The Undiscovered Tom Robinson

Tom Robinson
Compilation (1996)

1) Chance
2) Congo Blue
3) Sorry
4) Driving
5) DDR
6) Roaring
7) Castaway
8) Hot Dog
9) Disrespect
10) Loved
11) Days
12) Blood Brother
13) Yuppy Scum
14) More Lives Than One
15) My Own Sweet Way
16) The Brits Come Rolling back
17) Green
18) Fifty
19) Cold Cold ground
20) Fool To Myself

1) Chance

If I had my chance I'd do it all over again
If I had my chance I'd do it all over again
Been treated badly, been abused
Been suicidal and confused
But if I had my chance I'd do it all over again

I was seventeen when I made my way to the smoke
I was seventeen, I was homeless, hungry and broke
I hustled subways for a bite
And crashed in the cardboard city at night
But if I had my chance I'd do it all over again

I asked for change and you smiled, the day that we met
I asked for change - you offered me food and a bed
You gave me back my selfrespect
Yeah, loving you's one thing I'll never regret
And if I had my chance I'd do it all over again

You weren't cute but you knew what I wanted to do
You weren't cute but you knew what I wanted from you
Where you took me I'd never been
Or dreamed of in my wildest dreams
And if I had my chance I'd do it all over again

Since you've been gone I can't sleep easy at night
I've got this cough and I can't sleep easy at night
The friends we had are gone and dead
But you're one friend I can never forget
And if I had my chance I'd do it all over again

2) Congo Blue
(Robinson/Phillips/Fenner/Burt)

Smalltown city on a weekday evening
The pubs are shutting and the streets are heaving
Looking for a little bit of late night twisting
Hear the muffled thumping of a big sound system
Bass in the bowels of a crowded bar
Squeeze through the beefcake steaming in the dark
My friends are restless, talking by the door
But I'm dazzled by the flash and razzle on the dancefloor

Blue, blue, Congo Blue...
Blue, blue, Congo Blue...

Sweating and deafened in the strobing light
Transfixed by a vision in the northern night
Your face so radiant, full of animation
Dancing and glancing with a hint of flirtation -
Knowing, and flowing with amazing grace
Shirt hanging down, flapping over your waist
Can't help laughing, got a hard attack - cos you're
Grinning and singing and you're looking right back, I said

Blue, blue, Congo Blue... do you really mean it
Blue, blue, Congo Blue... are you laughing at me

Never imagined I'd run into you here
Here of all places after all these years
All my life I've been waiting, aching
Too many nights of searching, hurting
Summoning the courage up to bridge that gap
Walk right over and begin to chat, just
Wishing I was fitter now, wishing I was younger
Wishing I could hide my raging hunger

Blue, blue, Congo Blue... do you really mean it
Blue, blue, Congo Blue... are you laughing at me

Save the last dance for me...
Save your last dance for me

3) Sorry
(Robinson/Phillips/Fenner/Burt)

You ask if I'm sorry, well let me say this
Been here at the bottom since I was a kid
My mother was sorry when I saw the day
She just couldn't help it, I'm sorry to say

Well it seemed as if everyone else had the right
To bite any pieces of me that they liked
They beat me and hurt me till I ran away
And if they were sorry, they just didn't say

Sorry... sorry
My mother was sorry when I saw the day
Sorry... sorry
She just couldn't help it, I'm sorry to say

I gatecrashed a party in downtown LA
With pretty young people, successful and gay
I tied 'em all up - then I blew them away
I just couldn't help it, I'm sorry to say

Sorry... sorry
I tied them all up then I blew them away
Sorry... sorry
I just couldn't help it, I'm sorry to say

You hordes of reporters and video crews
I don't understand all these words that you use
I question myself as you ask me your whys
I don't know how to deal with the sorry thing, guys...

Well I understand rules, regulations and force
Procedure is easy, I understand war
I understand angry day after day
But sorry's beyond me I'm sorry to say

Sorry... sorry
I understand angry day after day
Sorry... sorry
Sorry's beyond me
I'm sorry to say

4) Driving

Seems like yesterday you first started
As a rodeo cowboy in the big bull market
As the enterprise culture reached its pinnacle
Driven by an upbeat privatised miracle
Life is hard, though and times are leaner
For the banker, the broker and the window cleaner
And nobody's straw's shorter than yours
As the cuts get tougher and the streets get meaner

When the dividend of a divided nation
Is stepping over bodies in the underground station
The just rewards of the high and haughty
Are the P-45 and the UB40
In a downward spiral with zero option
You're fleeced in a deal of your own concoction
As the panic grows you suddenly know how it feels
As the boss says 'We're letting you go now'

Ain't gonna be in that driving seat no more
Ain't gonna be in that driving seat no more

So hang up your braces and your paisley tie
You've lost your shirt, now you're wondering why
Your fairweather friends have all disowned you
And only your banker and the bailliffs phone you
Repossessing everything they burst the bubble, you
Hand back the keys to your BMW,
Lose your home with the sky high loan
And the lows on the Dow Jones cease to trouble you

Ain't gonna be in that driving seat no more
Ain't gonna be in that driving seat no more

Well maybe you could lecture on management structure
Or work part time as a driving instructor
But the business college is undersubscribed
And the motoring school's on an economy drive
You become a expert in adversity
Enrolled in the Hard Knocks University
Students everywhere beg and borrow, now
Praying they can pay it all back tomorrow, now

Ain't gonna be in that driving seat no more
Ain't gonna be in that driving seat no more

5) DDR

I grew up living in a Welfare State
Just the other side of the Brandenburg Gate
It's called East Germany everywhere
But locally we know it as the DDR

Waiting for tomorrow, living for today
Living in the DDR
Sitting on a time bomb, we don't care
We're living for today
Living in the DDR

It's a people's paradise, you better believe it
Every other week people dying to leave it
Trucks full of Russkis carrying guns
We'll be first in the fire when the third war comes

Waiting for tomorrow, living for today
Living in the DDR
Sitting on a time bomb, we don't care
We're living for today
Living in the DDR

After the party when the Wall came down
They closed all the factories in my home town
Shops full of everything money can buy
Skint and miserable, wishing that I
Was still living in the DDR

Waiting for tomorrow, living for today
Living in the DDR
Sitting on a time bomb, we don't care
We're living for today
Living in the DDR

6) Roaring

One roaring morning at the break of day
Me and my buddy were still wired awake
Though the fog was freezing and the streets were cold
We went hell for leather up the coastal road
Stopped the Honda on a cliff - my buddy threw up, I rolled a spliff
In the glorious autumn of our roaring days

The mist made haloes in our hair
As we came down slowly through the market square
A fresh fruit trader gave us one plum each
We sucked and swaggered till we hit the beach
Shouting down the esplanade
Two shifty misfits acting hard
In the glorious autumn
Of our Roaring Days

The tide comes in, the tide goes out
We go our separate ways
Our roaring twenties came and went
And vanished in a haze
Driven, drunken, discontent
Our oats were sown, our savings spent
In the glorious autumn... of our Roaring Days

In a jacked-up Datsun gleaming on the slip
Saw a teenage greaser eating eel and chips
We admired his styling - how we laughed and lied
Till he asked my buddy if we'd like a ride
Radio blazing Queen and Quo - all greased up, no place to go
In that glorious autumn of our Roaring Days

We were deaf and selfish - we were smug and dumb
And our bleak mid-winter, it was still to come
My buddy turned ugly and so did I
He took my money and never said goodbye
But in my daydreams now and then I long to wake up once again
In the glorious autumn of our roaring days

7) Castaway

As a child I was terrified of the mighty ocean
When I heard the distant urging of the brine
Though I cried at night as I tried to fight the emotion
That bitter cup of tears was truly mine

But when I came to taste the spray on the waterfront
I lost my fear and shrugged away my shame
And I stowed away on a transatlantic freighter
With the tempest raging in my every vein

A man may spend his life afloat, a man may live ashore
I'll cast away and take my chance at sea

There were stormy days and roaring nights a-plenty
In the salty fellowship of boys and men
They were tough and true, they were glassy-eyed and reckless
With a blazing thirst I drank and drank again

We crossed the line, explored the depths of danger
Exceeding every fantasy and dream
No landsman with his stifling horizons
Could ever guess the wonders we had seen

A man may spend his life afloat, a man may live ashore
I'll cast away and take my chance at sea
I've braved the waves in an open boat and I know these waters well
I'll man your lifeboat any time you need

Way, cast away from the restless aching
Way, cast away - gonna leave it all behind
Way, far away where the waves are breaking
Way, far away - where the ocean meets the sky

Well a ship must tack and a man must follow his compass
On an unknown shore I foundered in the sand
Met a salty girl with a sailor's gait and her eyes were a greeny blue
And she knew the ropes like the back of her sunburned hand

We danced a hornpipe on the beach to the sound of the seething swell
We drank and sank exhausted on the strand
Till I slipped my anchor, quit my ship and became a castaway
To savour the embrace of her native land

A man may spend his life afloat, a man may live ashore
A man may marry and still put out to sea
We brave the waves in our open boat and we know these waters well
We'll man your lifeboat any time you need

Way, cast away from the restless aching
Way, cast away - gonna leave it all behind
Way, far away where the waves are breaking
Way, far away - where the ocean meets the sky

8) Hot Dog
(Robinson/Phillips/Fenner/Burt)

I saw you one morning and I knew you were the one for me
Yes I saw you one morning and I knew you were the one for me
A certain little something in the way you moved
Jumpy as a puppy on a hot tin roof
Well I saw you in the morning and I knew you were the one for me

You were tasty, you were tempting and I knew you were the one for me
I swallowed and I followed cos I knew you were the one for me
A certain little something in the way you smiled
Telegraphed a message that was weird and wild
You were beefy and delicious and I knew you were the one for me

Hot Dog - so brown and smooth
Hot Dog - so tender too
Hot Dog - you know it's true:
I saw you in the morning and I knew you were the one for me

It was dangerous and crazy but I knew you were the one for me
It was seedy and illegal but I knew you were the one for me
I held you harder as you won the race -
Ketchup and mustard all over the place
It was over in a moment but I knew you were the one for me

Hot Dog - so brown and smooth
Hot Dog - I want you too
Hot Dog - you know it's true
I was horny in the morning and I knew you were the one for me

9) Disrespect
(Robinson/Phillips/Fenner/Burt/Scott/Lallaman)

Well the crunch is coming
And it won't be long
You think you know the future
But you're so so wrong
For love and comfort
You can lean on me
But your life's your own -
Your own responsibility

You sit there wasted and you drink all day
You cruise the kennels and go all the way

Please please please - don't disrespect yourself

Well the crunch is coming
You abuse your brain
Your God-given body
And your own good name
Take the risk of winning
Stand up, be strong
To those brutal losers
You gotta prove them wrong

You've been mistreated and you've been abused
But that's all over if you only choose - I said

Please please please - Please please please -
Please please please - don't disrespect yourself

Relax... Everything's alright
Right here, right now
in this room tonight
Take a great leap forward
Walk on, be free
I believe in you
Can you believe in me?

Take my arm, I wanna touch your hand
Wanna hold your shoulder, I can be your man

Please please please - Please please please -
Please please please - don't disrespect yourself

10) Loved

Don't want to meet your family, I don't want to know your friends
I don't even need to know if this story has an end
I don't want to get no card on Valentine's day
Please don't write me letters, babe, inviting me to stay
Don't want to spend my evenings staring at the clock
Don't wanna be a-worrying every time your parents knock
But this sweet song within me is needing to be heard
We both know the rhythm, now come on and say the word

I just wanna be loved by you
Loved by you...
I wanna be loved by you

Don't want no big commitment, don't wanna plan our lives
Don't need no fancy dinners by romantic candlelight
This fire inside me is burning to get out
I don't care who hears me - I just wanna shout

I just wanna be loved by you
Loved by you...
I wanna be loved by you

Our love don't need maturing like some fine old claret wine
Let's uncork the bottle, now - I'm tired of wasting time

I just wanna be loved by you
Loved by you...
I wanna be loved by you

Lyric by Steve Gribben, TR and Brian Mulligan

11) Days

It was in the days of discontent
Of anarchy and rage
When Babylon was burning
That the music came of age
The bands were fast and furious
Commitment was the word
The future still unwritten
In the days that changed the world

It started out by word of mouth
That great unholy din
From auntie's midnight rambler
And the NME within
An empire seemed to tremble
As the revolution stirred
The pistols they were loaded
In the days that changed the world

Days that changed the world...
The days that changed the world...
The pistols they were loaded in
the days that changed the world

When Ziggy got his big idea
And Slowhand showed his cards
We rallied to the carnival
And partied in the parks
Fat Martin and his bullyboys
From marching were deterred
When black and white united in
The days that changed the world

But later on the telethon
The stars came out to play
The global conscience came alive
To feed the world that day
And after famous, rich and laid
The saint became a sir
He earned his reputation in
A day that changed the world

The days that changed the world...
A day that changed the world...
He earned his reputation in
a day that changed the world

The songs have been forgotten
And the Verses have been burned
While dirty Mags and Rupert's rags
Have left no stone unturned
With talking vermin crawling out
In colours new unfurled
Like you and I they all survived
The days that changed the world

Now Johnny's wearing Mambo suits
With thinning orange hair
And Joseph in his combat coat's
a denim millionaire
And me - so glad to be a dad
and living with a girl -
I hardly ever think about
The days that changed the world

Days that changed the world...
The days that changed the world...
I hardly ever think about
The days that changed the world

But sometimes in the dead of night
I dream of other men
Of Rolan Adams, Rodney King
and Jean Marie Le Pen,
The many friends who passed away
Whose voice was never heard...
Humanity's still waiting for

The days that change the world

Days that change the world...
The days that change the world...
Humanity's still aching for
The days that change the world

12) Blood Brother

Ben was born in Lincoln County and he grew up in the fens
Teased and bullied by his brothers in a family of ten
Sociable and easygoing - helping out around the home
While his inner life ticked on like an unexploded bomb
Just waiting for his moment

Going shopping with his mother like a whippet on the leash
Always straining at the traces - out of sight and out of reach
And anytime the house was empty he would work out on his own
Disappearing on his bike in the middle of the night
And stealing from the kitchen

Open your eyes...
Open your eyes... here I am
I'm your blood brother

Well he saved up his allowance and he studied like a slave
Worked his passage to Australia to try and make his getaway
I was single when I met him - he was bitter and nineteen
And he so reminded me of someone I used to be
A long long time ago

Open your eyes... I said
Open your eyes... here I am
I'm your blood brother

Now the years have been and vanished and I've lost a lot of friends
I do twenty at the pool then take my kid to school
Since the party had to end;
But at a benefit last Sunday we met again as if by fate
I barely recognised Ben when he grabbed me again
And whispered in my ear:

Open your eyes... he said
Open your eyes... here I am
I am your blood brother

13) Yuppy Scum

Heads up in the clouds, noses in our beers
Sat on a bench outside the Station Inn
Me and my friend JoJo with our good friend Pierre
Drink to the passing of our teens
Jojo thinks he's Jean Genet - Pierre he's Casanova
And me, the most modest of the three
Me, I simply see myself as me
And late at night we'd see the professional classes
Leaving the hotel restaurant
We'd show our good manners and we'd show them our asses
And then we'd chant:

Yuppie scum - smug and dumb
The richer they are, the thicker they get
Yuppie scum - smug and dumb
As they get old they all forget

Heads up in the clouds, noses to the grind
Sat on a bench outside the Station Inn
Me and my friend JoJo with our good friend Pierre
Drink to the way our lives had been
Jean Genet's forgotten his words
And Casanova's on his knees
And me, as for good old modest me
Me, I'm as drunk as only I can be
And late at night we'd see the professional classes
Leaving the hotel restaurant
We'd show them our good manners and we'd show them our asses
And then we'd chant:

Yuppie scum - smug and dumb
The richer they are, the thicker they get
Yuppie scum - smug and dumb
As they get old they all forget

Heads up in the clouds, champagne every night
To celebrate our great success
JoJo he's a broker, Pierre's at the bar
We've all done well I must confess
Jojo still talks of Jean Genet
But Casanova's just a book on the shelf
And me, as for good old modest me
Me, me I talk only of myself
And every night outside the Station Inn, Inspector
Whenever we leave this restaurant
Those little assholes always drop their pants
And then they chant:

Yuppie scum - smug and dumb
The richer they are, the thicker they get
Yuppie scum - smug and dumb
As they get old they all forget

Adapted by TR from Jacques Brel's 'Les Bourgeois'

14) More Lives Than One

Day after day I've been living in dread
Cheating at work and lying in bed
No hard feelings, just a bit of regret
I could have been lying in your arms instead
I'm glad that I married and I love my kids
I wish I'd never met you
But I'm glad that I did
Now I'm sitting in the middle
Trying to fit in more lives than one

Day after day I've been slipping away
Playing the games I don't want to play
Sooner or later there's a reckoning day
I'm so, so sorry - but what can I say?
I feel like a heel but I can't decide
Between the life I always wanted
And the loving that I like
So I'm sitting in the middle
And it's hitting more lives than one
It's a bitter situation
And it's taken more lives than one

15) My Own Sweet Way

I grew up on the Gaza strip
A pirate and a clown
And no-one in authority
Could ever grind me down

Been upside down and inside out
More cynical than sinning
And if you think you know me well
I'm only just beginning...

Hey, hey... I can't stay
I'm gonna go my own sweet way
Living life from day to day
No matter what you do or say
Hey, hey, hey... my own sweet way

Society has lied to me
I grew up and believed
That men were men and never cry
Or show the way they feel

You filled me up with prejudice
And tried to waste my time
You won't get any more of me
The rest is strictly mine

Hey, hey... I can't stay
I'm gonna go my own sweet way
Living life from day to day
No matter what you do or say
Hey, hey, hey... my own sweet way

I wish I'd seen it all before
I wish I'd wondered how
to smell the rain and see the trees
I'm glad to have it now

And looking back on everything
I've undergone and known
It's funnier than words can say
And way too close to home

Hey, hey... I can't stay
I'm gonna go my own sweet way
Living life from day to day
No matter what you do or say
Hey, hey, hey... my own sweet way

16) The Brits Come Rolling Back

The Brits come back to Dover
With our hovercraft and hats
With slogans on our T-shirts
And salmonella snacks
Our beer is warm and cloudy
Like the water in our taps
A welcome on the quayside
When the Brits come rolling back

You set 'em up... we'll knock 'em down
We are the champion diplomats
You set 'em up... we'll knock 'em down
When the Brits come rolling back

The Brits come back to Dover
Wearing blazers and cravats
We ponce about in Volvos
Full of beaujolais in racks
Our flesh is singed a lobster red
And peeling from the backs
Of screaming savage children
When the Brits come rolling back

You set 'em up... we'll knock 'em down
We are the champion diplomats
You set 'em up... we'll knock 'em down
When the Brits come rolling back

The Brits come back to Dover
With our tolerance and tact
Our famous sense of humour
And behaviour at the match
We shout about who won the war
And roam around in packs
You'd hardly know it's over

When the Brits come rolling back
You set 'em up... we'll knock 'em down
We are the champion diplomats
You set 'em up... we'll knock 'em down
When the Brits come rolling back

17) Green

We got water in bottles for a dollar a litre
Melamine Chippendale by the metre
Beer without alcohol, twice the price
Meat free sausages, nice nice nice
So sit up and listen to the marketing man:
We can save the environment for twenty five grand
We just need a brand new executive car
Just how green do you think we are?

Green green green...a lovely BMW is
Green green green... just buy a new detergent and you're
Green green green green green green green green...

It's an eco-revolution using market forces
As we carry on guzzling the world's resources
There's a special green credit card to help the poor
It's just an excuse to sell you more more more
The nuclear fools are getting in on the act
Even late lamented Maggie's been saluting the flag
And if she gives a shit about the ozone layer
Then I'm a banana and a poll tax payer

Green green green... they're cynical and greedy but they're
Green green green... they'll sell you up the Amazon
Green green green green green green green green...

There's a gaping hole in the enterprise zone
And there's human pollution half a mile from home
All the biodegradable teenage creeps
Who beg in the subways, sleep on our streets
Recycle paper to escape the cold
Breathing lead-free fumes at the side of the road... they're

Green green green... they're ice cool, baby
Green green green... they're chilling out together, cos they're
Green green green green green green green green...

18) Fifty

What if we live to be fifty
And the optimists win by a mile
Supposing we stop the starvation and slaughter
And the century ends with a smile
Maybe recycling paper
Will bring back the forests again
And maybe the five year old psychos with knives
Will grow up to be happy and sane

So give up your cigarettes
Work out and study
And carry a packet of three
We'll live to be rich and a hundred and seven
Unless you know better than me

What if we live to be fifty
And help all the weak and oppressed
We'll cancel their debts & no-one will expect us
To work any harder for less
We'll spend our way out of recession
The West will invest in the East
So hordes of the poor never swarm at our door
Demanding a share of the feast

So give up your cigarettes
Work out and study
And carry a packet of three
We'll live to be rich and a hundred and seven
Unless you know better than me

Science will beat every fatal disease
And plutonium's perfectly safe
They'll find a solution to all the pollution
It's only a matter of faith

What if we live to be fifty
And the bomb doesn't drop after all
And we never lie destitute, freezing and sick
As the mortar shells batter our walls

We'll cheer as our glorious leaders
Develop new weapons for peace
They'll base a new military laser in space
And the ozone will heal in a week

So give up your cigarettes
Work out and study
And carry a packet of three
We'll live to be rich and a hundred and seven
Unless you know better than me

19) Cold Cold Ground
(Robinson/Phillips/Fenner/Burt)

Call me Digger - I don't have no other name
Don't want no hassle next time I'm making my claim
Long ago and far away
My dad was an animal, but that's OK
Hitched to the city, now I'm here to stay -
Begging on the cold cold ground

Some people cuss and kick or spit in your face
Some just slip you a quid and quicken their pace
If you were me - the roles reversed
Don't try to tell me you'd escape the curse
Every alternative's so much worse
Than begging on the cold cold ground

Beg, beg, begging
The rain keeps hammering down
Beg, beg, begging
Begging on the cold cold ground

I got smooth white skin so I do much better than some
Some girls mother me, some men wanna have fun...
Late tonight, when you're in bed
Or sat up surfing on the World Wide Web
You'll forget the beggar boy you just met
Begging on the cold cold ground

Beg, beg, begging
The rain keeps hammering down
Beg, beg, begging
Begging on the cold cold ground

Don't kid yourself that you're immune
The 21st Century will be here soon
Fucked in a gutter, howling at the moon
And begging on the cold cold ground

Beg, beg, begging
Why don't you give me a pound
Beg, beg, begging
Begging on the cold cold ground

Am I alright - you might well ask
A sop to your conscience as you walk on past
You sad motherfuckers can kiss my arse
I'm begging on the cold cold ground

20) Fool To Myself
(Robinson/Phillips/Fenner/Burt)

There were times in my life I avoided the voice of my reason
When respect for myself was the search for a hole in the wall
When I hated my face and evaded my gaze in the mirror
Been a fool to myself but I ain't gonna do it no more

I believed all the crap that fanatics were happy to parrot
And their world of uncomfortable certainties made me secure
I conformed and performed all their torturous mental contortions
Been a fool to myself but I ain't gonna do it no more

Living each day in a permanent haze of frustration
Too eager to please and too scared to say 'boo' to a hen
Lying awake going over each humiliation
I've been kicking myself again and again and again

I've tried to be nice-all-the-time and control my emotions
I've pretended I wanna make love when I'm ready for war
And I've planned every move and manoeuvre in human relations
Been a fool to myself but I ain't gonna do it no more

I'm sick to the gills of appeasing the creeps who abuse me
All the sorrys I've muttered to others for nothing at all
Of accepting the verdict of vermin who lie and accuse me
Been a fool to myself but I ain't gonna do it no more
Been a fool to myself but I ain't gonna do it no more