Neil Murray

Going The Distance : Lyrics
All songs written by Neil Murray © 2003
Published by Universal Music Publishing

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1. Long Grass Band

Down and out and all alone
nobody wants you and nobody knows
Just go down to the local park
plenty of company after dark
Market day you'll get a chance
make a dollar, make a dance
clapstick in your hands
You gotta sing in the long grass band

Live outdoors you live on your wits
Get used up but you learn some tricks
Go to jail for unpaid fines
Get arrested for sleepin in the daytime
policeman he come in his van
Slip away like you can
Market day you will dance
You gotta gig in the long grass band

You can't be sacked in this land
When ya play in the long grass band
Spread a blanket in the shade
Make a dollar anyway
guitar, didge, shake a leg
Make a tourist come and beg
clapstick in your hands
You gotta sing in the long grass band

Might be Katherine, might be Broome,
might be Darwin, or Jabiru
Nobody knows what you know
When you go where the wind blows
policeman he come in his van
Slip away like you can
Market day you will dance
You gotta gig in the long grass band

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2. Beer In Our Hands

You went out west and thought you had it made
Got tangled up with a mongrel wife and paid
Came back east and found yourself a hole
That's par for the course mate you should know

If we go down, if we go down, we'll go down
with beer in our hands

This land was built with grog n guts and guns
It wasn't pretty but thats how it was done
Don't go trying to tell us what went wrong
Or you can piss off back to where it was you're from

if we go down, if we go down, we'll go down
with beer in our hands

Don't really care what you have to say
We just wanna know - can ya play?
Well ya should have been here yesterday

Only pretenders are in to their own fame
There's nothin worse than a wanker in the game
Isn't it time you paid for a shout?
Tomorrow? Tomorrow - we don't know about
And if we go down, if we go down, we'll go down with beer in our hands

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3. Circumstances

I saw you today out on the hill
You were with your Mother, time stood still
I was riding by, you didn't see me
I saw your hair move with the breeze

Circumstances keep us apart
Circumstances can be hard
Circumstances against our will
But I want you to know I love you still

Sometimes you cry in the night
Where is your Daddy? Where is the light?
Sometimes I dream I'm holding you tight.

Circumstances leave their mark
Circumstances tear at our hearts
Circumstances against our will
But I want you to know I love you still

Don't you cry don't your fear
Just think of me and I'll be near
I know one day I'm gonna see you right
Walking to me with eyes of light

In a park, or out on the beach
In a shoppin mall just out of reach
I'm one of those men workin on the road
I'm that cyclist riding home

Circumstances keep us apart
Circumstances can be hard
Circumstances against our will
But I want you to know I love you still

Don't you cry don't your fear
Just think of me and I'll be near
I know one day I'm gonna see you right
Walking to me with eyes of light

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4. Is That A Sign?

There was a boy
A boy who died
Then he came back to life
Said he'd been to heaven
He said Santa Claus wasn't there
But there were lots, lots of angels

Is that a sign?
Blowing in the wind tonight
Breathing hope into souls of loved ones at home
Dreamin and sleepin tight
Prayers of light
Grand design
You can take all my mornings from me if I'm not right

A lonely man
Way past his prime
He'd failed at love
And was running out of time
Then a woman came
said unto him
"I don't care if you're eighty I'm marrying you Jim"

I'll pray today
Is that a sign?
Blowing in the wind tonight
Breathing hope into souls of loved ones at home
Dreamin and sleepin tight
Prayers of light
Grand design
You can take all my mornings from me if I'm not right

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5. Over The Moon

Sometimes I'm taken a long way from home
Thats when I'm shaken, need to get you on the phone
to tell you I treasure every stone, flower and feather
You ever gave me in your own sweet way

And nothing can change the way I feel about you
Loving me and me loving you
It's here in my heart let the light shine on you
You know I'll always be over the moon

When you're with me I feel bigger than myself
When you call me you know I drop everything else

Cause nothing can change the way I feel about you
Loving me and me loving you
It's here in my heart, let the light shine on you
You know I'll always be over the moon

Sometimes I wonder, where I might be if you weren't there
Well I wouldn't have an anchor I'd just be driftin in thin air

When you're in motion I'm movin too
Whenever you're rollin I'm rollin too

And nothing can change the way I feel about you
Loving me and me loving you
It's here in my heart let the light shine on you
Forever and ever we're over the moon
I wanna be the ground for you to grow from
and I'll be the trees for you to climb high on
It's here in my heart let the light shine on you
Forever and ever we're over the moon.

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6. Holding On To Sky

Well I see you in the morning dressed up in somethin warm
And you're giving me a hug as your headin out the door
I must have seen you a hundred times outside and thru the gate
And each time you closed it I'd feel my heart ache

And I wonder if you know
About a love that was grown

I remember how you used to laugh and leap into my arms
It was you that held me there I tried to keep you from harm
Now there's a wall between us and I never see your face
You've been captured by a lie and your heart has turned away

I don't know if you'll ever know
About a love that was grown

I'm holdin on to sky
Holdin on to sky
Lettin the days go by
Holdin on to sky

Its a setback for humanity, its a wake up for the brave
When hatred comes to replace

I don't expect you'll ever knock again upon my door
But I hope you'll come to understand what you blame me for
Your life is a gift child don't squander it that way
There's beauty all around if you care to look some day

Maybe you'll never know
About the love that was grown

I'm holdin on to sky
Holdin on to sky
Lettin the days go by
Holdin on to sky

Maybe you don't want the truth
Maybe it's too hard
Well I pray for your heart

I'm holdin on to sky, Holdin on to sky, Lettin the days go by
Holdin on to sky, I don't even wonder why
Holdin on to sky, Once upon a time, Holdin onto sky

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7. Out Of Reach

Into the night I lean
a dumped man since she
left me waiting without a clue

What can I do
when she can't say
words of love blow away in the wind

I'll take a boat to the sea
let the breeze carry me
far away from the shore where she will be

It'll be too late for reprieve or rescue or please
I'll be gone cross the waves out a reach
I'll be gone out of reach

Well I hope she can see
how I tried to be
the best man for her for a while

Into the light
I'll see her waiting patiently
through long lonely nights far away

And I'll wonder and dream
of her and what could have been
if we hadn't got so far out of reach.
If we hadn't got so far
out of reach.

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8. Myall Creek

A descendant of the murderers, a descendent of the slain
met at Myall Creek and sisters they became
just goes to show what you can do
when you forgive whats been done
turn darkness into light
fear into love

You got to let go of all hatred
if you know what's good for you
you got to own up to the truth
no matter how it proves
this beautiful land don't want no bad thing in here
break open all the silence fill it up with tears

Join up all your hands, join up all your hands
Join up all your hands spread out on the land
and no more weep from Myall creek
make joy from sorrow love from pain

There are many other places still to go
where the killing times have left their bitter bones
where haunting sadness lingers
poison in our towns, smoke each place for peace
consecrate the ground

Join up all your hands, join up all your hands
Join up all your hands spread out on the land
and no more weep from Myall creek
make joy from sorrow love from pain

Join up all your hands, join up all your hands
Join up all your hands spread out on the land
And no more weep from Myall creek

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9. Mobile Phone Blues

Make up your mind sweetheart before I hit town
Make up your mind sweetheart before I hit town
If you want me you got me if you don't let me down

I got a mobile phone so I won't miss your call
I got a mobile phone so I won't miss your call
we got the technology but I can't read you at all

You haven't arrived and I'm travellin still
It seems you haven't arrived and I'm travellin still
How come we know Chicago before Broken Hill?

I heard a rumour you said I was too blame
I heard a rumour you said I was too blame
Well Bob Dylan told me to never drop names

You're taking sweets from strangers, you know that it's wrong.
You're taking sweets from strangers, you know that it's wrong.
Well that wouldn't happen if you'd taken me along.

I'm over the hill and I'm down the mountain side
I'm over the hill and I'm down the mountain side
Even if you wanted me now I couldn't give you a ride

Last thing you told me, you said you'd see me one day
Last thing you ever told me you said you'd see me one day
Well that's just fine sweetheart, maybe in the next life you'll stay

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10. High On A Hill

I'm high on a hill looking over a small town
I see trucks roll in and trucks roll out
I'm somewhere in south west WA
never been here before may never be again

People have been kind I've been fed and I've been watered
I've been given a place to stay up this hill in single quarters
I'm thinking of walking down to the town but it's hard to walk up again
So I sit here with the birds watching me, watching them

Shadows creep on the hillside a crow flies hard to the west
I wish I could be that certain of where to go next
Big old jarra tree is holding up the sky
His trunk is a storehouse of years gone by

high on a hill its quiet and still
if you get a clear day
you can see a long way

Lights come on in the valley
good people are in their homes
loving wives and husbands
laughing at their children's jokes
I'm up here in the trees high above it all
I'm holdin' a guitar strumming a few chords

There's women who've passed me by and there's those I've set free
I don't know if any of 'em could've changed me
I wonder if my children know I'm alive
I wish I had 'em with me, God know's I tried

I'm a long way from where I was born but I'm closer to my grave
just when I'll leave here I cannot say
I hear the distant sound of a car slowing down
I hear them speed up again as they leave town

high on a hill its quiet and still
if you get a clear day
you can see a long way

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11. Tom Wills Would

Ours is a small club we're not well known
But news of us is growing among the young and old
A more loyal bunch of players you'd never find
And who'd be our coach
Tom Wills would, Tom Wills would

We don't often win when we do its pandemonium
More often it's the taste of defeat we have to eat
There's always next week, we'll beat em yet
As Tom Wills would
Tom Wills would

We're a determined bunch of tryers and we stick to a plan
Worn down many a team of fancied moneyed champions
We play with guile and wit and true team spirit
As Tom Wills would, Tom Wills would
If he were he now he could
Tom Wills would

So if you're thinking to drop me from the team
I won't go quietly I'll go mean
Bugger me age and me cranky ways
I'll send my bones to the contest again
As Tom Wills would, Tom Wills would
He'd be there if he could Tom Wills would

When shadows draw long on my final day of play don't drag me to a cold room
Don't send me off that way let me run on burning bright with dance and song
and stun the opposition
As Tom Wills would, Tom Wills would
If he were here now he could
Tom Wills would

If I'm shunned and ignored by the mighty who preside
I'll not curry for their favour I'll not bootlick at their side
I'll be gone with those who knew me well
My dark friends that died in their own sad hell
As Tom Wills would, as Tom Wills would
If he were here now he could Tom Wills would
He'd be there if he could, Tom Wills would.
Tom Wills would.

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