A Thousand Lives - The Herd

I grew up by the Great Western Highway on the train line

I used to count carriages of coal trains before I heard of

Cannonball and Coltrane, I was playing ball games

I’f go to sleep on Friday night, praying that it wouldn’t rain

Dad built a b-ball hoop then flew the coop

While us kids fought like troops and mum was the truth

I can’t believe I threw my sister through the front door

I learnt my lesson well before the triple 0 call

And on the tapedeck by brother had control

Getting schooled by him proper in the cold

Wenty falls, flannelette and skateboard, foggy wet weekends

Funny hour a four-litre cask makes you see friends

Parties at the park and drunk, tagging state rail

Smoke through empty cans of coke when all else failed

Wilin' out on muck up day, turned it into muck up night

Cause school didn’t seem to care if we were fuck ups right

We were blowing off steam, still not even 18

Floating somewhere down stream with a vague dream

If could change an hour, maybe I’d move a minute

However many lives I’ve had, I’m only just beginning

I learnt a few things along the way

Try to keep 'em front and centre with me every day

All the rest can and will for away

Hold tight who you love and let the rest fall away

Don’t look back hoping for the same

Cause from where I’ve come I’ve changed

(I don’t know) how to explain the hundred lives I’ve lived

And the thousand more I’ve craved

In my happy younger days I was a blank page in an empty book

I recal l that naive innocence of childhood

Never really was wind, more a quiet one

Grew into a shy teen that didn’t seem to smile much

Took off for South America at 17

Became a sudaco punk in skinny jeans

There I learned what passion, love, and friendship really means

Came home to a cold, cold world, that I couldn’t really feel

I was not the same, disappeared into a purple haze

Of weed smoke and drum & bass

Couldn’t seem to find my place

Then I did at Uni, fighting for causes

We reclaimed streets and taunted police forces

Had my heart broken so bad it left my head swimmin'

Proceeded to take it out on a few good women

Lived fast and reckless trying to outrun the sorrow

Like there was no tomorrow, but inside still hollow

Then the mic came and saved me, centre stage became a place

To vent my rage, cyphered and time and went for days

Staved off cynicism with wit and rhythm

A hundred lives and counting, a hundred to be written