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.
/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £0.50 GBP  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    2009 14 track posh CD digifile packaging with 16 page lyric booklet for £8.99 (plus £1 p&p), all on recycled paper etc.


    Also includes immediate download of 14 track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £8 GBP

     

lyrics

Trying to get a lie in in a basement cave in bedlam

what is the racket going on upstairs?

I could spare some silence from the landlord's piano-playing daughter

hasn't learned that much this week, but who cares?

Oh but I wish they'd use some of my hard-earned dough

To buy that little brat a casio

But when they fall beneath the hammer of the people's piano

These things won't matter any more


There's a deposit on this cup and the rent is going up

And what is that scuffling going on next door

Next door's an overstatement, more a cupboard than a bedsit

Where our tight fisted masters store the heirlooms and the shit

But I tell you the one thing I know is true

That archive of rubbish is worth more than me and you

But when they fall beneath the hammer of the people's piano

Their values won't matter any more


And all the years we spend making do and mending

To get another tune out of this thing

I wore out my shoes between the office and the boozer

But this piano will play for evermore


There's a sofa on my bed and a tune inside my head

How can a poor man sleep through times like these?

Count the ticking of the meter, though I've turned off every heater

Watch the cash flow through every hole in every wall

But though they always seem to have their share

Long after they're gone the tune will still be there

And when they fall beneath the hammer of the people's piano

These things won't matter any more

all the years we spend making do and mending....


Found a fiver on the floor to keep it going for some more

But the iron frames all wonky from the damp

To invest it in the future would be wise but I'm too used to seeing

All I have in someone else's hands

So lets have three cheers for bailing out the banks and to the landlords and the harpies give our thanks

Maybe when they fall beneath the hammer of the people's piano

These things won't matter any more

all the years we spend making do and mending...

credits

from Here the brute harpies make their nests, released August 1, 2009
Words and music by Julian Gaskell ©2009


JG – vocals, accordion, piano, acoustic guitar, washboard

DP – acoustic guitar

TS – upright bass, vocals

RP – drums, darbuka

KJ – mandolin

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Julian Gaskell image

Julian Gaskell UK

Described by angry locals as the bastard son of Waits, Strummer, Reinhardt and Rachmaninov, Julian Gaskell’s music over the last 20 years has followed a wayward path of withering agricultural-folk, klezmer accordion, overly-lyrical punk, gypsy-jazz guitar, tangos, waltzes, rhumbas and skiffled-up boogie-woogie piano. ... more

contact / help

Contact Julian Gaskell

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Julian Gaskell, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now