Tumbling Ground by The Black Peppercorns (Full lyrics)

In 1995, Christian singer, Kevin Prosch and his band 'The Black Peppercorns' released an album called 'Tumbling ground.'

Most people that have heard this album have been greatly moved by the amamzing lyrics that explore emtions, loss and loneliness.

My cassette version of this album soon broke and so Ibegan the search for a CD version in 2005. Everywhere seemed to list the title as out of stock. I eventually tracked the CD down to a small shop in Estonia.

I then looked up the lyrics on the web. But instead of finding the lyrics listed anywhere all I came across was endless posts in newsgroups by people who were also looking for the lyrics to Tumbling ground. Even Kevin Prosch's official site does not list them. I contacted the site but received no reply.

So, there was nothing else for it, headphones on, load up the CD in iTunes and start transcribing.

This is a work in progress. All lyrics below are copyright Kevin Prosch an dteh Back Peppercorns. I merely provide these lyrics below as they seem to exist nowhere else. This is by no means a finished piece and if you can fill any of the gaps or correct anything I have misheard then please do get in touch.

Many thanks to Simon Viklund, Simon Hubbard, Brian Lawsonfor their contributions.

 

Black Peppercorns

Tumbling Ground

 

01 Please

Please don't leave
Whisper some peace to me
I weep
Please don't go
Give me some hope today
Have you ever been alone all by yourself
Even when someone else is near you
Sometimes they seem so far away
And nothing can comfort you
No nothing
Dear God make me a bird today
So maybe I could fly away
From all this pain that fathered me
I feel like an old man and I'm still under age
Yeah the rags of my heart are silently bleeding
Like loons crying, the sound is eerie
Like slaves longing to be shaded
The lamp is bright but the metal is faded
I know that sometimes you win
But most of the time I get this feeling that I'm losing
And the cruel, cruel lessons of loneliness
I believe this must be my portion in life
If there really is a hereafter and after all
Maybe a moment of grace could bring the gates of heaven near
I wish someone could tell me, have I wept these tears in vain?
But even then there's this loneliness
This loneliness
So please don't leave
Be kind to me
Please
I weep
And please don't leave, believe in me
Please
Feel like I'm swinging to and fro
Like a pendulum or a metronome
If you swing too close to the edge you know
They say that usually you will swing alone
Swing alone, yeah
Dear God make me a leaf today
Because deep inside there's so much pain
So maybe I could float away
While the wind is old and still at play
Put your wisdom and pride down and feel
It's an old cliche be brave and bold
When you step out onto the plank
You've got to forget about how much weight it holds
I know that sometimes you win
But most of the time I get this feeling that I'm losing
And the cruel, cruel lessons of loneliness
I believe this must be my portion in life
Why is it taking me so long to find love
They all wanna know
Have I been completely healed
But the chains are still attached
They lie rusted on the floor
Still enslaved to this loneliness
This loneliness
Is anybody out there at all that understand the pain?
This loneliness gets in your mind
Almost makes you feel insane
Feel insane
Madness
It makes you feel insane
Can hardly think on the inside
Is there anybody, anybody out there at all?
Anbody, anybody?
Yea-ea-ea-ah
Anybody, anybody, anybody.

02 she walks in beauty

She walks in beauty
You should see her beauty
She glides across the kitchen floor
She don't talk much, she's a golden vessel
Why do most men kill the thing they love?
Oh and the way she loves, she has lips that should be kissed
And a smile on her face that makes you wonder what she's up to
Hair not quite ready like an angel's hair
Like a bouquet of rubies her hair would lay around her face
Yes it would
She walks in beauty, this is beauty
Her eyes were vacant like the summer night
And when she would sing, sing like the heaven-hungry
I believe she must have been a nightingale
And for a time you forget the hourglass
And you could get a feel that life is pretty good
I was satisfied with everything about her
And if she ever leaves the suffering will be tremendous
I heard the firing guns below
I looked and saw my love was gone
I ran to the temple, swing the censor
Say a prayer, to ring a bell
For the prayerless
Someone was aching, someone was crying
Someone was dying, someone was feeling the pain, yeah
She lies in beauty, she's a sleeping beauty
Now she's lying somewhere between the mountains and the morning stars
Sometimes when the summer dawn, wakes the leaves, you can still hear (?the mistress singing live?)
Talk of a place where memories lay their burdens down
She always said that death is only sleeping
And I can see that (?red/hair), like an angels hair
Like a bouquet of rubies her hair would lay around her face
Oh I miss her face
Around her face

03 love is all you need

Have you ever hurt inside,
Feel like you could lose your mind?
You tell no one, you sit and cry
On the brink of suicide
You convince yourself inside
Maybe here there are no spies
Nothing tempers this heart as grief
I've seen blackbirds die like (?priests?)
They go,
love is all you need
All you need is love
love is all you need
All you need is love
Hey hey preacher man shut your mouth
All that talks coming straight from your head
You can't love no one
You can't even love yourself
And you've got the heart of a mannequin
You need to reach out from beyond your border fence
Come out from hiding behind the parsonage
Show them people the same mercy that you need
hey, preacher man, tell them love is all you need
love is all you need
All you need is love
love is all you need
All you need is love
I went to the place where dead men pray
Love forsaken, I was so afraid
When suddenly the leaves were around
Like pheasants flying these angels came down
She said where is hope? What is truth? And do you know peace?
As we walked through the graveyard of needles on the street
Lord they wouldn't need this if only they could see
Tell them love, love, love is love is the key, baby
love is all you need
All you need is love
love is all you need
All you need is love
I met a man who walked alone
He wept upon those public roads
He placed his eyes upon my heart
Saw that I had missed the stirring of the water
He looked into my childhood scars
Like a candle on a written page
And from your guilt he said I could be free
Maybe my love is all you need
love is all you need
All you need is love
love is all you need
All you need is love
You need
love is all you need
All you need is love
love is all you need
All you need is love
Come on yeah
Love is all, all you need
love is all you need
All you need is love
love is all you need
All you need is love
love is all you need
All you need is love
love is all you need
All you need is love
All you need is love

04 Tumbling ground

Trying to find a place where I can hide away
In the fountain of youth inside my mind
Where old age can never find me
Please excuse me, I'm not doing well today
Trying to hide so desperately the darkness of my soul
I'm an outworn heart in a (?time worn out)
I feel like I'm failing
I'm being tossed about
There's a hole in my trampoline
I'm falling down
And friendless near a thousand friends I stand
Who didn't have a crumb of comfort
Not even a grain
(?They/You) were all too busy with my prayers
And distances of loneliness how long they seem to be
(?Almost perfect nearly true the ways we want to keep?)
I can hardly ever say my prayers
Nor can I (?count on????)
Does that mean that I am failing
They say that I am weak
And the soul of my sufferings sucked my childhood dry
Never grew the leaves of healing
Will I be left to die?
On God's rough, tumbling ground, falling down
On God's rough, tumbling ground, falling down
Falling down
Am I a prophet or a vagabond?
I am a father, not a commandant
And I grieve for the loss of all the prodigals
And fatherless near ten thousand fathers I stand
A broken little boy with a promise in his hand
Did you see the crown my momma crowned me with?
(?He) would make me better, he also made me wise
though I wrestled for the blessing
there was no love for me to find
and the world's more full of weeping
and I can never understand
I'm in the place again
where the heart gives up its dead
there is a place where tears fall but they make no sound
On God's rough, tumbling ground, falling down
there is a place where tears fall but make no sound
On God's rough, tumbling ground, falling down

05 Thinking of you

I miss those walks we had together baby
And we used to talk until we had dyed the sun
And when my drowning soul
Was sunk too deep for human tenderness
You would comfort me with your angelic love
You are the one, you are my love, oh baby
You remind me of the most beautiful things baby
Like a silken string running through a pearl chain
I would gladly kneel and kiss your (????) feet
Just look at what you've done for me
I'll lay you down on yellow forest leaves
And show you how it ought to be
I'm thinking of you babe
And in a little while we'll surely be together
I'm thinking of you babe
Each day without you will never come again
No, no, will never come again
I've seen you weep at my mistakes baby
And the (?oil) of your tears still remains on my soul
With iron confidence and pride I would crush your little heart
I couldn't see that all of your dreams were gently spread underneath my feet, no.
But hey, is it true that those that love they seem to be so sad sometimes
And look at you, you sacrifice for much too long
And that can make a heart of stone
But what a man loves he will defend
Like when lions roar and battle for their dens
Girl you must know I would fight for you
I would fight for you till the end
I'm thinking of you babe
And in a little while we'll surely be together
Yeah, I'm thinking of you babe
Each day without you will never come again, no ,no
I'm thinking of you
Hang on, yeah
I'm thinking of you
Hang on a little longer and we'll make it through this stormy weather

06 Come to me

Who are you now standing beside me?
I know you're there
Because I can feel body heat
Why don't you just come right out and speak?
Why do you leave just as quickly as you came?
As you came
Why do you (?bow) there, coming around me?
I have nothing to give and know that I'm unclean
And I'm waiting here for you to speak to me
How close can I come to you?
Come to me
Come to me
Just how close can I come, come to you?
Just how much can I see, I need to see.
Just how close can I come, come to you?
Just how much can I feel, I need to see.
I need you see.

07 Hopelessly in love

Her happiness (?leaves me/is easily?) wrong(ed) by words
She was all (????), (?lost in innocence)
Her world was chained to a dungeon gate
And she left the roost never to return
I met her then by the old vine
About a (?mile below?) where she would hide
Where they gave no wages or paid no praises
And they breathed old dust until they died
In the lake of my heart you were my island
I can help you with your pain
I'm not like your father, no, no, no
I'm not like him at all
But I'm hopelessly in love, baby
(?With) crystal-like blue eyes
And I will sing of love like a martyr that's on fire
You know I could've gone, but I stayed behind
Not to prove that I could stay, but to give you my life
She longs among (?a thousand?) angels
(?of either world, wings on the (????))
Yeah, and if you want my love
She said it must be earned
She (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? dressed up a prize? ?)
My love for you has well been tried
I love you more than my own soul
And when my prayers come round again
I'll have you for my very own
Written deep upon the scrolls of fire that burn inside my heart
Are my most sacred thoughts
My sacred thoughts of you
And my (?rags?) and prayers, they live inside their too
And my weaknesses, my (?weaknesses/weakness is?) for you
Hopelessly in love
Hopelessly in love
I can feel your heart
I can feel your heart
I can feel it moving inside of mine
(?and my world is for you?)
It's a good thing, it's a good thing, it's a good thing.
But I'm hopelessly in love, baby
(?With) crystal-like blue eyes
and I can feel your heart, baby, baby
move inside of mine
let's take this simple love girl, heal the wounds of the world
there are no obstacles, no, no, with you by my side

08 A song for Natalia

Well I saw her bending low down by the water
Carrying burdens that no man could ever bear
She said I just lost a part of me
I lost my child
And the ghost of the midwives over there still standing by
Calling all angels to comfort those who mourn
Unpitied and helpless, she's all alone
Not a man in the universe, this pain you could never know
Is this her reward God, for her labours and her troubles
She's just trying to find peace in the struggle
She's just trying to find peace in the struggle
She says hello to the darkness, her closest companion
Have you come to sing to her with a lullaby of suffering?
Why do women give and the giving never ceases?
She's in such a hard place, oh, and she's trying to be brave
Between the things she wants and the things she has to do
Oh, give her a token, give her a sign
A hope of some praise, she can't stand the rejection
And the dread of shame continually hovers
Yeah, she's just trying to find peace in the struggle
She's just trying to find peace in the struggle
Little Josiah I hear you're doing well today
And you're singing songs like no radio could ever play
No more suffering, no more disease
The rough and the smooth or the crooked and the straight
No more crying, little man, no more troubles
I know you've finally found peace in the struggle
I know you've finally found peace in the struggle
Little Josiah I hear your heartbeat today
And you're singing songs like no radio could ever play
No more suffering, no more disease
The rough and the smooth or the crooked and the straight
No more crying, little man, no more troubles
Yeah, I know you've finally found peace in the struggle
I know you've finally found peace in the struggle
In the struggle
In the struggle

09 Whang dang do

Hey I'm going up on the mountain
Gonna have a rendezvous
Sometimes you just gotta get out
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do
Hey I'm gonna get on the box, yeah, and call all the boys
Have a jamboree, yeah, do the real McCoy
Get the guitars out, going to have a little play
(?turning on tin?)
Let the Lord have his way
Gonna sing me a song to push away the blues
Don't know what to call it
It's a Whang dang do
Yeah I'm gonna call up Pooty and get big (?Joe Moo?)
'Cos he can sing real good
Got an old banjo and a mandolin too
Yeah, I'm gonna call the cricket
Yeah, he gotta big base drum
You gotta have (?string ????), 'cos he play a good (???? ????)
Get the guitars out, gonna have a little play
(?Gonna turn it on tin?)
Let the Lord have his way
Rather be happy than sad inside
Ain't nothing but a, but a Whang dang do
Gonna have a picnic on the lawn
Here comes Pooty with a hula hoop on
Gonna have fun, gonna all day long
Ain't nothing but a Whang dang do
Ain't nothing but a Whang dang do
Yeah I'm gonna call everyone
Gonna have a pig in the ground
Light the Barbecue up, invite everybody around
Going to have a real good time
Going to get on the box
Yeah, have a jamboree
Yeah, it's a real McCoy
Get the guitars out, going to have a little play
(?Turning on tin?)
Yeah, let the Lord have his way
I'm gonna be happy instead of sad inside
Ain't nothing but a, but a Whang dang do
Yeah, it's a Whang dang do
It's a Whang dang do
It's a Whang dang do
Yeah
Yeah, it's a Whang dang do
It's a Whang dang do
It's a Whang dang do