Fools Gold is sung from a gal down and out with love. Again we wanted to get the feeling of jamming around a fire so chose a pocket instrument section. Both Niall O'Carroll and Rob the Bones were virtuosic in playing the most rudimentary of instruments. We did try a wash-tub bass, and then a double bass, and brought a bottle of tequila to raise the gringo spirits out of three Wild West Cork people. With them we howled and stomped, smashed glasses and broke up chairs to follow the notion of a bar-room brawl. I remember Rik looking at me in all seriousness in the control room and saying "Fran, do you really want to promote drunkeness on your album?" Well it is not for this reason that you don't hear the bawdy version on Vela, it was simply that it was overstating the song. A lot of fun had 'though .......
lyrics
I've been living out of my skin lately
Boned dry, paper thin
I feel tough as rope on an old tree
Stretched by a once loved swing
I passed through these parched lands a pilgrim
Wagoning through wilderness for wealth
By the mud-cracking whip of a cruel sun
I bargained my spirit for its pelt
I've come to this ragged creek a week long
Searching with my sifting pan
Urging for more than the silver minnows
To be glinting in the silting sand
Oh this quest is fickle, I'm wading through the water
For a nugget not a nickle, someone to wade in too
But the joke is old 'cause this fools gold don't sparkle like it oughta
Tell me that love is true
My thoughts hit the ground like dust on a dim day
Like they're settling their debts with the floor
Well it may be clouds of madness or it may be clouds of sadness
Why they kick up with the boot heels in the brawls
'Cause many things are made of tin now
My trivet and my billy can
But its rarity that maketh a finer mineral
And taketh a pioneering man
Oh I've chased and gambled with my goldrush rambles
I've worked my weight in sweat I tell you this
There's many a road to travel and trail to unravel
But there's no such thing as get rich quick
Oh this quest is fickle, I'm wading through the water
For a nugget not a nickle, someone to wade in too
But the joke is old 'cause this fools gold don't sparkle like it oughta
Tell me that love is true
'Cause I feel tough as rope on an old tree
Stretched by a once loved swing
Just throw me a ride that is easy
'Cause I'm done with that goldrush thing
credits
from VelA,
released October 21, 2012
Francesca Baines: voice, banjo, sifting pan, playing cards
Rob "the bones" Coppard: bones, washboard
Niall O' Carroll: harmonica
Jeremy Baines: whistling
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