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Tides of Time

by Liz Stringer

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1.
Love I found a flood The flood was deep and wide It stretched over the back streets Out to the countryside The flood was dark and wet Chilled my legs to the bone My feet swelled in my shoes Tripping on the bracken overgrown Love I found a flood Love I found a flood It trampled all the grass It swept the debris from the stone And cut off the underpass The flood split all the seams Of the fattened river’s banks And in its putrid water The wrigglers writhed and stank Mosquitos as big as Fairlanes Hovered there above Worms swung from the streetlights Safe from the water spiders’ arms Oh love I found a flood Love I found a flood What a flood it had become Its’ fingers stretched across my spine Slowly blocking out the sun But you don’t see the flood Do you my old friend You don’t feel the dankness rising Or see the path’s eroded end You don’t see the city streets Shrivelled to a husk But my love you’ll never see The beauty of the dusk When the flood is lit like coloured glass Lying peacefully and still As it covers all the ugliness Of the city’s darker will When it reflects clouds and handsome birds And old souls flying by You asked me why I love the flood And that my friend is why Oh love I found a flood You see the flood is both these things The darkness and the good The flood is all around us friend I wish you understood
2.
First Frost 06:23
The very first frost of the year lies on the paddocks glistening My Daddy used to stand right here for the big rains listening When daddy died I took his place, oh I watched them old black mountains Now the hard times have settled on my face, this country ain’t no wishing fountain But I will stay until I crumble into dust beneath the sky I will move my hands through the dirt and wait for rain until I die ‘Til the last head’s sold or I’m too old I just don’t know what else I’d do My Daddy always said that we get what we’re given and that’s why I’m not shooting through When I was a younger woman I loved a broken man Oh he’d set my chest a-heaving He asked me one night for my hand But that one chance I had ended up leaving But I will stay until I crumble into dust beneath the sky I will move my hands through the dirt and wait for rain until I die Til the last head’s sold or I’m too old I just don’t know what else I’d do My Daddy always said that we get what we’re given and that’s why I’m not shooting through
3.
I danced into the morning ‘til I couldn’t feel my feet As if to sit and rest a while was a signal of defeat I clamped my hands over my ears, I spun so fast around And I prayed that I would never ever come down But we are told that even if we lose the fight Everything’s gonna be alright If we keep punching like we’re featherweights I listen to the rhythm of the drums under the floor So loud it gets me to the place I don’t think of you no more I drink tonight as if the booze will re-incarnate my faith But it ain’t faith but hope that got me to this sorry, sorry place Cos we are told that even if we lose the fight Everything’s gonna be alright If we keep punching like we’re featherweights All these years I ain’t ever won a round Keep waiting for the bell to sound I ain’t punching like no featherweight So I’m gonna make sure this weekend never ever ends Tonight nothing else matters, my life on this depends I’ll chase you from the doorways where you lean quiet in my mind And I’ll drink and dance and fuck ‘til I go deaf, dumb, numb and blind Cos we are told that even if we lose the fight Everything’s gonna be alright If we keep punching like we’re featherweights All these years I ain’t ever won a round Keep waiting for the bell to sound I ain’t punching like no featherweight
4.
I watched a wren flying past the window The window to the room where my childhood slept within I sat astride the fiery steed of eighteen A champing racehorse waiting for the running to begin There was a time I thought I’d stay forever My first foremost endeavour to build a life here for evermore My heart back then was as light as a feather A kitten playing with a strip of leather on a sunny morning porch How long will I go, I don’t know, I don’t know I never felt the tow of the pulling tides of time I went across where the snow was a blanket shifting And the grey concrete was drifting under pylons in the rain And we huddled close inside those old stone houses Gripping drams to douse us with the liquors warming flame And through the years as the city swelled and thickened My sluggish heartbeat quickened when I thought of going home So to pyramids and canyons and rolling tumbling rivers And through rich fat wheat that shivers I continued to roam How long will I go, I don’t know, I don’t know I never felt the tow of the pulling tides of time Now I stand and breathe where the waves crash on the shoreline And the sea winds on the borderline of vicious come to rest Here on this sand were my toes first in the water My innocence to slaughter, my bones growing in my chest How long did I go, I don’t know, I don’t know Now that I feel the tow of the pulling tides of time How long will I stay, I can’t say, I can’t say I’ll wait to be swept away by the pulling tides of time
5.
I watched the ripples push out wide Cutting through that old lake’s tide Just like the moon pulled me away from you My head was on the blink My concentration down the sink My every vein fortified wine running through As that key sunk ‘neath the surface So too did my life’s purpose To keep you for my very, very own But a more honest girl than me Stole your heart and now I see I am destined to spend my next years alone You found me beside a road With a heavy, heavy load This guilt I carry with me weighs a tonne One trembling hand folded in yours You helped me up and through the doors Could it be my wandering life is nearly done Took me where it was warm and dry Tenderly you asked me why My face was stained with hot fat tears And we drank your finest wine You told your story, I made up mine And I felt as if we’d known each other years You were wealthy I could see First time it didn’t interest me For love’s rich jewels were shimmering in my eyes I was prepared to hang up spurs Keep my hand from your fat purse And even shut up my old shop of lies Before long it was clear There was another you held dear A farmer’s daughter was the apple of your eye Despite everything I tried Your love for her was strong and wide And I knew it was a waste of precious time But I would not leave empty handed A job as your servant girl I landed You trusted me with all of your affairs You told me how you’d become rich Risen up from your poor father’s ditch Showed me where you kept the safe under the stairs I took this key from that safe’s lock Left before the sun rose up And clambered over fencing wire in the dawn I was heading roughly east Like some demented wildebeest Until I came across that lake by the rows of corn And so my love my words are true All this love I had for you Transcended my illicit urges all But you decided on that girl Chose to share with her your world My resignation a jilted drunken lover’s scrawl My reputation left unmarked The safe I buried in the yard The key I threw into that shining lake For I don’t want your golden money But now you and your sweet honey Will have nothing a new life with which to make Every steep hill, turn and bend Until the road’s inglorious end I’ll continue on my wicked, wicked way If I combust or I fade There will be no grand parade The satisfaction of your life ruined pays my wage
6.
I got pretty fast to the bottom of this glass and here I’m gonna stay If I don’t get off my arse I’m gonna miss another class But you can’t teach old dogs new tricks anyway And the kennel is warm I’m meant to meet you later, be all there for you but somehow now I fear That the wistful looks and the whistled hooks Ain’t the ones I care to read or wanna hear Oh I never really understood But I’d meet you in the desert I’d crawl there on my knees Give you all my wisdom And you’d give yours to me But I never really hit it right Realisation number one was that it all started out as fun But you soon got your hooks into me I was surprised to learn, my fingers getting burned It ain’t just us women who get clingy Oh the fire of love can burn too bright But as the scales tipped and I soon got the hint Expectations they were high If the ideal in your mind ain’t quite what you find You gotta do your best to try and change them, try Try and make them what you want But I’d meet you in the desert I’d crawl there on my knees Give you all my wisdom And you’d give yours to me I’d be a bright torch shining I’d be a fortress high That you could shelter under And sleep sound through the night But I never really hit it right I’m gonna sit on this chair, I won’t go back over there I think I’ve learned enough Staring out onto the street, moving cars and walking feet Everyone goes somewhere, everyone does it tough I know it ain’t just us I’ll keep an eye out for you as I wander on through this thing that we call life I really hope you do find the one for you, the one you wouldn’t change because she’s right I certainly ain’t the one for you But I’d meet you in the desert I’d crawl there on my knees Give you all my wisdom And you’d give yours to me I’d be a bright torch shining I’d be a fortress high That you could shelter under And sleep sound through the night But I never really hit it right
7.
Motel Halls 03:55
I’m not moving, or so it would seem I’m like a rock at the bottom of a fast moving stream It was a long winter, the earth is heavy and wet The air is still, the flowers ain’t bloomed yet And still the sun rises and falls Over valleys and stone walls And voices ring in motel halls It seems so long now since that fading light When we lay folded together so tight And from the outside came the baying of foals While from the hearth warm glowing coals And as the stream from a high peak falls As the snowdrift slowly thaws Our voices ring in motel halls So if this river be my grave If I have loved you too long for my heart to be saved If you remember, throw in a pebble for me When you’re walking the banks, if you’re likely to be And tell her she is the luckiest of souls To have you by her, between her walls And that she never heard those voices in the motel halls
8.
City Colours 04:04
These city colours yeah they move so fast Summer revellers spilled onto the street raise a glass To the hot day’s timely end The wheels are spinning towards your street The road still hot from the sun’s big heat The sky is dark and blue, birds all flying home to nest Well honey that’s right But honey please don’t fight Me and my fear tonight I’ve been called a fool so many times For never knowing how to read between the lines What’s wrong with the words there on the page I stared at your hands when we first met They moved as you spoke casting a spell as the sun set And I knew that I would hear you speak again Well honey that’s right But honey please don’t fight Me and my fear tonight So now we’re sailing on the dawn’s fair gale And every second is consumed like fine dark ale A sailor’s drunken song I kept myself together from the start But you’re the cat set among the pigeons of my heart A mess of beating wings Honey that’s right But honey please don’t fight Me and my fear tonight Just like a bout of vertigo, the horizon’s heady spin My distracted heart and foolish grin It’s easy to believe the tide won’t turn Easy to believe that damp wood will never burn But let’s make a bonfire by the sea I promise you I won’t walk away You asked me here and here it is I want to stay Reading those words on the page Well honey that’s right You don’t have to fight Me and my fear tonight
9.
I have been following you I’ve seen you like a hurricane blowing on through All those stomping grounds we hung around while we were still young I still remember the smell of those old smoky rooms that we knew so well Now the smoke is gone but the memories dwell in the walls like yellowing ghosts Oh, that’s what you were waiting for Oh, you always wanted a little more Strange how the time seems to bend All of the lines on which we depend How we can still love so much when we don’t see each other no more I lean with a drink in my hand watching you behind the microphone stand You’re like a fish in the water, you do this so well Oh, that’s what you were waiting for Oh, you always wanted a little more Go on swim even deeper my old friend So I walk unsteady out into the night I stumble down dark streets as you burn so bright I ain’t unhappy, somehow you did this for the both of us I wanna tell everyone, I knew what you were before these days in the sun But that’s between you and me and our long history Oh, that’s what you were waiting for Oh, you always wanted a little more
10.
Children 05:23
My regret and me and a cheap cask of wine We meet every evening around the same time No formalities, I’m at ease, we know us so well And all down my street the lights go on slow While righteous women brush their hair and their fellas get stoned We’re still children let loose with each other’s hearts Oh I saw the moon rise tonight casting walls between us How much easier it is to say that I miss you more when you’re Here than when you’re away I know I’m not the only one who carries a bruised heart After all we are all the same animal, the only thing that tells us apart Is the one we miss; those eyes, that kiss, that voice in the dark Oh I saw the sun rise today casting roads between us How much easier it is to say that I miss you more when you’re Here than when you’re away That’s why when children get older mothers get scared I wish I could’ve told her how unprepared I am

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All Recordings © Liz Stringer 2010

www.lizstringer.com

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released April 16, 2010

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Liz Stringer Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne born musician Liz Stringer is one of Australia’s most respected and versatile songwriters and instrumentalists. A lauded guitarist and vocalist, Stringer has released 5 full-length albums since 2006, her powerful and emotive live performances and melodically rich, story-based songs delighting fans and festival-goers throughout Australia and a growing audience in North America + Europe. ... more

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