Get all 8 Daniel J Townsend releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of A Fire on a Hill, Soon I Will Sing You a Song, Broken Voices and The Eyes Of Men, Midland Highway: The Musical, The Podcast: A Tale of Two Cities, A Tale of Two Cities, World Until Yesterday, and Iscariot.
1. |
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The boy don’t grow up to become a man
The boy grows up and becomes an old boy
You’ve got to go through the desert to find the promised land
You ever been to the desert, son?
Thirteen years old and nothing on the evening TV
Me and my mates decided to ride
Helmets hung redundant from handlebars of Cash Converted pushbikes
We wheeled under the dying of the day and into the dawn of something new
Four kids with all the time, hungry for another life.
Alleyways and cul-de-sacs and bored suburban streets,
We rode past rows and rows of closed windows,
Blue light glowing through curtains torn and yawning,
Flicker and flash in dumb prime-time unison
Every home, the same old show
Houses identical
Inside and out
We wondered what the walls were for
Roundabouts and U-turns and roads that roamed in circles
We ended near to where we’d started but now the sky was cloaked in black
And so we sat there in the gutter,
Bikes behind us, orphaned on the lawn
And we watched the TV in the lounge across the street through someone’s opened blinds,
The same sights we had been denied by that nighttime bike ride,
Pictures moving without sound,
The same in every house
There, on the edge of town
But we were young, and we were hungry
Helmets hung from handlebars, a million stars reflecting in the chrome
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2. |
Ephemeral Eternal
02:08
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Ephemeral eternal,
Beautiful and small
We are high in someone else’s sky
Until the day we fall
We are tangled in the wires
That buzz above electric roads
We are tied up in the branches
Of tired highway ghosts
We are stranded where we landed
In a field far from the town
But we were made by loving hands
And we are never far from found
Ephemeral eternal,
Beautiful and small
We are kites in someone else’s sky
Until the day we fall
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3. |
Scared of Men
00:24
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I’ve always been scared of men
We who watch women as though no one is watching us
Drinkers unthinking, bent elbow defense,
We do not see that the glass is empty.
Behind the bar,
she pours another.
She has always been watching.
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4. |
Maryanne, Marry Me
02:25
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Maryanne, here I am and you are over there
Pulling Guinness from the tap and pushing back your hair
Every time you walk away, I watch you from behind
I’m just a little shy, I’ll have another pint
Maryanne, make me merry, marry me and we will be
Everybody’s envy as we’re walking down the street
I’ll pick you as my true love if you’ll pick me off the floor
I’m drinking to the one that I adore
I’ll love you in the afternoon, I’ll love you in the night
In the dapple day you are the apple of my eye
When I hear you laugh you know it makes me want to cry
I’m just a little shy, I’ll have another pint
Maryanne, make me merry, marry me and we will be
Everybody’s envy as we’re walking down the street
I’ll pick you as my true love if you’ll pick me off the floor
I’m drinking to the one that I adore
Marry me!
Maryanne, I’m your man; you need to know it’s true
Now that I am stumbling and seeing two of you
You’re looking twice as good as I watch you from behind
I’m just a little shy, I’ll have another pint
Maryanne, make me merry, marry me and we will be
Everybody’s envy as we’re walking down the street
I’ll pick you as my true love if you’ll pick me off the floor
I’m drinking to the one that I adore
Maryanne, make me merry, marry me and we will be
Everybody’s envy as we’re walking down the street
I’ll pick you as my true love if you’ll pick me off the floor
I’m drinking to the one that I adore
I’m drinking to the one that I adore
Marry me!
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5. |
Broken Voices
01:54
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Broken voices is a kid alone
In the Alley Of The Shadow with an evil fear
Tensed and tight,
hunched and hurting in hat and hoodie
Shallow-rapid-breaths-like-a-deer-after-the-hunt
Guttural fury, like a panther denied
Clenched jaws open
To roar
To scream
To howl a single sound of his own
But Broken Voices has a throat on loan
The streets echo only the sounds of another;
Hand-me-down curses,
The sins of the father in the skin of the son
Broken Voices walks that alley alone
Barking the only nouns he knows
A secondhand growl from some place far away
Jungle unseen,
Both hunter and prey
A secondhand growl from some place far away
Jungle unseen,
Both hunter and prey
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6. |
Alone and Unassisted
03:09
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“Alone and unassisted,” that’s what they said
The kid from Snowy River and the colt from Old Regret
The stockmen tell the tale of how he did it on his own
Unseen by eyes of men,
Unassisted and alone
Clancy’s gone out drovin’ and we don’t know where he are
He’s out there livin’ lonely beyond the fences and the farms
Ya know a man could die out in that sun and none of us would ever know
Unseen by eyes of men,
Unassisted and alone
He was a son without a father and a dozen mouths to feed,
Ned Kelly was a man before he’d even reached his teens
It’s a heavy weight to bear, being bulletproof
And only 25 years old,
Unassisted and alone
“When a beaten man’s discovered with a bullet in his brain
They post mortem him and try him and they say he was insane” (Henry Lawson)
But when you feel you’re going nowhere, round here that’s just how we roll
Where the Snowy River flows and out past Clancy’s Overflow
And in our city townhouse rows and any place you choose to go
You can cut him down or lock him up or wait for him to blow
He would run with wild horses down hills that would break your neck
He would risk his precious life for you to bring your pony back
Don’t you let him walk away, go and shake him by the hand
Ask him his name, just get him talking
Introduce him to the men
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7. |
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I am literally chilling with illiterate villains,
Kicking with the children that the system is missing.
They say “This kid is a splinter in the skin of the fingers,
“He’s a weapon that glistens…”
Nah.
Listen to the lesson:
Let me paint you a picture with the pigment of words
It’s a mess in reverse and it ends in this neat little verse
But it starts with the first kind of chaos in the outer suburbs
Where they’re growing the herb superb
But cooking up worse
Empty trackie bums in need of a coin
And if you’re pointing the finger then you’re missing the point
’Cause there’s a face and a fist,
There’s a blade and a wrist,
And there’s a hungry pack of lone wolves dressed up like kids.
Spin the wheels,
Light the flame,
Let it go:
Burning car.
But which came first, egg or chicken?
Well, there’s little legs kicking
And it’s hard to be winning when your mumma’s sitting, drinking
And your daddy’s dead stiff from the needle he’s sticking
This kid is a victim since before the beginning.
Where the home in the valley meets the damp, dirty prison, right?
No curtains on the windows but the heaters are grilling,
The winter winds are hitting when they’re getting the bill
And there’s nothing there for selling
So they’re getting to stealing
Anything four-wheeling and they’re hooked on the feeling
And now the circles are spinning until nobody is winning.
The circles are spinning
and nobody is winning.
Spin the wheels,
Light the flame,
Let it go:
Burning car.
It feels like thirst with a broken bottle
It sounds like a war, but it’s the roar of a throttle
It’s the circle work,
The dust, the dirt,
The hurt, the words you’ve heard since birth,
The fear you’ve learned
How does it feel now you’re gripping the wheel?
That gas pedal is a poet and their ears are filled
With the sound of a little wretch lost and found
You can hear the sirens singing on their way from town
You are hunted down, cause you are wanted now
You are wanted now!
Here comes a room of your own with a lock on the door,
And a plate full of food
You never asked for more, have you?
It’s grown-ups who look out for you
It’s kids who sound and look like you
And you’re a single cell
And now they’re ringing the bell
It’s a sentence for the kid who never learned to spell.
So, I am literally chilling with illiterate villains,
Kicking with the children that the system keeps pissing on
They say “This kid is a splinter in the skin of the fingers.”
No.
That kid is a blessing.
A burning car is a lesson.
Listen.
Broken Voices lives in the last house
on the last street
in the last suburb on your way out of town
Broken glass sparkles on the road
and on the footpath
and in the dead grass out front
Broken down in the driveway is a Falcon with shattered windows
flattened tyres
black ink swear words, penned by little hands
Broken home, house
broken and entered
Broken Voices is locked inside with his big TV,
Shooting strangers
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8. |
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I don’t need you to tell me times are getting tough
I’m turning into stone
I’m turning into stone
When everything is moving, the world is spinning fast
I know I’ll finish last
I know I’ll finish last
I’m turning into stone
I’m turning into stone
Start your engines
Accelerate, brake, don’t indicate
Accelerate, brake, don’t indicate
Accelerate, brake, don’t indicate
Accelerate, brake…
I feel I’m going nowhere
But every other night
I start her up, warm her up, rev her up, buckle up, turn the music up until it numbs my mind
I start her up, warm her up, rev her up, buckle up, turn the music up until it numbs my mind
Race you to the red light
I’ll be alright
I’ll race you to the red light
I’ll be alright
I’ll race you to the red light
I’ll be alright
Gonna race you to the red light
I’ll be alright
Race you to the red light
Race you to the red light
Race you to the red light
Race you to the red light
Race you to the red light
Race you to the red light
Race you to the red light
Race you to the red light tonight
Gonna race ya
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9. |
Our Father
03:09
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I will find the place that you call home
I will make sure that you are alone
I will find the room that has your bed
No words will be said
You will be completely unaware
You will say there was nobody there
You will say an angel told you so
You will never know
Our father
Elsewhere eternal
Mountaintop distant
Devils in the desert
Your sons are naked, nailed and crowned
Between the bye-and-bye and the ground
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10. |
Has Anybody Seen My Son?
04:46
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Has anybody seen my son?
My name is Adam
I’ve farmed this island since the beginning
It was Eden back then,
Apple orchards as far as the apple of my eye could see
My wife, my Pink Lady,
Her name was Eve
Back then it was just the two of us
With the birth of our son, there was three, and then four.
Abel and Cain
From the time they could walk they were apple farmers too,
Planting and pruning and picking slugs off the trunks
Little seedlings, the pair of them
Then saplings,
Their roots deep in the dirt that made me
The dirt that made us.
Everything changed the day some snake in a suit came knocking,
The slick son of someone in the city stepped or slithered onto our sacred soil;
Whispered sweet Satanic nothings into the ear of my love:
Sell! Subdivide!
These rows of green leaves shall be leafy green streets
With rose gardened new homes for those who are mobile with money,
Strangers from beyond the mountain.
Sell!
She tasted his fruit then and there
And the seed was sown.
She left me her ring and took half of my ribcage,
Half my land,
Half my life,
Half a paradise can be a complete hell, you know
A house divided is home to no-one:
Skyscrapers versus the sky.
Money versus the mountain.
Rivers and streams versus electricity.
Our green Eden was halved by a highway with hire cars,
With her over there in her heat-pumped air and the boys and me over here
She lives in a building as big as a town and wants to cut all the living things down,
Dig all the golden things out of the ground
And sip the cider sweet from the boys and me
We were knee-deep in mud,
In the ash and the dust that made us
Now, living hand-to-mouth is fine when you’ve got the time,
But highways have a wild way of winding into your mind
Suburbs sprawl into your soul and find you wanting
While Abel was working,
Cain was walking that highway inside to a bigger, better, faster life
A room with a view
An island divided
They fought like the sand and the sea,
Like my wife and me,
Like grass beneath the city concrete
And at the end of the day, Cain left his brother slain
Blood in the mud that sustained them
And under cover of night he crossed to the other side of that highway,
Disappeared into the dream.
Now Abel sleeps not far from here,
Cain is sleepless God-knows-where
And I am digging and digging and digging,
Waist-deep in the land
The land in me;
In the lines of my hands and deeper still:
A man made of mud
Yes, this Eden is me
In each seed is an orchard
And I am that seed
But who will lay me in the dirt?
Who will cover me with earth?
That highway is loud
Has anybody seen my son?
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11. |
Wait, Is That The Rain?
02:10
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Hey, is that the wind calling?
Wait, is that the rain falling?
The boy don’t grow up to be a man
The boy grows up and becomes an old boy
You’ve got to go into the desert to reach the Promised Land.
The land of milk and honey?
Well, that’s the land of cows and bees, you know?
Early morning milking, cow shit and bee stings
Better get walking, son
Hey, there goes the day, darling.
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12. |
She Walks
01:45
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She walks, Monday morning leaves her room
Feet to the street where she becomes the view
The eyes, the eyes, The Eyes Of Men
Men’s eyes in the bakery watch as she makes her way
Past café wide windows where the eyes of men follow
Parking inspector’s dark glasses reflect her
Newsagent front page: “Six Months For Rapist”
The headlines are men’s eyes she’s learned to defy
In her mind she is watching The Eyes Of Men watching her
Walking and walking
And stranded again
Traffic Light Man,
Standing wide-legged,
Glowing bright red and it’s
“Warning! Stay! Do not! When I say!”
And on every corner the eyes, the eyes…
And here am I
On the other side of This Great Divide
Her eyes and mine won’t align
(And you know why)
When The Eyes say stop and The Eyes say go
And The Eyes in the cafés and the shop windows
When the front pages tell you you’re on your own
Because silence is a kind of consent, you know…
She folds her arms across a Sacred Heart
Shield and cross on her blazer
Teenager
She looks left
Looks right
Not a car in sight
She walks
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13. |
Push Away The Broken Day
02:52
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14. |
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Broken Voices and The Eyes of Men walk barefoot on sand where the ocean meets the land
Broken Voices in hat and hood,
hands in pockets,
mind in a long-ago moment permanently here
The Eyes of Men watch silently side on, beside the sea, lanyard with his ID
That’s me.
Broken Voices’ fingers form fists when words don’t come easy.
From milk and honey to blood and thunder, a house on fire and that dog, that dog on a chain…
Step
Step
Step
Step
Broken Voices and The Eyes of Men walk barefoot on sand
The waves hushhh
and
shushhh
like a father should
as the tide pulls away
like fathers do
Broken Voices sniffs, sighs, then speaks like a sunrise, like a new morning:
“This was a really nice walk, Dan.”
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15. |
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I’m skimming stones upon the ocean,
Horizon dying in the sun
It sets on everyone
I find myself here by the water when I lose myself on land
I’m skimming stones upon the ocean,
A lonesome-hearted man
I got so much I need to tell you
That’s why I’m silent by the sea
And you won’t hear from me
Ash is falling like a memory; long grass burning far away
I got so much I need to tell you
But I don’t know what to say
My heart speaks a foreign tongue but I know what’s going on,
So, I sit here in the cheap seats until the opera is done
Hey, you know what I’m going to do?
I’m going to take my people to the desert
Where the eagle’s circling round
Where there’s water underground
I’ve been standing on the edge of everything, that’s why I’ve got nothing to say
So, I’m going to take my people to the desert
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Daniel J Townsend TAS, Australia
"A head full of stories, a soul old enough to have lived them, and a heart young enough to believe in their power to move us."
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