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lyrics

Never to Forever
© Penelope Swales 1992


Ah, sepia, sepia, sepia, sepia…

I’ve been walking too long on the hilltop
The wind has got into my skull
While the trees talked and I listened
I found my way home, but the whisperin’
Carries on

Lost in the shifting veils of the night
I stumble upon an earlier dawn
I was amazed that the colours were so bright
Somehow I would have expected
Everything to be in sepia

Ah, sepia …

Here in my prison of skin and bone
I am a fitful flame
For just this one moment,
This lit link in the chain
From never to forever
(Never to forever)

This is your heritage, yes this is what you are
Racing your chariot, crashing your car
Softer things move underneath you
But you don’t really feel them
Softer things move underneath you
But you don’t really feel them
Softer things move underneath you
But you don’t really feel them
Softer things move underneath you
But you don’t really feel them
Softer things move, ohh..
Sepia, sepia

Saying it’s wrong doesn’t make it untrue
We are a savage race
Behind the veil in the back of your mind
Your feet fall in an older place
Herding the women, the children, the spoils of war
This is what you have been longing for
This is the side of things you never knew before
These are the casualties you never saw
Look at her limping coz she can hardly walk
The red of the blood on her skirt is the only badge
The only medal that she’ll ever get from this war
Sepia

Mm – ahh – sepia, sepia, sepia

Here in my prison of skin and bone
I am a fitful flame
For just this one moment,
This lit link in the chain
From never to forever
Never to forever
Never to forever
Never to forever

sepia, sepia, sepia Racing your chariot, crashing your car
Older things move underneath you
But you don’t really feel them
So take my heart back to these older things
(Older things move underneath you)
The thrill of the hunt, beating the skins
Weathering winter painfully thin
Reading the sky, tasting the wind
Sepia…

Saying it’s gone doesn’t make it untrue
We are a savage race
If I find my birthright in the depths of the night
My feet fall in an older place
This is your heritage, yes this is what you are
Hunting your mammoth down, crashing your car
I can’t help laughing, it seems so bizarre
When I hear them say we’ve come so far
My heart still hungers for the power of ritual
Linked with the Earth and the sky and the waterfall
Linked to the danger that living is living for
To feel my blood run with the tide and her mentor
Sepia, sepia, sepia, sepia…

This is your heritage, yes this is what you are
This is what you have been longing for
I can’t help laughing, coz it seems to bizarre
I can’t help laughing, it seems so bizarre
When I hear them say we’ve come so far
Our goddess still breathes in her coffin of concrete
I hear her calling through the soles of my feet
I start to comprehend why we’re so incomplete
It’s too big for me
I’m stunned out of my grief
Sepia, sepia, sepia….

credits

from Archive Vol. 2: Songs from the Borderline 1989​-​1992, released July 1, 2005
Vocals, Guitar - Penelope Swales
Recorded at 3CR by Trish Anderson, January 1992

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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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