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Speechless

by Andy White

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Download includes a PDF of the lyrics and poems, the album front cover, and a band photo from the original booklet.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    The original limited edition WOMAD Select/Real World edition of Andy's live performance album. We have sold out but Andy swears there's a box in London so email rose@andywhite.com to enquire if you're interested!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Speechless via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days

      £12 GBP or more 

     

1.
Welcome 00:28
Yeah yeah yeah yeah rock and roll …
2.
Speechless 05:32
In Montréal where Europe meets America I saw Leonard Cohen’s house and that was good since it was the jazz festival there were bands playing on the street corners like I knew they always would and a surrogate sister took me in her arms and said “Hey Andy, welcome to the New World” I was speechless Speechless In Toronto they’ve got the longest street in the world and on it I found a place called ‘The Beat Bookshop’ I went in to buy a 25¢ trash novel called “Stranger in our Midst’ round the corner in an electrical store an old man looked me in the eyes he said "Son, you look speechless" Speechless In Washington and Philadelphia the driving seat of this whole big country I saw the endless horizons parcelled up real neat and delivered as a skyscraper in a street the guy selling matchsticks in the hotel lobby the homeless queueing outside the White House for food left me speechless Speechless New York heat hit me late one night going down to the convenience store with big Stevie for a beer something about the subway steam the way cigarettes never taste the way they do round here and the guy playing the drums in the back of a bus and the rappers down on 6th Avenue and 13th Street left me speechless Speechless Rain swept the Chicago streets clean a bright shiny city all covered in lights a clean girl from the Mid-West told me "This city’s so good they didn’t need to name it twice" a second city wind blew from across the lake we had a bottle of wine outside for Bobby’s sake and I was speechless Speechless By the time we hit Texas our Irish skin had nearly fried and we saw the faceless place where in 1963 they said America died me and Liam in a diner you know they said our accents were outrageous even though we were speechless Speechless Last stop was Atlanta so deep in the South the sky was clouding over and the music came tumbling out then the phone rang like something from a cable movie scene calling me home from that American dream Speechless I was speechless Speechless in the hotel lobby speechless with my life on a trolley speechless like the letters I never wrote speechless with a lump in my throat Then the night came dark the moon turned black the rain fell up and the wind blew back I was speechless Speechless Just now I saw the bloated belly of a starving child matchstick arms and an old man’s eyes sitting on a skull too weak to cry he’d watched his family slowly die in some forgotten corner of Africa they said foreign aid was dropping because of the war I was speechless Watching TV till late tonight since the bulbs were gone it was by candlelight the night was dark the moon turned black the rain fell up and the wind blew back and every ten seconds flashing on the screen were the bloody banners of the American war machine I was speechless And the President pleading support the war won’t somebody tell me what we were fighting it for Speechless The same now as it was then for we are the hollow men our heads stuffed with straw we are the hollow men our heads stuffed with straw The night fades till we’re deep in the darkness and we drop The light fades till we’re deep in the darkness and we drop Speechless
3.
Belfast Thunder Sound of British Irish driving lightning and the wait for thunder the thunder concealing stereo city centre bomb blasts city centre Belfast summer 1992 What the thunder said Estimated one million pounds' worth of damage two minor injuries nobody dead Thunder brings only promise of rain round here Thunder's saying nothing positive round here holes in my shoes Rimbaud's pockets I once more encounter the realistic
4.
“Protestant or Catholic” cried a voice from the crowd “Not you again St Peter” I was thinking aloud should have packed my bags headed off for the coast had my time already come to meet the Heavenly Host? They switched on their halos adjusted their harps checked that the blades on the pearly gates were sharp I asked them what they meant about religious bent they said “That’s the test” I said “That’s the test-ah-meant” They were giving holy orders I think you’ll find I was up against persuasion of the religious kind It was hailing Marys at the drop of a tract said the 7 Deadly Sins were staying round at my flat I pondered on the churches of England and Rome hadn’t paid the rent for my spiritual home needed guidance from the leaders whose names I knew Archbishop … and John Player Number Two I quaked in my sackcloth threw away my joss-stick burned my Koran and said I was agnostic “I mean an atheist” I cried they moved in for the kill the walls tumbled down as they handed me the bill They weren’t impressed with my distinctions I think you’ll find I was up against persuasion of the religious kind A lamb to the slaughter a human sacrifice I told their spiritual leader his sceptre looked nice a hymn book skimmed my ear but I was only grazed I dived for cover as the sawn-off Bibles blazed in the gore I gasped “Was it something I said?” then a solid granite altar hit me on the head a collection plate plunged deep into my groin they marched off discussing the Battle of the Boyne As I expired I was thinking they’d been rather unkind I was up against persuasion of the religious kind Now bleeding and naked I was somewhat at a loss the Good Samaritan was drinking at the Sign of the Cross recalling their question I felt totally alone as I peered out from underneath the tablets of stone in the gutter lay the crushed remains of a Bible it proclaimed their grievances were purely tribal they made me see the light for that I offer my thanks I got collared by the dogs and there’s no way I’m gonna join their ranks Onward Christian soldiers I hope you don’t mind being afflicted by religion of the persuasive kind You’ll find... So if you’re visiting some Irish town and the politicians’ heads are stuck firmly in the ground and the only bell ringing has a graveyard sound Someone’s got to stand up or nothing’s gonna change till religion is rearranged
5.
Yesterday was the last day of summer no more sitting on the steps with you the evening sky has gone to bed forever the yellow moon is fading out of you If you don’t know by now if you don’t know by now you’ll never know it If you don’t know by now if you don’t know by now Today’s the first day of autumn the trees have changed and the wind don’t feel the same the fires have scorched the hillside’s green to ochre all because of the weather the weatherman couldn’t explain If you don’t know by now if you don’t know by now you’ll never know it If you don’t know by now if you don’t know by now This was the season I started swimming I was clinging close to the coast it’s true and I made up some melancholy reason I was testing out my feelings for you If you don’t know by now if you don’t know by now you’ll never know it If you don’t know by now if you don’t know by now We’ll never understand it nothing ever turns out like we planned it like we planned it... Never understand it... we’ll never understand it If you don’t know by now sitting on the steps the last day of summer clinging to the coast the last day of summer how can I forget the last day of summer Sitting on the steps the last day of summer clinging to the coast the last day of summer how can I forget the last day of summer Looking in your eyes I saw the sunrise I remember sitting on the steps with you sitting on the steps with you Dun Laoghaire summer 95 looking in your eyes watching the sun go down I was looking in your eyes saw the sunrise sunrise Watching the sun go down sitting on the steps with you watching the sun go down sitting on the steps with you looking in your eyes I saw the sunrise on the last day of summer
6.
If Ireland is the stepmother of America and America the crystal ball we gave away I must be the fortune-teller’s grandson come to polish it up in a groovy kind of way Groovy kind of way If words are the six strings of a guitar and the guitar is the story of today I must be the dictionary’s tightrope come on walk on me in a groovy kind of way Groovy kind of way You asked me what I did and what I wanted you to do this is just the only way that I can get through to you it’s a groovy kind of way If Eve was the one who bit the apple and Adam was the one who wrote the play I don’t wanna be Shakespeare I wanna be the apple and get peeled in a groovy kind of way And if Cherry has billion-dollar lipstick and her smile is always telling me to stay I must be the richest man in history in a groovy kind of way Groovy kind of way You asked me what I did and what I wanted to do this is just the only way that I can get through to you in a groovy kind of way such a groovy kind of way And if Ireland is the stepmother of America and America the crystal ball we gave away I must be the fortune-teller’s grandson come to polish it up in a groovy kind of way Groovy kind of way Well I’m feeling groovy...
7.
I can feel the breeze freeze in the leaves on the trees the radio down on Margaret Street this autumn must be coming on quicker than I ever expected and the girls down the block are singing so softly it’s at times like these everything falls into perspective And you asked me what I’m thinking why that’s impossible to say in your arms I’m a million miles away A million miles away It all happened so fast I knew it would last until one of us had to crash the only thing was I always thought it would be me and I still can see your face as you turned into a long-lost photograph we always moved so gracefully And you asked me what am I singing about it must just be the time of the day in your arms I’m a million miles away And you asked me could I ever forget about you to that what else is there to say except look up at the stars they’re a million miles away... A million miles away And I will watch the sun going down over the gas-house grey and I’ll keep telling myself keep telling myself you’re nothing but a million miles away A million miles away
8.
They said it would be hard to find they said I might not find it at all I started off in Dun Laoghaire my back pressed against an old stone wall in a Martello tower near Sandymount Strand he said it was the centre of the world that’s where the great adventure started just himself and a Galway girl Looking for James looking for James Joyce’s grave People say he rewrote the English language though it was not strictly his native tongue and many have tried since this tall skinny man put pen to paper confused and delighted and disturbed and excited everyone you know his country just couldn’t hold him Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, Yeats and Swift too now it’s up to us in these enlightened days that’s all of us, me and you should go Looking for James looking for James Joyce’s grave He travelled round Europe pursued by debt I found his grave out in Switzerland in a neutral country in 1941in a land fit for exiles where the light was at last shut out from his eyes I asked at the hotel they didn’t know told me to go to the train station at the train station they told me to go to information and information mentioned a zoo and a beautiful view of the city On the way I saw a dog as small as a mouse I saw a dog as big as a house I saw a puppet playing 'Lucille’ by Little Richard in a market square and hundreds and thousands of tiny black and white ballroom dancers whirling sporadically and magnetically in a shop window On the way I stopped off in a bar café brimming full of beautiful black-clothed syringe-stoned people playing dice backgammon round splintered tables anarchist literature on the floor expressionist art on the wall and death metal raging from a cracked speaker in the corner Looking for James looking for James Joyce’s grave I finally found his grave high on a hill just beside the zoo with a beautiful view of the city first I saw the statue cigarette smoking keeper and crucifier of our country’s conscience and all of our unconscience in an autumn crescent of gold green and brown I brushed the fallen leaves off the inscription plaque which was just beside the zoo and it had such a beautiful view of the city Looking for James looking for James Joyce’s grave I remember writing this song back page of the evening paper my home city in the rain lights coming on Saturday evening I was ready to go looking again Looking for James looking for James Joyce’s grave The soul of the country lies in the heart of the river for love wanders there pale flowers on his mantle dead leaves on his hair
9.
When you’re sitting in your chair wondering why the street’s not there reality’s the place between a man and a woman Between a man and a woman between a man and a woman Sunlight on the garden wall you promised not to cry at all reality’s a space between a man and a woman Between a man and a woman between a man and a woman The bedroom moon has gone away it’s starless as the darkling day I look into your holy eyes and I hold my breath and I realise... The president is counting seven I’m upside down with my baby in heaven reality’s the place between a man and a woman Between a man and a woman between a man and a woman The age of innocence has gone night on earth may be still far too long reality is not just made in heaven not just made in heaven not just made in heaven...it’s Between a man and a woman between a man and a woman
10.
I first met her in Belfast city where the trees fall gently in the rain she was wearing a coat of amber and a ring of flame We took up with each other for how long I don’t know cos the time just slips I saw heaven in her skin so silver and the tips of her fingertips How could I know she would not tarry and I would lose my way her light has gone would it could brighten would it could brighten up my day So I’m going back to Belfast city where the trees now stand tall and bare for she has fallen into the arms of another no longer can I touch the poetry in her hair I will not rest till I have found her I will not reason all along the way for life is just a travelling circus that stops off when it rains Life is just one great big travelling circus, that stops off when it rains I wish I had you in Carrickfergus only two miles from Ballygran I would swim over the deepest ocean only to have you right by my side Life is just a great big travelling circus that stops off when it rains
11.
Jacqui 04:45
They’re burning the cars in Shankill tonight all the petrolheads are here outside your house they scorched the grass and you turned to me and you laughed about it Jacqui you could make a man out of nothing at all Jacqui sets me free Your family sits round the table tonight I can feel my troubles slipping away the waves are crashing on the beach down the road and you turned to me and you laughed about it Jacqui you could make a man out of nothing at all Jacqui sets me free she sets me free Cos you’re the one who could really help them you know the t-shirt boys aren’t that tough just they don’t know how to love themselves and they’re all hooked up on alcohol and drugs Jacqui you could make a man out of nothing at all Jacqui sets me free she sets me free I would have given you all of my loving for now and the rest of your lives I would have given you all of my loving but if you want to be like the other ones if you want to be like the other ones it’s alright... Jacqui says it’s alright then she sets me free
12.
Home 02:00
There is a spirituality comes from movement I knew as melancholy wandering I stepped onto the Sandycove Dart and stepped onto the Belfast train at Connolly Station with a slightly out of date ticket and my writings in a blue folder The train stopped at stations I’d never heard of before as it creaked its way up North through the dark and across the invisible indivisible border I read about the European financial crisis and looked at the window reflection of myself looking at the window reflection of myself thinking of you I stepped off the train at Botanic – the surprise stop – and found myself once more stepping out on Botanic Avenue tree-lined guardian of Belfast’s left bank I stepped into the Lavery’s din ordered a pint of Guinness and smoked two cigarettes fast someone showed me tickets for my concert next Friday – which proved it existed – and then I was leaning on a bus shelter waiting for the 59 to carry me up the Lisburn Road An old man shouted through his glasses "Here comes my drunken ship" as I stepped on the bus the driver laughed about the new fares and I asked him for as far as the Regal a long burnt-out built-over cinema now desirable as flats Every paving stone of the walk to our house is familiar to me and this brings ownership ringing the bell the hall light on father’s greeting and mother’s embrace There is a spirituality comes from movement and it’s quiet in this house where up I grew with its strangely shaped white walls father’s presence sisters elsewhere and mother everywhere My writing’s in two suitcases and a blue folder unpremeditated four albums piled high toothbrush on hold familiar shapes all around me guitar cases books frozen in time exam certificates a degree in a drawer a child’s paintings an old packing basket & these street scenes from my heart wrapped up in a Zürich airport duty free bag for you
13.
I’m leaning on a lamp post listening to the Russian violin Old Arbat Moscow ’92 new sensations rushing in I’m talking to a man from Azerbaijan about nothing in particular wondering what makes me me, him him and us individular I could show you shadows from afar right now what I prefer is street scenes from my heart Beautiful dark-haired girls singing ‘Suicide Blonde’ thinking about the future and what side they’ll be on well I seen this once and I seen it twice and the third time I seen it it wasn’t very nice I could show you shadows from afar right now what I prefer is street scenes from my heart And if you don’t hear you’re not listening and if you don’t understand I don’t care You might have changed your trousers and changed your shoes and gone down town cut your hair you read a paper and you sit in a café wondering about it all and if it’ll all just go away I could show you shadows from afar right now what I prefer is street scenes from my heart I’m leaning on a bus stop listening to the Laverys din Bradbury Place spring ’93 all these old sensations rushing back on in and I’m talking to a lad from Craigavad about nothing in particular wondering what makes me me and him him us all individular I could show you shadows from afar but right now what I prefer is street scenes from my heart …
14.
Open up if you’ve got anything hidden I can promise you nothing’s forbidden if you come on round here Your velvet gloves take them off and turn on though you say nothing is wrong let your hair fall long and why shouldn’t you why shouldn’t you I’ve tried everything I know to get through to you there is something wrong if I know you you and your skies so blue You should know that when you wear that perfume fatal and your keys fall off of the table and you say that life’s been hateful that it’s only incidental to you and your fateful promise I should know that when the lines in your heart have been broken and too many words thought have been spoken and the world’s not spinning it’s joking and if nothing remains there’s still hoping why shouldn’t I why shouldn’t I I’ve tried everything I know to get through to you there is something wrong if I know you you and your skies so blue Well I’ll be here in waiting till you’ve had enough of that engagement and so-called romantic arrangements and semi-permanent relationships and one too many estrangements why shouldn’t I why shouldn’t I I’ve tried everything I know to get on through to you there is something wrong if I know you you and your skies so blue She’s so fine she’s so pretty she is the belle of Belfast city She’s so fine she’s so pretty she is the belle of Belfast city She’s getting married in the morning what a bloody pity That’s it
15.
Why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar Why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar The cold rush of loneliness the power of pure poetry a girl I once knew now invisible the cold rush of loneliness and the power and the poverty of poetry the woman I know now me and her indivisible Why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar Why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar It doesn’t matter who you are you just got to play things as they are why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar Dark sunglasses not dark enough I got riots in my head and all that stuff vulnerability that’s more my scene talking about thoughts of the heart if you know what I mean Why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar Why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar It doesn’t matter who you are you just got to play things as they are why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar Anyone who’s ever been in love knows about waiting anyone who’s ever been in love finds it frustrating why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar Yeah yeah yeah yeah rock and roll yeah yeah yeah yeah rock and roll Hedgehogs in the headlights banners on the streetlights la-la-la-la-la-la-lasting peace is a permanent phase the test explodes if you’re combing your hair and the room’s revolving but you don’t know where Why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar Why don’t you play it on your acoustic guitar It doesn’t matter who you are you just got to play it on your acoustic guitar your acoustic guitar... It doesn’t matter who you are just play it on your acoustic guitar
16.
The see-through skin of a strict smoker in the second class smoking section is so see-through... the see-through skin of a strict smoker in the second class smoking section is so see-through that he may well be dead already as he is so slumped so slumped is he see-through eyes shut deep in the second class smoking section He’s dead already thus avoiding one or more major diseases and of course serious steady cigarette expenditure diurnal hebdomidal mensual seasonal and annual cigarette expenditure The skin of the see-through second class smoker could have been fashioned by Mr Phillip Morris himself so multinational and interdenominational is its translucence and its pallor So brief may have been the strict cigarette smoker’s stay upon this earth that he should have stuck himself in the first class smoking section and splashed out while it lasted But hark! The sleeper stirs and rubs his sleepy translucent eyelids stretches his see-through skin and reaches around struggling for another shot With his see-through skin in the second class smoking section the strict smoker will fight to live another day
17.
Plastic and oh so limited the last fantastic book queued up for its final perfect poems they came in one by one their heads bowed humble in languorously long lines and short ones too The last fantastic book took one look at a world where word no longer took hold screwed up its eyes and jumped out up into the dark And the people looked up from their screens and were woken from their dreams their electronic dreams and marvelled at the wonder in the sky the passing flash of the nearest newest star – the last fantastic book A scribbled stealthy secret satellite of syntax and verbal symmetry The last fantastic book
18.
Peace sounds like the sound of no helicopters Previous city of car blasts is strangely quiet because peace sounds like the sound of no helicopters
19.
I hear the sound of no sound and I know it’s the sound of the world spinning round for the first time this part of the world for the first time this part of the world I hear the sound of no sound and I know it’s the sound of the world spinning round for the first time this part of the world for the first time this part of the world It seems possible to me though impossible to see how all of us can agree I saw a sign saying ‘Peace In Our Time’ and I know it’s a sign don’t be afraid don’t be afraid It seems possible to me though impossible to see how all of us can agree I hear a choice comes from one voice I saw a sign saying ‘Peace In Our Time’ and I hear the sound of no sound and I know it’s the sound of the world spinning round for the first time this part of the world Anything you wanna do and anything you wanna say anything you wanna do Don’t be afraid For your country is my country and my people are your people We are a motherland send our children out into the world deep inside we are heartbroken Now it’s time to heal ourselves Don’t be afraid
20.
Yeah yeah 00:31
Yeah yeah yeah yeah rock and roll

about

The limited edition 'Speechless' album (WOMAD Select, 2000), recorded live at Real World Studios with Davy Crichton on violin, Kieran Kennedy electric guitar and Bronagh Gallagher on drums.

Songs and poems one beautiful English late-summer afternoon.

All other Andy White albums, plus a rarities compilation and fan club-only releases are available from andywhite.com.

Set to play with no gaps!

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released April 29, 2017

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Andy White Belfast, UK

Belfast songwriter, has guitar wants to travel. Latest album - Good Luck I Hope You Make It

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