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The Power Behind The Throne

by Blyth Power

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD in a digipack with lyric booklet, with artwork by Aubrey Beardsley.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Power Behind The Throne via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 14 Blyth Power releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Going Down With Alice, Red Wedding, The Power Behind The Throne, Women and Horses, Power and War, Land Sea & Sky, Fall Of Iron, On The Viking Station, The Bricklayer's Arms, and 6 more. , and , .

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1.
Satiromastix 05:27
Ixion spins and Athena scores Now the bull from the sea has come back from the wars She’s taking a turn around Jericho’s walls Looking down on her besiegers She said you’ve been banished he asked her what for She said you’re a thief and he said you’re a whore When she said ‘that’s subjective and it comes to us all’ He was inclined to misbelieve her As the marks on the masonry fade out and fail The dead men departing bid fondly farewell And Acropolis crumbles she’s painting her nails So on I’ll go, now I don’t want to leave her City of God thy bonds will be free Once Lysistrata throws you the key But I’m changing my spots and I’m crossing the sea And I groped for the door and it opened for me Sunrise in the morning and I’m fresh out of words She’s been lighting the pyre I’ve been writing her verse I’ve been kissed by the muse but she hit on me first So on I’ll go and I’ll try my best to please her Stripped of his majesty bartered and sold The King came North on the London road We watched as his garrison plundered and stole Resigned to the procedure They took all we offered they took all we owned They found what we’d hidden they kept what we’d loaned And his blessing upon us though freely bestowed Didn’t help to make things easier So we suffered in silence biding our time Through the tolls and the tariffs the levies and fines Because what’s yours will be yours and what’s mine will be mine But what is Caesar’s due we’ll gladly give to Caesar City of God on a flood tide bore With the tears and the smears and the fear of the Fall And the cleansing fire of that terrible sword And its curse were dispersed and defied and ignored Sunrise in the morning I’ve nothing to lose I’ve been writing inspired by her striking the fuse There’s a deal on the table that I cannot refuse So on I’ll go embattled and beleaguered Flower of England as Queen of the May Came back to the stage in a West End play You picked her up out along Memory Lane Put her in a cauldron boil and drain But don’t fall asleep on the job don’t let it burn dry again The Devil finds work for idle men Oh no sir I have the matter in hand And I know how hard to pull the lever Now Ixion’s pinned and Athena’s abroad The bull from the sea went and fell on his sword The girl in the photograph’s vanity’s cured And we’re proud of her demeanour The marks on the masonry had nothing to tell The clock on the church chimed the quarter bell As the King on his donkey rode back down to Hell For all I know … City of God thy bonds will be free We’ve come to live and to reign in thee Still stands the church clock at ten to three And the cat’s in the kitchen so he can’t catch me Sunrise in the morning as high as it goes I’ve been planting in rhyme I’ve been ploughing in prose With my ring on her finger the spell on me grows So on I’ll go although I’m an unbeliever
2.
Mosley or slump Mosley or slump Chaos needs occupation stop the rot and man the pumps Mosley or slump a face upon the screen Brownshirts on the newsreels and in Time and Lifestyle magazines Now marching off to war in a midnight mass parade A pale impersonation of another man’s crusade To torchlight bearer’s song and Mitford sisters’ sighs But there is no strength in Unity just madness in her eyes Mosley or slump the writing’s on the wall Your revolution’s over now there’s nothing Left at all Your effort was in vain your vision strange but true But the people you believed in never once believed in you But strode another path their benedictions gave By dreams of wealth of leisure and celebrity betrayed And their hands upon the cross by debt and mortgage nailed Were taxed then with a lottery that paid for Sadlers Wells Mosley or slump freedom of choice It’s the popular vote for the popular voice Mosley or slump and the people will see Come swiftly make history come strictly come dancing with me Mosley or slump as expectation fades And English towns and villages become English everglades Where pitbull passions thrive and aspirations rot Where life is beer and football because life without is not A charter then enshrined for electoral respite In a pact of xenophobia to guarantee the Right In a melting pot of greed of ignorance and vice That heeds no politicians if they cannot dance on ice Mosley or slump to bleed or to bruise Which side of the bed are you going to choose? Mosley or slump terror or pain Did you sharpen the knife before you opened the vein? Mosley or slump ride me to ruin I don’t know what I want I don’t know what I’m doing Mosley or slump see I know how it looks But I was only warming my hands while they were burning the books
3.
Timelines 05:18
Strike mission flown white-winged Pegasus turns for home Target marked as Recon roans engage and intercept you Lancing on air harridan fast in a mountain lair Serpent-tongued with snakes for hair to armour and protect you From love under will shock awe terror by smoke concealed Broke convention turned your spears and petrified I left you Black Hawk come in on the radio CASEVAC ready to go See men down and see men drown And leave the dead for the crows Centuries had passed Minos toppled to dust and ash White-winged Pegasus out to grass finds time for introspection Through slack-water days in our cool grey city not far away With time to sleep and time to play sometimes for self-deception Black Hawk come in on the radio Battery light is low With a song to spare but the dead won’t care And an epitaph ready to go Now time standing still with time in hand has time to kill Casts no long shadows on distant fields where in centuries past I fought you And I tried everywhere but the bridges we’d burned were beyond repair So I kicked and I bit and I pulled your hair til I’d no one left to talk to So in time back again by steamship clipper and diesel train Old and no wiser I homeward came and like a sickness I have caught you Timeline All the time Time lies
4.
The desert wind a dry Sirocco Was blowing hard across the coastal plain from Egypt to Morocco Fortunes turned we ran away Backwards to the delta to retreat in disarray We lost Tobruk we lost Gazala Because we’d nothing that could penetrate their heavy frontal armour Outperformed and undergunned We could only keep on running til we’d nowhere left to run They used the ground and the wide open spaces They turned their anti-aircraft guns around and shot them in our faces So we learned this bitter lesson That valour is the biggest indiscretion Then word came through a new commander Had been sent to shake things up again by General Alexander I knew the name and one hears rumours And then I met a chap who’d served with him on Army Group manoeuvres He said ‘He’s hard obsessed with winning Doesn’t gamble drink or smoke and that he’s terrified of women’ And his ears stuck out like a pair of handles As if to stop his hat from slipping with their perpendicular angles And his knees were white as lilies There was nothing to suggest he was a modern day Achilles But when he spoke it lit a fire And suddenly we’d found a new messiah In good old Monty thanks for victory For the footnote we played in history For his platitudes and his propriety And all the joy we found in his society For our place at the hinge of destiny For the goal and the opportunity To lay our bones here for all eternity Let this song then our valediction be At Alamein he took a chance We dug in along the ridge and there we halted their advance Low on fuel and low on water Their shipping interdicted by our bombers out of Malta And the Fox became the quarry As we piled it on in General Grants and General Motors lorries Then came Torch and Patton landed And suddenly the struggle was no longer even handed And their rout became a scramble As they were caught between the hammer and the anvil In defeat he was unbeatable But in victory the dish became uneatable But he was our mage he was our Merlin Although he ballsed up Market Garden and he never captured Berlin We loved his style we loved his tricks We loved the way he didn’t dwell too long on casualty lists We loved the man we loved the hour And his expression of impatience when he talked to Eisenhower But he was no saint, he was no god And it was ordinary soldiers in whose giant steps he trod So when you dwell upon his name Don’t forget the rest who died along the way
5.
Seven long hot summers passed As seven rolling vistas Seven prides for seven kings And seven sleeping sisters 73 to Newington Green Dalston Junction in between Clapton Canonbury Camden Town Homerton Hoxton and Hackney Downs Given the dream I’ve been living in seems such a surreal world I was hoping that I’d never have to get out and live in the real world Back to back living day to day In the love of the common people Who we never quite trust as they hate our guts Because the papers say we’re evil Nosey neighbours keeping watch Nervous twitch as you change the lock Safe as houses safe in bed All fall down with an eighth of Leb Charity chips and living in skips exciting Cigarette butts on the tube train floor inviting So what’s your occupation? What’s your name? What are your aspirations? High Court Judge Crown Prince Prime Minister? Where’s your indignation? Where’s your shame? Status flag and nation? Three white doves on a black bend sinister Hither page come stand by me And if thou know’st it telling Yonder peasant who is he On the overground from Welwyn He’s the Prince of Peace my liege Of iambic verse and minor keys Bard of Hertford come to reign Southbound platform Moorgate train So the unfathomable soul of punk with his carrier bags and flares Opens a night of three chord thrash to a room that’s not prepared Travellers want to use my bath And can they run a wire To hook up the truck til winter’s past Smoking round the fire They’re telling me how I should live on the road Get off my back and dump my load City living’s not for me As they shit in my toilet drink my tea They’re telling me how they fought with the pigs at the Beanfield Telling me I need to get out and go walk in the green fields I’ve got 5-4-3-2-1 Eastbound train on a Broad Street run Worked empty stock from Croxley Green In Richmond, Twickenham, Kew and Sheen They spectral dance before the dawn Mushroom-picking on rich men’s lawns B4 headcode Platform 5 Unlocked and loaded, third rail live We’ll watch the workers coming home As westwards wend their weary bones As we race against the tidal flow Through Willesden Junction Camden Road Signal failures, points and delays Sign on the wall says have an awayday Bands in the park for anarchist May Day Every second Thursday is going to be a pay day So signing day comes round again I’m bleary-eyed and yawning Booth 3b at 9am And I sleepwalk through the morning Claims and papers signs and forms UB40 roached and torn Personal Issue and a bulletproof screen Scented Giro pink and green ‘I am an angry passionate soul crying out in this tortured mediocrity’ Head up my arse looking back down the hole is my accommodation with your bureaucracy
6.
Grantchester 06:46
Just now the skylarks have come home to roost The twilight quiet and midge-diffused Backfilled with shadows emblazes the sky With sunset low and contrails high With the fading close of play inbound Airliners pierce sporadic clouds Through pink into gold and empurpling blue And the chemtrail theorists’ poisons strew Still tethered the neighbours’ unfed dog At night’s fall choirs its monologue April’s failures still ungroomed Retiring shy have yet to bloom But heads unbowed incline to sleep As the ink across the garden creeps Bats unleashed with sightless cries On cabbage moths and silver-Ys In vectors dance on slippered wings And there are countless country garden things In the heavens. The North Star is duly logged While the grass below is still waterlogged If I could afford it I’d get on a train And I’d ride up and down the depleted remains Of the lines I remember through towns I once knew Defeated dismembered divided in two Memories threaten slow frames pass Steam heat high in second class Empty stations amber lights From the Citadel Northbound overnight We’d measure each passing mile and chain Then southbound change ride back again Public relations designed to confuse Mix bright-eyed lies with half-veiled truths Service and quality are watchwords today Saying ‘we’re giving you less and you’ll have more to pay’ Merchant princes come and go Leaving footprints cast in glass and stone Market forces yet prevail Divisive, sly, and unassailed And clever. We smile as we hold the door Nor bite the hand we’re working for So here we sit a race apart And we’ve no one to blame but our foolish hearts We sold the ox and plucked the rose And now we’ve nothing to show but the Emperor’s clothes Faithful nation set in pawn By toothless lions and unicorns Land of grocers windows dressed Where Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori is still in store And God knows not worth fighting for In England’s green and pleasant land Cap the arch gold plate our chains Watch the money go tumbling down the drain In England’s green and pleasant land So we’ll get what we’re given, we’ll take what they say Then we’ll clean up the mess at the end of the day The bindweed and ivy old bicycle frames And all that baggage and trash that you won’t throw away But in this garden I made for you It’s still summer 1972 The cat’s asleep the harvest’s in So we can sit here and watch the spiders spin Forever. The first birds waking calls Find none astir on England’s shores Lord of the Flies has left the stage Lined with pyramids raised on the minimum wage In England’s green and pleasant land
7.
Tousled witless sleep-benumbed Midnight whistles at my door Nightjar bids me wake and come Leads me up to Carterhaugh I fetched my pony from the yard Hitched my skirts above the knee Set off northwards riding hard To watch the Hallows witan meet By unbroken paths we strayed By matted bracken blackened bark To the coven’s hidden glade In the tractless forest dark To keep my silence watch and hide And see the Devil take his tithe Seven years my love has gone Seven years in silence passed Were seven years a widow scorned To see him standing there at last And to the Devil make his bow And to Titania on her throne A lover’s kiss upon the brow I saw his armour white as bone I saw her hand upon his thigh I heard the whisper in the trees I saw the triumph in her eyes And all the fairies on their knees I knew she’d played him for a fool And to the Devil paid her due Stepped from my hiding place revealed Notched an arrow found its mark Beneath the rising breasts concealed Where one presumed she had a heart Fairies twittered at my feet But steady-eyed she raised a hand And in acceptance not defeat Girl she said I understand But I would remind that you are a changeling Into this transient world of pain But you seek another country With Titania there to reign Disenchanted charming wild You are my once begotten child Deathly silence filled the air Expectant seconds gathered pace My actions caught her unawares Transfixed the smile upon her face I’d learned of love I’d learned to care Of faith of charity and hope But as the white knight stood and stared I put an arrow through his throat And though the Devil tried to curse me I shot him bleeding as he fell Cut him down and showed no mercy I sent him spinning back to Hell I felt the power within me soar And the fairies’ shock and awe Now her enchantment has been broken With all her edicts and decrees And her spells as if they never had been spoken And all the fairies will be free
8.
In this land of kings Of saints and heroes we speak and sing If we make up our minds we can do anything We lay our hand we play our spin Kicking open any door that won’t let us in By dice commanded we creep and sting But God who in his wisdom gave the sparrow wings Made oceans rise and the compass swing To show What we need what we fear how to steer through the ice floes It was a long time ago Late September and summer showing Rust on the branches and the stubble mown By Greenland geese skeins overflown When into this scheme of things By lancers banners and riders ringed Comes St George playing the Dragon off against everything Neighbours friends and next of kin Is that his badge that I see you wearing on your sleeve? Will you hand him manna? Remain or leave? Do you believe what you see or only see what you believe? And will you bend the knee? No that’s no barrier no There isn’t any time any place anywhere that we won’t go Make us bright as silver Make us good as gold And when the martyrs and the madmen Make our blood run cold Make us warm as summer roses Soft as summer rain And so let us remain So let the Dragon take St George Let her plunge the life from him, break his sword Crack open his armour and eat him bloody raw Expend his armies, blunt his force And when she’s battered down the Queen of the day And her grand stone palaces blown away Harrowing over the rubble let her fury play Nor stone unturned nor trace remain Then let her take to her wings and rise To where God is hiding behind the sky Naked and foolish in his human guise To cleanse and burn and cauterise And so We can see what we need now we know what we don’t know Look out below Listen out for the morning watch for the warning crow
9.
Sweet green the valley in the deepest slumber lies All around the eaves the swallows and the martins stoop and fly And all along the riverbank the old dog otters lie And watch the muddy waters slowly trickle by My father called me over to his library by and by Disdainful was his summons and in bleak distemper I Put on my winning smile and donned a callow guise To dazzle him to charm and to paralyse My father as blood stock was bartering me Like flies around me thick they crawled so willing and so keen And soon a suitor had accepted had a price for me agreed And all his blessings gave the blushing bride to be Great vapours then affecting oh I weeping swore While trying hard not to stamp upon the library floor I said I'll marry him for love and for nothing more Nor your money take nor honour pawn This looks just like my daughter then my father cried This mad gorgon all dressed up here as a Lammas bride But deep birchwoods of cunning all within you lie Deep malice and ill manners hide Then my mantle I ripped and my bodice tore Rare vases I smashed as I slammed the door Great man-eating leopards deep within me roared And with hammers smashing smote the manor walls So how much will you pay me and when To bite back my laughter and promise me forever and amen To honour me obey me and together all our wedding night to spend To have and hold and then give back again But I'll manage I'll marry my word I gave And I'll hound the poor fool deep into an early grave With grief his bedfellow and courtesan made Unwilling there together laid So how much will you pay me and when To drag my white body bag down to the altar wrapped in chains Where you’ll slip the ring over my finger and I’ll promise once again To have and hold and to throw away
10.
Katherine 05:43
It’s been a year or so I would say The second week in May Lambs were out in the green fields The children down in the courtyard played There were guests in the hall to stay For a neighbourhood wedding on the following day I went for a walk to the clean moors And slowly strolling bent my way Seeing through the eyes of God I sunlit lands uplifted trod Friend to the fox and the hare And all of broad creation there Everything happening at last Faith restored and winter past But I sang from a heart of brass Like a man who’s come in from the cold too fast Then a jackdaw spoke up from a tree ‘I’m sick of the sound of your voice’ said he Your love is in trust neither fool nor free And a love to be fought not won must be Her kiss is the price of your ruin Her tongue and her touch your bleak undoing So he leaped from the branch with an angry cry To dwindle south in the hot blue sky Katherine I pray Now that you’ve found me how long will you stay Nightfall offered no clue As the bats embattled in the twilight flew We sat and we talked or serene in thought Watched as deepening shadows drew Shards on the silver lawn And a pale moon rose as the night wore on But the Devil knows what between arose And advanced before the dawn came on Morning rose confused With life at a slant and the light askew The dogs were scared but the cats just stared And the cockerel would not do The rookery silent froze As I puzzling paused to greet the crows The frogs sat fast in the millpond For reasons undisclosed So hey how does this find you? What did you do? What did they make you say? What could they prove? How did they make you stay? What did they say they would take away from you? That it would make you pay Make you rue the day You tried to break away So now a year’s gone down the drain The grass is slick and wet with the rain But the crops can rot in the fields As the wheels get stuck in the ruts in the lane And Katherine’s arms displayed In a crude tattoo on my red flesh flayed Says ‘thanks for all the dreams boy And thanks for the mess you made’
11.
Broadlands 04:38
Feel the lapse of hours pass time has betrayed me Flower-lulled in sleepy grass cocooned like a baby Memories come back to me and frequently amaze me Of all the things I could have done had I not been so lazy Born and raised in the mystic vale and Norfolk’s wet polders Where the broccoli stems and the curly Kale by the wild wind’s blown over We have no friends and we have no fun as we just get angrier and older Doubled down beneath the weight of the chips on our shoulder We styled ourselves as gentlemen we were spotless and stainless But in the gambling halls and drinking dens our conduct was shameless We had apes for friends and ginger gentlemen who shall remain nameless And oh The Sun will shy us down when we become famous We travelled far we travelled wide and sampled every flavour From Poland cold to the rolling plains of Saxony and Westphalia Where side by side to the coalface hired we rented out our labour And we've had seasons in the sun that we've not been paid for We won't rise for the morning cock We won't rise when it's cold We won't rise when the fire guard warns fire down below We won't rise before the sun is up We won't rise before noon We won't rise when the warning cries Of the siren sounds too soon But where have all our summers blown now the days have grown shorter Ambitions to the winds have flown but their wings have all faltered And fortune free gave back to me the plain gold ring I bought her With all the bread and fishes gone and the wine turned to water
12.
A cold moon disguised as Mercury rising in Venus Divided we stand just a line upon the sand drawn between us As the end of the story foretold Soft she on moth-wings serene interceding With Lichtenstein beam paints a face upon the screen now receding And there at the end of the road All her mete words and kindness unfold Pawns threaten kings centre game begins the proceedings Knights countermand, Bishop wrings his hands disbelieving And with Rook Queen and Castles in tow It’s into the Endgame we go Will we still be friends when you’ve turned me to stone Will we last forever all time or will bitterness show In the cracks in the facings the track marks and holes Rats in the basement and the paths we once rode Spiralling round into the valley down below Marching skyward banners raised By hands invisible the gentle and the brave Beside their silent sisters prayed Cut to action as the song began to fade I rang the bell and ran away Now I’ll live to fight another day And I’m armed, damned, time out of hand hasn’t cured me As the recollections fade let that Watergate parade pass before me And lead me backward in anger and so I wonder will I ever know And when you’ve turned me to stone When I’m crumbled into dust and overthrown Will your cover then be blown Or will you still be the power behind the throne

about

Blyth Power on this recording are:
Ben Bailey - Bass
Annie Hatcher - Keyboards / Vocals
Jak - Guitar
Joseph Porter - Vocals / Drums

credits

released June 7, 2023

Recorded at Brighton Road Studios, engineered and produced by Ali Gavan. Songs by Joseph Porter, arranged by Blyth Power. Cello by Tom Bailey, violin by Harry Able. Sleeve artwork by Aubrey Beardsley.

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Blyth Power UK

Since 1984 Blyth Power have been playing and recording original music, which although regarded by many as fitting into the folk rock catergory goes so much further. Based around the lyrics of songwriter Joseph Porter, the band's sound is unique, and there is an atmosphere to Blyth Power that adds a depth to the music, and makes them more than just another pop group. ... more

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