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. |
Fencebuilding
03:54
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Pass me the hammer son
This is a bad job needs to be redone
See how I sweat in the sun
Proving love and that these old bones are not yet done.
Pass me the hammer dad
We will mend this fence the wind blew down
Tell me how you have become what you are, what you lost
And what you won
Burn with white light
Heal with red heat
Cut the deadwood
And leave the green
Some things a man does for himself
Some things a man decides for himself
Some things a man learns for himself
Some things a man makes for himself
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2. |
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Weaving through busses on the Old Kent Road
Riding my old green Puch between the holes
My head is full of plans, I’d need three lives to see them through
The city holds me, lights control me, buildings inspire me, a village boy jumping red lights
Summer, summer in the city
Admiring plane trees turning green to gold
Fighting snarling faces screaming, Get off the fucking road
You should take the time my friend, to see the tank you’re driving in is uglier than sin, gas guzzling, try cycling, would help you slim down, would help you trim down
Summer, summer in the city
To stay alive on the roads you have to concentrate, dodging
Busses, taxis, van and cars parked in cycle lanes
A driver’s door too fast to dodge
“There’s blood running from your ear”
“There’s blood running from your ear”
It’s winter
Riding down diesel-smelling back-end streets
Watching lives of every stripe unfold
It’s that week in spring where every woman shows the sun her skin, a magnificent, multi-coloured blossoming
Summer, summer in the city
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3. |
Dirt Beneath Your Toes
02:53
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The sun shines on our backs
And papers over the cracks
It shines on our backs
We fly by the seat of our pants
Don’t know where we will land
The seat of our pants
Feel the dirt beneath your toes and let the morning sun dry out your tent and warm your clothes. Feel the dirt beneath your toes and let the morning sun dry out your tent and warm your bones.
We carry our lives on our backs
Sleeping bags, clothes, pots and pans
They’re all on our backs
We plan the route with guidebooks and maps
Then fly by the seat of our pants
Our world on our backs
Feel the dirt beneath your toes and let the morning sun dry out your tent and warm your clothes. Feel the dirt beneath your toes and let the morning sun dry out your tent and warm your clothes
And warm your bones
And warm your clothes
We carry our lives in our packs
And we fly by the seat of our pants
The world on our backs
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4. |
Fat and Happy
02:47
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Ten things you love
Ten things you hate
The morning games, you and me play.
Babies that cry on busses, you hate.
Afternoon sex and parallel parking are
Two things you love
I have twenty three million, four hundred and five thousand and forty eight minutes before I die. According to the office for national statistics, and you know, statistics never lie. Well, I looked and I found no good advice there on how I am best to fill this time. And between you and me, up till now, it’s been mostly self- denial.
I want to get fat and happy
I’m going to get fat and happy
I’ve been wheat free, dairy free, caffeine free, sugar free, yeast free, fun free, sex free, living like Flat Stanley, wasting days in a haze existing only in 2D. But now my jeans are bursting at the seams and these four stud walls cannot hold the things I need to eat, drink, think, live, love, take and breathe.
I want to get fat and happy
I’m going to get fat and happy
I want to get fat and happy
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5. |
Anatomy of a Lover
03:33
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My love has wide knitting yarn blue eyes
Ragged fingers
Perfect, badly shaved thighs
Nestling a luxurious twist of curly hair that
Leads me places I’ve missed
Every atom
In every cell
In your body has been something else
Every atom in every cell in your body has been something
My lover’s skin wraps viscera and bone
Decorated, scarred downy envelope
She bleeds and sweats and screams and moans
She gives her anatomy freely oh
Every atom
In every cell
In your body will be someone else
Every atom in every cell in your body will be someone
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6. |
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When we were close
I spent the weekends borrowing your clothes
Dragging beds downstairs to sleep beside you
Talking, TV, late night, tea and toast
That was then
That was then and this is now
That was then and this is now
The things you wrestle with
Grow arms and legs
They will drag you down to dark, familiar places
I sought the comfort of those warm embraces
Then, not now
That was then and this is now
That was then and this is now
The oracle is nice
And white, and bright and in her fifties
In the bags under her eyes she carries wisdom
Her world is pregnant with possibilities
For then, and now
That was then and this is now
That was then and this is now
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7. |
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So I’ve got this little bit of money that I owe. Not too much, but enough to make the difference between yes, or no, when my girlfriend or a mate says, Do you want to go on holiday, or, You need new jeans, the old ones have gone in holes. But I haven’t got the money. So I buy a scratchcard.
Put your shoulder to the wheel, push hard, (not too hard), you may be stronger than you feel, but oh, it can still break you. You can live a quiet life, make the most of what is free, and find excitement where you can, ‘cos almost everything costs something. Failure is so seductive, I dance with her in shoes that let the rain in. It’s my fault, I’m the one who spent the money.
Take an old 2p, from my wallet, and scratch the numbers off; one pound, ten pounds, one hundred thousand. I need three to match if I’m to pay my credit back. Another hundred thousand appears beneath the coin as I scratch. I’m down to the last square, I pause, to savour hope, what’s printed there? I win a pound. It’s fine, it could be worse, I’ll go and buy another.
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8. |
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In two hours and fifteen minutes we could be in Paris
Keep walking, today’s a working day
Pauls do the best croissants in all of London
Buy two and then go on your way
King’s Cross St Pancras
Things are going your way, today
8-minute light shines through acres of glass held by steel painted colour of sunny city sky
Inside is all power and straight lines
Outside is outside, is outside
Kings Cross St Pancras
Things are going your way
Kings Cross St Pancras
On a sunny spring morning
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9. |
Rock and Roll
04:04
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Darling money’s tighter than it’s ever been, ever been
Day by day our take-home pay is shrinking, shrinking
Darlin what I’m reading’s got me thinking
None of these fripperies satisfy my soul
I will make you some food, and you can bring the booze
Let’s Rock and Roll
Darlin all the papers say the new going out is staying in, staying in
And the sales of pajamas they are rising, rising
Darlin I want your skin on my skin
So put your music on and take the weight up on your toes
We can sell the things that we don’t need to fill the hole oh
We can fill the hole
Let’s Rock and Roll
Darlin throw your clothes over the chair behind the door
Throw your shoulders back and hold your head up tall
I know the room is cold but the bed is warm
All the talk today was of who would be next to go
I miss the cat sat next to me he helped the time to go, helped the time to go
Let’s Rock and Roll
Darlin fuck the house, we’ll go back to renting, renting
We’ll give the bank back the keys they were lending, lending
Darlin, I need your skin on my skin oh
I loved the places where they made us feel like gold
Roll this way, you will sleep more deeply if you come before you go, you come before you go
Let’s Rock and Roll
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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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