Get all 7 EllY Tree releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of WALLFLOWER, Wallflower, Einstein in the Patent Office, Einstein in the Patent Office, Walking Backwards, LeafFall, and Breathing.
1. |
HOOPS OF STEEL
03:36
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HOOPS OF STEEL © Helen Woodbridge
Love is patient love is pure
Love will make you insecure
Love is gentle love is kind
Love will make you lose your mind
My love has run away from me
My love is hiding in his cave
My love is like a frightened child
My love’s a soul that won’t be saved
I gave my love a fledgling bird
I thought that he would always tend
But here it’s lying on the ground
With broken wings that I can’t mend
My love had diamonds in his hand
My love had honey at his door
My love is an unholy fool
But I could not have loved him more
Love is honest love is strong
In love there is no right or wrong
Love’s a furnace love’s a fire
Love will hang you from the wire
So I’ll leave him hiding in the dark
And see if this will ease my aching heart
And if in the future he should come to realize
That he was wrong then here’s this song
But he has bound his heart with hoops of steel
To make sure that he never has to deal
With what he feels
My love is like a stubborn boy
Who stuffs his fingers in his ears
My love is quite impossible
For love’s the very thing that he most fears.
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2. |
BREATHING
02:45
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BREATHING
When the birth
breath begins
breathless but breathing
gulping in oxygen
filling the bronchioles
lifting them vertical
knowing this is it all
the joy of breathing.
Take a breath, take the air
Air can take you anywhere
When the swell drags you in
It will spit you out again
Leave you gasping on the shore
Where the gulls fly, where the wind is
High, still breathing the joy of breathing?
Inflating them full
Pushing them outwards
But missing the landfall
Earth is abandoned
You're floating above it all
And heaven is waiting
You'll never know at all
The joy of breathing
When you walked
Into the waves
what were you thinking?
Where were you going?
Were you leaving the land behind?
Were you lost in the doldrums
or finally home again
forsaking for ever
the joy of breathing?
Take a breath, take the air
Air can take you anywhere
When the swell drags you in
It will spit you out again
Leave you gasping on the shore
Where the gulls fly, where the wind is
High, still breathing the joy of breathing? Still breathing.
Breathing....ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
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3. |
SPIRAL STAIRCASE
04:38
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SPIRAL STAIRCASE
Oo oo we oo we oo oo oo Oo oo we oo we oo oo oo
Lighter, brighter Lighter, brighter Lighter, brighter Lighter, brighter
The stars shone brighter in the alley by the spiral staircase
So much brighter than out in the street
Love is lighter in cold December, your lips are warm
Life tastes sweet, oh it tastes so sweet.
High on the hills above the city wading through drifts
As the sun goes down
Scarlet and burning north of the city I watch it sink
Over London town, London town
The stars shone brighter in the alley by the spiral staircase
So much brighter than out in the street
Love is lighter in cold December, your lips are warm
Life tastes sweet, oh it tastes so sweet.
Lighter, lighter, brighter
The sea in the hair, the salt on the tongue
All elements becoming one
Wild autumn days
Your holding my hand. We laugh as we run
Into the tunnel of the crashing waves
The stars shone brighter in the alley by the spiral staircase
So much brighter than out in the street
Love is lighter in cold December, your lips are warm
Life tastes sweet, oh it tastes so sweet.
And then you left me with a hole in my heart
And the tide rushing in
No I cannot, no I cannot, no I cannot, I cannot
I cannot see the stars, cannot see the stars shine
Brighter in the alley by the spiral staircase
So much brighter than out in the street
Love is lighter in cold December, your lips are warm
Life tastes sweet, oh it tastes so sweet
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4. |
SNOW QUEEN
03:33
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SNOW QUEEN © Helen Woodbridge
They listen to the wind in the chimney wail
Look outside the window, see the gale
Watch the whirling snow that flies around
Watch it form a blanket over the ground
He sees the white bees swarming in the sky
Doesn’t feel the splinter lodging in his eye
And as the fragrance of the roses starts to fade away
Sees not their beauty, sees only decay
Then inside the blizzard she thinks she hears a cry
Can’t make out the shape that’s forming in the sky
Scrapes the dazzling crystals from the window pane
Peering through the darkness searching in vain
And all the sadness in the world’s is held within
That mournful wailing cry
And with all the wisdom in the world she will never, never, never, never, never
Understand why, why?
Now he sees beauty in a snow queen blinding and white
Empty as his memory bitter as spite
She listens to the wind in the chimney moan
Stares out the window standing alone
Weary is a world where love has grown cold
Missing is the warm hand she used to hold
She listens to the wind in the chimney moan
Standing and staring waiting and watching standing standing all alone.
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5. |
TODAY
04:14
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TODAY
The sundogs guard a midday sun
That’s beaming down on everyone
And people smile as they go on
I’m on a high today, I’m in the sky today
And nothing can bring me down
Nothing will entangle me
Whatever used to make me frown
Has lost its power over me
Today today today lalalalalala
Now that yesterday has gone
I’ll find the strength to carry on
And laugh at all the foolish tongues
Who think that No’s the thing to say
Because it’s all about yes today
And no-one can cramp my style
Nothing will encumber me
All I have to do is smile
And celebrate this shining hour
Today today today
Today today today
Celebrate the rocks and caves,
Celebrate the rolling waves
Celebrate the stars that shine
Celebrate the ruby wine
Celebrate the clouds on high
Celebrate a windy sky
Celebrate a friendly face
Celebrate the human race
Celebrate dance and sing
Celebrate everything
Today today today
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6. |
NEVEREND
02:49
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NEVEREND
My love as we lie together
Heavy are our eyelids
Now we are one and our ardour's done
Here or wherever we may be
May this love blaze through all of our days
And free us from the petulance
And all the petty jealousies that plague us
Let us not be unreasonable
Let us be generous and kind
For this love is our kingdom
Our power and our glory
For as long as the world keeps on turning
Whether we are
Near or far, old or new, strong or weak, to be and do
To make and mend, to keep or lose, to hold or rend
In wisdom or in foolishness
My love may the sun shine on us
And gild our hearts with gold
Keep us from harm
Keep us warm
May we feel good will all around us
Save us from black despair
Let not the fear of rejection make us insincere
Keep our vision sharp and clear
And save us from the mind games that we're always playing
Let our stubborness yield in the end
Keep our hearts open to hope
Whether we are
Near or far, old or new, strong or weak, to be and do
To make and mend, to keep or lose, to hold or rend
In wisdom or in foolishness
May this love never end, neverend.
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7. |
RIDDLE AND SIEVE
04:42
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RIDDLE AND SIEVE
Riddle and sieve, sieve and riddle
Riddle and sieve, sieve and riddle
Riddle me out the dross and the spoil
That clogs the soil, that mines the grief
Riddle me ree the dross and the clog
That traps the thought, that sucks and clags
That turns the time from now to then
That robs the hours that blocks the pen ooo ooo ooo
Riddle and sieve, sieve and riddle
Riddle and sieve, sieve and riddle
Riddle me out the sturm und drang
That rips and tears that drums the ears
Riddle me up the drumming storm
That fills the air with shouts and jeers
The stallion storm that bucks and rears
That flicks its ears and will not hear ooo ooo ooo
Riddle with light the stumbling soul
To play the role and pay the toll
Shiver and shake until the light shines clear
Through every part of this my heart
Sieve and sift and pan for gold
Find the diamond in the coal
Riddle and sieve, sieve and riddle
Riddle and sieve, sieve and riddle
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8. |
VAGRANT
04:42
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VAGRANT
This place fits me like a hand-me-down,
No I don’t fit here at all
I think it’s time for a turn around but I’ve
Got my back to the wall
And the wall is made of complications
Contradictions and roads not taken
And the road is made of lost connections and friends forsaken
Take me back to the old home town
To the place where I became
A teenage poet and a barefoot clown
Trudging through the streets in the rain
And the future’s one huge cloud of unknowing
I haven’t got a clue which way I’m going
So I’ll go wherever the wind is blowing
Looking for the rainbow
And like a maze when you enter it
The path to the centre looks
But at every turn there’s a two way split
That could be a loss or a gain
And everything is a fog of confusion
Even when you think you’re on the right track
It could be real it could be illusion
And there’s no turning back
So take me down to the seas again
And take me out to the beach
Take me where the mermaids sing
Calling each to each
And all the voices you have drowned
Can’t stop the world from turning round
You must keep your eyes on
Every blue horizon because that
Vagrant spirit keeps
Urging you to go on
Vagrant spirit
Vagrant spirit
This place fits me like a hand-me-down....
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9. |
THIS MAGPIE MIND
03:50
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THIS MAGPIE MIND
Sharp eyes eyes of flint and fire
Shrewd eyes eyes of slate and mica
Lines in a landscape
Markers in the mist
Mark time mark the half and quarter
Take time make the minutes matter
Mixing up the morsels of a mag - pie mind
Moments of meaning moments of madness
Moments of murder moments of mercy
Messing with the message managing the mayhem
Mixing up the morsels of a mag - pie mind
This mind is a magpie
Gathering trinkets
Snatching at snippets
Always wanting more
Roving and restless
Always in motion
Mixing up the morsels of a mag - pie mind
Mag………pie mind
Mixing up the morsels
Mixing up the morsels
Mixing up the morsels
Of a mag - pie mind.
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EllY Tree Ipswich, UK
Original art-indie-folk. All songs composed by Helen Woodbridge and arranged by the band.
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