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. |
Tiny Heroes
02:00
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Small world, tiny heroes,
Tiny minds with big ideas.
Same programme on every channel,
Same channel on every screen.
Fear is the way they start our wars,
Greed is what tiny heroes fight for,
Ignorant minds and bully dreams,
Egos that go on and on and on
Like tiny heroes do.
One world, one future,
Everybody has to play a part.
Don't need no tiny heroes,
Playground bullies with shit for hearts.
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2. |
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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3. |
Leave Me Alone
04:25
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Leave me alone
But don't leave me alone
Hi ... so you're home
Are you happy today?
I'm nervous alone,
Scared that you'll make me pay
You don't tell me in words,
You never could say
Why you need to be cruel
When you love me this way
This way
This way
I don't want to feel
The firm slap of your hand
The kiss of your kick
The warmth of your cigarette stubbed on my skin
I don't want to know
That our love's still alive
Through the bruises and blood
And the caring caress of your fist on my ribs
Leave me alone
But don't leave me alone
Then when you have gone
And I crawl to the phone
I tell them I tripped
While at home all alone
I'll tell them I slipped
And I injured myself
Banging my head
On the edge of that shelf
That shelf
That shelf
I don't want to leave but I don't want to stay
I don't like the pain when you love me this way
I know it's my fault, I know it's not you
I have the problem, it's your love that's true
Leave me alone
But don't leave me alone
They ask why I stay
When it happens again
And again and again
And again and again
I say I don't know
How I could survive
Without you beside me
To keep me alive
Alive
Alive
Anything's better than ... better than
Anything's better than ... better than
Anything's better than leaving
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4. |
Four Notes From Felix
02:36
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5. |
I Love You Live 2005
03:35
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The note I scrawled in lipstick on the bedroom wall
Crawled down the stairs and died unnoticed in the hall
I'd hoped it might get read, seems I'd scribbled it too small
It just said ... ooh I love you
We jostle for position in the never-ending queue
We both know where we're going, but when the circle's through
We're back to where we started and I'm still here next to you
You know it ... ooh I love you
I looked into the mirror but it laughed and turned away
Looking past the mirrors inside each others eyes
We both see lonely people living other peoples' lives
But if you're bored with theirs, you can always live in mine
Because ... ooh ... ooh I love ... ooh I love you
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6. |
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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7. |
You Took My Heart
03:04
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You didn't take the sun
You didn't take the beauty of the moon
You didn't take my life, though I wish you had
You didn't take my life when you went away
But you took my heart
Far away
And the place
Where it used to lay
Aches for you
Aches for you
Aches and aches and aches for you
You didn't take the breath from my body
And you left the sight in my eyes
You didn't take the feeling from my fingers
You should have cut them off and left me to die
How could you know how best to hurt me
Know how to maximise my pain
When did they teach you how to steal so
How to reveal so
how to conceal so
You didn't take my knives
You didn't take my credit card
You didn't take my telephone caller display
I know where to find you, and how to make you pay
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8. |
Mister Ryan
04:39
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Mister Ryan is on that train
And I don't know if he's coming back again.
Mister Ryan is on that train
And I don't know if he's ever coming back again.
Choose your partners for the dance,
Mark your cards and take your chances.
Mister Ryan took a chance on me.
In the french room after school,
Il m'a enseigné très bien toujours
We conjugated more than verbs.
Mister Ryan is on that train
And I don't know if he's ever coming back again.
Mister Ryan is on that train
And I don't know if that man is ever coming back again.
Each child holds the world's sure future
Promise of what is to come
Mr Ryan promised me the world.
Tomorrow becomes yesterday,
Promises may fade away, but
Now this child has a future of her own.
Mister Ryan is on that train
And I don't know if that man is ever coming back again.
Mister Ryan is on that train
And I don't know if that man will bring his lies back here again.
On the platform the future sounds
A distant diesel and I'm going down
Mister Ryan is on that train
And I don't know if he's ever coming back again.
Mister Ryan is on that train
And I don't know if that man is ever coming back again.
Mister Ryan is on that train
And I don't know if that man will bring his lies back here again.
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9. |
Spaceship Spirit
02:44
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10. |
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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11. |
Faith is a Strong Woman
03:12
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Faith is a strong woman
With a mind of her own
Faith is a strong woman
With a mind of her own
When you go down next time
Come up and show the world how you shine
Faith is a strong woman
With a mind of her own
Hope is the one reason
To keep pushing on
Hope is the one reason
To keep pushing on
Shrug off your broken chains
Put you forward foot out once again
Hope is the one reason
To keep pushing on
Love need no invitation
She come when she please
Love need no invitation
She come when she please
When I look in your eyes
All that's dead inside me comes alive
Love need no invitation
She come when she please
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12. |
Bones and Vinegar
02:02
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Don't like the taste of your forgiveness,
Too much bones and vinegar for me.
Don't like the taste of your forgiveness,
Too much bones and vinegar for me.
Well the bones stick in my throat
And the vinegar makes me choke
So I cannot taste the grace I need ...
... That's why I don't like the taste of your forgiveness,
Too much bones and vinegar for me.
Don't like the smell of your religion,
Too much dust and rust to justify me.
Don't like the smell of your religion,
Too much dust and rust to justify me.
Yeah the dust just makes me sneeze
And the rust make my joints seize
So I can't hold onto the grace I need ...
... That's why I don't like the smell of your religion,
Too much dust and rust to justify me.
Don't like the clothes you wear
Or the way you do your hair.
Don't like anything you do,
And honey, it's not me - it's you.
Better give that bones and vinegar to me.
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13. |
Brokenhearted
02:38
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You ask me if I'm brokenhearted
I thought you knew that Leos don't have hearts
Except on their sleeves.
You tell me you're sad to be leaving
Uh-huh - I know how hard it must be for you
To leave someone like me
But as you can see I smile through the tears I wear to help you bear the pain
Of walking out on a lover like me again
I couldn't have hurt you, you didn't complain
You tell me I'll soon find another
I tell you another will find me
Before you're down the stairs
You hope that I don't find it too hard
Huh! You found it too hard most every night
It's an easy goodbye
You say that I should show more feeling
'Cos you had lots of love to give to me
What's new? So do I
You ask how I keep myself smiling
I just carry a mirror around with me
And a photo of you
And as you can see I cry through the smiles I wear to help me bear the pain
Of watching another lover walk out again
You shouldn't have hurt me - it was only a game
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14. |
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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15. |
Give Us a Stone
05:59
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Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah ...
We've been waiting a long long time for some proof that you live your beliefs
Compassion or charity, a little love would give these troubled hearts some relief
We see confusion behind your eyes, and we wish we could ease your concern
You offered us more when we bought your lies, but that contract can never return
So you dole out condemnation: fear and threats as you try to control us
Still the same situation; five decades denying and prying and lying
So give us a stone
Yeah, go on, give us a stone
Don't offer us anything you might later have to disown
Just give us a stone
Something strange has been happening as we recognise your moral deceit
There's a new wind blowing faith and hope that finds an answering song in here
Nothing changes who we really are, we should never agree to hide away
Our riches and graces and wide-open spaces for a lie others want us to play
You can keep "straight and narrow"; it was always more narrow than straight
There's a wideness in mercy regulation can never negate or dictate or abate or deflate
When we get to the pearly gates and Saint Peter welcomes us in
There'll be a shining city just for us … built with your stones
You can keep "straight and narrow"; it was always more narrow than straight
There's a wideness in mercy regulation can never negate or dictate or abate or deflate
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16. |
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Outside adult time, deaf to authority,
a wide swathe of reserve thickly willowed
A magic place of secret springs and tangled tracks
forever cool under a high green canopy.
There we were sourcerers and knights,
daily seamstresses to our own myths,
becoming history in the forgotten forest of childhood.
There was a field, the corner of a kingdom,
a brown-grassed wilderness beyond the school gates.
We loitered intently on our way home,
beating the dry stalks with drier sticks,
scuffing the pale dust into the summer air,
scuffing the pale dust into the shimmering summer air,
lingering together in the secret forest of childhood.
My grandparents lived in another world, beside a river
where tall poplars and walnuts grew.
We burnt fallen leaves there in autumn,
dancing through the fragrant smoke with watering eyes.
In summer we explored together the green bounds
of the eely-weedy river,
long sun-splashed days in the hidden forest of childhood.
Won't you come; won't you come with me.
Won't you walk; won't you run with me.
Come back, walk back, run back through the years.
We will ride; we will roam again.
We will roll and reel and rule again.
We will dance and dare and delight to feel so new;
Just you, just me and just you
In the lost forests of childhood.
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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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