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Telling Canterbury Tales

from FREE ALBUM: Songs of Common Ground by Talis Kimberley

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I was surprised and disappointed to see that the Archbishop had nothing to say on the night-time clearing of the Occupy community from the land in front of his church's foremost cathedral. The good Revd Giles Fraser, who resigned last year over the matter, had plenty to say - he was there on the ground, hoping to offer support and comfort, but the police wouldn't let him through.

The camp is gone, with its beautiful, handmade, random collection of fixtures and people and developing traditions. That's not a tragedy, though I'm sad to see such an inspiring thing come to an end; this is just the beginning for the Occupy movement, and the church would do well to think of its roots and its mission and its own New Testament hero, and decide whether social justice and compassion are in fact, a good idea, or just a bit of an embarrassing phase it went through before it grew up to become the institution it is today.

lyrics

TELLING CANTERBURY TALES


Tell me, Archbishop, you’re comfortable here
Does the populace ever get frighteningly near?
Are your windows well-soundproofed so all you can hear
Is your voice, telling Canterbury tales...?
So tell me,
What’s the church for with its buildings and treasures?
For visits by those with the means and the leisure
To purchase a guidebook and stroll at their pleasure
While listening to Canterbury’s tales.

Didn’t your man say some things about the poor
Isn’t that what your faith is about, anymore?
Here’s a vast institution, what lies at the core?
Are you telling me Canterbury tales?

If the pilgrims rode past your cathedral today
And they wondered whose homes have been tidied away
Would you know? Would you care? Tell me, what would you say?
I’ve no faith in your Canterbury tales...

Go tell the Knight and the Franklin, the Monk and the Squire
Tell the Clerk and the Cook and the Reeve and the Friar
That compassion and hope have joined love on the pyre
There’s no justice in Canterbury tales.

St Thomas a Becket, St David of Kelly, we pray you forgive us our sins
Jean-Charles de Menezes, & Blessed Ian Tomlinson, when does the rising begin?
When does the rising begin?

Now the Archbishop’s writing a sermon on Lent
The Physician and Parson are riding to Kent
There was sanctuary once, I don’t know where that went
But it’s not in these Canterbury tales...

And the Man of Law’s busy, and the Miller’s downed tools
And the Merchant’s convinced that we’re everyone’s fools
And the Pardoner’s sorry... but these are the rules...
And they’re all telling Canterbury tales.

They’re telling us Canterbury tales
I’ve no faith in these Canterbury tales
We deserve better than Canterbury tales
I’ve had enough of these Canterbury tales!

__________________________________________

Words & music by & © Talis Kimberley 29th February 2012

credits

from FREE ALBUM: Songs of Common Ground, track released March 2, 2012
Talis Kimberley, with the Tascam, in the kitchen, on the blue Ovation.
Post-production by Mark Long.
Photo by Mike Whitaker.

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Talis Kimberley UK

"I'm a songwriter and singer; my songs are spun from folklore and history, stirred well with a hazel wand and served with cake. I'll sing you ravens and bones and the story behind the story, I'll sing you bread and apples, ghosts and knitting, and bring you home with a pocketful of feathers and hope"

Voice / guitar / English concertina

Festivals, folk clubs, libraries, museums, & protests...
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