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Forfocs​​​é​​​ic, Vol. 3: Love & War

by Thom Dunn

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1.
Tell Me Ma 03:06
Tell me ma when I go home The boys won't leave the girls alone Pull my hair and stole my comb But that's all right 'til I go home She is handsome She is pretty She is the belle Of Boston city She's a-courtin' One-two-three Pray, won't you tell me Who is she? Albert Mooney says he loves her And all the boys are fighting for her Knock on the door, ring on the bell Said hello, my true love, are you well Out she comes, as white as snow Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes Old Jenny Murray says she'll die If she doesn't get the fella with the roving eye Tell me ma when I go home The boys won't leave the girls alone Pull my hair and stole my comb But that's all right 'til I go home She is handsome She is pretty She is the belle Of Boston city She's a-courtin' One-two-three Pray, won't you tell me Who is she? The wind and the rain and the hail blow high And the snow comes tumbling through the sky She's as sweet as apple pie She'll get her own right by and by When she gets a lad of her own She won't tell mom when she gets home Let them all come as they will For it's Albert Mooney she loves still Tell me ma when I go home The boys won't leave the girls alone Pull my hair and stole my comb But that's all right 'til I go home She is handsome She is pretty She is the belle Of Boston city She's a-courtin' One-two-three Pray, won't you tell me Who is she?
2.
Oh then tell me Sean O'Farrell Tell me why you hurry so Hush, mo buachaill, hush and listen And his cheeks were all aglow I bear orders from the captain Get you ready quick and soon For the pikes must be together By the rising of the moon By the rising of the moon By the rising of the moon The pikes must be together By the rising of the moon Oh then tell me Sean O'Farrell Where's the gathering to be? In the old spot by the river Right well known to you and me One more word for signal token Like the bean sídhe's lonely croon With a pike upon your shoulder By the rising of the moon By the rising of the moon By the rising of the moon The pikes must be together By the rising of the moon Out from many a mud wall cabin Eyes were watching through the night Many manly hearts were beating For the coming morning light Murmurs rang along the valley Like the bean sídhe's lonely croon And a thousand pikes were calling By the rising of the moon By the rising of the moon By the rising of the moon The pikes must be together By the rising of the moon And they fought for poor old Ireland And full bitter was their fate Oh, what glorious pride and sorrow Fills the name of '98 Death to every foe and traitor Forward strike the marching tune! Hurrah, me boys, for freedom! Tis the rising of the moon By the rising of the moon By the rising of the moon The pikes must be together By the rising of the moon
3.
I've been loving you a long time Down all the years, down all the days And I've cried for all your troubles Smiled at your funny little ways We watched our friends grow up together And we saw them as they fell Some of them fell into heaven Some of them fell into hell I took shelter from a shower And I stepped into your arms On a rainy night in Soho The wind was whistling all its charms I sang you all my sorrows And you told me all your joys What ever happened to those all songs? To all those little girls and boys…? Some times I wake up in the morning The ginger lady by my bed Covered in that cloak of silence I hear you talking in my head I'm not singing for the future I'm not dreaming of the past I'm not talking of the first time I never think about the last Now this song is nearly over We may never find out what it means Still there's a light I hold before me And you're the measure of my dreams, the measure of my dreams
4.
I was born on a Dublin street Where the royal drums did beat And those loving English feet They'd walk all over us And every single night When me da would come home tight He'd invite the neighbors out With this fine chorus: Come out, ye Black and Tans Come on and fight me like a man Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders Tell them how the IRA Made you run like hell away From the green and lovely lakes of Killeshandra Come tell us how you slew Them poor Arabs, two by two Like the Zulu, they had spears and bows and arrows How bravely you faced one With your sixteen pounder gun When you frightened them poor natives to their marrow Come let us hear you tell How you slandered great Parnell How you through and well and truly persecuted Where are the sneers and jeers That you bravely let us hear When our leaders of '16 were executed? Come out, ye Black and Tans Come on and fight me like a man Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders Tell them how the IRA Made you run like hell away From the green and lovely lakes of Killeshandra The time is coming fast And I think those days are near When each yeoman, he will run before us And if there be a need Then our kids will sing godspeed With a verse or two of Stephen Behan's chorus: Come out, ye Black and Tans Come on and fight me like a man Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders Tell them how the IRA Made you run like hell away From the green and lovely lakes of Killeshandra
5.
Galway Girl 02:40
Well I took a stroll On the old long walk Of a day And I met a little girl And we stopped to talk Of a fine soft day And I ask you, friend What's a fella to do? When her hair is black And her eyes are blue And I knew right then I'd be taking a whirl Around the Salt Hill prom With a Galway Girl We were halfway there When the rain came down Of a day She took me up to her flat downtown Of a fine soft day And I ask you, friend What's a fella to do? When her hair is black And her eyes are blue And I knew right then I'd be taking a whirl Around the Salt Hill prom With a Galway Girl When I woke up I was all alone With a broken heart And a ticket home And I ask you, friend What's a fella to do? When her hair is black And her eyes are blue See, I've travelled around Been all over the world, boys And I've never seen nothing Like a Galway Girl
6.
There's a uniform still hanging In what's known as father's room A uniform so simple in its style It has no fancy braid of gold No hat with feathered plume But my mother has preserved it All the while One day, she made me try it on A wish of mine for years In memory of your father Sean, she said When I put the Sam Browne on She was smiling through her tears As she placed the broad black brimmer On my head It's just a broad black brimmer With ribbons frayed and torn From the careless whisk of many a mountain breeze An old trench coat That's so battle-stained and worn And breaches almost thread-bare at the knees A Sam Browne belt with buckle big and strong And a holster that's been empty many a day When men claim Ireland's freedom The one should choose to lead them Will wear the broad black brimmer of the IRA It was the uniform worn by my father years ago When he reached my mother's homestead on the run It was the uniform he wore in that little church below When oul' Father Mac, he blessed the pair as one After truce and treaty and the parting of the ways He wore it when he marched out with the rest When they bore his body down on that rugged heather braes They placed the broad black brimmer on his chest It's just a broad black brimmer With ribbons frayed and torn From the careless whisk of many a mountain breeze An old trench coat That's so battle-stained and worn And breaches almost thread-bare at the knees A Sam Browne belt with buckle big and strong And a holster that's been empty many a day When men claim Ireland's freedom The one should choose to lead them Will wear the broad black brimmer of the IRA
7.
On Raglan Road On an autumn day I saw her first and knew That her dark hair would weave a snare That I might one day rue I saw the danger Yet I walked Along the enchanted way And I said, "Let grief be a falling leaf At the dawning of the day" On Grafton Street in November We tripped lightly along the ledge Of a deep ravine where can be seen The worth of passions pledged The Queen of Hearts still making tarts And I not making hay Oh, I loved too much By such, by such Is happiness thrown away I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret signs That are known to artists who have known The true gods of sound and stone With words and tint I did not stint I gave her poems to say With her own name there And her own dark hair Like clouds over fields of May On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I can see her walking now Away from me so hurriedly My reason must allow That I had loved not as I should A creature made of clay When the angel woos the clay He'll lose his wings at the dawn of day
8.
When I was a young man I carried my pack And I lived the free life of a rover From the Murray's green basin To the dusty outback I waltzed my Matilda all over Then in 1915, my country said son It's time you stopped rambling, there's work to be done So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun And they sent me away to the war And the band played Waltzing Matilda As we sailed away from the Quay And amidst all the cheers The shouts and the tears We sailed off for Gallipoli How well I remember that terrible day When the blood stained the sand and the water And how in the hell that they called Suvla Bay We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter Johnny Turk, he was ready He'd primed himself well He showered us with bullets And he rained us with shells And in five minutes flat He'd blown us all to hell Nearly blew us right back To Australia And the band played Waltzing Matilda As we stopped to bury our slain We buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs Then we started all over again Now those who were living Did their best to survive In that mad world of guts, blood, and fire For seven long weeks I kept myself alive As the corpses around me Piled higher Then a big Turkish shell Knocked me ass over tits And when I awoke In my hospital bed And saw what it had done Christ, I wished I was dead I never knew there was worse things Than dying And no more I'll go waltzing Matilda To the green bushes, so far and near For to hang tent and pegs, a man needs two legs No more waltzing Matilda for me So they collected the crippled The wounded, the maimed And they shipped us back home to Australia The legless, the armless The blind and the insane Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay I looked at the place where me legs used to be And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me To grieve, or to mourn, or to pity And the band played Waltzing Matilda As they carried us down the gangway But nobody cheered They just stood and stared Then they turned all their faces away Now every April, I sit on my porch And I watch the parades pass before me I see my old comrades How proudly they march Reliving the dreams of past glories I see the old men, all crippled and worn The forgotten heroes of a forgotten war And the young people ask me What are they marching for? And I ask myself the same question But the band plays Waltzing Matilda And the old men still answer the call But year after year Their numbers get fewer Someday no one will march there at all Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
9.
I was born on a Dublin street Where the royal drums did beat And those loving English feet They'd walk all over us And every single night When me da would come home tight He'd invite the neighbors out With this fine chorus: Fuck the police Coming straight from the underground A young Mick's got it bad in this town Because the Tans have authority To kill the majority Fuck that shit Because I ain't the one For a punk motherfucker With a badge and a gun To be beating on Or thrown in jail Is cuma liomsa foc faoi aon gharda Come out, ye Black and Tans Come on and fight me like a man Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders Tell them how the IRA Made you run like hell away From the green and lovely lakes of Killeshandra Come tell us how you slew Them poor Arabs, two by two Like the Zulu, they had spears and bows and arrows How bravely you faced one With your sixteen pounder gun When you frightened them poor natives to their marrow Come let us hear you tell How you slandered great Parnell How you through and well and truly persecuted Where are the sneers and jeers That you bravely let us hear When our leaders of '16 were executed? Come out, ye Black and Tans Come on and fight me like a man Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders Tell them how the IRA Made you run like hell away From the green and lovely lakes of Killeshandra The time is coming fast And I think those days are near When each yeoman, he will run before us And if there be a need Then our kids will sing godspeed With a verse or two of Stephen Behan's chorus: Fuck the police Coming straight from the underground A young Mick's got it bad in this town Because the Tans have authority To kill the majority Fuck that shit Because I ain't the one For a punk motherfucker With a badge and a gun To be beating on Or thrown in jail Is cuma liomsa foc faoi aon gharda Come out, ye Black and Tans Come on and fight me like a man Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders Tell them how the IRA Made you run like hell away From the green and lovely lakes of Killeshandra

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released March 1, 2023

Performed, produced, engineered, and mixed/mastered by Thom Dunn

Also featuring Jacqui Cheng, Rose Drucker, Paula Arzac, and Craig Divino

Photo by Conor Olmstead

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Thom Dunn Boston, Massachusetts

Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, & new media artist. He enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is the single greatest atrocity committed against mankind. He is a graduate of Clarion Writer's Workshop at UCSD & Emerson College. thomdunn.net ... more

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