gangAGAIN - 1987

gangAGAIN is the second studio album by GANGgajang. It was released in 1987 by True Tone Records and distributed by Polygram Records. The singles were, “Tree Of Love”, “Luck Of The Irish” and “American Money”.

Track listing

Tree Of Love (Callaghan)
Luck Of The Irish (Callaghan)
In Spite Of Love (Stapleton)
The Roof Only Leaks When It’s Raining (James/Callaghan/Bidstrup/Bee)
Thanks To Dave (Callaghan/Bidstrup)
American Money (Stapleton)
Live And Learn (Callaghan)
Fire Of Genius (Stapleton/Bidstrup/Bee)
The Rise And The Rise Of The Reverend Bobby’s Buskers (Callaghan)
Baby Has Eyes For You (James)

Lyrics

TREE OF LOVE

(Callaghan)

Every night when the sun goes down and cool air with calm surrounds
The silent garden in which can be found the tree of love
Every night you can find me there with sweating palms and matted hair
And drops of blood dot the sand everywhere under the tree of love

And you can hear them whispering under the tree of love
And you can see them – under the tree of love can be found every saint and every sinner
As they paw the desert ground for the fruit that falls each night from the tree of love

Some nights there are many there and murmurs fill the desert air
Odd and evens trying to make a pair under the tree of love

On and on as the darkness falls the wistful sound of the searchers calls
Are heard within and without the walls around the tree of love

And you can hear them talking under the tree of love
And you can see them – under the tree of love can be found every heel and every hero
As they scour the desert sands for the fruit that falls each night from the tree of love

Last night, before the end, I found myself under the tree again
The branches break as the bones they bend under the tree of love

And you can hear them shouting under the tree of love

And you can see them – under the tree of love can be found every saint and every sinner
As they search the desert ground for the fruit that falls each night from the tree of love
They paw the desert ground for the fruit that falls each night from the tree of love
They scour the ground for the fruit that falls each night from the tree of love

Under the tree of love you will find me waiting

THE LUCK OF THE IRISH

(Callaghan)

The luck of the Irish borne of ages past
Has spawned a cruel history, lets hope that luck don’t last
It came with the longships and from across the Irish sea
The endless tides of fighting men bought the Ard ris to their knees
Oh the luck of the Irish, Oh the luck of the Irish

Then came the English with their reforming ways
The luck of the Irish bore ample fruit in those days
The land was replanted with the winners of English wars
And the only crops harvested were famine and plague and the odd lost cause
Oh the luck of the Irish, Oh the luck of the Irish

One day things will change and then you know you will see
Just how lucky they can all really be
When the orange and the green meet on the white in between
Oh the luck of the Irish, Oh the luck of the Irish

The luck of the Irish still hangs around their heels
As bombers stop the cities hearts and blood is spilt in the greenest fields
And the orangemen remember, the old horse is yearly shod
To ride again with long dead men and kill or be killed for the one same god.
Oh the luck of the Irish, Oh the luck of the Irish

IN SPITE OF LOVE
(Stapleton)

I keep a picture of you on my wall
Exactly why it’s there I can’t recall
I think I keep it to remind myself

That what we had was never very clear
I often wondered what it was I feared
But now I hardly think of you at all

Oh no but I climbed the walls
And kept alive
In spite of love
There was no reflection
The sun it was hidden
Behind the belief
That the world had stopped turning

And when the lovers meet as lovers do
These days I rarely even think of you
I turn the TV off and go to bed

Oh no but I climbed the walls
And kept alive
In spite of love
The summer was colder
By half than the winter
And only the calendar
Called it a liar

Oh no but I climbed the walls
And kept alive
In spite of love
There was no reflection
The sun it was hidden
Behind the belief
That the world had stopped turning

THANKS TO DAVE

(Callaghan/Bidstrup)

Late nights, down the back streets, across the cobblestones we’d roam
and laughing through the bar haze we would wait for Dave to show.
Dave now, like his namesake, used to blow in on the breeze
Put a smile on every face, slapping backs and squeezing knees

Oh, we’d live and we’d laugh, to the music we’d sway
Oh, we’d live, love, laugh and cry thanks to Dave

Jokes fell from his lips like dust falls from a golden gown
Wore the mantle of his royalty, the little king of this old town
Gathered pilgrims to his progress like believers to a shrine
And he made it through the big time, was a star on ‘What’s My Line’

Oh, we’d live and we’d laugh, to the music we’d sway
Oh, we’d live, love, laugh and cry thanks to Dave

Well there’s sunlight on the sidewalk, hear the morning talk and the mood has changed
You can relive the past nights, lamplight to limelight, always the same
We were fools every one of us, rolling in the night
Dancing to that famous refrain, thanks to dave

Often in the grip of some fancy party fare
We would tiptoe to the frontier with Dave as our guide there
And it’s funny how the years pass, been and gone and you’re not aware
How and when we drifted from the time that we had there

Oh, we’d live and we’d laugh, to the music we’d sway
Oh, we’d live, love, laugh and cry thanks to Dave
Thanks to Dave, Thanks to Dave

AMERICAN MONEY
(Stapleton)

“Is this what my life amounts to?”
Says the man with the carnation in his lapel,
“I didn’t know it worked this way
I thought every dog had his day”

And he’d believed in the dream
He’d waited on every corner
But now forsaken he explains
It wasn’t the temptation of a woman

It was American money
I tell you it made him what he is today
It was American money
He imagined stuffing pictures of Washington
In the pocket of his raincoat

“So where has my family gone to?”
Says the man
From the fortieth floor of his hotel
Well everybody has to pay
But maybe it’s in different ways

‘Cause he’d believed in the dream
Why he’d met it on every corner
But he never could explain
What could made a man lose his sense of decency

It was American money
I tell you it made him what he is today
It was American money
So don’t underestimate the power of
The dollar in your pocket

American money
And there’s pictures of Washington
Falling from his pockets

Now they got guns in outer space
And nobody’s going to win that race
‘Cause when there’s nowhere left to hide
You won’t be taking sides

Though you believed in the dream
And it was waiting on every corner
But now it’s coming down around you
Like bankers jumping from the windows of Wall Street

American money
I tell you it made us what we are today
It was American money
So don’t underestimate the power
Of the dollar in your pocket

American money
I tell you, made us what we are today
It was American money
We’d imagined stuffing pictures of Washington
In the pockets of our raincoats

LIVE AND LEARN

(Callaghan)

When he started out it seemed that the road was filled with dreams for him to tread
But he’s older now he’s found things ain’t so well planned, and he’s changed instead
He don’t need to think about the future, he don’t need to try to make the pieces fit

When they say you live for tomorrow, Oh no he just makes it through the day
No time, time wasted waiting, cause he just knows
You’re never to young to live and learn

She dances to her own tune, makes up her own rules, she’s so fine
She does anything she wants and every little thing she does with style
She don’t need to think about the future, she don’t need to try to make the pieces fit

When they say you live for tomorrow, Oh no she just makes it through the day
No time, time wasted waiting, cause she just knows
You’re never to young to live and learn

Live fast, die young, set the controls for the heart of the sun
Wheels that turn are hard to stop so don’t sit around and watch the brake linings rot
You don’t need to think about the future, you don’t need to try to make the pieces fit

When they say you live for tomorrow, Oh no I just make it through the day
No time, time wasted waiting, cause I just know
You’re never to young to live and learn
You’re never to young to live and learn

FIRE OF GENIUS
(Stapleton/Bidstrup/Bee)

When the world we know began
I wonder if there was a man
Who didn’t know that it can’t be done
And didn’t listen to anyone
But the wheel he made went
Round and round and round

So in your darkest hour
Anticipate the dawn
There is a lesson here
There is a flame that burns
And it’s burning brighter now
Almost enough to see
Almost enough to think
Maybe that light could be
The fire of genius

Now there’s a clock upon my wall
Some days I’d like to see it fall
So the time you steal’s your own
And the time you’re left alone
Is the only time it really matters

One long day away from here
Well history will make it clear
What was needed and what was not
What was working and what had stopped
And it’s just as well we’ll never know

THE RISE AND THE RISE OF THE REVEREND BOBBY’S BUSKERS

(Callaghan)

Up in the cross you could see them
Bathed in the food lights of the hot takeaways
The MC was an old soldier,
Yeah you would laugh but you couldn’t understand a word that he said
They had a legless harmonica player
With his pillow and his bottle and his saucepan in hand
He would grin at the confident preacher
And they would wait for his word to strike up the band

Crowds would gather round
Some would take the high ground
To see the show
They would stop them in their tracks
Big coins and little notes
Would they throw

This was the start of the rise of the Reverend Bobby’s Buskers
And boy that band could really play
They had the rhythm of the street
The way the Charlie tapped his foot
Was guaranteed to make the venture pay

Betty bomb was screamer
She learned to sing to keep her daddy at bay
She saw The Buskers on a hot summer night
And followed them to St. Kilda in the rain
Well now, Betty knew all the old songs
And she would get up and sing with them now and again
Then, one night at a party for a millionaires son
A naked man said that he would manage them

Well he gave them all he had
Pretty soon they were glad
He came along
Yes he took them to the top
Strumming pop and blues and rock
And their own songs

This was the rise and the rise
Of the Reverend Bobby’s Buskers
And boy that band could really play
They were unique, they had the beat
To make old ladies tap their feet
And Bernie’s tricks could just amaze
It seemed to them that the world was theirs to take
They worked for seven years without a break
Fortunes were made and lost and made again
And the chatter on the city street echoed their fame

Well now, some say it never changed them
The fact that they became a world phenomenon
Bernie still laughed at the unknown
And Bobby’s sermon’s seemed to go on and on
Well now, Betty soon got her own show
She was the toast of the town
And the late night TV set
And while the boys still laughed to remember
Oh poor Betty, She still laughed to forget

Well Charlie took a wife
Soon three became five
Then one again
And fame had its price
But none of the bills
Were paid by them

This was the rise and the rise
Of the Reverend Bobby’s Buskers
And boy that band could really play
They were unique, they had the beat
To make old ladies tap their feet
And Bernie’s tricks could just amaze
This was the rise and the rise
Of the Reverend Bobby’s Buskers
And boy that band could really play
They were unique, they had the beat
To make old ladies tap their feet
And Bernie’s tricks could just amaze
This was the rise and the rise
Of the Reverend Bobby’s Buskers

BABY HAS EYES FOR YOU

(James)

Baby’s got eyes for you
Baby’s got eyes for you
There’s nothing you can do
Baby would cry for you
Baby would die for you
There’s nothing you can do

When I look along the bar
I see the empty space that used to be your company
Too tired to fight
Too much in love to say good night
You’re just another song
She belongs to everyone

Baby’s got eyes for you
Baby’s got eyes for you
There’s nothing you can do
Baby would cry for you
Baby would die for you
There’s nothing you can do

When asleep and dreaming
I’m always there just in time to save the day
And make her stay

She would fly you to the moon
She would make you smile
Although your heart is breaking in two

Baby’s got eyes for you
Baby’s got eyes for you
There’s nothing you can do
Baby would cry for you
Baby would die for you
There’s nothing you can do
Baby’s got eyes for you
Baby’s got eyes for you

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