1. |
Fossiling
01:28
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2. |
Mary Wake Up
01:13
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3. |
Seashells, Snakestones
03:57
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Seashells, Snakestones
Seashells, snake-stones,
Devil’s toenails, thunderbolts
Curioes for gentlefolk
To take home from their tour.
This here’s a snakestone
Ammonite they calls it
Curled up like a serpent
You must treat him well
Come in all the sizes
The bigger ones we prizes
Fetch a pretty penny when we sell
Fetch a pretty penny when we sell
Chorus
When the devil trims his toenails
This is where we find them
This way and that way
Strewn along the shore
Gnarly and scrawny
Scaly and horny
The devil sweeps ‘em out the gates of Hell
Fetch a pretty penny when we sell
Chorus
Be wary of cliff falls
Watch where your feet land
The hidden pits and ledges
Must be learned
Always on an ebbtide
When you search the seaside
The sea can catch you when your back is turned
The sea can catch you when your back is turned
Chorus
Seashells, snake-stones,
Devil’s toenails, thunderbolts
Curioes for gentlefolk
To take home from their tour.
Curioes for us to sell
From our old cottage door;
Curioes for gentlefolk
To take home from their tour.
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4. |
Waiting for Sunlight
03:54
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Waiting for Sunlight
In the tropical sun
Of a younger green planet
In a warm shallow sea
Of silver and blue
The sparkling water
Is seething and sighing
Round columns of coral
Teeming with life
Seeding, dividing
Feeding voraciously
One on the other
They are predators all
The luncheons of life
(Eons of life)
For many millennia
And now on the edge
Of a cold northern ocean
An aftermath hides
In stratified rock
Trapped in hard layers
One on the other
Compressed and calciferous
Fossilised, stone.
Then drilled out of darkness
By the storms of the winter
Stone washed and polished
By the high spring tide waves
They’ve waited for sunlight
And now it has found them.
Waiting for sunlight to find them again
Waiting for sunlight.
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5. |
Bishop Ussher's Madrigal
03:21
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Bishop Ussher's Madrigal
Did you ever wonder when the world began?
With a hey, ho, fiddle dum dee
Then tip your hat to a very clever man
Sing hey for good James Ussher!
Learnèd James was the Bishop of Armagh
With a hey, ho, fiddle dum dee
When Cromwell’s puritans had won the Civil War
Sing hey for good James Ussher!
He calculated to the very minute
When God created Earth and all that’s in it
His work was historical and scholarly
It was based on Biblical theology
And the Bishop said…
It was round six o’clock
As near as I can make it
October twenty second
As close as I can date it
In the year four thousand and four (BC)
In the year four thousand and four.
So for many years this was deemed to be the truth
With a hey, ho, fiddle dum dee
But there were men of science who demanded better proof
Sing hey for the cliffs of Dorset!
‘The rocks and fossils tell us that it can’t be so.’
With a hey, ho, fiddle dum dee
‘And the cliffs of Dorset is the place that you should go’
Sing hey for the cliffs of Dorset!
To stand against the Church and all its might
Takes a strong, brave soul with the stomach for a fight
Empirical geology
‘Gainst blinkered ideology
Chorus X 2
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6. |
The Carpenter's Daughter
04:05
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The Carpenter’s Daughter
She’s lived all her life by the sea and the strand
And knowing the cliffs like the palm of her hand
The carpenter’s daughter has learned to read stones
To unlock their secrets and find the old bones
Now scholarly gentlemen visit the town
To call on Miss Anning, she has such renown
Beating a path to her humble front door
And bidding her take them down onto the shore
She sells seashells on the seashore
So off to the Undercliff, hammers in hand
To search the Blue Lias they’re bound
The limestone she shows them bears fossils in plenty
And Mary explains what they’ve found
And Mary explains what they’ve found
Freely she gives of the knowledge they covet
And rarely receives an acknowledgement of it.
How could a gentleman scholar admit
That a carpenter’s daughter has helped him one bit?
She sells seashells on the seashore
I didn’t choose to be born as a maid
Nor you to be born as a man
When God made me female He gave me this mind
These two eyes, these two ears and these hands
Now what should I do with these gifts I possess,
Shut my eyes, close my ears, drop my hands?
The parable says not to squander our talents
Am I to ignore this command?
Am I to ignore this command?
The carpenter’s daughter has learned to read stones
To unlock their secrets and find the old bones
Now eminent gentlemen visit the town
To call upon Mary, she has such renown.
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7. |
The Plesiosaur
03:36
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06 The Plesiosaur
The morning is dark
Near the turning of the year,
The storm was raising Cain throughout the night.
But the gale has abated
And Mary has waited
To see what the waves have brought to light.
Her hands are red and raw,
Her face is chapped and sore,
But the cold is not the reason that she shivered
Is this the day
For which she’s been praying?
Maybe the tempest has delivered.
Her heart skips a beat -
What is this? What is this?
An empty eye glares down from the monster in the mudstone.
Her heart skips a beat - what is this?
What is this, what is this?
Not a whale, not a lizard nor a fish.
Not a seal, not a serpent,
Not a crocodile nor turtle,
What is this?
Her heart skips a beat - what is this?
With an eye on the tide,
And faithful Tray sat by her side,
She starts to dig the monster from Black Ven.
This is not like the others,
This wonder of wonders -
I’ve found you, I’ll set you free again.
Her heart skips a beat,
There it is and here is she,
Locked eye to eye with a monster in the mudstone
Her heart skips a beat- what is this?
Her heart skips a beat…
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8. |
Earth, Air, Fire, Water
05:58
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Earth, Air, Fire, Water
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
Earth, Air, Water and Fire
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
Earth, Air, Water and Fire
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
Landslides revealing improbable creatures
Earth, Air, Water and Fire
Roaring south-westerlies in off the sea
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
Lightning bolt striking yet sparing the child
Earth, Air, Water and Fire
Spring tides and neap tides that dance with the Moon
Day by day across Lyme Bay
The elements will sport and play
Four fine friends, or fearsome foes
Which they’ll be no-one knows.
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
Govern the world of the carpenter’s daughter
Earth, Air, Water and Fire
Unfolding prehistory
Shedding light on the mystery
Half way between land and sea.
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
She waits for the landslide to gently enfold her
Earth, Air, Water and Fire
What has her life been worth?
Delving the secret earth
She’s been travelling back in time.
Now she must say farewell to Lyme.
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Kevin Adams Milton Keynes, UK
Blending traditional folk music with a love of other genres- classical, jazz, folk-rock, prog-rock, pop… music, music, music…
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