Lyrics
Intro
Bells ring down the Avon, chills in the Sunday air
Children running past stone arches, faces turning everywhere
Old timbers creak with stories, choir rises up in song
People gather round their sorrows, finding where they belong
Verse
Mist climbs over Hagley, pageant banners strung so high
Mothers sweeping doorsteps, while the hopeful raise their eyes
Souls are searching corners, for a secret or a sign
Footsteps echo on pavements, whispering the years gone by
No one asked if God... he knows the truth... purgatory? I think it's not easy to find out... like in heaven... like in hell... the truth!!!
Verse 2
Woolworths shut at five o'clock, the trams have made their final run
A wireless hums through kitchen walls, the evening has begun
Down Colombo Street the butchers pull their awnings to the rail
And somewhere in a backroom bar, old mates are swapping tales
A fella hums a tune he heard from someone's cousin overseas
A fiddle answers from the corner, puts the room at ease
Chorus
Roll on, river, roll on slow
Carry what we cannot know
From the hills down to the sea
Roll on, river, over me
Post-Chorus
Roll on (roll on), roll on (roll on)
Down to the sea
Verse 3
Saturday the market stalls are stacked with apples, pears, and jam
Ladies count their pennies out with paper in their hands
A boy sells papers on the corner, headlines curling at the fold
And every shopfront window tells a story never told
The preacher on the square declares the end is coming soon
But the baker's daughter laughs and says she's dancing by the moon
Chorus
Roll on, river, roll on slow
Carry what we cannot know
From the hills down to the sea
Roll on, river, over me
Post-Chorus
Roll on (roll on), roll on (roll on)
Down to the sea
Verse 4
Winter creeps across the plains and settles in the pines
Frost along the fences and the washing on the lines
Grandad by the fire tells of floods and harder years
Of neighbours helping neighbours through the water and the tears
We keep the kettle whistling, we keep the gate shut tight
And wait for longer evenings and the turning of the light
Bridge
Oh, the years go rolling under
Like the water through the town
Oh, we hold to one another
When the cold comes down
(When the cold comes down)
When the cold comes down
Verse 5
Summertime the cricket plays out on the Hagley green
Lemonade in glass bottles, the coldest ever seen
Kids on bikes at twilight, racing home before the dark
And lovers walk the riverbank and carve their names in bark
Some will leave for cities, some will stay and tend the land
Some will only understand it when they hold it in their hands
Chorus
Roll on, river, roll on slow
Carry what we cannot know
From the hills down to the sea
Roll on, river, over me
Post-Chorus
Roll on (roll on), roll on (roll on)
Down to the sea
Verse 6
Bells ring down the Avon once again on Sunday morn
Another year has turned the page since all of us were born
The choir sings the same old hymns that great-grandmother knew
And children run through stone arches just the way we used to do
Somewhere in the quiet, a truth we cannot name
Waits like water in the shallows, calling us by name
Outro
Roll on (roll on)
Roll on (roll on)
From the hills down to the sea
Roll on (roll on)
Roll on (roll on)
Over you and over me
(Over you and over me)
Roll on
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