more from
Kompyla Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Goodbyes

from Jumpers For Goalposts by Just Muz

/

about

This song is at the heart of all that is heard on this album.

lyrics

Remember I was skin and bone
Little boy hitting the coast,
Sitting and skimming stones,
Picture them as flying saucers
Return home for dinner time and dodge the flying saucers,
Mum and dad were plate spinning,
Radio was playing the rap that told me hate women,
Fuck is that about, my mother was a hero, she always had my back 
And her advice had my earlobe,
I listened hard for a while but single parenthood is hard for a child,
Check the shipwrecks I'm harbouring now, 
Knight in shining armour with the metal hardly dusted,
Not true it's rusted, you know I can't be trusted
The years roll by like scenery from a train window
Arrive here, don't seem to be the same kid though
Must have been changed by baggage I brought
Must have been changed by the damage I wrought

Mum used to meditate to pan pipes, 
I'd see her from the garden, silhouetted by the lamplight, 
while I'd be swinging at the fireflies, trying to fight 
imaginary war scenes, not knowing that the real ones
would cause screams that would echo through the trees, 
bordering the house that I planted when I was three, 
back when I was a seed, spending hours by the sea, 
with the breakers bringing power to the beach in the breeze
Freeze, 
It was nippy in the north wind, walking the peninsula 
watching out for dolphins, on a pier called St Catherine's, 
it's back when we cracked tins of cheap cider, 
beneath the gulls who were easy riders - on air currents 
that had travelled from America, small car radio listening to Erykah, 
Badu, in the dark hue of blue colours painting 
every evening, a picture to be framing. 

At my Christening, mother wrapped me in a white cloth, 
skin glistening and dripping holy water,  
recorded on that old camcorder, she kept the tape, 
she kept her faith, and mine evaporated, 
her and dad debated, religiously the list of my names, 
went with Christian James, we prayed as kids, 
begging for change, certain situations
every time a bridge was a flame, cry me a river, 
try me and shiver, its a cold world recite to your mirror, 
the promises you promised I could deliver
I got them right here, five years old, grandma's dying
and you were writing, 'Dear God, save her, 
why you need to take her?' saw you drawing on the paper, 
pale-faced woman, accompanied with angels
with solar-coloured halo's, rising from the room, 
while the moon lets its face show, where did the days go?

I dream of grandad on many nights
I wrote to you in hope that you would pen advice
I took the letter, sailed it down the river Liffy 
Drank so much after you passed that now my livers iffy.
We spend January to December blue.
I pray daily that Grandma will remember you.
But Dementia eventually is merciless
I ride the number thirty bus avoiding glares like Perseus. 
For I see your ghost here in other faces, 
instead of fourth dimensions,
heavens, skies and other spaces
I set two places in the dining room
Ate alone then I wept and wrote this rhyme for you.

credits

from Jumpers For Goalposts, released February 28, 2016
Produced by Tom Misch
Written by Christian Foley

license

tags

about

Just Muz London, UK

Listen.

contact / help

Contact Just Muz

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Just Muz recommends:

If you like Just Muz, you may also like: