Get all 29 Phil ‘Swill’ Odgers releases available on Bandcamp and save 65%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Far Rockaway - The Songs of Phil Ochs, Christmas In Prison - Live From Swillville - December 2023, There But For Fortune, Questions, Answers & Songs, SWILL'S SURPRISE SESSION (JAN 20TH 2022), GHOSTS OF ROCK N ROLL, Folk at the Fortress, THE BEST OF SWILL'S SUNDAY SESSION VOLUME 2, and 21 more.
Excludes supporter-only releases.
1. |
||||
|
Drag U Down
(Lyrics: Phil Odgers)
Listen to these words son and they will do you well
Never worship money it'll drag you down to hell
It'll drag you down
Drag you down, down, down
Every single penny leads to misery
And wretchedness will be your fate, good times a memory
It'll drag you down
Drag you down, down, down
Moolah is the ruler of Hell
Mazuma will do you in as well
Boodle will be the end of you they yell
Every pound will pummel you right into the ground
Every dollar, yen and euro will only bring you down
It'll drag you down
Drag you down, down, down
It's clear that your salvation resides in poverty
I'm the one to save you, give it all to me
It'll drag you down
Drag you down, down, down
Moolah is the ruler of Hell
Mazuma will do you in as well
Boodle will be the end of you they yell
|
||||
2. |
Just A Dial Tone Away
04:08
|
|||
|
Just A Dial Tone Away
(Lyrics: Phil Odgers)
We all get times when things look grim
The current seems too strong to swim
And you feel like jumping in
And sinking like a stone
We all have times when things look bleak
Life feels hard and you feel weak
It's severe you're up the creek
Grab the dog and bone
Just give us a call and it won't be long
Before you start to dance to a different song
Don't sit there alone all day
Your friends are just a dial tone away
You see there's always someone there for you
To pick you up and care for you
And if you need someone to talk to
Just give a call
And if sometime you're feeling down
By hook or crook we'll turn it round
Fix you up or brush you down
We're there before you fall
Just give us a call and it won't be long
Before you start to dance to a different song
Don't sit there alone all day
Your friends are just a dial tone away
Don’t just sit there in the gloom
Let the sun light up the moon
If the music's sad we'll change the tune
Brush the cobwebs off the walls
Whatever 's wrong don't dwell on it
Be headstrong and don't submit
Let us know we'll help with it
In no time at all
Just give us a call and it won't be long
Before you start to dance to a different song
Don't sit there alone all day
Your friends are just a dial tone away
Don't sit there alone all day
Your friends are just a dial tone away
Dial tone away
|
||||
3. |
In The Breeze
03:56
|
|||
|
In the Breeze
(Lyrics: Paul Simmonds)
Well I said they’d fly the flags
When I came home to you
They’d blow the bugles and fire the guns
To re-unite us two
The TV and the papers
Are there as well
To show the faces of the boys
Back home from hell
I am in the breeze that flutters
I’m in the sun that burns
I’m in the rain that washes
I have returned
We’d come in on a special flight
Just me and all the guys
And the top brass would salute us
And you would dry your eyes
And through the gleaming caps and boots
I’d swagger through the sun
To hold you once again
Now the job was done
I am in the breeze that flutters
I’m in the sun that burns
I’m in the rain that washes
I have returned
I came in on a special flight
With no flags or guns or brass
And no cameras there to greet us
On that lonely rain soaked path
Darling, bury me in a quiet spot
Far from south Iraq
And on the stone just put ‘husband, dad
Who finally made it back’
I am in the breeze that flutters
I’m in the sun that burns
I’m in the rain that washes
I have returned
|
||||
4. |
Elvis Lives Here
03:22
|
|||
|
Elvis lives here
(Lyrics: Robb Johnson)
It’s a tired and tatty boozer
On the corner of the street
Where the tired and tattered losers
In life’s lottery like to meet
Other tired and tattered losers
For an evening of good cheer
And company anaesthetised
By ice cold lousy beer
Chorus
And if you’re feeling lonely
Everything will be all right
Elvis lives here
Every Friday night
Elvis lives here every Friday
And he hardly shows his age
On that faded piece of carpet
On that little corner stage
Where he throws his shapes to backing tapes
Of 40 something year old songs
While the 40 – 50 – 60 something
Year-olds sing along
(Chorus)
He'll give us Jailhouse Rock
We’ll be born again teenagers
He'll sing out In The Ghetto
And we’ll be there in Vegas
And He'll give us Heartbreak Hotel
And we will see that holy face and
We'll walk home through these dirty streets
With a little piece of Graceland
(Chorus)
|
||||
5. |
Missing
02:40
|
|||
|
Missing
(Lyrics: Paul Simmonds)
Did you hear about the girl
Who got lost one day
Looked in the mirror
She’d melted away
Disappeared from all the window panes
And never was seen again
Smiling from a photograph
Hiding a history with a laugh
But she hid it all too well
Can anyone help
Information required
Just an average girl
Looking average tired
Her eyes are blue
Or green or grey
Now it’s hard to remember the way she’s….
Smiling from a photograph
Hiding a history with a laugh
But she hid it all too well
Now she’s missing
And truth to tell
I’m missing her as well
That’s the way it goes
As friends pass by
Stop for a minute
You don’t know why
They go off somewhere
Following sparks
Now they’re lost in the dark
Smiling from a photograph
Hiding a history with a laugh
But she hid it all too well
Now she’s missing
And truth to tell
I’m missing her as well
|
||||
6. |
The Drinkers
03:03
|
|||
|
The Drinkers
(Lyrics: Paul Simmonds)
We're the drinkers, baby
And we better face it
If there is a party
We are bound to disgrace it
We're the drinkers baby
Pass the Mothers Ruin
And, you know
It’s going to do us in
Oh, low, low, low, low baby
Low, low, low, low we go
Through sink and plug and drain
To where the bitter streams flow
Going to hell is thirsty work
And rolling in the tide
With all the other wreckage
Is a thirsty, thirsty ride
If you could be my life raft baby
And I could be yours
Would we hold each other tightly?
Or pull down to the hidden shores?
Oh, low, low, low, low baby
Low, low, low, low we go
Through sink and plug and drain
To where the bitter streams flow
We're the drinkers, baby
And we better face it
If there is a party
We are bound to disgrace it
Shipwrecked in a short glass
Soon we’ll float away
And fade just like the ink
On the pages in the bay
Oh, low, low, low, low baby
Low, low, low, low we go
Through sink and plug and drain
To where the bitter streams flow
|
||||
7. |
Give Em Enough Hope
03:11
|
|||
8. |
World Of Discontent
03:40
|
|||
|
World of Discontent
(Lyrics: Phil Odgers)
In a world of discontent
Where you can barely pay the rent
There's an underling sense of pain
You look across a sodden ground
Try to step where it is sound
End up the muck and pouring rain
Oh for the shame
Who cares for you when the world goes wrong?
Who cares for you when the world goes wrong?
There's kids, mess and distress
Kitchenware your battledress
Famines, fights and floods are worlds away
There's promises, truth and lies
Hit you right between the eyes
Brother, sister, cousin have your say
Well blow me away
Who cares for you when the world goes wrong?
Who cares for you when the world goes wrong?
Who cares for you when the world goes wrong?
Who cares for you when the world goes wrong?
You sometimes think it's rough for you
Seems there's not enough for you
It's just easier to overlook
You only have to turn a page
See the pain and the rage.
Take a budget flight and a first hand look
It's an open book
Who cares for you when the world goes wrong?
Who cares for you when the world goes wrong?
Who cares for you when the world goes wrong?
Who cares for you when the world goes wrong?
|
||||
9. |
Shed Fire
02:47
|
|||
|
Shed Fire
(Music Phil. Odgers/ Lyrics Attila The Stockbroker)
From the Album 'Elvis Lives Here' – Swill and the Swaggerband on Irregular Records
A perfect English pageantry:
An act so gloriously mundane
New neighbours put up 8 foot fence
So strangers now will thus remain
As English as our small town press
Who'd like so much to dish the dirt
But headline uneventfulness:
'Local shed fire. No-one hurt.'
A cod war veteran complains
About some kids skateboarding by
The Daily Mail sells very well
And he and it see eye to eye.
The homeless sleep under the pier
But most round here don't seem to care
That's city life, another's news.
Shed fire, though. Police aware.
The poster shouts it, black and white
A headline story, that¹s for sure
And there's a pull out TV guide
For folk who rarely ask for more
And two, more lively than the rest,
Are chatting in the autumn sun.
Not in their back yard, thank god,
But shed fire. Little damage done.
|
||||
10. |
Deep Blue Sea
02:58
|
|||
|
Deep Blue Sea
(Lyrics: Phil Odgers)
Baby, let your spirit fly
Be crazy, live before you die
And maybe, that twinkle in your eyes
Will save me, now we're gonna fly across that
Deep blue sea
Deep blue sea
Deep blue sea
That deep blue sea
Baby, let your spirit roar
Be crazy, that's what life is for
And maybe, we're gonna open up that door
And you'll see, then we're gonna soar across that
Deep blue sea
Deep blue sea
Deep blue sea
That deep blue sea
Baby, let your spirit fly
Be crazy, you gotta live before you die
And maybe, that twinkle in your eyes
Will save me, then we're gonna fly across that
Deep blue sea
Deep blue sea
Deep blue sea
That deep blue sea
|
||||
11. |
Marjorie and Johnny
02:13
|
|||
|
Marjorie and Johnny
(Lyrics: Robb Johnson)
Now the parson came on horseback,
And the soldiers did as well,
They said I’d face the gallows
He said I’d burn in hell
The squire said it was blasphemy
My kids would starve to death
He didn’t like the lullaby
I sang beneath my breath
Who needs the high and mighty
In their stolen finery?
It’s Marjorie and Johnny
Who mean the world to me.
Now some preacher on his bicycle,
Came knocking at my door
Collecting all the old songs
Of the undeserving poor
About ploughboys and May mornings
And the Bonnie Light Horseman’s death
But he didn’t want the lullaby
I sang beneath my breath
Who needs the high and mighty
In their stolen finery?
It’s Marjorie and Johnny
Who mean the world to me.
Now there's pop stars on the TV
But the tales I have to tell
Music cops say it's not legal
Music shops say it don’t sell
It’s like punk rock never happened
And the kids are bored to death
But it’s still the same old lullaby
I sing beneath my breath
Who needs the high and mighty
In their stolen finery?
It’s Marjorie and Johnny
Who mean the world to me.
See-saw Marjorie Daw
Johnny shall have no master
We all shall have a minimum wage
and not have to work any faster.
|
||||
Phil ‘Swill’ Odgers London, UK
Phil ‘Swill’ Odgers is singer and a songwriter with legendary UK folk rebel rockers The Men They Couldn’t Hang. He is also a
solo artist in his own right.
Audiences around the world from Cairo to Reykjavik, Brisbane to Vancouver and Berlin to London have submitted to his effervescent and heartfelt vocal style in stadium, theatre, hall and after hours lock in.
... more
Phil ‘Swill’ Odgers recommends:
Ring The Blues EP
by The Men They Couldn't Hang
The 3rd in a rolling series of digital EP’s from The Men They Couldn't Hang! Track List: Ring The Blues One More Whiskey Ring The Blues Demo Telegram Sam All proceeds go to the TMTCH album fund.
go to album
Campfire Songs
by Naomi Bedford, Paul Simmonds and the Campfire Ensemble
Paul Simmonds from The Men They Couldn't Hang and his partner Naomi Bedford making modern and traditional folk music together
go to album
Australia's very own Mick Thomas - always a sure thing!
go to albumIf you like Elvis Lives Here, you may also like:
Shun Fame
by The Men They Couldn't Hang
supported by 89 fans who also own “Elvis Lives Here”
What a tribute, I haven’t the words to say how this group have been the soundtrack to my life, through good and bad. Anything that helps is the least I can do, missed dearly.
go to album
Broadway Melodies (A collection of B Sides and Unreleased Tracks
by The Men They Couldn't Hang
supported by 70 fans who also own “Elvis Lives Here”
Another great collection of tunes from the evergreen TMTCH, I'm sure a few will be rolled out over the course of next year's 40th anniversary celebrations. Great to hear Paul taking lead on a couple of tunes, Swill's songs as superb as ever and to round it off with Cush's most vitriol-filled song - and a stonewall classic at that - is just perfect.
go to album
The Edge of the Land
by Katie Spencer
Spencer's indie folk sophomore album was recorded live in the studio over the course of two days.
go to album
