Living life right in the city, love this place tho times be gritty.
So many crims, too many victim.
Too many shops sellin one pound chicken.
Bradford city, Bradford grime.
Walking streets means spending time, with all people many equal
Many lost brothers with an urban shine
Shine be shady lost lights for days, walking through the valley of a permanent haze.
Clouds drifting from suits really smell like tango.
Different sweet smell from the hoods and mans though
Bimmer engine screaming after dark, racin through the city past city park.
Young soldier feelin it, fearless in rage.
Tomorrow’s lost soul, T&A front page
Problem shared be a problem split, problem child might end up slit.
Hand to arm wrist open out so to rest laid,
Another father gone repeat to fade, repeat to fade
Or take the pain out with chems and beer.
Sink another cheap whisky bottle here.
Or if that buzz don’t hop, Pay a visit to another magic phone shop
Hear the pain take it in so feelin it,
Pray to God that He might be healin it.
See the good in brothers light on be flickin
But there’s still too many shops selling one pound chicken
The title track from The Streets fourth album ‘Everything is Borrowed’ contains the wonderful repeated line ‘I came to this world with nothing and I leave with nothing but love.
Everything else is just borrowed’. Throughout the track there is a sense of the temporary nature of life and a call to make the most of the time we have. Unfortunately it would seem that Skinner is still to realise that this life is not all we have. There is certainly truth to be found in his assertion on memories but his ‘tomorrow’ fails to recognise the eternal tomorrow we claim as followers of Christ.
This is my hour, I’m never going to bed.
The sky is still black, but begs to be red.
I just put my book down, but it begs to be read
I’m not nod, I’m not napper, never rest my head.
Some days I feel I’m getting smaller and smaller,
But some nights, I seem to grow taller and taller.
And we keep shrinkin’ and shrinkin’ but this will not finish.
You’re never nothing, if you didn’t disappear.
Just when I discovered the meaning of life, they change it.
Just when I’m loving life, it seems to start raining.
I pulled the sail safe switch, sea sail and I’m into the stars.
I love the rain out my skies. The sky’s now red, my eyes reflect jets.
Smiling at this blessing, this life is the best.
I came to this world with nothing
And I leave with nothing but love
Everything else is just borrowed
I want to notice chances I’ve passed without notice
I want to see details previously veiled.
I want to grab that chance, carry it home
So I can marry and know
That I noticed every chance
That I could have passed without notice
I saw details that to all were veiled.
And I grabbed those chances, carried them home
And then I’ll have had it with roaming
I came to this world with nothing
And I leave with nothing but love
Everything else is just borrowed
I want to speak every cliche but tweak if i’ve seen change
In new way it could be said.
If it’s bleak, or if the week’s leaking down the street
Or if any days wasted I want to face facts.
My time on this earth is my only penny,
Wise is the gent counting every moment spent.
I don’t want to explain things, don’t wanna fill in the gaps,
I want to look at my friends and in that minute be at :
Memories are times we borrow
For spending tomorrow.
Memories are times we borrow
For spending tomorrow.
I came to this world with nothing
And I leave with nothing but love
Everything else is just borrowed
If spit like luck, you can only seem,
To borrow it, you can’t keep it.
When the wind of change whistles into play
Will I blink or flinch away?
The wind of change won’t whistle me away
If I spin my tails and sail.
And sail away, let yesterday become today.
I came to this world with nothing
And i leave with nothing but love
Everything else is just borrowed
As time will say, nothing but
Jenny from over at the My Bradford blog mentioned on Twitter that she’d been listening to Original Pirate Material by The Streets today and that, in turn, reminded me about some reflections I’d written during Lent last year. So, I thought I’d blog them over the next few days.
Each day I’ll post a link to a song, a bible story and a few words of reflection.
Please let me know if anything connects…
First off though some words of intro…
Mike Skinner and The Streets
The Streets were an English hip hop and UK garage project from Birmingham, England, led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner and has included several other contributors, most notably drummer Johnny Drum Machine, vocalist Kevin Mark Trail and vocalist Leo Ihenacho.
The project has released five studio albums: Original Pirate Material (2002), A Grand Don’t Come for Free (2004), The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (2006), Everything Is Borrowed (2008), Computers and Blues (2011), an internet-only album Cyberspace and Reds (2011) and a string of successful singles in the mid-2000s, including “Has It Come to This?”, “Dry Your Eyes”, “When You Wasn’t Famous” and “Prangin’ Out”.
Mixing a blend of hard hitting and humorous lyrics, The Streets have always followed a writing formula that speaks from the experience of the UK urban youth scene. From stories about meeting girls in clubs (and losing them) to the heart break of his fathers death, Skinner adds his own unique style of poetry causing simple every day actions to become moments of comfort or revelation.
This ‘everyday’ quality, I believe, elevates The Streets from a simple ‘secular’ band to artists who are able to connect with our most fundamental spiritual desires. After all, where are we more likely to experience Gods enduring presence than in the everyday cycle of his creation?
So I invite you to listen to/read the lyrics of the track I have chosen to accompany today’s theme and allow God to speak through it into your everyday existence.
Minister Me 