City to Country Blues

by Daniel Kelly – 2022

        G
Well I moved here from the city,
       C               G
Just a few short months ago,
        C              G
From that new suburb in Canberra,
           D
Where the Latte’s freely flow,
     C                    G
But I notice things are different,
           D                    G
Among these folks with backward ways,
        C             G
So I’m gonna put complaints in,
     D                     G
And make sure the council pays,

           C               G
The smoke comes through my window,
             D             G
The rooster wakes me up at dawn,
           C               G
There’s sheep bleating at midnight,
           D
And the dogs bark till the morn,
  C                  G
People say hello at ALDI,
           D               G
There’s cow dung on my shoes,
           C            D        G
I’ve got the city, to country blues

Well I don’t know what to tell you mate,
I’ve lived here for fifteen years,
And the pretenses of city folks,
They drive me half to tears,
Give me dirt and dust and cattle,
And a town that’s full of life,
If you like your filtered air so much,
You should go back to Latte Life.

That rooster keeps the cats away,
The dog she scares the thief,
And the gentle moan of lambing flocks,
Is the sweet sound of relief,
They’ve been burning wood to keep warm here,
For 60,000 years,
So you if you can’t learnt to love the country,
cry me a river with your tears.

The Scientific Method

By Daniel Kelly - 2022

          C             G           C
There are more types of matter than we thought,
       F             G                    C
Some new quark formations we have caught,
            F           G
These ones are quite ‘Exotic’,
      C                 F
It’s a complicated topic,
      C                       G           C
But I’ll do my best to summarize for you

The work of that Large Hadron Collider,
Keeps making our knowledge of physics wider,
By smashing stuff together
The faster the better.
They’ll make ignorance a matter of the past

G         F    G
So it’s time to,
C
Re-Analyze the Data,
F
We’ll go on Fox News Later,
C                       G
Construct Hypothesis a new,
C
And we’ll, test with experiments,
F
Check results for congruence,
C                       G           C
And publish all our findings before you.

Those quarks they come in many different flavours,
Much like ice cream, but with little time to savor,
Top, bottom and Up Down,
Strange and Charm are found,
In the soup of stuff, from which we’re all created.

These quarks they get together in strange pairings,
Much like people, but with quite a bit less staring,
Pairs of two and three we knew,
Now Four and Five discovered to,
Who knows where all this mingling is ending.

Harriet Jacobs

By Daniel Kelly - 2022

Asus             G
Six years in the darkness,
Am             Em
Six years in my cell,
C                     G
Six years without my children,
Am             Em    Am
Six years of living hell.

C              G
I was born in slavery,
    Am     Em
Harriet’s my name
   G              Am
My father was a carpenter,
       C     G      Am
My story is one of shame,

Not the shame of motherhood,
Or children born in sin,
But the vile shame of slavery,
The cruel world that I lived in

My master was a doctor,
He lusted for my youth,
40 years my senior,
His wife she learned the truth,

I was hidden in the garret,
To escape the master’s hate,
I watch my children through a hole,
Growing up to share my fate

I escaped and wrote my story,
Published in 1861,
The truth about white power,
And the horrific things they’d done,

I worked during the civil war,
Starting the Jacob’s school,
With knowledge and education,
My people will no longer be your tool

Hatton’s Corner

by Daniel Kelly – 2022

C                    G
Broken bottles strewn around,
Am                   F
Fast food wrappers on the ground,
Am                   G               Am
You would think nobody cares for this town,

If we told who left them there,
The Careless vandals wouldn’t dare,
To show their face in the street.

C               G               Am
Cleaning up the mess at Hatton’s Corner
Cleaning up the mess at Hatton’s Corner
C           G     Am           F
Tom and his son, before the day is done,
           Am              G               Am
Are still cleaning up the mess at Hatton’s Corner

With selfless pride in our little town,
Tom soon gained deserved renown,
But not everyone was happy with his action.

Leave the mess to someone else,
Who made you take this task yourself,
To think you’re so much better than us others

Keeping our town clean with pride,
Is virtue that can’t be denied,
But better still if others didn’t litter.

For those who toss rubbish and food,
So selfish, arrogant and rude,
May learn a lesson from their public unmasking

Let Us Compare Mythologies

A response to Leonard Cohen’s poem, ‘To Wilf and his House’ by Daniel Kelly 2022

 Dm              C
Let us compare mythologies,
Dm                         Am
Messiahs hung on leafless trees,
Dm                     C
Of longing tongues and skinless touch,
     Dm                Esus         Am
And hearts that yearn too late or much,

Let saints and soldiers marching past,
Debate who should be first and last,
The great and small, undressed in verse,
All victims of the poet’s curse,

We’ll ponder on the guilt of old,
How ancient Christ was bought and sold,
And nailed like bat, against the barn,
With dripping thorns, and tattered yarn,

I’ll cringe beneath my heathen shame,
And contemplate the secret name,
While trembling at the sacred ark,
As oil burns to bitter spark,

At raven’s crow in Autumn air,
I’ll feed my soul, hollow and bare,
And kiss the feet, twisted and stained,
On velvet laid in naked shame.

Let us compare mythologies,
In crusades of ideologies,
With tale of ant and fly and saint,
A Calvary of love we’ll paint.

Bob and Alice

by Daniel Kelly

C           G            C
Bob’s got a message for Alice,
F                    C
But he’s more than a little concerned,
F               G    C   F
For he did Cryptography 101 and
G                    C
Was worried by what he had learned,

For Eve is out there and she’s listening,
To all of the packets they send,
If Bob wants to keep his words secret,
He’ll need a system on which to depend,

           F             C
He’ll need Public Key Encryption,
G          C
Yes, he needs Public Key Encryption,
F
When you can’t share a secret key,
C
In a way others cannot see,
G          C
You need Public Key Encryption

Now Diffie and Hellman were searching,
Around nineteen seventy six,
For a way to exchange secrets safely,
Just like GCHQ with their tricks,

RSA expanded their research,
That’s Rivest, Shamir, Aldeman,
After a late night of coding and drinking,
The one-way hash revolution began,

They made Public Key Encryption,
Yes, Public Key Encryption,
When you can’t share a secret key,
In a way others cannot see,
You need Public Key Encryption

Now while Bob got his message to Alice,
Using the public key way,
They both went to jail for insurance fraud,
Because Eve worked for the NSA.

So every time you open your browser,
And look for the soothing padlock,
Remember the system was broken,
To boost Certificate Authority stock.

You use Public Key Encryption,
Yes, Public Key Encryption,
There’s no system we cannot break,
When shareholders are at stake,
Even Public Key Encryption

Chocolate Mire

(a Parody of Ring of Fire)

Cacao is a magic thing
And it makes our taste buds sing
Driving Wild Desire
I Fell Into A Chocolate Mire

I Fell Into A swirling Chocolate Mire,
I Went Down, Down, Down
As The Calories went Higher
And It Churns, Churns, Churns
The Chocolate Mire
The Chocolate Mire

The Taste Of Chocolate’s Sweet
The finest thing to eat
I Fell when the railing failed,
On chocolate blades I was impaled

Remember June 4

Em   G    Em    G
No Candles in Victoria Park,
     C          G                    D
After thirty years of lighting the dark,
     Em     G        Em           C
The poison cloud from China has spread,
     Em            G       D               G
To once free Hong Kong, where democracy’s dead.

No flames recall the students songs,
In freedom gathered 10,000 strong,
Single souls with candle lights,
Burning freedom, into the night.

  C        G
Remember June 4,
   D       G
Remember June 4,
   Em           G
You want us to forget,
    D           G
But we remember June 4.

The bodies in the tower’s frame,
Destroyed by police, to hide China’s shame,
But the pillar lives in a million hearts,
The shame still screams, though torn apart

The heroes of Tiananmen square,
Who cried out freedom and democracy there,
Were slaughtered by the thousand that day,
Their memories can’t be hidden away.

The Upside Down

by Daniel Kelly – 2022

         Dm
There’s a growling in the forest,
         C        Dm
And a crackle in the air,
    Am                  G
As the lights they start to flicker,
    Am
But you see nothing is there,
    Dm               Am
The air’s heavy with the darkness,
         C           G
As the dust is floating down,
         Am
When you are living,
C        G            Am
When you are Living in the Upside Down

When you rolled dice for protection,
But you should have rolled for fire,
There’s Eleven in the basement,
And the stakes are getting higher,
Be careful at the quarry,
If you fall in you will drown,
…

And you cannot trust the government,
They’re never what they seem,
Experiments behind the blast doors,
You can hear the children scream,
The thing that they’ve awoken,
Will soon destroy the town
…

But the will to find the lost boy,
It drives companions three,
Past the conflict and the liars,
The truth will set you free,
But you better bring a gun girl,
And make your mother frown,
…

At last the evil Doctor,
Destroyed by his own beast,
The town in celebration,
A well earned Christmas feast,
But I fear it isn’t over,
Stranger things will come around,
..

Isaac and an AR-15

by Daniel Kelly – 2022

Asus              Em
They are lain upon the altar,
     G               Asus
Tied down by hate and fear,
         C            Am
Looking over to the thorn bush,
        G             Am
A young ram entangled there

But the knife it gleams in lifted hand,
That sleek AR-15
And the father’s ears are deafened,
To the bleating and the screams,

And he demands a sacrifice,
He who made the stars,
That god of blood and violence,
The champion of Mars

And the stones they cry out hungry,
For the slaughter to begin,
For it feeds the wealth and power,
Of the nation drenched in Sin,

Sins of gluttony and anger,
Of jealousy and spite,
Of the arrogance and violence,
That drives those on the right,

Sins of pride and smug indulgence,
In the freedom without price,
As the left smashes the order,
Which once told virtue from vice

Take them down from the altar,
Those lives yet to begin,
Cast the knife and gun into the lake,
And turn away from sin,

Not the sins of your religion,
The worshiping of gold,
But the sin of your indifference,
And a heart the beats so cold

God Made Cats

by Daniel Kelly – 2022

        G       C      G
On the six days of creation,
D                 G
God made all the things,
      G       C      G
The planets and the water
       D7
The trees and birds with wings,
            G       C         G
She made doctors, frogs and lawyers,
         C      D   Em
But a little after that,
          G        C        G
On the seventh day of creation,
G     D    G
God made cats.

          C               G
She made cats, she made cats,
         G         C     G
On the seventh day of creation,
G    D    G
God made cats

On the seventh day she rested,
Or so you have been told,
But let me share a secret,
If I may be so bold,
She wasn’t really resting,
She pulled something from her hat

So cats got all the best bits,
That creation had to give,
They’re fast and smart and furry,
With nine fine lives to live,
They expect humans to serve them,
After all they hunt the rat

And cats they well remember,
That they were made the last,
The pinnacle, the zenith,
Of all creations past,
As they contemplate life’s mysteries
While sitting on your lap

Easter Hare

The goddess was sleeping within the cold earth,
Waiting for the sounds that foretold the spring’s birth,
The thump of the hares on the new fallen snow,
Said life had awakened, in the soil below.

Ostara she shook out her bonny red hair,
And breathed in the frost, and tasted the cold air,
But she spied a young sparrow, lying under a tree,
Hatched out of it’s egg, too soon broken free.

The heart of the goddess, was heavy and torn,
Had she slept in too late, that bright star of the morn,
She took the limp sparrow, into her warm hand,
And looked out upon awakening land.

Your wings I can’t mend, from the cold they are bare,
But I’ll give you the form of a swift running hare,
Swapping feathers for fur, you will stay safe and warm,
In your nest on the ground in the harsh winter storm.

And once every year, when the spring voice is heard,
You will lay a sweet egg, just as you were a bird,
And in all of the world, my praises they’ll sing,
For the merciful goddess that brings in the spring.

Devil in the Steel

by Daniel Kelly - 2022
A
When we first came to this country,
We toiled with our hands,
G
Breaking stone and cutting trees,
D
All across the land.

A
But then there came a magic,
G
From far across the sea,
E
A way to trap the Geni,
     D         G         A
So the people might be free,

E
Devil in the steel,
D
Devil in the steel,
G                  D
No one asked how he feels,
A
That devil in the steel.
G
He works to pack our hay bales,
D
He works to grind the corn,
E
That devil’s been a working,
G             D         A
Since the day that he was born.

We trapped him in the iron,
We trapped him in the steel,
We fed him on the diesel,
And listened to him squeal,

We cooled his fire with water,
Lest he should get to hot,
While spinning up the fly wheel,
With everything he’s got.

Chorus

Sometime that devil’s angry,
He’ll take an arm or hand,
From any pool unlucky soul,
Not careful where he stands.

If it wasn’t for that devil,
This country wouldn’t run,
We still worship that devil,
For all the work he’s done.

Easter Hunt

by Daniel Kelly

   G                  C
It’s another Easter morning,
     G        D
The hunt is under way
C                    Bm          Am
Treasures glitter under every tree

While life is springing in the north,
It’s waning in the south,
         C            D           G
We revel in the last warm autumn days.

     G          D
Running on, Running Free
                C      D        G
Through each flower, leaf and tree,
     Bm         C
Let the magic of each moment
          C          D    G
Take you where you need to be.
     Bm       C
Not a care for tomorrow,
     G    D
Just living for today,
C            D        G
Laughing at the beauty on the way.

The seasons they are turning,
In the mind of every child,
Nature shares its message clear and true.

But absurd religious dogma,
Then eats their dreams away,
Draining colour from the summer leaves

Chorus

Hold on to your child eyes,
Keep the wonder in your heart
Never let your searching soul be tamed

Building Bridges

Written for the Filk Ontario Song Contest 2022

C
Now I’ve been writing songs,
       G            C
Since I was four or five,
        F           C
They help me to engage with life,
     F            G
And let emotion thrive,

     F                  C
But I’ve got a little problem,
          F             C
That I’ll put into this song,
          F             C
There’s a part of writing,(So I’m told)
     C         G       C
That I’ve been getting wrong.

            F
It’s not a song,
            C
It’s not a song,
          F                  C
If it’s just got verse and chorus,
     Dm                   G
then you’re doing it all wrong,
             F
It’s not a song,
              C
(Not a proper song),
     F             C
If it hasn’t got a bridge,
     G                  C
Then it’s not a proper song,

There was this song that I had writ,
I thought was pretty fine,
So elegant in melody,
I crafted every line,

But then in the competition,
The feedback it was thus,
If you’d only put a bridge in,
It might have impressed us.

Chorus

I think I’m doomed to writing,
These songs that aren’t complete,
If I could figure bridges out,
That would be pretty neat.

But I don’t know how to build one,
And I haven’t got a plan,
So I’ll stick to writing the mediocre,
Half songs that I can.