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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes as a cd/dvd set in double jewel case with matching picture discs. Artwork features Penelope's "activist patch" coat with patches collected from activist campaigns all over the world that Penelope has played for and/or supported in 15 years of touring

    Includes unlimited streaming of Legacy: Two Decades of Topical Writing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      $35 AUD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1.75 AUD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Full Digital Discography

    11
    releases

    Get all 11 Penelope Swales releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Captains of Industry, Legacy: Two Decades of Topical Writing, Skin: Deep, Archive Vol. 2: Songs from the Borderline 1989-1992, Monkey Comfort, 'Archive': Demos, Out-takes and One-offs 1995-2000, Justifying your Longings to the Doctor, Homemade Wine, and 3 more. , and , .

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lyrics

Safe Home
© Penelope Swales 2001

Tired but excited
And happily complaining
About such a long flight
And our aches and pains
Some of us at the start
Some at the ending
Some of us safe home
Some at journey‘s beginning

“Please remain in your seats”
The Captain said
We rolled our eyes
And we shook our heads
The he told us the news
And somewhere at the baggage carousel
It begins to sink in
And we’d just left LA
When it happened

The rush to the phones
The rush to the screens
The footage, the carnage
The horror, the screams
To rush into your arms
In Sydney’s innocent sunshine
To realise just what safe home means
Just what safe home means

And here comes the anguish
Here come the pain
Here comes the firefighter
Losing their lives in vain
Despair wrestles hope
As the death toll grows
For who knows how many families
Who just forgot what safe home means
And it starts me realising

Tell me, how many people
In the Middle East
Have tasted this terror
Have felt this grief
How much “Collateral Damage”
Have these leaders condoned
Who now talk so righteously
Can you remind me what safe home means

And here comes the media,
Beating up the story
Here come the attacks on ethnic minorities
The same old hype,
The same old hypocrisy
No mention of lives lost
Because of US foreign policy
Do you know what safe home means?

World-wide, politicians cry "cowardice!"
So why are American lives so much more precious?
The same pain, the same incomprehension
Is felt by Afghan, Iraqi, Palestinian civilians
Do you know what "civilian" means?
Do you know what "civilian" means?

And the US bombs with impunity
With its high-tech planes
Suffers no casualties
So why is that so much less cowardly
Than this so bold
So cunning and so deadly?
Can you remind me what safe home means?

So the West gets a taste
Of it's own medicine
Does it bring comprehension,
Will it breed compassion?
Can we resist the payback compulsion?
Will we remember what safe home means?
Remember what safe home means?

And here comes the anger
What revenge will we see?
Here comes the cry
“An attack on Democracy!”
Here comes the man
Who didn't even get a majority
In his much-touted Land of the Free
Can you remind me what democracy means?

Yeah, here comes Bush
Bashing on the bible
Quoting the 23rd psalm, behold
He'd be better to read 'bout
David and Goliath
Or that bit about
How you reap what you sow
Do you know what safe home means?

The rush for the phones, the rush to the screens
The footage the carnage, the horror, the screams
To rush into your arms in Sydney’s innocent sunshine
And realise just what safe home means.
Just what safe home means

I'm just trying to say
Bear it in mind
This is how all people feel w
When bombs fall from the sky
Send your thoughts out
Out on the seas
To the crowded boats of refugees
Who only want what safe home means
Who only want what safe home means
They only want what safe home means
Do you know what safe home means - Oohhh--------

credits

from Legacy: Two Decades of Topical Writing, released July 1, 2010

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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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