Get all 8 Junior Bill releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Youth Club!, Junior Bill, Above Your Station, Off Broadway, Som Do Brasil, It All Goes Downhill From Here, Umbrella Pedestrians, and Unlock The Alleys, Free Up The Scallies.
1. |
David
03:27
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David can't hang out with us today
Oh no he can't come over to play
Mama said she don't like his streetwise ways
And his colloquial turn of phrase
David - brought up in a broken home
David - with a pit bull in the window
David - used to have to wash his own clothes
Nobody cared about where he went
When he went to call for his friends
Who were much more affluent
David can't hang out with us today
Oh no he can't come over to play
Mama said she don't like his streetwise ways
And the boyishness he displays
David became a scapegoat
We shoved stolen goods in his coat
Packet of fags and a WKD
I didn't want the blame put on me
We fled hastily from the scene
We kept our soft, white hands clean
Whenever David came over to call
We had to jump over the garden wall
Mum wouldn't let us see him no more
David can't hang out with us today
Oh no he can't come over to play
Mama said she don't like his streetwise ways
And his colloquial turn of phrase
Now poor David's got no place to go
Oh no he isn't welcome at home
The off license alarm rings out ASBOS
So he'll be kicking a ball on his own
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2. |
Teeth
03:54
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She's been getting holes in her teeth
Bet she wish she took 'em to the NHS
You can hardly hear when she speaks
And she's been talking less
Living in the house on the hill
With the yellow corridors and cups of tea
Little, white, pound-shaped pills
And cold company
Mrs Winterburn cuts your hair
And Mr Federico takes you out to town
Six chocolate eclairs
Seven up to wash it down
Neither of them need to hear you cuss
Even if they don't understand
Typical of you to make a fuss
When people give a helping hand
But how does she want it?
Let her have her cake and eat it
Independently
Sitting up in my bedsit
I can see the children go running by
Every day they grow a little bit
As their independence dies
You won't let me visit you still
Let me take you to the dental surgery
I look up at the house on the hill
And every day it looks at me
But how did she want it?
Let her have her cake and eat it
Independently
But tell her to brush her teeth
The hospital and the baptist church
The graveyard with the funeral hearse
The playground to the call centre
You can live and work and die just here
On this tiny cul-de-sac
But how did she want it?
Let her have her cake and eat it
How did she want it?
Let her have her cake and eat it
Independently
Tell her to brush her teeth
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3. |
Room At The Inn
03:47
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Is there any room at the inn?
Is there any room in Italy,
France, Spain or Germany?
Is there any room for me?
All the way to Bethlehem
To prove that we were three wise men
If I were your friend
You'd help me to my feet again oh no no
You can't see what's happened to me
Just like you we want to be free
Like a blackbird on the breeze
Cos we've been 'cross land and sea
Are there any songs of sanctuary?
Are there any songs for world war three?
For understanding refugees?
Are there any songs for me?
Under southern starlit skies
One day we will find our prize
And restore our broken pride
And pass on dignified
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4. |
Boys From Jungle
03:04
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Omed said got boys from Jungle
Came through sleet and storm and thunder
Young, black skin and came on boat
Now have found a cold, hard sofa
One boy has got family down here
Waiting for mum to get visa
Paying for sister's education
What about mum well he can't just leave her
One got in a case needing legal aid
Two years now just going in circles
Only three of the boys got papers
Many waiting four years later
Round here people don't believe
Back home he used to be a doctor
Some will have to go to Swindon
Too much people, poor condition
Got to get a wristband if you wanna get fed
Keep your mouth shut for the council inspection
One boy tried to break away
No one else there spoke his lingo
Found him disappeared one day
Smashed the sink and the bathroom window
Omed said got boys from Jungle
Came through sleet and storm and thunder
Young, black skin and came on boat
Now have found a cold, hard sofa
Omed said got boys from Jungle
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5. |
Eli
03:43
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Out of his senses in an underpass
The youngsters call Eli a relic of the past
Sleeping on park benches
Or under a red brick arch
Don't you know you're gonna get moved on fast
Eli!
Ain't got no home
Eli!
Skin and bone
Eli!
So leave him alone
Cos he don't need nothing from no one
He's a miserable bastard who berates and lambasts
Fresh-faced students who walk right past
He said "I swear the big issue guy's got a house and kids
And he don't deserve the steam off my piss"
Eli!
Ain't got no home
Eli!
Collects old stones
Eli!
Got a portable radio
Cos he don't need nothing from no one
He's in an ongoing feud with all public services
Who serve to disturb his old world courtesies
Some people want him banned from the CBD
He hides in the lift of the NCP
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6. |
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Who said you could film us?
You make us look disgusting
Who said you could film us?
Just look at the state we're in
Don't talk to strangers
Don't talk to neighbours
Don't talk to vagrants too
You came to see natives
You have nothing to give
We're humiliated by you
What you doing with that camera, boy?
Do you wanna get it nicked?
You came here to see the real McCoy
How the other half live
We're out here in our jim jams
Let us put on our glad rags
Let us move the bin bags please
Cos the ragged embittered
Can't see for the litter
And dog shit drying in the breeze
The sun shines daily on the chosen few
Screaming babies in the queue
Old bones achy through and through
So dash the camera crew
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7. |
Youth Club!
02:47
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Down here in the youth club!
We got the beats and the bubblegum
We got the bass, we got the drum
If you wanna come
Just pay a pound and proceed to have fun
Plug in and play
Stretch out the day
Til we overrun
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8. |
World I Used To Know
04:35
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Hello my old friend
I used to know you well
We used to be the bane of Crwys Road
Your year has been spent
Inside a prison cell
Extended from the world you used to know
Late at night your voice
Lingers in my soul
You didn't have a choice
In the world I used to know
A girl that I once knew
The one that got away
Now she watches her own children grow
A glimpse of my old school
The dreams and dreary days
I left with my aspirations in tow
And she's lost her beaming smile
She is all alone
She stayed all the while
In the world I used to know
I sloped out
And paid no mind to the chances
That befell
Those with lesser advantage
Hello my old friend
I used to know you well
We used to let our inhibitions go
When the day would end
With the ringing of the bell
I saw your religion change you so
I saw you on the news
Shot down by drones
Very far removed
From the world you used to know
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9. |
Sheep's Clothes
03:12
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Selling the ground from under your feet
In hard hats and black brogues
No one knows
No one knows
You're a wolf in sheep's clothes
The town planning
Was incomplete
And now the meeting rooms closed
So it goes
So it goes
You're a wolf in sheep's clothes
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10. |
Flag of St George
04:21
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I saw the flag of Saint George today
All the red had been painted grey
And proudly stands
The English man
Holding in his right hand
The keys to the land
For him alone
And the post office was for sale
And the National Health had failed
To carry on
Cos one by one
The things that we had were gone
And nobody saw it wrong
To give them away
So what's left here?
And what's he that wishes so?
What we auctioneered
Was not covetous for gold
So we'll be sailing on
To leave behind our troubled past
Flag of Saint George
Is nailed to the mast
We'll bid farewell to the poundlands
Bookies and roadside burger vans
Where we once worked
In the hope
That if we do as we're told
We could afford to own
Our own gated homes
And retire
In front of a warming fire
Pensions and church spires
When we get old
So please remember us
Oh we few we happy few
In our Sunday best
As we disappear from view
So we'll be clinging on
To the things we thought we knew
Flag of Saint George
I'll wrap myself in you
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