Live rehearsal; rehearsal live! Come on boy, let's go...

Moondog
 
It’s a moondog thing
	
You follow that trail from town to town
With your tail in the air and your nose on the ground
Sniffing in the shadows where the alley cats prowl 
Announcing your arrival with a moondog howl.
Beat a snaketime rhythm to a slithery rhyme
‘cause no-one ever died in 4/4 time
All you wanna do is sing a moondog tune
It's just throwing back your head and a-howling at the moon

It’s a moondog thing
It's a moondog thing

You’re a moondog hound on a dog’s life street
Mixing up a mess with a snaketime beat
Knocking out a rhythm on a trimba with the Sioux 
Breaking through the bars with an oo-ya-tsu
Counting out time, start from 1
10,000 years since you’ve first begun
You don’t trust the rhythm of the pendulum rock
‘cause there’s 28 days in the lunar-tic-tock clock

Moon dog thing
It's a moondog thing...

You can see it in the night, you can see it in the day,
It’s up there somewhere and it never goes away,
It’s a bad hair day for the lunatic fringe
A hair of the dog, that’s what you need…

Moon dog thing
it's a moondog thing

Cooking up a symphony, a slime-time cacophony
Cocking up a leg against the overtone tree
Got a drum-beat-heart-beat-boom-boom-boom
But nothing feels better than a-howling at the moon

For a moondog 
It's a moondog thing
it's a moondog thing
it's a moon dog thing
c'mon boy, let's go...

I heard it through the grapevine
It’s all a lot of moonshine
Moondog, treefrog,
Ants on a log
In the concrete jungle 
Where the natives like to rumble
All night long
To the siren’s song
Where you risk it for a biscuit of the moondog kind
In the park, in the dark, where you wonder what you’ll find
I’ll tell you what I found and it blew my mind
It was a close encounter of the canine kind

Old dog, new tricks
Chasing after drumsticks
Saint or sinner, well, your hair gets thinner
You’ve gone to the dogs
But you’re onto a winner
All dressed up like a moondog’s dinner
It’s the thought for pause
When you’re on all fours
waiting for a lead
just standing by the door
But you never wanna get the final walk to the vet
There’s plenty of life in the old moondog yet

Moondog thing
It's a moondog thing
it's a moondog thing
It's a moondog thing - yeah

Moondog

Rehearsal take: late, low lights and groovy...

Nothing Can Stop It Now

We’ll lift your aspirations high, 
They used to reach above the sky
There’s more for your enjoyment
Than searching for employment
You can do anything you try

Till recently you had a dream
Of freedom and equality
Material distractions
Promised you satisfaction	
And now it’s just a might have been

But we got reggae, we got soul,
We got rock, we got roll,
Weapons of mass construction
Start cultural eruptions
It’s not something you can control

We could be living side by side
You never know until you try
You ask us how we're gonna do it
There’s really nothing to it
With evolution on your side

The Euro-dollar-Yankee-pound
They talk the talk, they do the rounds,
Legal teams of hungry vultures
Feed on compensation culture
We’ve got to turn this thing around

With our reggae, and our soul,
and our rock, and our roll,
We got country, bluegrass, acid jazz,
We got garage, house and razzmatazz
We got punk, funk, rhythm, blues
Soca-delic attitude
We got hip hop, prog rock, drum and bass, 
Ska and blue beat rock the place
The DJ spins those wheels of steel
It's a soundtrack to the way we feeling
There’s not a thing can stop it now…

What is it we are waiting for?
A welcome sign is on the door
Don’t let your education
Suppress imagination
The future is not what went before

Tired of the tyrants who tirade
Whose power comes from those they’ve paid
Hell bent on self-destruction
Or creative re-construction
These are the choices to be made

With our reggae, and our soul,
and our rock, and our roll,
We got country, bluegrass, acid jazz,
We got garage, house and razzmatazz
We got punk, funk, rhythm, blues
Folk-a-delic attitude
We got hip hop, prog rock, drum and bass, 
Ska and blue beat rock the place
The DJ spins those wheels of steel
It's a soundtrack to the way we're feeling
There’s not a thing can stop it now…

Nothing Can Stop It Now

A homage to the sea & the sun. The life they give and the inspiration that we all share

Down to the Sea

The sun is going down in front of me, throwing diamonds on the sea
All those waves of natural energy, they're flowing deep inside of me,
And when I feel there’s nowhere I belong, 
And there’s nothing I believe
When I fear there’s nothing left to know
I go down to the sea
down to the sea

The earth it turns eternally, and the movement of the sea
Ebbs and flows and life it comes and goes, 
and who knows what’s left for you and me?
And when I fear there’s no one that I know, 
and there’s nothing I could be
When I feel my energy is low
I go down to the sea
down to the sea
down to the sea
down to the sea
down to the sea

The scent of the spray
The salt of the earth

Gulls are gliding above me, they're calling me to be free
The twin towers of my chequered history, 
Oh they stare right back at me,
And when I feel there’s nowhere I can go
And there’s nothing new to see
I make connection with the mystery
And I go… down to the sea
down to the sea
down to the sea...

And when I feel there’s nowhere I belong
And there’s nothing I believe
I make connection with the mystery
and I go...
down to the sea

The sun is going down in front of me…
The sun is going down...

Down to the Sea

We've had more than our fare share of arson in Margate. Various houses and arcades going up in smoke, culminating with the torching of the Scenic Railway roller coaster at Dreamland. The value of property had dropped so much that it was easier and more profitable for 'developers' to send out droogs armed with petrol and matches than it was for them to sell their assets.

Burn It Down

Burn, burn, burn it down
Burn it down to the ground
The town that nobody wants
People moving out and the pigeons moving in
to the town that nobody wants

Tear, tear, tear it down
Tear it down to the ground
The town that nobody wants
Posters peeling off the posters peeling off
the town that nobody wants

Wait a minute man
I think I’ve got a plan
The answer is shoppingly clear,
We build a centre out of town
We’ll get all the big guns down
And we’ll blast our way out of here!

Knock, knock, knock it down
Knock it down to the ground
The town that nobody wants
You better watch your feet, what the dogs leave on the street
in the town that nobody wants

Wait a minute man
I think I’ve got a plan
The answer is shoppingly clear,
We build a centre out of town
We’ll get all the big guns down
And we’ll blast our way out of here!

The gold mine ran out of sunshine
The whole town’s ready to croak
Say goodbye to the good times now
Because there’s nothing left,
It’s all gone up in smoke…

Burn, burn, burn it down
Burn it down to the ground
The town that nobody wants
People moving out and the pigeons moving in
to the town that nobody wants
It’s a rare town, it’s a spare town
The town that nobody wants,
No one cares town, you’d better say your prayers town, 
The town that nobody wants


The Town that Nobody Wants

This song is a tribute to the heroic lifeboatmen of Margate, nine of whom lost their lives when their surfboat Friend to All Nations capsized during a rescue mission in December 1897. Thirteen men set out on the boat, powered by oars and a sail. Nine of those on the rescue mission, including three from one family, drowned in the tempest. 

Sympathisers across Britain and beyond sent donations to a fund set up to provide support for the families of those who perished. However, a self-appointed band of the local great and good decided that the money would be better invested in a memorial statue. Imported Italian marble was the material of choice. The stone was so heavy that a special road had to be constructed along which to transport it from the harbour to the local cemetery.

Meanwhile, the families of the deceased were left in poverty, receiving little of the money that was collected, eventually having to appeal to local churches for alms. Understandably this caused considerable resentment across the community. The statue, not the familiar one in the image shown here, stands in the local cemetery, many people still totally unaware of its existence.  

The crew's selfless act of humanitarian bravery, not undertaken for money or fame, but purely because seafarers understood the need for help in times of distress, remains something that we could learn from today. Has our unspoken ethos of self-interest and the denial of the interrelatedness of all things brought us any closer to happiness, fulfilment and progress?

Sail On

In the storm-lashed black of a December morn’, many years ago,
The stricken crew of a sinking ship signalled: Save Our Souls,
Thirteen fearless men set sail, courageous, true and bold,
into a sea as black as the devil’s heart and more than twice as cold

and we say, sail on, sail on, wherever you may go, the moon will guide you on,
Sail on, sail on, wherever you may go, the stars will guide you on…

The storm it showed no mercy, and whiplashed by the wind,
The first great roller crashed down on the Friend and the sea came pouring in,
They dropped the sail to get an even keel, but the fury of a second wave
Upturned the boat, sending nine good men to a cold and watery grave

And we say, sail on, sail on, wherever you may go, the moon will guide you on,
Sail on, sail on, wherever you may go, the stars will guide you on…

The town went into mourning, the people deep in shock,
Couldn’t recognise the faces of the dead, battered on the Nayland Rock
Salt water on the cheeks of the living, was not sea, but bitter tears
Shed for love and respect of nine good men they knew, who knew no fear

And we say, sail on, sail on, wherever you may go, the moon will guide you on,
Sail on, sail on, wherever you may go, the stars will guide you on…

Across the country people dug deep
For any money they could find,
To send to support the women and the children left behind
But the funds were spent on statues of fine Italian stone,
By men who valued the cold, dead rock above living flesh and bone.

And we say, sail on, sail on, wherever you may go, the moon will guide you on,
Sail on, sail on, wherever you may go, the stars will guide you on…

Sail On

I arrived some years before 1967. It was a good year, but now seems a lifetime away...

In 1967 I'd already been to heaven,
when I hadn't even really left the ground,
and though I was of tender years and not without my doubts and fears 
I was not about to let them bring me down
I could see things through the eyes of a child

Life's decisions came to me
and some I chose and some chose me
and so I made my way down to the sea
as waves that crashed upon the shore
I tested every single door
and tried out every possibility 
I travelled over valleys
I swam up and down the stream
well I lost myself way down in the green
I lived it slow, I lived it fast
I left the straight and narrow path
I showed reserve and I took it to extremes
I tried to see things through the eyes of a child

I looked for direction
Well I tried to make connections
but at the crossroad always seemed to change my mind
I'd check out all the signs
I read in between the lines
but the past was always waiting just behind
Down the years as I matured
my younger dreams became obscured
but a fire was still burning in my heart,
an ember that was kept alive
in spite of all the 9 to 5
fanned by the winging, singing of the lark
I tried to see things through the eyes of a child

None of us are behind bars
but we sit locked inside our cars
and wonder what our riches really worth
from a seed sown deep inside
grows something that we cannot hide
we come from and we go back to the earth
We try to see things through the eyes of a child
because every single one of us is 
coming out of something wild

In 1967, I'd already been to heaven 
when I hadn't even really left the ground

hadn't even really left the ground...

1967

AnArcAdiAn formed in Margate in 2011 with the intention of creating a collection of songs about the ups and downs of life in a fading, English seaside resort. Since then the project has taken a different direction, gooning out with Moondog, and the violently optimistic Nothing Can Stop It Now.
All the group are from Margate and originally wanted to make a musical contribution to the artistic renaissance that the town is going through.

The musicians performing here are:

Steve Cope: wrote and sang the songs and played rhythm guitar and keyboards. 

Peter Barnett: played drums & percussion and provided much of the input for the arrangements.

Bob Haynes played lead guitar, bass and engineered the recordings.

If you click on each song's title, you can read the lyrics and a bit of blurb.

AnArcAdiAn

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