Frank Turner Album

Let's begin at the beginning
We're lovers and we're losers
We’re heroes and we're pioneers
We're beggars and we're choosers
Skirting round the edges of the ideal demographic
We're almost on the guest list
But we're always stuck in traffic
We've watched our close associates
Often play their parts
Chatting up the “it” girls
And they're tearing up the charts
While we were paying with coppers to get our rounds in at the bar
We're the C team, we’re the almost famous old friends of the stars

Justin is the last great romantic poet
He's the only one among us who is ever gonna’ make it
We planned the revolution from a cheap Southampton bistro
I don't remember details, but there were English boys with Banjos
Jay is our St George and he's standing on a wooden chair
And he sings songs and he slays dragons and he's losing all his hair
And Adam is the resurrected spirit of Gram Parsons
In plaid instead of Rhinestone and living in South London
And no one's really clear about Tommy's job description
But it's pretty clear he's vital to the whole damn operation
And Dave Danger smiles at strangers, Tre’s the safest girl I know
And sullen hearts will scamper off to victory in the City we call home
And we won't change our ways
We will proud remain, when the glory fades, when the glory fades

Yeah I am sick and tired of people who are living on the B-list
Yeah they're waiting to be famous, and they're wondering why they do this
And I know I'm not the one who is habitually optimistic
But I'm the one who's got the microphone here so just remember this
Yeah, well life is about love, lost minutes and lost evening
About fire in our bellies and about furtive little feelings
And the aching amplitudes that set our needles all a-flickering
And they help us with remembering that the only thing that’s left to do is live

After all of the loving and losing, after all the heroes and the pioneers
The only thing that's left to do is get another round in at the bar.

You're not as messed up as you think you are
Your self-absorption makes you messier
Just settle down and you will feel a whole lot better
Deep down you're just like everybody else

She's not as pretty as she thinks she is
Just picture her after she's had kids
I bet she sits at home and listens to The Smiths
Deep down she's just like everybody else

So why are you sat at home?
You're not designed to be alone
You just got used to saying "no"
So get up and get down and get outside
Cos it's a lovely sunny day
But you hide yourself away
You've only got yourself to blame
Get up and get down and get outside

He's not as clever as he likes to think
He's just ambitious with his arguing
He's crap at dancing, yeah and he can't hold his drink
Deep down he's just like everybody else

I'm not as awesome as this song makes out
I'm angry, underweight and sketching out
I'm building bonfires on my vanities and doubts
To get warm just like everybody else

So why are you sat at home?
You're not designed to be alone
You just got used to saying "no"
So get up and get down and get outside
Cos it's a lovely sunny day
But you hide yourself away
You've only got yourself to blame
Get up and get down and get outside

Amy thinks that life is lacking in drama
So she fell for horoscopes, fake healing and karma
She's so wrapped up in her invisible Lama
She'll never grow into herself
And it's OK thinking me and all my friends are just wasters
But saying that I can still see through her heirs and graces
I bet she's scared her life won't leave any Caught up like everyone else

That's not the point anyway
Oh darling, I felt compelled to call you up to say...
So why are you sat at home?
You're not designed to be alone
You just got used to saying "no"
So get up and get down and get outside
Cos it's a lovely sunny day
But you hide yourself away
You've only got yourself to blame
Get up and get down and get outside
Get up and get down and get outside
Get up and get down and get outside
Get up and get down and get outside
Get up and get down and get outside
Get up and get down and get outside

1,2,1,2,3

Well I guess I should confess that I am starting to get old
All the latest music fads all passed me by and left me cold
All the kids are talking slang I won't pretend to understand
All my friends are getting married, mortagages and pension plans
And it's obvious my angry adolescent days are done
And I'm happy and I'm settled in the person I've become
But that doesn't mean I'm settled up and sitting out the game
Time may change alot but some things may stay the same

And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I yeah I won't grow up

Oh maturity's a wrapped up package deal so it seems
And ditching teenage fantasy means ditching all your dreams
All your friends and peers and family solomnly tell you you will
Have to grow up be an adult yeah be bored and unfulfilled
Oh when no ones yet explained to me exactly what's so great
About slaving 50 years away on something that you hate
Look I'm meekly shuffling down the path of mediocrity
Well if that's your road then take it but it's not the road for me

And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I yeah I won't grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up

And if all you ever do with your life
Is photosynthesize
Then you deserve every hour of these sleepless nights
That you spend wondering when you're gonna die

Now I'll play and you sing
The perfect way for the evening to begin
Now I'll play and you sing
The perfect way for the evening to begin

And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all yeah I won't grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up

The first girl that I fell for was a fair and faithful fighter
She smouldered with a will to save the world
I did my best to help her, yeah I stood shoulder to shoulder
On the front lines with my visionary girl

I wish that she had cared for me
But in the end her ideologies
Occupied the fortress of her heart
I wrote her 15 songs, but still we had to part

And if music was the food of love
Then I'd be a fat romantic slob
Well music, it's my substitute for love

The last girl that I loved she was a low and lusty liar
She set my heart on fire, but made me choke
Her beauty was a sight to see, but she didn't save it all for me
I found other fires by following the smoke

I wish that she had either cared for me or
let be me
But she chased me from mind and from my home
I wrote her 16 songs, but I ended up alone

And if love is really all that we need
Then even all my singing is never gonna save me
Music it's my substitute for love

Well I've had many different girls inside my bed
But only one or two inside my head
These days I cuddle up to my guitar instead
But oh, what I would give, not to stumble but to really fall in love
And I could substitute my singing for the sound of someone sleeping next to me

Oh my friend loneliness, where have you been?
You left to the lure of the lover who left me alone
But now you come crawling back, and I'll let you in
And we'll slip back into grooves that we cut in ourselves long ago

But there must be a better half, somewhere out there
She lives a better life, a life that shares
Shares with a better man
The man who is there when she calls in the night
Who says "Hey, it's alright"

And oh my dear distance, I've met you before
Longing for a lover who's lost on a far distant shore
And oh my imperfections, are all that remain
And the days when I'd love you and I'd leave you, and you'd wish that I would stay

There must be a better half, somewhere out there
She lives a better life, a life that shares
Shares with a better man
The man who is there when she calls in the night
Who says "Hey, it's alright"

I know what she looks like, her face and skin, her smell and the rest
I know the feel of her soul, but God help me I just cannot find her address
I've how I've tried but now all that's left
Is my old friend distance and sweet loneliness

There must be a better half, somewhere out there
She lives a better life, a life that shares
Shares with a better man
The man who is there when she calls in the night
Who says "Hey, it's alright"
"Hey, it's alright"
"Hey, it's alright"

Well a teacher of mine once told me
That life was just a list of disappoints and defeats
And you could only do your best,
And I said "That's a fucking cop-out, you're just washed up and your tired, and when I get to your age I won't be such a coward"
But these day I sit at home, known to shout at my TV
And Punk Rock didn't live up to what I hoped that it could be
And all the things that I believed with all my heart when I was young
Are just coasters for beers and clean surfaces for drugs
And I packed all my panflets with my bibles at the back of the shelf

Well it was bad enough the feeling, and the first time it hit
When you realised your parents had let the world all go to shit
And that the values and ideals for which many had fought and died
Had been killed off in the committees and left to die by the wayside
But it was worse when we turned to the kids on the left
And got let down again by some poor excuse for protest
Yeah by idiot fucking hippies in 50 different factions
Who are locked inside some kind of 60's battle re-enactment
And I hung-up my banner in disgust and I head for the door

Oh but once we were young, and we were crass enough to care
But I guess you live and learn, we won't make that mistake again, no
Oh but surely just for one day, we could fight and we could win
And if only for a little while, we could insist on the impossible

Well we've been a good few hours drinking
So I'm going to say what everyone's thinking
If we're stuck on this ship and it's sinking
Then we might as well have a parade
Cos if it's still going to hurt in the morning
And a better plan's set to get forming
Then where's the harm spending an evening
In manning the old barricades, so come on old friends to the streets
Let's be 1905 but not 1917, let's be heroes, let's be martyrs, let's be radical thinkers
Who never have to test drive the least of their dreams
Let's divide up the world into the damned and safe
And then ride to the valleys like the old life brigade
And straighten our backs and we won't be afraid
And they'll celebrate our deaths with a national parade

So come on let's be young, let's be crass enough to care
Let's refuse to live and learn, let's make all our mistakes again yes
And then darling, just for one day, we can fight and we can win
And if only for a little while, we could insist on the impossible
Leave the mourning the to the morning
Yeah pain can be killed
With aspirin tablets and vitamin pills
But memories of hope, and glorious defeat
Are a little bit harder to beat

Naked and retched and retching on a hotel bathroom floor, somewhere in the City
Three days no sleeping, not eating, not feeling good anymore
Drenched in sweat and self-pity now, it's not a pretty sight

What to say in my defence, I was imperfect tense
Used to have such balance, but I don't know where it went
So won't you be my present sense

Breaking, I'm shaking, it's taking a long long time
To come down off this murderous medication
Trying to remember, my reasons for running myself into the ground with such dedication

What to say in my defence, I was imperfect tense
Used to have such balance, but I don't know where it went
So won't you be my present sense, sense

Cos it's not meant to be
I am lost at sea
So mermaids sing to me
Of the better times and the things that can be
Like the diamonds in the Mediterranean sea
Or the beatings and sleeping and times that I took
And of washing the drink and the drugs from my blood
And I've nothing to say in my defence
I'm far from perfect I'm still tense
They say that love can change you once
Please say that love can change me once
Come on change me

I come from the land of the Wessex down
From the Hampshire hills near Winchester town
In the country where the soft South rivers flow down
To English channel I roam, this is where I call home
I sing for my supper and I'm pretty well fed
My cross is silent and I make my bed
Where I can find a crown and somewhere to lay my head
And the travelling day is done, and all my songs have been sung

But honey I was lonely on the road, I was all on my own
Hanging outside at the back of a death metal show
I saw you standing there with your hair down low
A kink in your step that made me want to know
If you would like to take me home
Who'd of thought that a French kiss from a Parisian girl could capture an English boy

She comes from the channels of a distant shore
From the land of revolution and eyes in court
From the Kings blood stain on a tricolour
And the culture a little too high, for an English boy like me
She doesn't know the Island I grew up upon
The valleys and the hills that I've roamed along
And she doesn't like my clothes and she doesn't like my songs
But she's still my Mademoiselle and it goes to show you never can tell.

Cos she was a quiet one
She was a shy one
She was the prettiest at the show
She crept up so slowly
She crept up behind me
But still she pretended that she didn't know
But all that she thinks of me, and she kissed me
And she's yet to let me go though I'm far away
Across of sea I'm singing for the hope that she would ever remember me

So honey when you're lonely on the road, you're all on your own
Hanging outside at the back of the country show
Picture me there with hat down low
A smile upon my face to let you know
That I would like to take you home
That I would like to take you home, to the hills that I know
I would like to take you home, to the places I go
I would like to take you home
And that's the way that a French kiss from an English boy can capture a Parisian girl

I was sipping on a Whiskey when I got the call
Yeah my friend Lex was lying in the hospital
She'd been pretty sick for about half a year
But it seems liked this time the end was drawing near
So dropped my plans and jumped the next London train
I found her laid up and in a lot of pain
Her eyes met mine and then I understood
That her weather forecast wasn't looking too good
So I sat and spun her stories for a little while
Tried to raise her mood and tried to raise a smile
But she silenced all my rambling with a shake of her head
Drew me close and listen this is what she said now

"You'll live to dance another day, it's just now you'll have to dance, for the two of us, so stop looking so damn depressed and sing with all your heart that the Queen is dead"

Yeah she told me she was sick of all the hospital food
And of doctors, distant relatives, draining her blood
She said "I know I'm dying, but I'm not finished just yet, I am dying for a drink and for a cigarette"
So we hatched a plan to book ourselves a cheap hotel
In the centre of the City and to raise some Hell
They waste to all the clubs and then when everyone else is long asleep
We know we're good and done

"You'll live to dance another day, it's just now you'll have to dance, for the two of us, so stop looking so damn depressed and sing with all your heart that the Queen is dead"
And South London's not the same anymore
The Queen is dead, and the last of the great has finally gone to bed

Well I was working on some words when Sarah called me up
She said that Lex had gone asleep and wasn't waking up
And even though I knew that there was nothing to be done
I felt bad for not being there and now, well, she was gone
So I tried to think what Lex would want me to do
At times like this when I was feeling blue
So I gathered up some friends to spread the sad sad news
And we headed to the City for a drink or two
And we sang

"We live to dance another day, it's just now we have to dance for one more of us, so stop looking so damn depressed, and sing with all our hearts, long live the Queen"

Rise in the morning at sunrise
Strangers around me sleep soundly at rest
Phones and computers become me
Signals stretch back to the lands that I've left
Oh in the quiet times
Count up the things that I love
Slip through the road lights
The trail of wandering back

Left you while you were sleeping
Left you the warmth in the bed, where I lay
You left me a love worth keeping
You left me a diary to count off the days
And so in the quiet times
I saver the things that I've lost
And slip through the road lights
And wonder how I came to this

I guess you never know
Lost until you have something to lose
Choice until you have something to choose
Choose

So give me my quiet times
To mourn for the things that I've lost
And find me on the road lights
Counting the miles and the cost
So I never knew
Lost cos I had nothing to lose
Choice cos I had nothing to choose
But all the things you do
The way that you close your door
The way that you guard your shore
Darling, I'm coming home soon

Monday morning, comes a crawling in
From another weekend choked with cigarettes and sin
I've been busy, so much lately
That every time I get some time to spend
I end up drunk or sleeping in
And I miss you, you're busy too
We call each other up, when we're messed up
And say we'll meet in the New Year
But it's perfectly clear we'll do no such thing
Come the spring

When the evening casts it's shadows on the corners of my days
And I am old and I am settled in the place where I will stay
When my wandering meanderings have finally reached their end
Yeah whatever else maybe I will not forget my friends

Friday evening, barely even begins
Before my phone begins to ring with people asking where I am
And I can't suppress a smile, we talk a while
The chances are that I am far away and so I'm phased out of the plan
And that's how I miss out, on another night
The kind of night where nothing really happens
Yeah but everything goes down
And at the end I'm just a promise to pick up the phone
When I'm in town

When the evening casts it's shadows on the corners of my days
And I am old and I am settled in the place where I will stay
When my wandering meanderings have finally reached their end
Yeah whatever else maybe may my friends remember me

I've heard it said the trick
Is to set your watch when you hit the plane
That way you can trick
The workings of a tired brain
But sometimes I feel sick
Sometimes I just feel so drained
And cut down to the quick
Longing for that voice again
On the phone
You always ask if I'm OK
But it's not the same as being happy

I travelled 40,000 miles last year
And I'm working on the same again
I fell for 15 different girls
And nearly lost all of my friends
Well I am jet set, jet lag, jaded
You're always 16 hours ahead
Quietly reminding me how I used to be

Airports make me sad
I'm sure they shouldn't all be the same
But they're just landing pads
Boring tourist shopping chains
I remember times we had
Drinking while we wait for your plane
Feeling kinda bad
Wondering which one of us has changed
Cos we used to be slick
Subtle young hips, romantic young kissable lips
Unbearably sharp, unbreakable heart
With wide eyes and faith
That life could never pull apart if we were OK
But distance kills the best of intentions
And never intended it to be this way

I travelled 40,000 miles last year
And I'm working on the same again
I fell for 15 different girls
And nearly lost all of my friends
Oh I am jet set, jet lag, jaded
You're always 16 hours ahead
Quietly reminding me how I used to be
I'm trying to remember how I used to be
Used to be slick