Get all 46 Joe Solo releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Farewell Hatfield Main, Sledgehammer Songs, Twenty From Twenty, Answer Machine/See You When I Get There, These Are My People, Fight The Good Fight Club Revisited, Upstairs At Park Street, Collected, and 38 more.
1. |
||||
|
My name is Jack Atkinson and I'm not afraid
I'll live and die by this vow that I've made
The only good fascist is a dead one they say
And Jarama here we are
When I first left Hull all them months ago
I told them I'd come not to kill but to cure
But for an 'ambulance driver' my shot's pretty sure
And Jarama here we are
There'll be no pasaran
No pasaran
No pasaran today
The fascists have come for our freedom
And we ain't gonna give it away
There'll be no pasaran here today
I told my mother, "Now mother be strong,
For the left way is right and the right way is wrong
And you can stick that on my grave when I'm gone"
For Jarama here we are
There'll be no pasaran
No pasaran
No pasaran today
The fascists have come for our freedom
And we ain't gonna give it away
There'll be no pasaran here today
The curse may be cast, and the cast may be cursed
But you armies of darkness you'd best do your worst
For to win, yeah, well you'll have to get past us first
And Jarama here we are
There'll be no pasaran
No pasaran
No pasaran today
The fascists have come for our freedom
And we ain't gonna give it away
There'll be no pasaran here today
WORDS AND MUSIC
BY JOE SOLO
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
Summer fields and riot shields
One eight six eight four
Horseback truncheon-wielding madman
knocked me to the floor
And two more taught me all I need
To know about the law
Summer fields and riot shields
One eight six eight four
TV crews make up the news
And edit to proclaim
Striking miners violent thugs
Declared a national shame
Bend a new agenda cos the truth
Is just a game
TV crews make up the news
And we're a national shame
Coppers sneering waving
Ten pound notes up in the air
Taunting lads still haunted by the
Vision of despair
The kids they left at breakfast tables
Starving hungry stare
Coppers sneering waving ten pound
Notes up in the air
Summer fields and riot shields
One eight six eight four
Eighteen stitches in my skull
A message from the law
That they will stop at nothing now
And this is all-out war
Summer fields and riot shields
One eight six eight four
|
||||
3. |
Post-Psychosis Blues
04:40
|
|||
|
When there ain't no point in trying
Cos everything you do goes wrong
When all your old get up and go
Has got up and gone
When you're feeling like an also-ran
That never had a shout
And your hopes and dreams are cigarettes
That life keeps stubbing out
Keep on keeping on
When you've one foot in the past
And that's what stops you moving on
Like a School Reunion full of strangers
Dancing to that song
That no-one ever liked and never will
Still it's 'those were the days...'
It's time to burn the bridges down
The flames will light the way
Keep on keeping on
We wanted no more heroes
So we stripped em of their crowns
We put them on that pedestal
And then we pulled it down and now it's
Primetime Sellevision when they once
Were all the rage
The pink receding mohawk
Of Punk Rock in Middle Age
Keep on keeping on
To the freaks and to the misfits
To the wounded and the weak
To the locked out ones with answers
But who have no voice to speak
It's no use knocking on their door now
Cos they'll tell you 'Go To Hell!!"
Your Culture isn't culture
If your Culture doesn't sell
Keep on keeping on
So we're spoonfed paranoia
Til we hate and fear and blame
While the self-help guru's try to turn
Self-loathing into fame
And we analyse our lives through the lens
Of a mobile phone
And we wonder why with all them 'friends'
We still feel so alone
Keep on keeping on
Words and music
by
Joe Solo
|
||||
4. |
||||
|
The Gun said: "Now Pencil, I'm stronger than you.
I can smash you to pieces, and what could you do?
Stop all that writing, it's over, I've won.
They'll cower to gaze on this thing that I've done."
The Pencil it paused and then carried right on.
It said: "Do your worst because after I'm gone
These words that I've written will take to the skies
As free from your bullets as truth is from lies."
The Gun shot the Pencil to pieces then saw
Those words on the paper that fell to the floor
At once through a crack in the window it heard
The crowds in the streets sing those very same words.
It cried: "That's impossible! How can it be?
I killed you, I beat you, I won, don't you see?"
But the Gun didn't get it, how after we're gone
The words and the love and the hope they live on.
|
||||
5. |
||||
6. |
||||
|
You'll never have a song to sing
If you're ducking every battle
You're never gonna change a thing
Following the cattle down
A dead end street
In a one-horse town
You're never gonna win a hand
By folding with the Aces
You're never gonna make a stand
Tripping over laces tied
Together forever
In a knot of pride
You never let the light go out
You need a little spark and so
You never let the light go out
No, no, no, no, no
You never let the light go out
It'll leave you in the dark I know
You never let the light go out
You're talking like a hammer, yeah
But you're living like a nail and
You ask me why I even try at all
When I know I'm gonna fail and
I tell you every dog'll have his day
That's why I'm barking and I'm biting
Cos if I'm going down now
I'm going down fighting
You never let the light go out
You need a little spark and so
You never let the light go out
No, no, no, no, no
You never let the light go out
It'll leave you in the dark I know
You never let the light go out
You either take a look around now
And say that apathy beat us
Or you try to rev it up now
Until there's nothing can defeat us
You never let the light go out
You need a little spark and so
You never let the light go out
No, no, no, no, no
You never let the light go out
It'll leave you in the dark I know
You never let the light go out
Words and music
by
Joe Solo
|
||||
7. |
You Take On One Of Us
04:13
|
|||
|
When I was young, no more than a kid
I used to rock-up for a Sunday side
This big lad come, in a Psycho skid
He took my ankles and my knees and my pride
But my mate John he pulled me back to my feet
He said: "You never let em put you down"
Next thing I knew, the whistle blew
And that big lad was laid out on the ground
And John said
Ch: You take on one of us, you take on all of us
You pick on him, you pick on me
You take on one of us, you take on all of us
And that's the way it's gonna be
But time went on, and I grew up
At least I learned to bluff the stuff I lack
Being young and dumb, I pushed my luck
But I knew John would always have my back
Was in a bar when this lad took exception
To my face the way that young men do
But John stepped in, and without question said:
"I wouldn't son if I were you".
Ch: You take on one of us, you take on all of us
You pick on him, you pick on me
You take on one of us, you take on all of us
And that's the way it's gonna be
I know you're down, I know you're hurting
And the wolves are gathered in a pack
I see there's some out there deserting
Did you think I wouldn't have your back
See I remember when a good friend showed me
What it takes to see your troubles through
Through thick and thin that friend he never failed me
So there ain't no way I bail on you
We'll tell them
Ch: You take on one of us, you take on all of us
They pick on you, they pick on me
You take on one of us, you take on all of us
And that's the way it's gonna be
|
||||
8. |
||||
|
We met in a bar in Barcelona
He'd seen our boards were the same
And he brought over wine and whisky
I set them up to play a game
The first time we played he beat me
He just winked and smiled at me and then
Held out a hand and just said: "Ivan."
Me I grinned and set them up again
He could never tell what I was saying
We'd different words to that old song
But we didn't care when we were playing
Backgammon all night long
He'd a wife and kid in Vladivostock
He's write to them every day
Then he'd bring over wine and whisky
And we would play the night away
He could never tell what I was saying
We'd different words to that old song
But we didn't care when we were playing
Backgammon all night long
Then one day Franco moved the counters
He rolled the dice and he attacked
We went to fight him in the mountains
And Ivan didn't come back
He could never tell what I was saying
We'd different words to that old song
But we didn't care when we were playing
Backgammon all night long
I sent my board to Vladivostock
Back to Ivan's wife and kid
I couldn't bring myself to play now
And they weren't to know it wasn't his
He could never tell what I was saying
We'd different words to that old song
But we didn't care when we were playing
Backgammon all night long
|
||||
9. |
||||
|
Pulling 10 til 8's at Renny's
It was driving me beserk
And I'd stopped for twenty Bennies
On my way back home from work
When shuffle sent a song my way
I hadn't heard in years
'Complete Control' came pounding out
And I fought back the tears
It must have been November
Cos me Dad was still at home
When The Clash hit Boro Town Hall
With that riot all their own
We'd spiked our hair with soap
And we'd sewn zips into our jeans
Looking back we hadn't much of nothing
But our dreams
Chorus:
There was me and Jack and Johnny
And a stolen bottle of gin
We didn't have a penny
But the band they let us in
Took me 30 years to see it
On a Number 19 bus!
The Clash didn't smash the Town Hall
That was us
There was Mick and Paul and Topper
And in the centre of the stage
There was Strummer barking orders
In that mystic kinda rage
This was our Rebel Army
And they'd come to take our town
We let out all our anger
And we tore the damn place down
Chorus
The band are dead and gone now
And I thought I was too
But Strummer woke up something
When he shouted: "That means you!"
And I jacked my job at Renny's
What I'll do now, I don't know
But I owed it to the young man I was
All them years ago
And the moral of this story
Is you've one life, don't you blow it
And anyone can change the world
It's just most of us don't know it
You either live life like you mean it
Or you rack up more regrets
And I'm 53 next Friday
But I aren't finished yet
Took me 30 years to see it
On a Number 19 bus!
The Clash didn't smash the Town Hall
That was us.
|
||||
10. |
||||
|
I crunch
Across a path of broken glass
That glitters in the gutters
Through the shards of shattered shutters.
I never knew
This city had so many windows
Until I saw them that way
In the dim glow of light
From the rising sparks
That are drawn to the dawn
From the dying dark
And a perfect stranger handed me
A mug of Sally Army tea.
In the crater
On the corner a broken mains
Bleeds into the drains
Where a roof collapsed in vain
In a cloud of ash and shame.
It's a city of no straight lines
No front doors or shop signs
Prudential clock's lost time
And all around it
The wrecks of office desks
Feed incendiary fires
As a headless lamppost
Leans into trolley-bus wires.
It's insanity
But here's me
And a mug of Sally Army tea.
In the shelter
The bomb's arhythmic beat
Spoke distance to our feet
As we huddled in the heat
Of confined spaces
The booms diverted dust
And spoke of broken trust
In gravity to clusters
Of our frightened faces.
The ceiling
A broken promise made
Came down in a cascade
Of concrete and of screams
And crashing dark, and
I swam for all I'm worth
For the surface of the earth
Where a helping hand it hauls me out into
This night of sparks.
Of thirty three
There's just me
To hand a mug of Sally Army tea.
|
||||
11. |
Starve Us Back To Work
03:06
|
|||
|
By winter well the times were getting harder
There'd been nothing left in larders for a while
We were felling trees for fire wood
And riddling tips for coal
But there was always something there
To make you smile
Like the time we chased a chicken down the roadside
Or the dockers who would 'lose' a crate or two
Or the kids out there collecting on the corners
Trying to scrape enough to see us through
They were driving empty buses past the pickets
Trying to make us think that they were full
So we'd see the strike were breaking
And we were all there for the taking
Knowing it was red rag to a bull
On the day we went a-raiding all them taties
In a fog so thick I couldn't see me fist
I ran into a brother
Then another and another
There was half of Yorkshire's miners in the mist
It wasn't really stealing shoving taties in a sack
Kind of just like borrowing but never paying back
We were like a swarm of locusts
And the farmer went bezerk
But we wouldn't let em starve us back to work
At Christmas time we did our best for everyone
The whole world it turned in to Santa Claus
Harry'd had his hand bust
By an errant pair of handcuffs
And the girls were sympathetic to the cause
We sang and sang and sang 'You'll Never Walk Alone'
And I remember feeling ten foot tall
We swore when full of beer
That we could take another year
But some lads said the writing's on the wall
It wasn't really stealing putting taties in a sack
Cos governments they borrow loads and never pay it back
And I didn't steal the future
And then drive off in a Merc
We just wouldn't let em starve us back to work
|
||||
12. |
November The 12th
04:18
|
|||
|
My name is Private Joe Carpenter
I’m with the 51st Rifles in France
And I’m here to pick up the pieces of people
They left when the armies advanced
The rats here grew fat on the flesh of my comrades
Rotting out in No Man’s Land
Now I’m trying to give some poor bugger his name back
When all I can find is his hand
November 11th they rang out the bells
The crowds hit the streets as they silenced the shells
And I bet old Lloyd George was proud of himself
But then he weren’t digging graves on November the 12th
My brother died up in Wipers last winter
He’d signed up as soon as he could
Now bits of his body are buried forever
In ten foot of Passchendaele mud
And there is no graveside my mother can mourn at
And she cries out into the night
She says that his death was a message from Heaven
That God never meant us to fight
November 11th they rang out the bells
The crowds hit the streets as they silenced the shells
And I bet old Lloyd George was proud of himself
But then he weren’t digging graves on November the 12th
I was digging some place when I came face to face
With two unblinking eyes staring back
It gave me a fright, by some trick of the light
Christ, I swear that it looked like our Jack
But it was some German boy barely sixteen
I stood there and I whispered a prayer
I said you weren’t ever really my enemy, son
No, he’s sat in some office somewhere
November 11th they rang out the bells
The crowds hit the streets as they silenced the shells
And I hope all warmongers rot down in Hell
I’d make them dig graves on November the 12th
|
||||
13. |
||||
|
I met an old man, he said:
"Son I don't know you
But love is a three card trick
Watch and I'll show you
How you turn your head
When she walks in the room
Cos you can't see the stars
For the halo around the moon.
Don't try to hide it
And don't look surprised
And no son, don't you lie to me
It's there in your eyes
You're a ship on her rocks
In a storm and you're doomed
Cos you can't see the stars
For the halo around the moon
If the ocean is crying
You don't dry her tears
If a mermaid is singing
You cover your ears
Or they'll take you and they'll drown you
In their salty perfume
When you can't see the stars
For the halo around the moon."
I looked at that old man
And I saw that he spoke
Through the fog of the whisky
All mirrors and smoke
Like some poet who whined
About a flower in bloom
With some tired old line
About a halo and a moon
I said: "I know love and her traps
And you thought
That a free man like me
Would fall in and get caught?
Well you must be the dumbest
Old man in the world!"
And I left him right there
To go talk to a girl.....
|
||||
14. |
Blue Town
02:24
|
|||
|
This is a new town
A Blue Town
A loyal and true town
Don't want you to live here though
Cos we got more than you town
Splash cash cos they love it when you laud it
Only good neighbour
Is the one who can afford it here
Chorus:
In this Blue Town
In this true blue town
This town
This town
We got the far right spite there
Underneath the arches
Green light given for the
Fascist marches
Better not be black, Jack
They'll say you're selling crack, Jack
Last to get a job here
And the first to get the sack, Jack
They're not racist, but...
They just never put
Their brains in gear
Or keep their mouths shut here
We got the slack-jawed masses
On the bones of their asses
Skint but they still think
That they belong the middle classes
But they're phonies phonies
Everything they own is
All bought on a credit card
To keep up with the Jones's
Yeah, that's right
I see you got the gist
They've not got ragged trousers
But they're all philanthropists here
You've got to covet thy neighbour's
Job and car
Shop em to the boss and boy
You'll go far
With the phonies, phonies
Who made it cos of cronies
Finger-wagging
Back-stabbing
Cast the first stonies
SHUT YOUR MOUTH
AND KNOW YOUR PLACE
They wouldn't know honour
If it kicked em in the face
In this town
|
||||
15. |
||||
|
The Mississippi flows
Just not down the Humber or the Ouse tha knows
Suppose that's just the way it goes
There’s no good place to start
Nothing in this world shines
Like old New York in the movie minds
Of men like me who learned our lines
But never got the part
But give me a 57 Chevy or a Cadillac
And I could hit those dirt roads just like Kerouac
And old Dean Moriarty
As sad as it seems
I'm an English dreamer
With American dreams
I still bring Broadway down
But it’s in backrooms of pubs in cold, grey northern towns
When I shut my eyes sad as it sounds
I can almost hear the screaming
I've had to accept it's true
That I'll never be Gram nor you Emmylou
Oh I had wings I just never flew
But it never stopped me dreaming
Give me a 57 Chevy or a Cadillac
And I could hit that dirt road just like Kerouac
And old Dean Moriarty
As dumb as it seems
I'm an English dreamer
With American dreams
|
||||
16. |
||||
|
The revolution will come
Just like it's always done
These empires will fall
In the same way that came to them all
One by one
They're here and they're gone
The revolution will come
Just like it's always done
And if your eyes won't allow
Your heart to believe that right now
They haven't won
The revolution will come
The revolution will come
Sure as the setting son
May not be in my time
But I'll pass it on to the next heart in line
When I'm done
And just let them run and run and run and run
The revolution will come
Just like it's always done
And if your eyes won't allow
Your heart to believe that right now
They haven't won
The revolution will come
|
||||
17. |
||||
18. |
||||
|
These are my people
We're red, green and blue
We don't fit in boxes like you want us to
These are my people
We're black, brown and white
We dance and we laugh and we love and we fight
These are my people
They're all good by me
From tenth generation to new refugee
These are my people
When all comes to pass
We are many colours but one Working Class
These are my people
We're all just like you
Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Jew
These are my people
Let harmony ring
From the 10,000 ways we can say the same thing
These are my people
Our tribes and our clans
We're lesbian, gay, straight, we're bi and we're trans
These are my people
When all comes to pass
We are many voices but one Working Class
These are my people
We're old and we're young
Our stories untold and our deeds are unsung
These are my people
Our lives intertwine
My struggles are theirs and their struggles are mine
These are my people
We don't reason why
In peacetime we're poor and in wartime we die
These are my people
When all comes to pass
We're your cannon fodder we're one Working Class
These are my people
The ones you attack
You've kicked us so long now we need to kick back
These are my people
You can't keep us down
We all spit tomorrow and you bastards drown
These are my people
|
||||
19. |
||||
|
Hey Spriggy, I'm glad that it's you here
It's better to die with a friend
You were there from the start back on Kings Street
And here you are now at the end
Fate mixed our lives up together
And set us down on the same side
A speedway star fighting for words here
And a poet on a dare devil ride
Chorus:
Adelante- forward forever
Adelante- you must stand your ground
Adelante- forward forever
Forward forever and never back down
Hey Spriggy. the fascists are coming
But I'm damned if they're taking Madrid
'Adelante', I know that means 'forward'
It's been my motto since I was a kid
We must make our stand in this valley
In the olives, the scrub and the ash
And I swear by the oil on these fingers
No Pasaran- they shall not pass!
Chorus
Hey Spriggy, you're dead at my side now
And there's no-one to reload this gun
But I'll fire it until my last bullet
Cos there's no way in hell that I'll run
I guess what it all boils down to
Is the one lasting thing you can give
That's your life in the fight for our freedom
To die so that others might live
Chorus
|
||||
20. |
||||
|
Chorus:
Haul away, boys
Haul in the trawl, boys
Splice off the ice
Or we'll sink like a stone
Haul away, boys
Haul in the trawl, boys
Haul in the trawl
And let's head off for home
Haul away, boys
Ride the white horses
Ride the white horses
And face down the gale
And pray, boys
The engines keep churning
Just like them Ghost Ships
Once prayed for the sail
Chorus
Haul away, boys
For the wives and the children
The lives that depended
On us getting home
To that town, boys
The town we were born in
The town now in mourning
For all that we've known
Chorus
Haul away, boys
For six thousand men, boys
Six thousand men like us
Perished at sea
We're all caught now
Caught in this moment
Caught in this moment
For eternity
Chorus
|
||||
Joe Solo Scarborough, UK
Joe Solo is an award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer from
Scarborough.
Live he has an ever growing reputation as both a performer and raconteur, being thought-provoking, comical and punch-the-air political often in the same breath.
He is not an artist you forget in a hurry.
... more
Joe Solo recommends:
The Rhythm And The Rhyme
by Boss Caine
Brand new album from one of my favourite people in all the world. The opening track 'Ghosts and Drunks' is a song I wrote for him and he has made it so beautiful I can't listen without crying. Ace.
go to album
Lovers, Losers and Wasters (LNNM06)
by Mark Wynn
Ramblin' Beat Poetry and pickin' of the highest order, Mark is one of my favourite artists and a lovely bloke. Check him out asap. Do it!
go to albumIf you like Joe Solo, you may also like:
supported by 34 fans who also own “Twenty From Twenty”
the album has thoughtful lyrics beautiful tunes and ends with my favourite tract a bar at the end of the world ... every track flows nicely to the next love it all
go to album
supported by 34 fans who also own “Twenty From Twenty”
All of this album is just great. But Storm to Weather is just an amazing sing along track that is always a joy to hear live.
go to album
Beautifully played and full of moving vocal performances, the Bay Area singer/songwriter's latest is a stellar work of art.
go to album
Featuring members of Seachange (Matador /Glitterhouse Records), Dearest took 8 years to craft their haunting LP.
go to album
