We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £1 GBP  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Artwork by Little Boy Black, comes with sleeve notes in a cardboard centre folded case.

    Includes unlimited streaming of A Carousel for Fools via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      £10 GBP or more 

     

about

An Italian politician remarked recently that he would no longer be eating fish caught in the Mediterranean Sea because those fish were growing fat on the corpses of drowned refugees. Like most people, we don’t know how or when this humanitarian crisis will end but we do know that, month on month, thousands of starving, dispossessed and persecuted people are drowning in the Med as they attempt to escape famine, disease and civil-war in their homelands. Meanwhile our government (amongst others) refuses to support these refugees and even pressurises other governments to stop their rescue missions. Can we, as a ‘civilised society’ stand by and do nothing? Like the song says – “Could you watch them drown?”. The song itself presents two alternative and polarised points of view which are prevalent on the streets of the UK today.

lyrics

You say –
How can we abandon them to their fate?
Women and children in a parlous state,
A tidal wave of suffering and its coming our way
There but by the grace of god - m'aide
You say.

And what do they have that’s worth staying for?
Famine and pestilence and Civil War
So they’re pinning their hopes on a distant shore
And the luck of the draw

They’re all sailing for Sicily bound
One in one hundred lands on holy ground.
Watching on helpless as their boats go down,
could you watch them drown?

You say - Turn them all away!
Only because they will be saved do they come
Each to their own – look after number one
Why should we share our wealth with those who create none
And look at the numbers – look at what you’ve done
You say

And packed to the gunnels - fore and aft
A flotilla of flimsy, unseaworthy craft
Full of Libyans, Somalians and Syrians,
With their lives in our hands

They’re all sailing for Sicily bound
One in one hundred lands on holy ground.
Watching on helpless as their boats go down,
would you watch them drown?

And drowning’s not the only way to lose your life
There’s the fumes in the hold, there’s the point of a knife
Scafisti deal death at an all-in price
Of a thousand euros one way

All sailing for Sicily bound
One in one hundred lands on holy ground
Watching on helpless as their boats go down
Could you watch them drown?

They’re all sailing for Sicily bound
One in one hundred lands on holy ground
Watching on helpless as their boats goes down
Could you watch her drown?

all sailing for Sicily bound
One in one hundred lands on holy ground
Watching on helpless as their boats go down
Shall we watch them drown?
as their boats go down
as the boat goes down

credits

from A Carousel for Fools, released June 21, 2015
written by Mather & Robinson

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Mather Robinson Band image

The Mather Robinson Band Salford, UK

Dave Mather and Pete Robinson grew up together in the north of England in the nineteen sixties and have been writing and performing music individually and as a team ever since. From Opera to rock to pop and now back to their roots in folk music. Mather & Robinson entertain audiences in the north west of England but if you ask them - they will hummmm. ... more

contact / help

Contact The Mather Robinson Band

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Report this track or account

If you like The Mather Robinson Band, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now