Get all 5 Swift Years releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Three, Démo !, First (self-titled), No Sorrow For Me, and Joe's Report from the Afterlife.
1. |
The Exile
02:55
|
|||
2. |
Beside Me
03:48
|
|||
|
I'm a dog-eared book with a well-thumbed look
I'm a scratchy 45
I'm a true fish tale from the belly of the whale
Trying to swim through all the jive
But still you know that...
If you look for me, I'll be here
(If you look I'll be here)
Turn my rock over, I'll appear
(Turn over the rock)
I'll cook you supper, we can split a beer
(If I have any here)
'Cause I know you know
I need you here
Beside me
(need you here
besi-i-ide me)
I'm a nine-sided nickel, I'm a cheese-and-pickle sarnie
Made on yesterday's bread
I'm a rotary 'phone, I'm a last bus home
With a song going round in my head
But still you know that...
If you look for me, I'll be here
(If you look I'll be here)
Turn my rock over, I'll appear
(Turn over the rock)
I'll cook you supper, we can split a beer
(If I have any here)
'Cause I know you know
I need you here
Beside me
(need you here
besi-i-ide me)
I didn't think about classes to play this old guitar
At home I drink out of glasses, that I brought home from bars
An old piggy-bank is my retirement plan
And the clothes on my back come from the Sally Ann
The babble from Babylon says I'm rabble & only half a man
But I try to raise a family merrily, happily, do the best I can.
I'm an old leather jacket, I'm a slim wage packet
Trying to stretch until next weekend
I'm a three-speed bike on a ten-mile hike
But I'll make it right to the end
But still you know that...
If you look for me, I'll be here
(If you look I'll be here)
Turn my rock over, I'll appear
(Turn over the rock)
I'll cook you supper, we can split a beer
(If I have any here)
'Cause I know you know
I need you here
Beside me
(need you here
besi-i-ide me)
© Patrick Hutchinson, SOCAN 2005
|
||||
3. |
||||
|
I Dreamed I Stopped Smoking
I dreamed I stopped smoking and my head stopped hurting
Kicked drugs, quit drinking; Christ! I even started working
And I realised I wasn’t having any fun
So I lit up a smoke and my head hurt
Did some drugs, got drunk and quit work
And I started right back to where I started from
Well I dreamed that you won the lottery
So you went out and bought a pot farm for me,
Said “I love you baby, let’s go smoke it all”
Well I dreamed I was a happy little bumblebee
I was buzzing in your bonnet ‘til you swatted me
And preserved me with your jars of alcohol
Well I dreamed you were driving a UFO
You abducted me baby ‘cause you loved me so
You said “fly with me, back home beyond the blue”
First we stopped to get some money at the money tree
And you said you couldn’t wait to get your hands on me
Yeah, I’ll follow the flying pigs back home to you.
© Bob Cussen, 2002
|
||||
4. |
Hanko Hanko
02:23
|
|||
5. |
Mon Vieux François
02:27
|
|||
6. |
||||
|
Joe’s Report from the Afterlife
On a Sunday evening in the plastic paddy pub
There were Algerians and Russians playing rub-a-dub
There were dissidents and malcontents from many different nations
Heretics and infidels of all denominations
There were mandolins and dulcimers, fiddlers and fluters
Bass and concertina, bhodran and djarboukas
The music it was smokin' and the craic was more than fair
Then I saw a ghostly form in the only empty chair
I said "Hey Joe, how's the weather where you are?
Is you time spent meditating or hanging round in bars?
Did the cats in the scriptures paint a picture clear enough,
Is it Nirvana or Valhalla or the land of Tir-nan-Och?
Have they sorted out the problems that we're knee-deep in down here
Is it something to look forward to or something I should fear?"
He said "Oh man, the truth would fry your brain, why don’t you
Take it to the bridge 'till I try to explain?
I saw Jesus and Mohammed arm-in-arm commiserating
About all the harm that’s been done in their names
How instead of peace and love, it’s been building walls and hating
Instead of loving life, it’s been filling it with shame
And right-wing politicians and all like-minded others
Have been reincarnated and come back as single mothers
And there’s pile & piles of drugs of any kind whatever
But we don’t have to take them ‘cause we’ve got our shit together”
Then Joe stood up, said “Well folks, I gotta move,
Keep one eye on each other and the other one on the groove.
Truth and rights are the things to advance to,
Always keep on working for a revolution you can dance to.
Try to stay free, don’t try and count your losses,
Don’t take no wooden nickels from no cheapskate brown-shirt bosses”
I said “Hey Joe, you give me something to aspire to;
Politics, style, and fun, and music to perspire to.”
© Patrick Hutchinson, SOCAN 2005.
|
||||
7. |
Rasta Puszta
03:16
|
|||
8. |
Old Man Santo had a Farm
02:15
|
|||
|
Old Man Santo had a farm E-I-E-I-O
And on this farm he grew some wheat E-I-E-I-O
He thought making more money would be really sweet E-I-G-M-O
So he spliced a gene here and he spliced a gene there
Here a gene there a gene everywhere he spliced a gene
Good-bye genes bad hygiene
First he flogs his Franken food
It’s immune to bugs and weeds
And each year he bakes bigger better bread by selling you the seeds.
Old Man Santo had some farm E-I-G-M-O
And on this farm he had some sheep ….Ba-Ba-G-M-O
He thought making more money would be really sweet Ba-Ba-C-L-O-N-E
So he cloned a sheep here and he cloned a sheep there
Here a sheep there a sheep everywhere he cloned a sheep
Hello dolly, Hello dolly, Hello dolly, Hello dolly
Old Man Santo had some farm Ba-Ba-C-L-O-N-E
And on that farm he had some chickens - cluck cluck cluck atch-oo.
And every last chicken come down with the flu - cluck cluck atch-oo.
There was a chicken flew here and a chicken flu there
Here flu there flu everywhere the chicken flew
Hope you know what to do when the chickens give their flu to you.
Old Man Santo had some farm - cluck cluck cluck atch-oo
And on this farm he had some cows Moo-Moo-G-M-O
Some beef, some dairy and some very mad cows B-S-E-G-M-O
There was mad cows here and mad cows there
Really bloody pissed off mad cows everywhere.
It got really bad.
Why are are all the cows so mad?
First they fed them to each other - then they fed them sheep with scrapies
Turned them into cannibals - fed the mothers to the babies
And if they did that to you, I bet you’d get pretty mad too.
Old Man Santo had some farm – B-S-E- G-M-O
Well he’s got frankenwheat he’s got cloned sheep, lime disease and killer bees
West Nile virus, the DDT’s, Swine Fever, Chicken flu and BSE….
Old Man Santo had a farm E-I-E-I-O
So the West Nile mosquito bit the hen with chicken flu
that they fed to the mad cow that they fed to you.
(© Bob Cussen 2005)
|
||||
9. |
The Sand
03:11
|
|||
10. |
||||
11. |
La Valse des Officiers
02:35
|
|||
12. |
Nobody's Business
02:28
|
|||
Swift Years Montréal, Québec
18-stringed Worldbilly trio from Montréal: "Hotter than a plate of pierogis, cooler than the sour cream on the side."
(Montreal Gazette) "Un vrai bijou de l'underground montréalais." (Le Devoir)
Bob Cussen: mandolin etc
Patrick Hutchinson: guitars
Suzanne Ungar: bass
... more
Swift Years recommends:
3rd album by Bare Bones, stripped-down guitar/voice duo that played throughout Canada in the early 90s, lean & tasty torch & twang.
go to album
Harmonica/guitar Blues/Celtic duo, original and traditional songs & tunes creatively arranged
go to albumIf you like Swift Years, you may also like:
Wealth of Sorrow
by Cahalen Morrison
Bright and skipping songs that foreground the sound of the banjo and fingerstyle guitar in music that feels timeless.
go to album
Would the Light Hold Me
by Oceanique
Celtic-inspired instrumentation, delicate harmonies, and reflective lyrics abound on the sisterly indie-folk duo's debut album.
go to album
Long Time To Be Gone
by Nora Brown
Nora Brown continues to bring nuance and resonance to her modern interpretation of Appalachian folk and bluegrass on her latest LP.
go to album
Scottish harpist and singer Rachel Newton brings an innovative, intensely emotional touch to traditional music on this dreamy LP.
go to album
