Get all 8 Rob Marr releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Book of Man, Berries, Book of Man Podcast Drama, Death and Comfort, Live at Au Chat Noir, Paris 20.04.13, Anatomy Album Launch, Live at The Roundhouse (October 2012), Anatomy, and Domestic Dramas.
1. |
Perfectly Obvious
02:43
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East Anglia slides by the windows in dreams
Leaving behind the chaos of young ones I sleep
My mind is made up
I am resolved
A bath so warm and deep
Would rescue and put me to sleep
It’s perfectly obvious, so obvious to me now
Perfectly obvious, so obvious to me now
That you would be
Better
Without me
East Anglia slides by the window in dreams
Leaving behind the chaos of young ones I sleep
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2. |
When I Was a Boy
02:46
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When I was a boy
I loved my father’s favourite son
When I was a boy
He loved me when the work was done
When I was a boy
When he was a boy
He loved the earth, the sky, the sun
When I was a boy
I loved the water and to watch the boats as they docked and hummed
Now I will sail this ship through starlit night
Plotting a course to make something of life
Now I am a man I can decide
Where to go and how to spend my time
Now I am a man I can decide
(Money is the freedom to decide
Where to go and how to use your time
Money is the freedom to decide)
When I have a boy
I will teach him how to run
And when he has a boy
And so on, and then so on
Now I will sail this boat through starlit night
Plotting a course to make something of life
Now I am a man I can decide
Where to go and how to spend my time
Now I am a man I can decide
(Money is the freedom to decide
Where to go and how to use your time
Money is the freedom to decide)
I was boy
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3. |
High-Viz Vest
02:44
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Biscuits, dunked
Puddings, custard
Schoolboy food and English mustard
Supermarket stubbies, Buy British, French cheese
Foggy days when there is absolutely no breeze
Just stillness and quiet
Muffled birdsong, days alone, no mobile phone
Playing guitar, working from home
Watching his daughter’s kids get grown
In a high-viz vest, you can never be too careful
In a high-viz vest, he enjoys the slap of tarmac
In his best Marks and Sparks
Red Flash
Cuts a dash, looking back
The windows open and the heating on
The cold side of the pillow, summer, sun
His blue clothes, his wife’s legs
His brown shoes, his white vests
His Casio F-91
Being free of asthma, being able to run to Vivaldi
Grisham, O’Brien, telly
The Queen’s speech and Tom & Jerry
Black and Decker, Araldite
Being long-winded, being right
The right tool for the right job
The right word for the right job
The right to detest wine snobs
The right to worship his God
In a high-viz vest, you can never be too careful
In a high-viz vest, he enjoys the slap of tarmac
In his best Marks and Sparks
Red Flash
Cuts a dash
In a high-viz vest, you can never be too careful
In a high-viz vest, he enjoys the slap of tarmac
In his best Marks and Sparks
Red Flash
Cuts a dash, looking back
His eldest at the table making drawings blue and yellow
His middle at the piano and his youngest at the cello
His wife by his side and his mother on the phone
Being a modest family man in a modest family home
Back when it was just enough that he cared
Back when it was just enough to have been spared
From his own hand
When he believed in purpose and plan
The years he and his daughter were one
The summers that he spent with his mum
The weekend he spent with his son
Endings where justice is done
In a high-viz vest, you can never be too careful
In a high-viz vest
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4. |
Paper
03:03
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Beautiful, slouched so low
Cigarette dangling
Taken years ago
So different
From the man I knew
So much poise and attitude
Buried years ago
Paper is strong when you pull it
But it tears so easily
Momento from longest night
1,000 megawatt smile
Gone it never goes
Memory’s song is a bullet
I embrace so easily
Paper is strong when you pull it
But it tears so easily
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5. |
Death and Comfort
03:33
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I want the last of your heat while you’re warm
I sometimes wish I had given you more
Light any-angled or darkness unfold
I want the last of your heat while you’re warm
I have relied on you body and soul
How to survive, how to be alone?
I am an island, tender to the bone
How to survive, how to be alone?
Now death is comfort go, go, go, let go
How to survive, how to be alone?
I am an island, tender to the bone
Go, go, let go, go, let go
Go, go, let go, go, let go
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6. |
Pocket
03:36
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Your hair is a rope
I climb in hope
Sublime
Tangled auburn rescue line
Belays me in harness over icy rocks to a mountain top
Where the wind blows strong
The country of our selves the view
A road a park a pub a tree a house
In the city’s south
Where we cook up plans of future mouths to feed
In your pocket
Make my home in your pocket
Safe and warm in your pocket
Bathed in morning light
You have become home to me
A place where I can rest my feet
You have become home to me
I will be the table legs
I’ll warm the cold side of the bed
I’ll bake you bread and give you head until your turn
Then you can be the table legs
For as long as I lack the strength
We will take the weight of this in turn
In my pocket
Make your home in my pocket
Safe from harm in my pocket
Unselfconsciously
I will be a home to you
A place where you can rest your feet
I will be a home to you
I will be the table legs
I’ll warm the cold side of the bed
I’ll be your flawed imperfect gent
Until your turn
Then you can be the table legs
For as long as I lack the strength
We will take the weight of this in turn
Your hair is a rope
I climb in hope
Sublime tangled auburn rescue line
Belays me in harness over icy rocks to a mountain top
Where the wind blows strong
The country of our selves the view
A road a park a pub a tree a house
In the city’s south
Where we cook up plans of future mouths to feed
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7. |
Rock the Boat
02:23
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Don’t rock the boat
You’ll let the water in
Don’t rock the boat
You know I can hardly swim
This bed is a boat
That is barely afloat
On the sea of our hopes
We aspire
To soothe and to glide
To the smoothest of rides
But chance and circumstance conspire
Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock
Rock Rock Rock the boat
Nails and teak creak
As honesty seeps
Through the cracks in our compromise
“It might be easier”, you said
“To sail solo instead.
And sometimes it’s kinder to lie”
Don’t rock the boat
You’ll let the water in
Don’t rock the boat
You know I can hardly swim
Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock
Rock Rock Rock the boat
You place your feet on each side of the seat
And you rock with a gleam in your eyes
The whiskey’s the wind in your sails
I bail
And take my chance over the side
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8. |
Window of Opportunity
04:05
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If you want me you can have me
A window of opportunity
If you want me you can have me
Perfectly eccentric you are lovelier than rising bread
Complicated, like the sea
Do you take me for granted
So far away?
If you want me you can have me
a window of opportunity
Perfectly eccentric the inside of your noisy head
It fascinates
Do you want me?
If you want me you can have me
If you still want me
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9. |
Berries
02:25
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After the crying was over
Train rocks me gently to sleep
Resting my head on my tuck box
My name burned in the wood
“Fuck You”, I wrote with my compass
Scratched in the wood of the seat
After the crying was over…
Freed from the pews and father’s monotone
We played how many of the yew tree berries
Can you eat in one go?
You chewed all five
I swallowed mine whole
Later that night you subside
Now that the crying is over
Sun sets out west on the sea
Resting my legs on my tuck box
My name burned in the wood
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10. |
Toe in the Water
03:15
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Afloat in a sea of green hope we are happy alone
With teacups and rollups and heat from the gas-burning stove
Afloat in a sea of green hope we are happy alone
So come for a walk with me, come to the place we know
Come on dip your toes in the water and
Skinny-dive in
To my blurry world of elastic and skin
We’ve been tried, and survived
Made something of nothing
Dip your toes in the water
Dive in!
Now we have withstood one or two of the heavier blows
While others better looking, better suited, more able were thrown
And if I should have untied you, I couldn’t, I would not let you go
Because this history means too much to me
Yes it means too much to me
You know what it’s like
Yes you know what it’s like
Oh you know what it’s like
Come on dip your toes in the water and
Skinny-dive in
To my blurry world of elastic and skin
We’ve been tried and survived
Made something of nothing
Found a place to let these noisy heads begin to unwind
A place to rest these noisy heads in peace
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Rob Marr London, UK
Rob has been playing the piano since he was 7. He wrote his 1st song aged 15 but didn’t try again for another 10 years. Second time round he was hooked, and has been in love ever since. His music combines lyrical storytelling with a diverse but coherent range of music influences: classical piano, hip hop, folk and 90’s indie. Book of Man is an album and podcast drama, narrated by Josh O’Connor. ... more
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