar and gently vanished in the night
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4. |
Back to the Dirt
03:19
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Back to the Dirt
The Parson will tell you be life never so hard
Live well and in death you will get your reward
And god loves us all both the rich and the poor
In heaven we’ll bask in his grace
As long as we all know our place
Don’t promise us paradise After we’ve died
When all that we have is a fight to survive
We all work like donkeys just staying alive
It’s a battle we fight every day;
Don’t tell me it’s what god ordained
The bullyboy sermon that threatens damnation
The wheedling bribe of eternal salvation
The instruments used against those who have not
To keep them content with what little they’ve got
We all have our station or so we are told
Praise god who has made us Poor hungry and cold
And heaven forbid we should ever grow old
If this is our lot here on earth, if this is all we are worth
Then I will go back to the dirt
It’s always the same it’s the rich get the perks
While the poor they get nothing but do all the work
And they tell us the meek shall inherit the earth
We’ll all live in bliss bye and bye
but onto until after we’ve died
The bullyboy sermon
That threatens damnation
The wheedling bribe
Of eternal salvation
The instruments used against
Those who have not
To keep them content
With what little they’ve got
Don’t tell me to kneel or expect me to pray
Don’t preach about how the lord made us this way
I will not be damned I will not be saved
I’ll walk my own path here on earth
Then when I’ve finished my work
I will go back…. to the dirt
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5. |
The Bricks of Burston
02:39
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THE BRICKS OF BURSTON
When the dark clouds gathered and the rain came down
And wind did rage and moan
And you knew that you could not go back
But you were many long miles from home
Though you feared your heavy burden would bear you to the ground
As the bricks of Burston stand today you never let us down
When the blackheart cheaters
And deceivers spoke
And without remorse or shame
Swore black was white
And day was night
Just to poison your good name
We fought each feeble falsehood
Each petty venal lie
And I swore I’d always stand with you
Until the day I died
When the children marched
And waved their flags
And took their lessons on the green
I stood with them
As they stood with you
For all the world to see
And the story of our struggle
Quickly spread throughout the land
And the bricks of Burston mark the place
Where together we made our stand
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6. |
Bedlam Boys
03:43
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Boys of Bedlam
For to see mad Tom of Bedlam
Ten thousand miles I'd travel
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes
For to save her shoes from gravel
Chorus
Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonnie,
For they all go bare and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money
I went down to Satan's kitchen
For to get me food one morning
And there I got souls piping hot
All on the spit a-turning
There I picked up a cauldron,
Where boiled 10,000 harlots
Though full of flame I drank the same,
to the health of all such varlets.
Me staff has murdered giants
And me bag a long knife carries
For to cut mince pies from children's thighs
With which to feed the fairies
This spirit's white as lightning
Would on me travels guide me
The moon would shake and the stars would quake
When ever they espied me
And when that I have murdered
The man in the moon to a powder
His staff I'll break and his dog I'll shake
And there'll howl no demon louder
So drink to Tom of Bedlam,
he'll fill the seas in barrels
I'll drink it all, all brewed with gall,
with Mad Maudlin I will travel.
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timlane Norwich, UK
Welcome to the musical world of Tim Lane. I'm a musician and composer who lives in Norwich in the UK.
about.me/timboblane
timlane recommends:
My mates Army of Mice do fantastic, brilliantly produced gothic electronica - great songs, great musicianship and production, great vocals, just all round bloody marvellous!
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Marvellous acid folk - well worth a listen
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Hot Ice and Wondrous Strange Snow
by Stealing The Fire
Outstanding stuff
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