Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas Song (Boiled in Lead)

So, here's the lyrics to a song that I think says a lot for this Christmas season.


GO, MOVE, SHIFT
recorded by Boiled in Lead [1987]
from the collection OLD LEAD


Born in the middle of the afternoon
In a horse-drawn carriage on the old A5
The big twelve-wheelers shook my bed
"You can't stay here" the policeman said
"You'd better get born in someplace else
Move along, get along, move along, get along
Go! Move! Shift!"

Born in the tatty hoagan time [= ? potato picking time]
In a canvas tent by the [tatie field]
The farmer said "Your work's all done.
It's time that you were moving on.
You'd better get born in someplace else
Move along, get along, move along, get along
Go, Move, Shift."

Born in the common by a building site
Where the ground lay rutted by the trailer wheels
The local people said to me: "You lower the price of property
You better get born someplace else
Move along, get along, move along, get along
Go. Move. Shift."

Born in the back of a blackthorn hedge
Where the white hoarfrost lay all around
No Eastern Kings came bearing gifts
Instead the order came to shift

You'd better get born in someplace else.
Move along, get along, move along, get along
Go, Move, Shift.

The eastern sky, it was hung with stars
But one shone brighter than all the rest.
The Wise Men came, so stern and strict,
And they brought the orders to evict:
"You better get born in someplace else
Move along, get along, move along, get along
Go! Move! Shift!"


So wagon-, tent-, or trailer-born
Last month, last year, or in far-off days
Born near or thousand miles away
There's always men nearby who'll say
"You better get born in someplace else
Move along, get along, move along, get along.
Go. Move. Shift."

Move along, get along, move along, get along.
Go. Move. Shift.

1 comment:

Andrew said...

Oddly, I have driven down the old A5 three times over Christmas.