James Keelaghan has a myriad of albums and songs out but he will always be remembered for this one:
"Cold Missouri Water"
My name is Dodge, but then you know that
It's written on the chart there at the foot end of the bed
They think I'm blind, I can't read it
I've read it every word, and every word it says is death
So, confession - is that the reason that you came
Get it off my chest before I check out of the game
Since you mention it, well there's thirteen things I'll name
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri waters
August 'Forty-Nine, north Montana
The hottest day on record, the forest tinder dry
Lightning strikes in the mountains
I was crew chief at the jump base, I prepared the boys to fly
Pick the drop zone, C-47 comes in low
Feel the tap upon your leg that tells you go
See the circle of the fire down below
Fifteen of us dropped above the cold Missouri waters
Gauged the fire, I'd seen bigger
So I ordered them to sidehill and we'd fight it from below
We'd have our backs to the river
We'd have it licked by morning even if we took it slow
But the fire crowned, jumped the valley just ahead
There was no way down, headed for the ridge instead
Too big to fight it, we'd have to fight that slope instead
Flames one step behind above the cold Missouri waters
Sky had turned red, smoke was boiling
Two hundred yards to safety, death was fifty yards behind
I don't know why I just thought it
I struck a match to waist high grass running out of time
Tried to tell them, Step into this fire I set
We can't make it, this is the only chance you'll get
But they cursed me, ran for the rocks above instead
I lay face down and prayed above the cold Missouri waters
And when I rose, like the phoenix
In that world reduced to ashes there were none but two survived
I stayed that night and one day after
Carried bodies to the river, wonder how I stayed alive
Thirteen stations of the cross to mark to their fall
I've had my say, I'll confess to nothing more
I'll join them now, because they left me long before
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri waters
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri shore
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But he certainly has others. Here's another elegant Keelaghan song:
"Kiri's Piano"
Of all of Kiri Ito's joys, the thing she loved the best
Was to play her prized piano when the sun had gone to rest
I used to hear the notes drift down along the silent water
As Kiri played the notes and scales for her dear sons and daughters
Now me I played piano though not as good as Kiri
She went in for that long-haired stuff but my, she played it pretty
The old piano had a tone would set my heart to aching
It always sounded sweetest though when it was Kiri playing
In December when the seventh fleet was turned to smoke and ashes
The order came to confiscate their fishing boats and caches
And Kiri's husband forced to go and work in labour camps
And Kiri left alone and fend and hold the fort as best she can
But the music did not drift as often from up the cove at Kiri's house
And when it did it sounded haunted, played with worry, played with doubt
For Kiri knew that soon she too would be compelled to leave
And the old upright would stay behind and Kiri she would grieve
I loaded Kiri on the bus with stoic internees
The crime that they were guilty of was that they were not like me
And if I was ashamed I didn't know it at the time
They were flotsam on the wave of war, they were no friends of mine
I went up to Kiri's house to tag all their belongings
And set them out for auctioneers who'd claim them in the morning
One piece that I thought I'd keep and hold back for myself
Was that haunting ivory upright that Kiri played so well
But Kiri had not left it there for me to take as plunder
She'd rolled it down onto the dock and on into the harbor
The old upright in strangers' hands was a thought she couldn't bear
So she consigned it to the sea to settle the affair
So many years have come and gone since Kiri's relocation
I look back now upon that time with shame and resignation
For Kiri knew what I did not that if we must be free
Then sometimes we must sacrifice to gain our dignity
++++
And another:
"Hillcrest Mine"
Down in the mines of the Crowsnest Pass
It's the men who die in labour
Sweating coal from the womb of the pit
It's the smell of life they savour
And in that mine young man you'll find
A wealth of broken dreams
As long and as dark and as black and as wide
As the coal in the Hillcrest seam
CHORUS
They say you don't go
Say you don't go down in the Hillcrest Mine
They say you don't go
Say you don't go down in the Hillcrest Mine
'Cuz it's one short step
You might leave this world behind
And they say you don't go
Say you don't go down in the Hillcrest Mine.
I've heard it whispered in the light of dawn
That mountain sometimes moves
That bodes ill for the morning shift
And you know what you're gonna lose
Don't go my son where The deep coal runs
Turn your back to the mine on the hill
'Cuz if the dust and the dark and the gas don't getcha
Then the goons and the bosses will
CHORUS
Well son I'm gonna open up, I'm gonna have my say
You'll get no peace from the Hillcrest Mine
'Cept the peace of any early grave
Go out and work for The workers' rights
Go work for the workers' needs
Don't stay down here to toil for your buck
To be a tool for the owner's greed
CHORUS
CHORUS
+++++
Plus,
"McConville"
I work down at McConville's, it's the pub behind the square
If ever you're in Portadown, anyone can point you there
We have lagers ales and porters, but the thing that brings them in
Is the whiskey that McConville brews that where this all begins
IN all the years I've worked there and for fifty years before
Not a bottle of the sweet stuff ever walked outside the door
Cause McConville laid the rule down, it was honoured till today
Drink your fill while at the bar, but the bottle has to stay
Six or seven years ago when young Jimmy first came by
He was looking for a local, we were the third place that he'd tried
Her looked around, no ferns…, no telly blaring from the bar
And once he tried the whiskey he never strayed too far
He'd come in after dinner for an hour maybe more
Play some cards and talk and joke, 'cause that's what a local's for
Before he'd leave most nights, because the bottles had to stay
He'd ask me for a whiskey just to see him on his way
Three days ago his mate come in, he said Jimmy took a fall
From a roof that he was working on, he had no chance at all
And today after the funeral, after burying young Jim
They came here to his second home, the mourners crowded in
Then I did a thing I never thought I'd do 'til it was done
I took a bottle from the shelf, I held it up for everyone
Rules are made for breaking, tonight the whisky leaves the bar
An auction for the family, who'll give me £50 to start
At £500 the bidding stopped, no, you couldn't hear a sound
But for the roar as Jimmy's mates stepped up and laid their pay packs down
And I can't believe I did it, never thought I'd see the day
That I'd hand someone the bottle and then watch it walk away
As I was heading home tonight I passed the grave yard by
I sure that I heard singing and silhouetted on the sky
Were Jimmy's friends and they were pouring something on his grave
A little offering for young Jim to help him on his way
I work down at McConville's, it's the pub behind the square
If ever you're in Portadown, anyone can point you there
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