1. |
Glasgow Overture
04:02
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Impassioned by a Gorbals sunrise
Glasgow greets the world
Fully formed
Streets of perfect symmetry invoke
A higher power
Erstwhile civic omnipotence
The city crashes into motion
Pumped full of population
An intravenous injection
Of humanity
While in the west, young mothers
And absent fathers
Beleaguer the dear green places
With earnest exercise
And frivolous gossip
The remnants of the shipyards lay exposed
Titans acquiesce to atrophy
A history of rust has colonised
The powerhouses of the Clyde
Once the envy of the world
Tourists grunt and groan over a bridge of sighs
To a hill pockmarked with graves
In the distance stands two cathedrals
Worshipped with a fervour no god could match
While John Knox looks down his nose
At the dead
By this river we flourish
In these streets we find courage
Gold amongst the grit and the glamour
This contradicting reality
Our beautiful duality
City of the pen and the hammer
Drumchapel and Bearsden sit side by side
Posterboys of modern inequality
A living case study
Just a street and twenty two years
Of life expectancy between them
George Square sits resplendent in the rain
Where the tanks once rolled
To turn guns on their own
Red Clydeside threatened to turn scarlet
As the workers stood unbent
In Bolshevist flirtation
Merchant City four by fours
Shop for blood
The new bourgeoisie
Gentrifying all they see
With media fuelled disposable income
And dreams of being everything
Their parents were not
Nomad artists head South
Fleeing West-end rent hikes
And student encroachment
Occupy ragged bar stools
Beside luminous jackets
And the whimpering ghosts
Of professional drinkers
Reduced to speaking in tongues
The new towns creak under the weight
Of broken promises of regeneration
Artificial settlements, abandoned
Architectural brutalism, beseiged
By retail parks and outlet stores
The exactitude of corporate living
While in a bleak council dwelling
Chilled by the Eastern winds
A lady of a certain age
Gathers china in porcelain hands
And curses her late husband
With a loving nod
With a wry smile
By this river we flourish
In these streets we find courage
Gold amongst the grit and the glamour
This contradicting reality
Our beautiful duality
City of the pen and the hammer
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2. |
Beast Be With You
04:52
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My father’s uncle died late last night on the Gallowgate
He used to set out early and come home late filled up with hate
Black brogue shoe shine on dead market streets
Razor blade smile and red eyed blue twinkle
From the Traders Tavern to the Braemar Bar is a short walk not far
But somewhere in between he hit the pavement with a thud
Old Alan from the Loch Fyne was first on the scene
Outside the woodcraft store they built his coffin as seen
From odds and ends bookies pen behind his ear
Chewing gum lodged in his throat the mean old goat
Had left his ex-wife slack jawed from wear and tear no longer in despair and his children where?
Scattered to the four corners of the world blown on the wind from where their ashes were binned
My Great uncle died last night on the Gallowgate
Every day in his vest and suit of slate
Golden Virginia stains on his lips the late night waltz home with a bag of chips
His teeth no longer his own the black doubts have been thrown
To the floor in a fist fight drunken brawl or cracked on the pavement from a fall
No stranger to death his first wife went soon with blood on her chest on a damp afternoon
When he’d kicked her to the floor not minutes before and left cursing her and slamming the door
He didn’t do long in those days it wasn’t deemed wrong
To raise your hands or your feet to your woman she’s just a lump of meat
After all witnessed by his son who lay on top of his Ma too young to do anything about his Da
My Grandad’s brother died last night on the Gallowgate
A conscientious objector drinking amber nectar
While his buddies’ bodies were blown to bits he lay cowering in the toilet with the shits
Quick with his fists near a woman or a boy and backstabbing drunken enemies destroy
All relations, destroy all nations but let him gamble let him drink let him come let him go but no
He’d rather outstay his welcome at a distant aunts wandering around her house in his pants
Putting in the fear of God hiding from plod
Trilby hat laid out flat, cold sweats idle threats holding out on debts
Stands there in Chapel distended Adam’s apple not afraid to boast, eat a host, drink some wine everything’s fine
Peace be with you, priest be with you and beast be with you
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Kevin P. Gilday & The Sea Kings Glasgow, UK
In a marriage consummated behind a manky Gallowgate pub, Kevin P. Gilday and The Sea Kings bring you their debut collaboration.
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