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Understudy

by The Great Park

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    Edition of 25, each with unique covers. Lyric sheet inside, title hand stamped on sleeve, hand numbered on reverse.

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1.
soldier johny i’ll throw my self into the river you better believe i would sell my liver if i could just for one night lay with her and come joyfully back home she said some bright day who knows how long all different people gonna get along i need a little hope to carry on until i make it home well i pray you are right but my heart don’t know how the blood that it pumps it jumps and it flows it seems to have a mother fucking mind of it’s own and cares not to clot back home and they put men in the soil they put men in the ground all the able bodied boys have been thrown out of town you look for them there they can’t be found they're never coming home and oh me oh my i loved her so it broke my heart just to see her go and where she got to god only knows but i pray she makes it a home well my legs don’t leap and my voice is spent i live hand to mouth step by step my throat is dry and my eyes are wet and i can’t see a way back home so i make like a monkey i swallow a wrench i chuck myself into the dirty old thames i’ve had it up to here with this world of men i can’t call this place my home Includes lyrics from ‘Johny Has Gone For A Soldier’ from Best Loved American Folk Songs, collected and arranged by John and Alan Lomax, 1947.
2.
understudy oh it is long after two and we’re left here to do all of the things they couldn’t finish or lose and there’s a fire and boys we just shovel we just shovel it on i used to worry about how my hair would fall out how my bones would complain and rattle about  we may be low but we will be lowered into the dirt into the earth and these are desperate days but here lies a way i do declare my understudy i will follow you and if you see and i don’t well then please let me know if you can help or in any way save the show the disaster the mess of a plan drawn up and rolled up with the heaviest of hands  and outside the world it doesn't even stutter the mark of a man not measured by another nothing changes it all remains  it all stays it all stays it all stays the same these are desperate days but here lies a way i do declare my understudy i will follow you those kids are wide awake but dreaming still out on the town and in for the kill but those nights they did take their toll and i am paying still these are desperate days but here lies a way i do declare my understudy i will follow you
3.
black-eyed susie up red oak and down salt water every man gonna lose his daughter hey black-eyed susie you been gone so long susie won’t you wait black-eyed susie went huckleberry picking the boys got drunk and susie took a licking hey black-eyed susie trouble gonna find you soon enough won’t you wait some got rude and some got boozy none went home with black-eyed susie hey black-eyed susie you’re a fine one black-eyed susie won’t you wait black-eyed susie about half grown jumps on the boys like a dog on a bone hey black-eyed susie you got to catch them all don’t you susie won’t you wait but black-eyed susie is as cute as a daisy if i don’t pluck her boys i’ll go crazy hey black-eyed susie i’m not like all the others won’t you wait when i asked her to be my wife she came at me with an oyster knife hey black-eyed susie we can talk about the details later won’t you wait she plugged me through like we was making rain now the dogs come a-licking round where i lay hey black-eyed susie you’re gonna leave me here all a-leaky won’t you wait hey black-eyed susie don’t leave me here all a-leaky won’t you wait Includes lyrics from ‘Black-eyed Susie’ from Best Loved American Folk Songs, collected and arranged by John and Alan Lomax, 1947.
4.
Bold Boy 03:22
bold boy what you gonna do when your luck runs out bold boy what you gonna do when your luck runs out bold boy what you gonna do when your luck runs out grab me a bottle and drink it on down be a bold boy what you gonna do when the bottle runs out bold boy what you gonna do when the bottle runs out bold boy what you gonna do when the bottle runs out chase these women all over town and be a bold boy what you gonna do when your shoes give out bold boy what you gonna do when your shoes give out bold boy when my shoes give out i’m gonna get off the street take an old chair and get off my feet be a bold boy what you gonna do when the chair gives out bold boy what you gonna do when the chair gives out bold boy well i got no bottle no chair no shoes i’ll lay on my bed with my head in the blues be a bold boy all the pistol shots go bang bang bang in the morning all the pistol shots go bang bang bang in the evening all the pistol shots go bang bang bang i’ll keep on sleeping give a good god damn i’m a bold boy Includes lyrics from ‘Sweet Thing’ from Best Loved American Folk Songs, collected and arranged by John and Alan Lomax, 1947.
5.
hope limps away when i met you on the platform you were out of your mind we were weary and worse for wear and the day had been hard and the march left us scarred and our legs and our heads bruised and bare but here i go trying again though i failed before i tread towards a gentler day but as the blood bleeds out from my foot in your door hope limps away well he fought for the dark and then he fought for the light and he brought home a dozen dead men he dumped all that was good into the deep north sea and then carried the crap back to kent but let’s sing it once more for the wives on the shore sing it once more like they say but as this blood floods out there can be no doubt hope limps away and the great clouds are a-calling and the rain starts a-falling and we’re spineless and thoughtless tonight and we turn the other cheek afraid of what we might see there is nothing like kindness in sight and so with one apple lost might as well throw the whole lot might as well give up and roll it over today i always walked when i could run but i’ve had me some fun hope limps away there is a red tailed kite there is a kestrel in flight there are hawks hunting on high and i see it with my own eyes this world can be so fine if i keep my chin up to the sky but if i laugh then it hurts and when we drink it’s worse and when i play you only complain if i was born to succeed i am failing indeed hope limps away
6.
while i was sleeping bad news has come to town bad news is carried some say my love is dead and some say she’s married as i was pondering this well i took to weeping they stole my love away while i was sleeping i could have stayed at home i could have remained in england but i got the urge to roam i had the need to leave there and i never said goodbye and i never said i’ll see you and now my love is lost while i was sleeping so little did i think so little did i wonder that the storm was so close the clouds so full of thunder i drank until i slept and i didn’t wake for dreaming and the nightmare came to stay while i was sleeping Includes lyrics from ‘Brave Wolfe’ from Best Loved American Folk Songs, collected and arranged by John and Alan Lomax, 1947.
7.
shorty george well shorty george he was no friend of mine shorty george no friend of mine taking all the women and leaving all the men behind some are born to sin and some are born to pray he said you can’t kill me i was born this way to take all the women and leave all the men behind and he was strung up by his neck but happy to tell how he beat on their heads like a clapper on a bell taking all the women leaving all the men behind well the doctor told me it’s your wife come quick and i've had shot horses half as sick taking all the women and leaving all the men behind and so i ran through the house like a hen without a head i would have murdered george all over again for taking all the women and for leaving all the men behind how can you blame a poor man like me for crying when his lady ain’t dead but surely dying taking all the women and leaving all the men behind i followed them all to the burying ground i never knew how much i loved her til they laid her down taking all the women leaving all the men behind so people keep the ones you care about close and don’t go dancing on the graves of ghosts taking all the women and leaving all the men behind and there are dark days a-coming i won’t see them again the fields are on fire high winds on the way taking all the women leaving all the men behind Includes lyrics from ‘Shorty George’ from Best Loved American Folk Songs, collected and arranged by John and Alan Lomax, 1947.
8.
virginia lake we were out on the lake we were sunburnt and dazed it was not like we planned it we were as thick as thieves we took more than we needed and we were caught red handed suddenly the heavens did roar and the rain it did fall and we were washed well away above then below and down we did go into the great virginia lake to the south we had fled where it’s safe they said where it’s too hot for fighting and with a dozen promises of the welcome we’d get from the friends we would find there and the horses we rode did us proud with the load they never once complained blacks and bays dapples and greys into the great virginia lake i tell you what went wrong it all went to the dogs for no good reason oh the greed of a man can get out of hand there can be no pleasing yes we took and we took a cretin and a crook and we were never the same we were stuffed and ashamed and we dumped all the waste into the great virginia lake

about

Recorded at home in Autumn 2017, 'Understudy' includes several songs with lyrics collected by John A and Alan Lomax as well as new originals.

Companion piece to 'Do Not Walk Under Wing' recorded earlier in 2017 in that both albums were recorded acoustically and without edits. Most of the songs were recorded on the same day they were written, with 'Understudy' and 'Bold Boy', for example, being first takes.

credits

released December 17, 2017

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The Great Park Germany

Stephen Burch. Problem folk, songs with words.

"Ein Singer-Songwriter ist immer auch Poet. Und Burch ist ein ganz besonderer." (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

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