Be Home Soon
Fifty feet of steel, Travel where you will
Plough a furrow through the Fen,
Go wherever you feel
That's home. No place like home.
Sleep in your own bed. Don't leave your room.
Every night a new place.
Be home soon.
Feel that engine roar. Watch the river part.
Glide your way to somewhere new, hope in your heart.
That's home. No place like home.
Stoke the fire. Cosy nest.
Don't leave your room.
Every night a new place.
Be home soon.
New pace of life - four miles an hour
The weather shows no mercy save for wind and sun and shower
That's home. No place like home.
Closer than you've ever been
Don't leave your room.
Every night a new place.
Be home soon.
Perch and roach and bream, your aquarium
The raw and arching sky, your solarium.
That's home. No place like home.
Hang the rest, do your thing
Don't leave your room.
Every night a new place.
Be home soon.
(Music and lyrics by Marshlander - all rights reserved)
At an open mic evening some years ago I heard four or five young performers each singing one of the four songs they had knocked up that afternoon. I felt completely de-skilled. It takes me months and sometimes years to shape a song to the point where it becomes something I am willing to sing. Some years ago I set myself a task that, on my next clear day, I would start and complete a song in a day. I sat at the table with no idea about what I was going to write, so I wrote about what I could see around me. I can't say the song has remained untouched since then, but with the deletion or addition of a word or two and the addition of the simple harp part this is essentially what I came up with on that day. I like to think that the sound of the song conveys the momentum and engine sound of cruising on the inland waterways at three or four miles an hour. I have often felt that living on a boat is like all the best bits of camping, only even better, because I can spend every night in a different place while I can still be in my home surroundings.
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