Starting Again

Your father was always the rational kind
He followed the news he read all the science
There’s no room for more, no room to expand
Would you really give birth astride sinking sand?
For the world is a lung we barely breathe through
Why make a new life to pass it on to?
So I searched for a way to keep you a dream
One that lived in my heart and would never be seen

But you, my son, you broke through it all
Through every reason each side of the wall
You, my light, my hope at the end
You my son, my starting again
My starting again

Your father was always a practical man
The oceans are rising, the hole is expanding
I’ve seen what’s coming, the ash in the sky
He told me “My woman, we don’t have a right
You’ll never find a reason better than this
To keep your heart in a closed fist.”
So I searched for a meaning bigger than you
Tried telling myself the right to do

But you, my son, you broke through it all
Every reason each side of the wall
You, my light, my hope at the end
You my son, my starting again
My starting again
My starting again
My starting again

When you appeared
It was louder than sense
Stronger than life
Bigger than fear
Yeah when you appeared
It was fire and God and tears and oceans of light and suddenly hearing his heart loud and clear
Like he was starting again
Starting again, starting again, starting again, starting again
Yeah we were starting again, starting again, starting again
Your father was always the rational kind, till you arrived…

Written by Missy Higgins & Pip Norman
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / Mushroom Music Publishing

Cemetery

I believe I did everything I could
I believe I did everything by the book
I believe I did lose the fight, lose the fight

Cos it wasn’t enough to give you everything
Was not enough to let you deeply in
I ran through dark city streets to hold you through the night

But where’d you end up now
Do we even still live in the same town?
Do you ever think about that time
We snuck into the cemetery at night?
Oh where’d you end up, tell
Do you still have a hole your heart as well?
And do you ever think about that time
We snuck into the cemetery at night?

Get out, get out get out of my mind
Get out get out get out of my mind
I want to forget that night

Cos laying upon the dead with you
Laying upon the dead with you, my love
I’ve never felt so alive

I believe I gave everything I had
I believe I lost what you never gave back
I believe I did lose my mind, lose my mind

Cos it wasn’t enough to let you call the shots
Was not enough just letting you be lost
I fell through hell every time you disappeared, cos I loved you still

But where’d you end up now
Do we even still live in the same town?
Do you ever think about that time
We snuck into the cemetery at night?
Oh where’d you end up, tell
Do you still have a hole your heart as well?
And do you ever think about that time
We snuck into the cemetery at night?

Get out, get out get out of my mind
Get out get out get out of my mind
I want to forget that night

Cos laying upon the dead with you
Laying upon the dead with you, my love
I’ve never felt so alive

I’ve never felt so alive
I’ve never felt so alive
I’ve never felt so alive

Now all the scars have finally faded, I realise
Since then I’ve never felt so alive

Written by Missy Higgins, Pip Norman, Daniel Kyriakides & Steph Jones.
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / Mushroom Music Publishing / Big Deal Music / Disney Music Publishing

Futon Couch

I was sitting on a futon couch
In a far off town where the desert meets the sea
You were only wrapped in a towel when you walked out the spare room of my friend’s house
Oh I feel I’ve met you before
Something inside me is trying to remember a story
Oh I think I’ve loved you, I’ve loved you before
Something is tugging my sleeve like a secret whispered from the future

Maybe this is us now
Maybe this is us

Hey hey, wadda ya say
Wanna make history start today
Hey boy wadda ya say we jump from here?
Hey wadda ya thinking
Leaning against the kitchen sink
Cos I see everything now
Sitting on this futon couch
Sitting on this futon couch

You were never gonna leave that town
Where your friends always dropped by unannounced for tea
Oh and where the pain of the world was swallowed when the sunset wiped you clean
Oh I knew I’d heard it before
Nothing is changing till everything changes at once
Oh I knew I felt it right down to my core
Something was writing itself on the walls of our future hearts

Hey hey, wadda ya say
Wanna make history start today
Hey boy wadda ya say we jump from here?
Hey, know what I think you’ll be
Kissing me against the kitchen sink
Cos I see everything now
Sitting on this futon couch
Sitting on this futon couch

Cos I see water spilling over land
I see a frosted window and the prints of a small hand
I see the lights out, fingers intertwined
I see a cup thrown in silence and the breaking of the night
I see me walking towards you to the sound of Colin Hay
I see the earth split down the centre of our pain
But I see it’s worth it
Cos I see it all now

Sitting on this futon
Sitting on this futon
Sitting on this futon
Sitting on this futon

I’m on the edge
Sitting on the edge now

Written by Missy Higgins & Pip Norman
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / Mushroom Music Publishing

Red Moon

Years ago before the water came
Before our time was up
And we were washed away
You’d held me under a golden sun
And on the silken sand we walked in bare feet making plans

And I feel you now when the darkness comes
And the red moon rises every part of me wants to run
To wherever you are
To wherever you landed
But I don’t know where to start
I got a heart left stranded

Years ago long before the flood
before the levee came down
And we were pulled under
You’d kissed me under a floral arch
Promising to stay through both the easy and the hard
Those days have past

But I hear you now when the darkness comes
And the red moon rises every part of me wants to run
To wherever you are
To wherever you landed
But I don’t know where to start
I got a heart left stranded

Are you thinking of me too?
Are you thinking of that day
Your fingers slipped through mine
And you were pulled away?
Are we looking at the same sky?
Are you looking up too?
Are we looking at the same night?
At the same red moon?

At the same red moon…
At the same red moon…
At the same red moon…
At the same red moon…

Years ago when our hearts were dry
When the sea lay still
And the moon was white
I’d loved you

Written by Missy Higgins & Alex Hope
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / Sony/ATV Music Publishing Allegro (Australia) P/L

How Was I To Know

When the order came to dig the well
To crack the earth to pull the oil
To take the blood out from my mother’s veins
Well I broke the ground to feed the mouth
I did not here the warning sound
I could not put back in what I took out

How was I to know
How was I to know
I’d be a stepping stone
To the end
The end of everything
How was I to know

On the day I built a house so high
It’s antenna did scrape the sky
Well everyone applauded in my shadow
So my neighbour built a higher one
Then again his neighbour after him
Till racing through the clouds was all that mattered
Up and up the buildings went
Glass and stone and hard cement
Till all the green was left to die below

How was I to know
How was I to know
I’d be a stepping stone
To the end
The end of everything
The end of everything
How was I to know

Long ago I caught a pretty fish
Blue and silver and delicious
And I knew she’d line my pockets green
So I bought a bigger boat that had
A net to scrape the ocean and
I fished until one day that net was empty

How was I to know
How was I to know
I’d be a stepping stone
To the end
The end of everything
How was I to know

And how are we to now
Turn these stepping stones around
Back to everything that matters
Can that place even be found or is it lost
Forever

The end of everything
The end of everything
How was I to know?
How was I to know?

Written by Missy Higgins & Daniel Dodd Wilson
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / BMG Gold Songs/Songs Of Big Deal/Sugar Lake Music (ASCAP) administered by BMG Rights Management (US) LLC

Yesterday Must Die

The heart stops
The body lets go
The ground’s soft
Then the dirt’s thrown

An entrance
To a new world
In an instant
We’re in the circle

And something new and beautiful grows
But yesterday must die
Before tomorrow can be born

The last grasp
Is the strongest
Fingers clasped
All around it

The let go
Is the hardest
When you don’t know
What comes next

But something new and beautiful grows
Yesterday must die
Before tomorrow can be born

From the dirt comes
Something brand new
From the ground up
Let it build you

So when the ending
It breaks you
Let the sadness
Transform you

And something new and beautiful grows
But yesterday must die
Before tomorrow can be born

And something new and beautiful grows
But yesterday must die
Yesterday must die
Yesterday must die
Yesterday must die

Written by Missy Higgins, Butterfly Boucher & Cason Cooley
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / B2 G2 Music (BMI) / Look I Have Publishing (ASCAP)

The Difference

Am I gonna die, am I gonna live, or am I gonna sit on the edge of it
Am I gonna fall, am I gonna fight or am I watch from the outside
Sometimes I wake from the deepest sleep, oh and I feel tomorrow in me
Like I don’t wanna let the hand of yesterday hold me back

But everything I see, everything I watch, makes me wanna hold my ears till it stops
Makes me wanna run, makes me wanna hide, makes me wanna set this house alight

Oh but I remember my mother’s voice
Telling me that every day’s a choice
For where there’s good, there’s bad
But my child you always can

Be the difference
Be the difference
I know the world’s gone mad it’s true
(she said) be the difference
(you can) be the difference
cos I see a fighter locked in you

Be the difference
Be the difference
When hope is a hand you don’t wanna trust
(She said) be the difference
(you can) be the difference
Cos darling the future’s watching us

So am I gonna open everything up, am I gonna let fury fill my cup
Am I gonna be an anthem singing in the dark, gonna light up this burning heart
Am I gonna still as rock, while everything shakes and tumbles off
Am I gonna remember the truth

Cos I wanna be nasty, wanna be brave, not let his fear make me afraid
I don’t wanna pretend I’m too small to jump the wall
I’m just trying to remember her voice
Telling me that every day’s a choice
For where there’s good there’s bad
But my child you always can

Be the difference (be the difference)
Be the difference
I know the world’s gone mad it’s true
(she said) be the difference
(you can) be the difference
Cos I see a fighter locked in you

So you gotta fight it
You gotta resist
Every days a choice to light the dark

You gotta sing loud
You gotta shout out
Fear is not a choice but you can choose to be the difference

Be the difference
I know the world’s gone mad it’s true
(she said) be the difference
(you can) be the difference
Cos I see a fighter locked in you

Be the difference
Be the difference
When hope is a hand you don’t wanna trust
(She said) be the difference
(you can) be the difference
Cos darling the future’s watching…

Written by Missy Higgins & Pip Norman
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / Mushroom Music Publishing

Don’t Look Down

I can hear it getting closer
Feel the darkness in the wind
Hear the roaring of the thunder
As the sky falls in
Come inside and lock the windows
We’ll be safer in here
I’ll do everything I can
To keep you safe my dear

But if this is the end, this is the end
If this is the end, this is the end
Let it begin

And hold me
Like there’s no need to be scared
Like we never needed our bodies
Like we have a life to spare
Hold me like we never needed this town
Like the worlds not falling around us
And don’t look down
Don’t look down

I’ve been waiting for this moment
Tried everything I had
Begged a god I don’t believe in
To let us start over again
Cos we made mistakes I know it’s true
We put ourselves above the rest
But if we knew that it would bring us here
We’d never have made this mess

But if this is the end, this is the end
If this is the end, this is the end
Let it begin

And hold me
Like there’s no need to be scared
Like we never needed our bodies
Like we have a life to spare
Hold me like we never needed this town
Like the worlds not falling around us
And don’t look down
Don’t look down
Don’t look down

So let it begin
Let it arrive
Let it wash us from the earth
Let it erase us from time
Let it begin
Let it arrive
Let it arrive

And hold me
Like there’s no need to be scared
Like we never needed our bodies
Like we have a life to spare
Hold me like we never needed this town
Like the worlds not falling around us
But don’t look down

Written by Missy Higgins, Butterfly Boucher & Cason Cooley
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / Look I Have Publishing (ASCAP) / B2 G2 Music (BMI)

Hallucinate

All I got is questions, tethered to a string
All I got is questions flailing in the wind
It’s like I’ve been on the outside staring in
But I’ve been thrown into the ring now
And all I’ve got is questions
About what’s going on
Is this what it’s like to come undone?

Cos nothing feels certain
Nothing feels safe
now that I’ve woken and I’m face to face
With all that I ran from, all that I thought I’d escaped

Tell me the answer
Tell me the truth
When I looked into the future
And I saw a beautiful view
Did I hallucinate?

Cos all I got is questions no one seems to hear
All I got it questions swallowed out of fear
It’s like I’ve been on the outside now I’m here
But it’s more grey than it is clear
And all I got is questions, picking up their pace
Is this what it’s like to slowly break?

Cos nothing feels certain
Nothing feels safe
now that I’ve woken and I’m face to face
With all that I ran from, all that I thought I’d escaped

Tell me the answer
Tell me the truth
When I looked into the future
And I saw a beautiful view
Did I hallucinate??
Did I hallucinate??
Did I hallucinate??

Did I? Did I? Did I????

Written by Missy Higgins & Alex Hope
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / Sony/ATV Music Publishing Allegro (Australia) P/L

49 Candles

Another one down
Another life lost
Another night freedom comes at a cost

Another big story
Another headline
Another excuse for spinning more lies

But our voices, where do they go?
Calling out but nothing follows
All our voices where do they go, where do they go?
While 49 candles burn
in Orlando
in Orlando

Another new bullet
Another gun fired
Another mother is told her son has died

Another wall built
Another point made
Another excuse for living this way

And our voices, where do they go?
We’re shouting loud but the sound is swallowed
All our voices where do they go, where do they go?
While 49 candles burn
49 candles burn
While 49 candles burn
In Orlando
In Orlando

What’s it gonna take?
What’s it gonna take?
What’s it gonna take?

While 49 candles burn
You’re never the same as you once were
When 49 candles burn
In Orlando
In Orlando
49 candles burn
And 49 souls will not return
While 49 candles burn
In Orlando
In Orlando

Written by Missy Higgins & Daniel Parker
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / Big Deal Music

Strange Utopia

Street lights cutting circles in the night
And i’m wandering between them with my hooded coat pulled tight
Headphones on, breath like smoke
When everything is sleeping I am woke

Something happens when i’m out here alone
Some little piece of my old self comes home

It’s a strange utopia we have
How did we end up here?
It’s a strange utopia we have
Nobody tells you it’s not how it first appears

Walking over a strange utopia…

City lights illuminate a distant sky
Years ago we would’ve danced beneath them all night
But life arrives like a north wind
Pulling us from the clutches of the children we’d once been

But something happens when i’m out here alone and you’re sleeping
Some little piece of my old self joins me on the road

It’s a strange utopia we have
How did we end up here?
It’s a strange utopia we have
Nobody tells you it’s not how it first appears

How did we end up here?
It’s a strange utopia
Do you see the crack in the veneer?
How did we end up here?
A strange utopia
Nobody tells you it’s not how it first appears

Written by Missy Higgins, Pip Norman & Joel Ma
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / Mushroom Music Publishing / Mushroom Music Publishing

The Old Star

Touch down on the old star
Scan to the left, scan to the right
Little to report but dust and rubble
Little to report
Ash and ice

Report back from the old star
Scan to the east, scan to the west
Signs of struggle, human belief
They were not of nature
But elite
So sad

Tears for the old star
So sad
Tears, tears, tears
Tears for the old star
Tears
Tears for the old star
Tears for the old star

Last report from the old star
Scan to the north, scan to the south
Everything here was once perfection
Everything here destroyed by self
So sad
So sad

Tears, tears for the old star
Tears for the old star
Tears
Tears for the old star
Tears, tears, tears
Tears for the old star
Tears
So sad
Tears for the old star
Tears for the old star

Written by Missy Higgins & Butterfly Boucher
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / B2 G2 Music (BMI)

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