Nankivell's Optet - lyrics

New songs and refreshing new music from the quirkiest of British acoustic bands
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Pear Date

(a religious song with loose translations from Faroese mixed with some of our own coinings)

 

No fat conversions, no freeway hits

Nothing screenwise, five dice or counterfeit

Can't cut the mustard with this fruitless crew

Paying out on razor blades and crossbow tubes

 

The detail is specific, likewise the alarm

Chewing over crater dust and danced upon

Skating backwards in the backwoods in the wooden overcoat

The moonslide crumbles slowly as it hits your throat

 

Pear date

Pear date

It's the last pear date

 

Jellyfeet stumble and pancake lip

Raising Cain and Abel in the overdrift

This trade fair delusion and monkey hope

Nobody's calling time until the chase is broke

 

Pear date

Pear date

It's the last pear date

 

Homecrack opens with that wavy straight slant

Taking off the draining-covered gravy-stained pants

Grey hair, weary beard combed across

Can't jettison the syrup in this tin-corn pot

 

Fiasco daisy on a Canterbell charge

Tobacco-stained remains of panes of plain stained glass

Sucking up the details and effects of paint

Stable bent and cradles on the last pear date

 

Pear date

Pear date

It's the last pear date

 

Copyright Nankivell's Optet 2003
 
All the songs have been written by Graham Browning and Hugh Nankivell and arranged by the whole group. Each of the songs has its own story, closely interweaving the lyrics and music, and, as you hear them, you journey into these myths, recollections and fantasies. They contain a mix of styles ranging from simple ballad, through jazzy tango with improvising, and on to highly arranged 'contemporary music'.
 
I Don't Usually Feel Like This

(a song written just after September 11th)

 

Afraid to open the next one

Afraid to turn the next page

Afraid to read the next word

Afraid to think of you

 

Dreams of floating stillness

Dreams of living life now

Dreams of smelling the wet earth

Sleepless and sacred dreams

 

I don't usually feel like this

Where are you

I don't usually feel like this

Where are you

 

Your picture leaves no shadow

Your picture leaves no light

Your picture stares right through me

There are pictures everywhere

 

I don't usually feel like this

Where are you

I don't usually feel like this

Where are you

 

You told me 'fix the coffee'

You told me 'hold my breath'

You told me 'put out the light'

But now you're telling me nothing

 

I don't usually feel like this

Where are you

I don't usually feel like this

Where are you

 

Copyright Nankivell's Optet 2003
   

Hugh Nankivell & Graham Browning
 

None The Wiser

 (a new song for the next album)

 

If I told you I wouldn't see you again

And you were my mother

You'd ask - but I wouldn't tell you more

And we'd both be none the wiser

If I told you that I loved you

And you weren't my lover

You'd ask - but I wouldn't tell you more

And we'd both be none the wiser

 

None the wiser - don't want no trouble

None the wiser - don't want no fuss

None the wiser - don't want no damage

None the wiser

Keep my mouth shut

 

If I told you about the future

And you were my brother

You'd ask - but I wouldn't tell you more

And we'd both be none the wiser

If I told you nothing but lies

And you were one of my sisters

You'd ask - but I wouldn't tell you more

And we'd both be none the wiser

 

None the wiser - don't want no trouble

None the wiser - don't want no fuss

None the wiser - don't want no damage

None the wiser

Keep my mouth shut

 

Today has come around again

I can think what I want in my own company

I tell myself over and again

That I'm not the fool I appear to be

 

If I told you exactly what to do

And you were my dead father

You wouldn't ask - but I would tell you more

And we'd both be none the wiser

 

None the wiser

It's been no trouble

None the wiser

It's been no fuss

None the wiser

I've suffered no damage

I'm none the wiser

I've kept my mouth shut

 

Copyright Nankivell's Optet 2003
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