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Child of the Library

from Sheffield Made by Steel Songbirds

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about

This song is a protest at the ongoing closures of libraries by local councils.

It was prompted by the closure of the branch library at Bawtry, which writer Piers Cawley used to ride to every Saturday from Scrooby.

lyrics

9. Child of the Library
© Words: Piers and Gill Cawley (with additions by Emily Eastwood)
Music: Piers Cawley

CHORUS
I’m a child of the library, it made me who I am.
It taught me about freedom and the fellowship of man.
A sea of story waits for you inside the library door,
don’t say we can’t afford it anymore.

The library’s where I’ve made some friends I’ve known my whole life through
– The Walkers and the Blackats and the Pevenseys so true,
Magrat, Granny, Nanny Og, Galadrial the Fair,
the daughter of a pirate king, and Paddington the Bear

I’ve travelled south with Shackleton and all his gallant crew,
through the African interior that Mary Leakey knew.
I’ve rode the trackless prairies where the bison used to roam
and I’ve flown around the universe not half an hour from home.

And as I grew the library fed my curiosity.
All there for the asking, and all of it for free.
It’s there I found the stories I couldn’t find at home.
It’s there I found I was myself and not my mother’s clone.

So make friends with your library don’t let it fade away.
Teach your kids the library’s where they go on Saturdays.
Don’t let the bastards tell you they’ll cost too much to save,
whilst they’re shovelling our taxes down the hole that bankers made.

So make a stand for your library, stand up while you can.
Stand up for your freedom, stand for your fellow man.
Ignorance is never bliss, don’t close the library door,
for a library lost, is lost forever more.

credits

from Sheffield Made, released February 15, 2019
Words: Piers Cawley & Gill Cawley, with additions by Emily Eastwood
Music: Piers Cawley

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about

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Steel Songbirds Sheffield, UK

Steel Songbirds are Marilla Homes and Emily Eastwood. A comic and poignant musical duo based in Sheffield UK. Blending acapella voices, with occasional fiddle or bouzouki, these girls know how to laugh!

Steel Songbirds were dug from the soil of Australia & England, forged in Sheffield UK, tempered in the swimming pool of life & sharpened on the wit of singledom in the folk/pub/archaeology worlds. ... more

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