Get all 17 Floyd Thursby releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Empire of Summer (album, 2023), The Fuller's Field (album, 2022), Fahrenheit (single, 2021), Đóa hồn say (single, 2021), The South Lands (album 2020), Let it shine (single, 2020), To those in flames (album, 2019), Everyone Can See the Stars (single, 2019), and 9 more.
1. |
The Thief
05:00
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I’m a man who does his work well
For me there’s no glory
A thief’s a figure running through the dark
I’ll tell you my story
I swear - I thought I was safe
I thought she was sleeping
But I left a little something special on the window pane
Then I felt myself falling
CHORUS
Every time I leave a home
Through a broken window or an open door
I love you that little bit more
I love you that little bit more
And I know I know I know
That by loving you so
I will lead them to me
I will lead them to me
Fate - it must have been fate
It followed my shadow
And all the keys to all the locks
Remembered me - remembered that window
CHORUS
I see my way now
I see it so clearly
One reason to live
I hold it so dearly
Night is still my companion
I can’t lose that feeling
The man has dealt me my hand
This hand’s made for stealing
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2. |
In your hands
02:57
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You have a secret just for two
With your quiet silver keepings
Scheming out the world in wicked ways
It’s in your hands, now
Carried together into town
This tiny pocket burden
Shining from that secret in your eyes
It’s in your hands, now
CHORUS
It’s in your hands, now
Gather it together
In your hands now
Hold onto it forever and a day
You hung a memory in the sky
Or a message on my windscreen
Traced across the glass in lovers’ rhyme
It’s in your hands, now
CHORUS
This road’s a long forgotten path
But we keep our course regardless
Straight toward that message in the sky
It’s in your hands now
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3. |
The Red Letter
03:49
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There is a tight black promise in a dead man’s eyes
And it echoes through his ribcage, and this promise tells no lies
As his panicked breath departed I was clutched in his embrace
And I knew the man had given me this promise in his place
I wrapped my plans for the past in a sheet from his bed
And I called the walls to witness all the savage words he’d said
I took the red paint brush from the red paint pot
And I marked the red letter on the dead man’s gut
CHORUS
Red red letter
Red red letter
Red red letter
Letter red
You know there used to be a light outside the silent gates of hell
And a keeper of the light, and of the gates, and of the bell
But the keeper’s left the gate, and the light has burned away
And now the measure of a man is just the money he can pay.
I’ve seen, I’ve seen what a boy shouldn’t see
But the reason I’m still looking is the promise made to me
If I choose the wrong blade or kiss the wrong hand
I wear the black promise like a black armband
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4. |
The Lover's Twist
03:38
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They were taking down the banners on Calendar Street
They were talking like soldiers at the trackside meet
There was movement in the docklands on the passenger side
Some white Russian with a fancy hat had brought the moon in on the tide
CHORUS
And you show me your body, and your only tattoo
And I know by your eyes and the curl of your lips that I’m worthless to you
And you light my cigar, put your knife in my back
With a lover’s twist
I will shout your name to the four corners of the universe
I will harness the winds to the black devil’s curse
I will ride down an angel and I will slay her in her bed
But to you I will be nothing more than a name in a book you once read.
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5. |
Crazy day feeling
04:05
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On a dark city day
Wearing dark city rain,
I kick at the footpath
As I wait for your train
Verse Two
I’d brought you six roses
But your train, it never came
And I felt a little crazy
And I wished you felt the same
CHORUS
Coz life is for living
And love is for giving
And people can say what they will
When we are together
And the nights last forever
Those crazy day feelings lie still
Verse Three
I dreamed I’s on fire
But the fire was cold
It danced on my fingers
And it iced up my soul
Verse Four
If I could get you back again
I’d give everything I had
I don’t want to stay this crazy
I can’t stay this sad
CHORUS
Verse Five
The storm clouds had left us
And the cold, and the rain.
All the shadows and sadness
The heartache and pain.
Verse Six
The blue sky was shouting
Our names out to sea
The sun was on fire
Your arms were round me
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6. |
Evil for this land
04:09
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He arrived in drunken splendour with the dusk
Like a circus clown astride a sullen mule
He said a child could conquer all within this town
But a child is always taken for a fool
He camped beneath the bell tower and the clock
He said his watch had snapped a coil the day before
And when the hours ring like thunder in your ears
The time of day means nothing anymore
He promised he would save us all from Satan
And he swore by Revelation 1:18
I know our father speaks through many hosts
But a preacher man like this I’d never seen
CHORUS
If I remember my Bible correctly
The Romans killed an honourable man
For saying things no one could understand
And that bodes evil for this land
He said: when darkness holds us all within a cage
And the moon shines a torch through the bars
The spirit hides my face behind a veil
And I know the answer’s nowhere near the stars
When the sun has pinned our bodies to the plains
And the glory of the day has burnt our eyes
A whisper plays amongst us like a ghost
And I know that Armageddon’s on the rise
CHORUS
I told him things I’d never told before
I wept within his arms and it felt good
He raised me out of ashes, cast fire upon my soul
I was saved because I trusted that he could
But a shepherd cannot lead the hearts of all
And panic hides its face in every flock
They spat upon his teachings, and tangled him in chains
And they hanged him from the bell tower and the clock
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7. |
A trip across the river
03:30
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You’re going to need this for your trip across the river
The ferry’s weighted down with rags and gold
Although you’ve tried with every heartbeat to forgive her
You’re going to need this for your trip across the river
You’re going to need this when you walk towards your lover
Your candle trailing ribbons through the dark
It took you thirty lifetimes to discover
You’re going to need this when you walk towards your lover
Oh, I’m coming home
You’ll say “My darling one I know you must be weary
I know the days weigh heavy on your soul
I have brought something to ease your precious burden
My darling one, I know you must be weary.”
Oh, I’m coming home
You ache to feel again the love you now only remember
When a glance could take an arrow from your heart
But the deed you have performed renders your soul unto the other
You’ll never feel again what you remember
You’ll never feel again what you remember
Oh, I’m coming home
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8. |
Sunrise
03:35
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I is I and you is you and conversation's at a standstill
Oh oh oh sunrise
Oh oh oh sunrise
she is them and he is they and what's the time and where's the money
Oh oh oh sunrise
Oh oh oh sunrise
Red green indigo violet navy blue
Illumination comes but once a year long slide into the dark
Red green indigo violet stinking haze
Autumn soaks up summer's lazy tail
For what is now and how is why into a room of darkened glances
Oh oh oh sunrise
Oh oh oh sunrise
Brick is brick and wall is wall and there’s your answer in a sweat cell
Oh oh oh sunrise
Oh oh oh sunrise
Red green indigo violet navy blue
Illumination comes but once a year long slide into the dark
Red green indigo violet stinking haze
Autumn soaks up summer's lazy tail
Take a point and stretch it out and bring it round and there’s a circle
Oh oh oh sunrise
Oh oh oh sunrise
Find the time at close of day to rest a bone in blackest sanctuary
Oh oh oh sunrise
Oh oh oh sunrise
Red green indigo violet navy blue
Illumination comes but once a year long slide into the dark
Red green indigo violet stinking haze
Autumn soaks up summer's lazy tail
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9. |
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Verse One
Bridge Road midnight
And a flickering light
Marks the door of an old wine bar
Where taxi cab drivers, and late night lovers
Eat like kings, surrounded by stars
Verse Two
She took me she kept me
She walked out and left me
It’s a tale I’m not too proud to tell
You can drown out your sorrow between now and tomorrow
But never dream in this Hollywood
CHORUS
I’m down on my knees to this lack-lustre shrine
With a lock of her hair in my hand
On the lino we danced out our faded romance
In the nights of the Hollywood Palace
Verse Three
In this has-been hall of fame
I see a poor man’s pinball game
And a juke box of faded delights
They say ‘Take the man home’, but he’s never alone
When he dines at Hollywood’s
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10. |
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They were taking down the banners on Calendar Street
They were talking like soldiers at the trackside meet
There was movement in the docklands on the passenger side
Some white Russian with a fancy hat had brought the moon in on the tide
CHORUS
And you show me your body, and your only tattoo
And I know by your eyes and the curl of your lips that I’m worthless to you
And you light my cigar, put your knife in my back
With a lover’s twist
I will shout your name to the four corners of the universe
I will harness the winds to the black devil’s curse
I will ride down an angel and I will slay her in her bed
But to you I will be nothing more than a name in a book you once read.
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Floyd Thursby Melbourne, Australia
"Floyd Thursby has a fascinating voice. But of course, all that would be insignificant without great songs as vehicles for that voice. Thursby has armfuls of them." (Rhythms magazine)
FB/Insta/Twitter: MrFloydThursby
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