+Pride of the Summer

I still hear the snares in the square
Colours ablaze in the evening
The air was still down the stormy hill
It's good to be young and daring

[Beat the drum, beat the drum
Like a heartbeat
Lonely and strong
Beat the drum]

I still see the blood on the knees
The camans swing without warning
The lads in white at the speed of light
It's good to be young and daring

[Refrain]

Across the bay I can still hear the strains
The two step loud and Blair-ing
We walked hand in hand to the accordion band
It's good to be young and daring

[Refrain]

She was the pride of the summer that year
She was my sweetheart, my lady
We walked the black rock and we stopped by the loch
It's good to be young and daring

[Refrain]

+Alba (Scotland)

Air sgiath a' seoladh nan neoil
'S an domhain liath
Mar dhealbh a' tighinn beo tro na sgothan
'S mi a' tilleadh gu tir

Alba nam beanntan ard
Nan acraichean lom
Thairis air na lochan mointich
Nan coilltean 's nan gleann

Alba, Alba

Ach 'se sealladh leointe is gann
Tha an seo aig ceann thall an linn
Talamh alainn nan daoine
Fhathast an lamhan duine no dithis

Cuibhlean stolda mu dheas
Na fasaichean a tuath
An taigh-mor falamh an Dun-Eideann
Gun chumhachd gun ghuth

Alba, Alba

Sibhse chuir achadh ri achadh
Taigh ri taigh
Gus nach bi ait anns an tir
An gabh sibh comhnaidh air leth

Ach 's math dhomh bhith seo an drasd
A cur failt air a' bhlas
'San tir a tha cho ur dhomh an diugh
Is a bha i nuair bha mi 'nam phaisd

Alba, Alba

traduction

This flight is sailing the clouds
And the blue heavens
The homeland appears like a developing photograph
Through the mists as I return to land

I see Scotland of the high mountains
And the empty acres
Flying low across the moorland lochs
The forests and the glens

Scotland, Scotland

But it's a wounding and a hollow sight
Here as we reach the end of the century
The beautiful soil of the people
Still in the hands of the few

I see the wheels of industry at a standstill
And the northern lands wasted
And the empty house in Edinburgh
Without authority or voice

Scotland, Scotland

You that have laid field upon field
House upon house
Till there be nowhere for you to be placed alone
In the midst of all the earth

But it is good for me to be here now
As I welcome the warmth
In this land that's as exciting for me today
As it was the day I was born

Scotland, Scotland

+Things That Are

She was the fairest
And her eyes shone of blue
I first fell in the autumn term
There was nothing I could do
School lovers swarmed
Around the courtyard wall
Then walked on up
The rapture road aglow

She kept me warm that winter
And winter turned to spring
We never looked round corners
To the changes they could bring
Her love was a dart
And I swore she broke my heart
The world would never turn
The same again

[The things that are
And things that never can be
Are things that we must bare
To share our destiny]

I saw her again last summer
Where the hard rains fall
The grass grew long around her feet
Where the years took their toll
She once meant the world to me
But we by-passed destiny
On the road not taken
The road unknown

[Refrain]

She was the only one
Eternity blindness could see
Our moments are rush and gone
All our pictures incomplete

[Refrain]

Oh, the things that are

[Refrain]

+Amazing Things

White clouds cover the whole of the earth
Concorde flies through the skies to the States
Lifetimes in memory, flesh being born
But this is the age of invisible dawn
And the man from the government says, have a good time
Through stench and starvation night never falls
There's flies on the skeletons, shapes on the wall

And the masters of flattery colour the trees
They walk on the oceans, put the town under siege
The king of humanity sleeps in despair
Walking out in the morning with his hands in the air
There's zealots in anger, divine extreme s
Emotional half-lives, disposable dreams
Rumours of cease-fire inherit the streets
This is the war of the pure and the meek

But flowers still open, flowers still close
Re-arranged molecules, miracle cures
And I can still love you, call you my own
Till the blooms turn to doubt
Till the angels come home

These days are overgrown in truth
Under the sun there's nothing new

As I draw my latest breath
Amazing things are done on earth

+(Stepping Down the) Glory Road

Footprints around the world
Your beauty in the blue
Stepping down the Glory Road

Let's go dancing for survival
To the lyric of your youth
Stepping down the Glory Road

The way you sing will shine out
Illuminate the way you grow
Stepping down the Glory Road

Capture your heart it's breaking
To celebrate your giving
Gracenotes on every heartstring
The beauty in the pure
Stepping down the Glory Road

So resurrect the bards
Liberate the word inspired
Stepping down the Glory Road

You know that joy like great art
Should take you to the skies
Stepping down the Glory Road

The dark side of the soul
You've never known you never will
Eisd ri eubh do mhian
Stepping down the glory road

Eisd ri eubh do mhian
Stepping down the glory road

Eisd ri eubh do mhian
Stepping down the glory road

+Flower of theWest

Sunburst
The morning moor
The light of God
The heart of youth
I look around me
My eyes find their rest
On this garden
The flower of the west

Sunrise
The colour frontier
The ageing light
The sight that knows no fear
I look over Orinsay
To the Trumisgarry shore
To Alioter
And the road to Ahmore

The silent skies
An innocent heart
Holding the moment away
From time in the dark
All I see
All I know
Is touching the sacred earth
And warming the hallowed ground

I survive the childhood universe
And I step the naked heath
Where the breathing of the vanished
Lies in acres round my feet
Loch Scadavagh, Loch Fada
And the flatlands to the East
Where the dark blue mass of Eval
Meets the rising rock of Lee
Between the Crogaire and Mairi
I started to descend
Loch Aongais on my left hand side
I look across to Clett
Collies barking on the outrun
Dunlin dancing on the sand
Breakers show round Corran Vallique
And empty the Atlantic on the strand

+Song of the Earth

It was winter on the Mersey
Snow was falling on New York
The boats were coming in from Ireland
A nation drinking round the docks
What do you do when the rain is falling
What do you do when the rain is falling down

Young men are heading back to Europe
Rocking the Reeperbahn at night
We watch the airwaves over Eval
Angels were d ancing in the lights
What do you do when the sun is sinking
What do you do when the sun is sinking low

The chains, slaves, praise and gospel
Burn like the sun in tortured mouths
A hurricane blew out of Memphis
Revolution in the South
What do you do when the sun is beating
What do you do when the sun is beating down

Spirits drink the milk of nation
Singing freedom and release
Cries of mercy rise like rockets
Through the paths of the redeemed
What do you do when the guns are turning
What do you do when the guns are turning round

There was a singer in my bloodstream
And he stayed mainline all my life
His voice filled my Atlantic
A Celtic fire, a soul of white
What do yo u do when your homes are burning
What do you do when your homes are burning down

He wore the beauty of his people
Came to tell it to the world
Human tears, human oceans
The greatest song I've ever heard
What do you do when your hope is raging
What do you do when your hope is raging strong

It was winter on the Mersey
Through the museum on the docks
Through my years, through my failures
To where the white piano stood
What do you do when the rain is falling
What do you do when the rain is falling down

Saw all the singers of the Gaidhealtachd
And all the world could understand
I heard, "maybe I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one"
What do you do when the song you're singing
What do you do when the song you're singing's gone

Sing a song of the earth, song of the earth

+Protect And Survive

The red hot sun burns up the hill
The winter's bride, the summer's king
I tramp these acres and I feel
Once upon a time
And then it seemed that everything
You saw and touched and felt was real
You turned the tap and you turned the wheel
Breathing free

[Once in a lifetime
You live and love
Once in a lifetime
You die
Once in a moment
The sun goes down
Protect and survive]

Now you search the open evening skies
Trace the memory in your eyes
For the prophet's hard rain and the deluge
Lie in tears around your door
Once there were trees and livestock here
A mother's love, the warnings clear
But you chose to turn away from fear
Breathing free

[Refrain]

Now there's a faceless cross on a distant hill
A wasted voice, a silent scream
Where the lovers love and the dreamers dream
You stand and dream alone
You took your sacrifice to the gods of war
Traded your children's lives for a mess of gold
And you beat your ploughshares into swords
Breathing free

[Refrain]

+Siol Ghoraidh (The Geneology Of Goraidh)

Ochd deug seisreach
Air raontainn Aird a' Mhorain
Na fir a' treabhadh
An là a thainig na Sleithich

Dubh dath na fala
A dhoirt 'na tuil gu talamh
Saighead, claidheamh
Tro chairdeas corp an Udail

Siol Ghoraidh
Mac Ruairidh
Clann Raghnaill
Clann Dhòmhaill

Linn gu linn
Bho ainm gu ainm
Air an sgiath seo dh' Uibhist
'S mi beò an dràsd

Clann mo theaghlaich
Clann mo theaghlaich
Clann mo theaghlaich fhein

Dòmhnall Iain Aonghais ‘Ic Neill, Iain Dhòmhnall Iain, Seonnaidh Mòr A' Ghearraidh, Caillean A' Ghreusaiche, Tearlach Eòin Dhughaill, Calum Aonghais ‘Ic Neill, Calum Dhonnchaidh, Neill Alastair ‘Ic UIlleam, Ruairidh Iain Thàillear, Dughall ‘Illespidh Thormoid, Calum Ailig Mhor, Eirsidh Iain A' Duin, Dòmhnall ‘Ic Ille Mhuile, Ceit Phàdraig, Seonnaidh A' Chiobair, Aonghas Bochd.

traduction

Eighteen teams of horses
On the fields of Aird a' Mhorain
The young men poughing
On the day the Sleat people came

Black was the colour of the blood
That flowed like a flood to the soil
The arrow, the long sword
Through the generosity of the Udal people

Generation to generation
From one name to another
My time is now
To walk this corner of Uist

The geneology of Goraidh
The sons of Ruairi
The sons of Ranald
The children of Donald

The children of my family
The children of my own family

Donald, son of John, son of Angus, son of Neil. John, son of Donald John. Big John from the land between the hill pasture and the arable. Colin the shoemaker. Charles, son of Ewen, son of Dugald. Calum, son of Angus, son of Neil. Calum, son of Duncan. Neil, son of Alastair, son of William. Roderick, son of John, son of the tailor. Dugald, son of Gillesbuig, son of Norman. Calum, son of Big Alexander. Archibald, son of John of the Fortress. Donald, son of Samuel. John from Huna. Alastair, son of Donald, son of the boy from the mill. Catherine, daughter of Patrick. John, son of Roderick, son of John, son of Angus. The widow of John, son of the Shepherd. Poor Angus.

+Harvest Moon

Sons and daughters of the dust
Strangers of time and place
For a while your limbs entwine
Holy marriage of the flesh
But I know your ways
Your ways are not mortal thought
Till the day breaks and shadows run
Run away

[So shine on harvest moon
Cast you might on the ripening corn
And I look at your life
Hold you in my arms
With all the power in the days of youth
In the fullness of love]

Fields run deep in golden swards
Hot summer winds blow through the corn
Cast off your sorrows now you stand
In the presence of the Lord
And your radiance shines
Like the moon of all innocent grace
To know that we dared breathe belief
To love again

[Refrain]

+News From Heaven

By the mountainside, by the ocean blue
Where the struggle broke my heart in two
River of millions flow downstream
A golden highway to the sea of dreams

[But now you're here I feel no fear
I can't believe the news from heaven
You close your eyes on a world inside
A spark of life on a wire from heaven]

Morning comes, turn on the light
Deceive the day, delay the night
Ideologies come, ideologies go
A waste of words, and endless flow

[Refrain]

In the state of a miracle
State of a miracle
I watch this miracle unfold
In the state of a miracle
State of a miracle
Far north of a soul

Great people come, take the stage
Famous moments vanish without trace
Trees grow tall, fields grow wheat
Woman grows older, man grows weak

[Refrain]

+Tear Down These Walls

Tear down these walls
They keep raising for you

In the slipstream of luck and democracy
A victim of chance and geography
I reap and I sow the face of the earth
While big guns play games with the land of my birth

I walk these hills and I sail the seas
I've weathered the storms of history
Created to live, created to share
With the fish of the sea, the birds of the air

[Tear down these walls
All men were born the same
You came here with nothing
But naked and a name]

Tear down these walls
They keep raising for you

I'm not too hot on Dukes or Earls or Graces
But I love respect and exalted places
Give me the people with sod on the knee
The higher the monkey climbs the more he reveals

[Refrain]

Tear down these walls
They keep raising for you

+Sràideann Na Roinn-Eòrpa (Streets of Europe)

Chuir mi mo chùl ri Lunnainn
An samhradh air m' aodann
'S mi air sràidean mòr na Roinn-Eòrpa
'S mi le mo rùn, le m' anam, mo bratach
Mo ghrian, mo ghealach ùr
'S sheas mi 's na àiteachan 's an do sheas m'athair
'S ioma cogadh a tha ann airson saorsa
Dà fhicead bliadhna 's an dileab air fhàgail
Briathran do linn 's do sheòrsa

Bail e beag anns a' Ghearmailt
Gruagach cho bòidheach
Le suilean lan sonas is bròn
Thuirt i, "Am bheil fhios agaibh fhèin, an t-sochair 'tha agaibh
Tha eallach eachraidh air mo ghualainn cho trom"
Chrath sinn lamhan, 's dh'fhalbh i a' seinn
An dàn tha domhainn 's gach anam de dhaoine
Dh'fhag mi i le blas beag de mo dhùthaich
Dh'fhag i mi leis a chompanas ùr

Tha na brataich a' snamh
An cuan de dhathan
Do chànan binn an cluas na Roinn-Eòrpa
Tha na sràidean beò le cainnt 's togair
Sràidean am Babel ur
'S thusa mo rùn, tha cothrom mad choinneamh
Tha do chliù air 'dhol tarsainn an cuan
Thusa tha meanbh, bi làidir, bi àlainn
Taisbean do chànan, bi buan

traduction

I have put London behind me
The summer is on my face
And I am on the big streets of Europe
With my love, my flag
My sun and my new moon
I stood in the places where my father has stood
Many are the wars of freedom
Forty years and the legacy is still with me
The words of his kind and generation

A small town in Germany
A beautiful young girl
Her eyes full of sorrow and joy
She said, "Are you aware of the privilege you enjoy
The burden of history lies heavy on my shoulders"
We shook hands and she went on her way singing
The song that is deep in the soul of all people
I left her with a small part of my own country
She left me with the fellowship of a new age

The flags are swimming
In a sea of colour
My language melodious in the ear of Europe
The streets are alive with conversation and purpose
Possibilities for a new Babel
And you my love have opportunity before you
Your renown has crossed the ocean
You that are the small, be strong, be beautiful
Reveal your great language, be everlasting

+Rhythm of my Heart

Across the street the river runs
Down in the gutter life is slipping away
Let me still exist in another place
Running under cover
Of a helicopter blade

The flames are getting higher
In effigy
Burning down the bridges of my memory
Love may still be alive
Somewhere someday
Where they're downing only deer
A hundred steel towns away

[Oh, rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words "I Love you"
Rolling off my tongue
No never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky
I'll be sailing]

Photographs and kerosene
Light up my darkness
Light it up, light it up
I can still feel the touch
Of your thin blue jeans
Running down the alley
I've got my eyes all over you, baby

[Refrain]

Oh, I've got lightning in my veins
shifting like the handle of a slot machine
Love may still exist in another place
I'm just yanking back the handle
No expression on my face

[Refrain]

+The Greatest Flame

Like shadows on the wall
You come and you go
Through the streets
And the rain that falls down
On our sin
No more goodbyes
Forever this way
Whenever the greatest flame in the world
Starts burning

Always in your eyes
A waking of souls
We gaze out on the road
That brought us up
To this place
The signposts never change
We'll go where they lead
Whenever the day to break us come
We'll not give in

This is our life, and our time
And nothing is ever going to break us
Now we're on our own
That is our place in our lives
And no one can ever change this moment
Or pull this mountain to the ground

Live the day when the flame is strong
Live the day when the flame is strong
Come the day when love is gone
Take it over, take it over

+Wonderful

When all the world is quite and still
And doubts run deep as the ocean
Through troubled years and broken dreams
To the place where all silence has spoken

Immeasurable, invisible
The moment golden before me
I will walk with you through the beautiful gate
My hands and heart wide open

So wonderful, too wonderful
So wonderful, too wonderful

+Skye

How can't you see
The wilderness growing free
Time wounded and scarred
Stroking away the years

It's hard to believe
But memories are old ghosts
Mountains of black and gold
Sunsets falling over the moor

[Oh take me there
's na horo eile, horo bho
's na horo bho, hillean o
's na horo eille ho
Take me there]

You take your dream
And make life what you feel
Appearances lead to deceive
This drama so far from me

Destiny
On facts aching wings
Wild geese fly low over your shores
Hearts sailing over the trees

[Refrain]

Chi mi an t-eilean uaine
Tir nam beanntan arda
Ceò a' tuiteam tron a' ghleann
'Na shineadh air do raointean

[Refrain]

traduction

I see the green island
Land of the high hills
Mists falling through your valleys
And lying down on your fields