Borrowed Ground lyricsOn Etched In Blue (1987) as a single (1987), Portrait - The Very Best of John Schumann (2002) and Gelignite Jack - The John Schumann Collection (2007)
Borrowed Ground (John Schumann) The wind out here’s like a cross-cut saw, the land is red and green The summer sun’s hanging in a pale blue sky, the air is sharp and clean There’s a frozen moment in waving grain, food for a hungry world But we can’t clothe ourselves with the cheque, we can barely feed ourselves… At night I lie awake and worry and the debts go round and round… Furrows in my night time forehead, And furrows on borrowed ground There’s and old galv shed with a laughing lean, it’s kept the tractor dry… I remember the day when we knocked it up with stringybark and fencing wire The earthen floor’s been beaten hard, where the rain hasn’t cut a path I’m frightened to look because I’m beaten too and the mice run through the chaff… And I lie on my bed, staring into the red and the overdraft won’t come down And it’s hard work keeping your family together, Living on borrowed ground And I don’t blame your brother, son, for moving into town It’s no place here for a bright young man, Living on borrowed ground. And I watch all the programs on the ABC, after the sun’s gone down… Lucy Broad’s talking on “Countrywide”, Talking about borrowed ground. We don’t own this place anymore and I don’t know how or why. There’s some money-men coming from Sydney who tell me it’s only a matter or time. Well, I hope they can read the seasons and they’re not here just to muck around… ‘Cause they’ve still got to feed a nation, They’ve got to feed them from borrowed ground. |
1980s Midday Show Live Performance
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