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lyrics

Hundred Thousand
© Penelope Swales 
 1998

I've got a wind chime that plays the blues
As it jams in the nighttime
I lie in bed and I think of you
Well it hasn't been too bad lately
But tonight I'm feeling old
The workings of this world
They make my blood run cold

Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred thousand
Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred thousand things
Could have led him there

She said "Grief
Is like a chill, dark room
I sit in the corner
I can't seem to make myself move
Over to the window
To let that sunlight in
But I need to feel it
I need to feel it on my skin"
She said "Guilt
Is my constant companion
It sits in the corner
When I'm not watchin' it's always waiting
It walks in my shadow
Hummin' it's cruel refrain
Just as I'm droppin' off to sleep
I hear it singin' once again
'If only we hadn't been fighting
Maybe he'd still be alive today
If only we'd done things differently
Maybe he wouldn't have gone that way, that way' "


Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred thousand
Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred thousand things
Could have led him there
Could have led him elsewhere

"I'm wrapped in a blanket
Embroidered with my story
I look at the colours
Its senselessness and its glory
Can't seem to believe it
I can't believe it's mine
I don't talk about it much
'Coz it just seems too unkind

Now tell me
Why does a man climb a mountain?
They say he climbs it because it's there
And if I was the peak he could not scale
Well he decided to try his luck elsewhere, elsewhere

And now that he's lying
Dead under a hundred thousand
Tons of rock and ice
On Aoraki, South Island
Well, I can't plant no vine
Up there on that ice
But I'll seed it with my presence, yeah
And hope somehow he knows I'm there"

Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred
I'm wrapped in a blanket
Embroidered with her story
She told me the outline
I can sense its senselessness and its glory
Oh. I can imagine
Because I'm too familiar
Too familiar with that clashin'
Between dear love and passion
But any one of a hundred
Every one of a hundred
If a bird had eaten the butterfly
That flapped its wings and changed the weather
If somebody else had booked that flight
Made him travel one day later
If only he hadn't got drunk that night
Or maybe chosen another site
Every step we've ever taken
Is leading us to where we'll end
Now tell me
Why does a man climb a mountain?
They say he climbs it because it's there
And if you were the peak he could not scale
Well he's bound to try his luck elsewhere, elsewhere

And now with the springtime
Grief loses it's grip
She says "I can smile sometimes
And even love a little bit
It's a conscious decision
Made with every day
To walk in the sunshine
And say my farewells my way
and if now I live with these high, dark walls
Well, I'll climb them because they're there
Because life in its callousness does go on
I'll have to try my love elsewhere
And remember

Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred thousand
Every one of a hundred
Every one of a hundred things
Every one of a hundred
Every one of a hundred thousand things
That have led me here
Well, they can lead me elsewhere"

credits

from Justifying your Longings to the Doctor, released January 7, 1998
Penelope Swales - vocals guitar, stomp box

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Penelope Swales Boolarra, Australia

Penelope Swales has been articulating the human condition with passion and humour for 30+ years. She sings about politics, love, friendship, the unbreakable bond between us and dogs and the impact of the Internet on society. She won the 2019 Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice Award with “Cambridge Analytica”. “The Ides of March in Christchurch" was short-listed for the same award in 2020. ... more

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