Get all 5 Leigh Harrison releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Happy Now?, Three Deck Wreck, January Road, Lean on the Angels, and Inappropriate Touching.
1. |
Lean on the Angels
04:30
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When you're on the high wire looking down
Your poise must be perfect
There's no casual strolling around
Each step is deliberate
You've paid for your safety
In focus and fear
But they won't last for long
Quit striving for control, and
Lean on the angels, angel
Watch over you
Lean on the angels, angel
Helping you through
When you're outside your comfort zone
You just have to lean on the angels, angel
When your confidence fades away
You slip from the wire
You're not falling in this world of speed, no
The ground's rising higher
You're travelling faster
Than the smell of your fear
But that will catch you soon
You're never in control, so
Lean on the angels, angel
Watch over you
Lean on the angels, angel
Helping you through
When you're outside your comfort zone
You just have to lean on the angels, angel
Well they told me you'd fallen at ten forty four
You'd been leant on by the worst of your demons
For far too long
At such a low ebb you could not get back to the well
But angels guided your footsteps
And sang you this song
No-one can be with you
Up there alone
So when your demons come
Forget about control, and
Lean on the angels, angel
Watch over you
Lean on the angels, angel
Helping you through
When you're outside your comfort zone
You just have to lean on the angels, angel
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2. |
Know Somebody
05:12
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Went into the supermarket
And some lady just scowled at me
Like I was a foreign lifeform
No-one she wanted to see
So I just smiled "hello" and
"Be sure you have a good day"
No-one's bigotry's going to rewire
What I do or think or say
Because I know somebody
I know somebody
Yeah I know somebody
I know somebody
Who really loves me, loves me
Who really loves me
Loves me, loves me
Who really loves me
During the job interview
He asked what I did in my own time
When I said I prayed and read scripture
He looked at me like God was a crime
"You wouldn't suit this job"
Was how he sent me on my way
You can't argue with prejudice,
But you can up straight and tall to say
When you invited us all
To your church Sunday morning,
were we to be
Your guests or your victims?
So your welcome was warm
But only initially
'Cos then you preached at us
As if we had some kind of disease
We don't need your hypocrisy
If that's all you've got,
then shove it please
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3. |
Low Ebb
05:01
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Seems the rain has come to visit me today
From its attitude I think it's here to stay
I don't know who invited it inside - too late to say
I'm at a low ebb, the tide is out today
I'm at a low ebb, there's nothing more to say
No matter how I try to launch it
There's no water to float my boat away
I'm at a low ebb today
This morning I bought flowers from the fruiterer
And arranged a vase in each and every room
But the colour and perfume are not enough today
To ease this gloom
Tides rise up and tides will fade away
All I can do is hold my dreams against the day
When the river flows all the way to the sea
And my hopes sail home to me
Now Wednesdays come and Wednesdays surely go
I avoid passing your street although I know
The feelings that you fanned into a blaze
Have cooled to a dull glow
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4. |
Back to the Well
04:28
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I'm coming
Back to the well
That nurtures my soul
Washing me pure
With the water of love
Cleaning away
All the dirt and the pain
Quenching my thirst
Coming back to the
Back to the
Back to the well
The well that makes me whole
I've tasted the cocktails
Of pleasure and deceit
They all left me bitter
Just their promise was sweet
So I am searching, searching, searching
For the well that is deep
I have no illusions
About where I've been
This desert is empty
No promised land here
Now I am thirsty thirsty thirsty
For the well that is real
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5. |
Howling at the Sun
04:43
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Take us back to the summer of seventy three
To a lambent evening on Rue Jolie
We were five up on a motorbike singing off-key
Yeah, they fetched the Akaroa constable
Dragged him from his black and white TV
To take our names and fix some blame for being too free
Howling at the sun
Dancing to a rhythm wiser, wider, wilder than the sea
Living with the wind
Laughing at the rules and bending what we couldn't break for free
Howling at the sun
On a family summer holiday
We ran away from home at fifteen
From Kaiteriteri we hitched and walked to Blenheim
But it froze and we had to turn ourselves in
The night in the cells was no game
In the morning the sergeant made us walk back the way we came
We were driving to Sumner in seventy six
To buy a bag or two from the man
Radio up, windows down in the summer sun
We were clean when the CIB busted in
But they strip-searched us just for fun
We lost our money and drove back home knowing we'd been done (Set up and done)
Well I heard from Pauline
She's a lawyer in Hamilton now
And Jamie's a priest somewhere in America, God knows how
Roni's a mother of four teenagers
And Ben's a policeman in Thames
We'd never have cut him in on the action if we'd known that then
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6. |
Loved You One Time
05:07
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I look for my horizon
And I find it in your eyes
Your smile is so unknowing, dear
It counters my disguise
If ever I needed a reason
To rebirth the hope I've known
You've given me that season
On your own
Met you one time
Knew you one time
Loved you one time
There never was beginning
You and I, we've always known these truths
They're stronger than the lust that flowers
And perfumes life with youth (stronger than youth)
There may be other worlds to sing in
But this one's where where you are
The bloom on this song would fade
Were you too far
Met you one time
Knew you one time
Loved you one time
Take all the gilt and plastic
Take all the instant pleasures
and toss them all away
Take all your airs and graces
Throw all that superficial bullshit
out today
Give me just the soft candle of your smile
In this world of hardened gray
And I will stay
Yeah, I will stay
Met you one time
Knew you one time
Loved you one time
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7. |
Walked Around the Corner
03:42
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I walked around the corner
To catch a number ten bus
I walked around the corner
There was no more to discuss
I took a ticket to the railway station
Said goodbye to "us"
I caught the train to J'ville
And cried all the way
Yeah, I caught the train to J'ville
Felt I could cry all day
Went into a church but
I found I could not pray
Phoned up my doctor
Said "Clare, I need a cure"
Phoned up my doctor
She sounded unsure
"It's not a disease, there's no script I can write,
You must endure"
So I visited my girlfriend
And we tore you apart
If you'd really been there
We'd have ripped out your heart
I realised at last you'd been no good for me
Right from the start
I made my way back home
With a heart of cold fire
I made my way back home
Knowing you are a liar
I walked in through the door and you said
"..."
I walked in through the door
And fell victim again to your desire
I walked around the corner
To catch a number ten bus
I walked around the corner
There was no more to discuss
I took a ticket to the Picton Ferry
I bought a ticket for us
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8. |
Faded Heart Café
05:51
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On the rocky road from me to you
About halfway between lost and found
Sits the faded heart cafe where the band always plays the blues
They play every day and they say
Ooh lady don't you come in here
With your face so long and the desert in your hair
You have to know, you have to show that your heart really cares
And your love may find you while you're waiting here
Now the drummer has no rhythm if she plays alone
But when the band lights up she's their metronome
Because the beat of the cafe is the beat of every heart as one
The feel is so real you could steal it
The trumpeter's a strumpet and she knows it too well
She'll blow anybody to the gates of hell
And back - yeah, even this band can't resist that call
It's near and it's clear and you hear it
The piano has been thinking, and it thought it was you
But minor key emotions make the piano-player blue
So when the band turns on she will sing her very heart away
So strong that you long to belong to the song
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9. |
Aotearoa
04:17
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Let us agree to stand as one
Astride these islands, a shining nation
The many colours of freedom
In Aotearoa
From peak to peak and coast to coast
From riverbank and bush-clad slope
We rise to serve the future's hope
In Aotearoa
Together strong as mighty totara
Many peoples, many creeds
In chorus with tangatawhenua
We raise one voice in unity
Our youth has bled in foreign fields
To stem the tide of tyranny
Our hearts are pledged to freedom's call
And Aotearoa
Let us agree to heal the past
And bend together to the task
Of building peace, that it may last
In Aotearoa
For this is our turangawaiwai
Wherever we were born or raised
We blend our differences with dignity
For Aotearoa
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10. |
Engloutie
07:30
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That love so strong and soft and supple so
Could lose itself in lazy, lonely landfall in
A shipwreck of desire and bony selfishness;
The murmurings of maybes, might-have-beens.
No reef, no storm, no siren singing no
We failed alone in quiet contempt of harbour failed ...
... reft and bereft, surrendered to our separate seas,
We drift in dark apartness to the shore.
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11. |
Back to the Well Reprise
01:07
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I leant on an angel last night unawares
"Perfect for you" flowed into my head
But while we were walking, walking walking
Not one word was said
I'm coming back to the well that nurtures my soul
washing me pure with the water of love
Cleaning away all the hurt and the pain
Quenching my thirst
Coming back to the well; the well that makes me whole
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Leigh Harrison New Zealand
Leigh Harrison started writing songs and producing other artists in the 1970s.
Two decades later
Leigh released "Inappropriate Touching" and "Lean On The Angels". A number of projects with other musicians followed before the retrospective "Three Deck Wreck" in 2007.
Leigh continues to write and record, and can be spotted performing live in and around Wanganui New Zealand.
... more
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