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Welcome to the lyrics page. This is just a selection of some of the lyrics of the songs I sing, and also some lyrics that haven't been put to music, yet....!
Donegal Joe ( This song is about a tramp who used to hang around the town I grew up in, and who went by the name of 'Donegal Joe'. I guess he was from Donegal. He always had a bottle in his hand and looked about a hundred and fifty years old. When we were kids, a friend of mine and myself were walking down the town, and my friend gave Donegal Joe 50 pence, a princely sum back then. Donegal Joe got very excited and grabbed my friend by the waist and danced him up and down the street. I'm glad I didn't give Donegal Joe anything that day.)
Every day I pass you by
squatting staring at the sky
As down to meet the boys I go
I say hello to Donegal Joe
0ld Ireland he's been up and down
He's done his bit in every town
In sun and rain and sleet and snow
Back he comes old Donegal Joe
Holding up his hands at you
Just a little coin or two
0n the pavement time goes slow
Singing songs old Donegal Joe
Not a worry not a care
0ld twinkly eyes will smile and stare
Until he gets your money 0h
They all know him Donegal Joe
(ch) Donegal Joe Donegal Joe
Does anyone know
Where did he go
Donegal Joe.
0 welcome stranger welcome back
All you need is a six pack,
The nuns will feed you that you know
At their window late knocks Doneal Joe
Up again so bright and early
After his bread marmalade tea
Upstairs scared kids play piano
0ff to the hills goes Donegal Joe
To the same old spot or maybe further
Depends on the same old weather
East or west this man could go
He's gettig old now Donegal Joe
He's made it here through all those years
Still away from it all he steers
Doesn't know why he'll never know
That's what happened to Donegal Joe
Just let it go one day and ran
This new life he began
His wife she married another man
So lost in grief is Donegal Joe
Don't tell anybody the reason why
Thinking back might make him cry
He had a big house lots of dough
A day labourer was Donegal Joe
It's best to forget what didn't go
What might have happened he'll never know
He surrendered to the winds that blow
From the mountains down all rivers flow
That's why I always say hello
That's why I always say hello
Destroyed by love not money 0h
My only hero Donegal Joe
(ch)
One day I gave him fifty pence
He danced a jig I had no sense
So he wouldn't let me go till I had a drink
With donegal Joe
Where he is now I don't know
Where he is now I don't know
He died in a ditch I imagine so
Was it really worth it donegal Joe?
(ch)
(Live at Paddy Reillys,2001)
Away From Home.
(memories of being in Dublin (Rathmines to be precise) with an old flame, and sitting there watching the shadows grow, as well as doing other things that cannot be mentioned...another favourite and one that's consistently requested)
Walking on these streets I think of you,
All the bad things we used to do,
From Grafton Street as far as Dublin Zoo,
Alone in this city me and you.
(ch) Away from home away from friends,
At the windows of my flat our world ends,
Sitting on the bed as shadows gather on the wall,
Quiet as the footsteps in the hall.
You and me together all alone,
Someone's talking outside on the phone.
Don't know how much longer we'll be here,
But maybe once before I leave I'll shed that tear.
(ch)
(Live at Paddy Reilly's 2001)
SHEILA
Are you working in the civil service,
0r teaching in a school?
Do you take the number 66
Which I followed like a fool,
Down Abbey Street each night at eleven for months,
You were just to cool;
Always playing hard to get
I regret the day we met
(ch)Still I wonder where are you now,
Sheila?
Maybe you met a nice guy
Who takes good care of you;
Never tells you what to do,
He would never cheat it's true;
Who maybe works in a bank-
If only I had the courage to try
I wouldn't be so bitter now,
We never really said goodbye,
(ch)Still I wonder where are you now,
Sheila?
I guess I found my way you found yours,
In a room in Paris we came so close,
Then the next day you were gone
I'll never see you again I suppose
Unless we meet on a bus or a train-
A nice big smile to see you again
And the baby cries I examine your face
I ask for your number but then....then....-
then I wonder where are you now
Sheila?
0 what's the point?- there is no point-
In turning back the years
What's done is done..Amen....
If I could only see you one more time
Maybe you could be mine again....again
I wonder where are you now
Sheila?
Where are you now
Sheila?
(Whatever makes you Tick, 2003)
LINDA
Linda was a waitress,
She worked from ten till four.
She came in with a bad hangover
Set tables on the floor
She hardly spoke to anyone
For an hour or two.
The lunch rush came she had no choice
But smile for me and you.
Going on ten or fifteen years
She worked here at this bar.
Lived in a rent controlled apartment
A mile downtown, not far.
Saw waitresses and waiters come and go
Students, actors, bums.
The money was better way back when...
She drank a couple of rums
Each day when her shift was over
She deserved it yes she did
Some days she served a hundred,
While some of the waiters hid
Not linda; she was always there,
Running up and down
Serveing every customer
Her smile became a frown.
Two rums became three or six;
Fell in love once, no more.
He ran off with a younger girl.
Linda was thirty -four.
Life went on; at least there was money
She dodged bullets every day
Shot from an angry manager
Who gave up drink for tae...
..Till the takings kinda dried.
people ate next door.
Linda couldn't get a job there.
She was thirty six, or more...
More waiters came and went,
Actors, students, bums,
Living the life in NYC,
Linda drank more rums
And more and more and more
Her tables were cut to four
She was working kinda slower
They were glad when she went out the door.
They didn't have the heart to fire her,
Loyalty has its rewards.
But they cut her tables to three.
She complained but was not heard.
Her mother's welfare check
Was not enough to pay the bills.
Those rums she drank were getting expensive;
The half-price deal still killed
Linda's meagre tips.
She put more lipstick on her lips
And tried to take me home.
I pulled my hand off her hips
And ran into the night.
I never went back to that place.
My tables were down to two.
I heard she vanished without a trace...
Wouldn't you?
2004.
STAY WITH ME
Will you stay with me if I stay with you
We'll find lots of things to do
walking down 9th Avenue
Just us two
I'll stay with you if you stay with me
When times get hard I won't hide in a tree
When times get tough beside you I'll be
You and me
Will you stay with me if I stay with you,
Sometimes we fight yeah sometimes we're through
The other day in the diner I thought i'd lost you
But I couldn't let go it was scary but true
I'll stay with you if you stay with me
Let's just admit it we never agree
Let's just admit it this ships's on the sea
And there's no turning back let's try again shall we
Shall we...
2004
Johnny Comes Home
Uncle Johnny lived in Queens
Ten or twenty years ago
Took the train to work each day
And a carton of marlboros
Smoked each packet one by one
By sundown
McLoughlin's in Astoria
Was his favourite pub in town
Used to go there most weekends
And sometimes during the week
Uncle Johnny liked to live
To anybody he'd speak
0n the corner of the dtreet
0n the subway to Times Square
0n the Bell Atlantic canteen line
Everyone knew him there
Took a plane across the pond
Each June of July
Drove a car out west then
Into the mountains high
Just to see the old rock again
The rock where he was born
The house is now an old brick wall
Where cattle graze each morn
'What have I come back to'
He asks himself 'just what
It's just an acre of barren land'
He says 'no more than that'
Invites me to the local pub
We sit down for a drink
Ten pints later my mother comes
Johnny gives me a wink
'You shouldn't be in the pub like that'
She says 'you should be in bed'
'There's time enough for sleeping'
Says my uncle 'when we're dead'
At the airport he always sheds a tear
He just hates going back home
He's got a wife and daughter there
His beerbelly has grown
He'll be back just another year
We'll do the same thing again
Doesn't say goodbye walking up the ramp
In his white suit and sad grin
Back to McLoughlin's and Atlantic bell
Back to the subway to Queens
Back to his cartons of marlboro
Back to his new world dreams
March 2006.
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