STEPHEN LOMAS: Music

• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)
• MP3 play whole song, lo-fi (modem)

This is a demo recording... maybe I'll get to do something more interesting with it at a another time.
This one came together in '04 shortly before I returned to Australia. It was originally aimed at the Walmart Corporation in the US (hence the "red vest" reference) but on returning to my homeland I found it fitted right in as a critique on the governments' Industrial Relations reforms. Maybe I should change the color of the vest to green to meet the Australian standards.
Drop me an email... let me know what you think of this one.

The New Plantation
© Stephen Lomas 2004


I went down to the new plantation, I went with my hat in my hand
I was looking for a new situation I stood there before the man.
He said “Boy there’s a dark train comin’ you’d better set your business right.
At the end of the day it’s gonna carry you away just do your job, try to look contrite.”

And the sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home but now I’m standin’ in the shade.
I’m counting my blessings & counting these boxes that the children in China made.
There’re no shackles no chains still we’re bound here in bondage & sold down the river so cruel
If the gambler always winning it’s because he cheating, he’s the one who's making all the rules.

And brother did you see me
See me when I was waving back at you
I still hear the song we were singing
We were singin' 'bout the red white & blue
Every step felt like a journey
Dreams were written in stars across the sky
Now they’re faded in the street lamps
I can wonder why

I walked away from the new plantation I threw down my bright red vest
Felt I was living in a hallucination there’s a pounding in my chest.
My hopes & my dreams they scatter like the leaves, blown before the autumn wind
Day by day you can watch them fade away, they’re never coming back again.

And brother did you see me
See me when I was waving back at you
I still hear the song we were singing
We were singin' 'bout the red white & blue
Every step felt like a journey
Dreams were written in stars across the sky
Now they’re faded in the street lamps
I can wonder why