This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By
by The Great Leap Forward
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Digital Album
Immediate download of 13-track album in your choice of high-quality MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.Buy Now ₤6 GBP or more
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This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By - CD
13 track CD with 16 page bookletBuy Now ₤5 GBP
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Race To The Bottom
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Here Comes Your Pain
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Tax The Richer
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Capital Is Wonderful
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Theme From The Basher
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about
INFORMATION
www.thegreatleapforward.net
www.facebook.com/thegreatleapforward.comm.unique
Alan Brown returns in his solo guise as The Great Leap Forward to deliver another healthy dose of incisive political and social commentary layered on top of his trademark melodic danceable guitar pop music in this expansive 13-track CD and mp3 download “This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By”.
We’re back on familiar ground as the former bIG*fLAME singer responds to the last few years of global and national economic instability in a classic yet tougher The Great Leap Forward style, typically covering a range of musical genres and getting stuck in to those who are certainly not working in the national or global interest but generally for their own interests – all delivered in that familiar and life-affirming fashion that we’ve come to know and care for.
Brown continues to provide pertinent observations on life from his side of the street through these rich and diverse songs, from the attacking “Race To The Bottom”, “Capital Is Wonderful” and pop classic “Tax The Richer” to the reflective and poignant “I Catch The Last Bus Home With Driver Of The Flying Scotsman”. Then there’s the songs of hope and optimism, such as “Turning Difficulties Into Goals” and “This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By Reprise “ – all guaranteed to get the mind thinking and the feet tapping.
Regardless of whether you’re already familiar with The Great Leap Forward, or you’re discovering this project for the first time, “This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By” continues Alan Brown’s distinctive appraisal of modern society through the medium of pop music that’s as relevant for today’s pop kids (and their parents and grandparents) as it ever was.
www.thegreatleapforward.net
www.facebook.com/thegreatleapforward.comm.unique
Alan Brown returns in his solo guise as The Great Leap Forward to deliver another healthy dose of incisive political and social commentary layered on top of his trademark melodic danceable guitar pop music in this expansive 13-track CD and mp3 download “This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By”.
We’re back on familiar ground as the former bIG*fLAME singer responds to the last few years of global and national economic instability in a classic yet tougher The Great Leap Forward style, typically covering a range of musical genres and getting stuck in to those who are certainly not working in the national or global interest but generally for their own interests – all delivered in that familiar and life-affirming fashion that we’ve come to know and care for.
Brown continues to provide pertinent observations on life from his side of the street through these rich and diverse songs, from the attacking “Race To The Bottom”, “Capital Is Wonderful” and pop classic “Tax The Richer” to the reflective and poignant “I Catch The Last Bus Home With Driver Of The Flying Scotsman”. Then there’s the songs of hope and optimism, such as “Turning Difficulties Into Goals” and “This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By Reprise “ – all guaranteed to get the mind thinking and the feet tapping.
Regardless of whether you’re already familiar with The Great Leap Forward, or you’re discovering this project for the first time, “This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By” continues Alan Brown’s distinctive appraisal of modern society through the medium of pop music that’s as relevant for today’s pop kids (and their parents and grandparents) as it ever was.
credits
released 01 May 2012
Song order:
This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By
Turning Difficulties Into Goals
Race To The Bottom
Here Comes Your Pain
Tax The Richer
Capital is Wonderful
The Power of Positive Deviance
Not The Full English Breakfast
Not The Full English Breakfast At All
Heaven’s Just A Short Journey From Platform 4a
Theme From The Basher
I Catch The Last Bus Home With The Driver Of The Flying Scotsman
This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By (Reprise)
Credits:
Communications Unique
Thoroughly Sound Products
CU007
All songs written and performed by Alan Brown
©2011 Alan Brown Copyright Control
Produced by Anthony Chapman and Alan Brown at The Cooler, London
anthonychapmanaudio.com
Cover by DrinkMilk from a concept by Alan Brown & Simon Williams
drink-milk.net
www.thegreatleapforward.net
www.facebook.com/thegreatleapforward.comm.unique
Song order:
This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By
Turning Difficulties Into Goals
Race To The Bottom
Here Comes Your Pain
Tax The Richer
Capital is Wonderful
The Power of Positive Deviance
Not The Full English Breakfast
Not The Full English Breakfast At All
Heaven’s Just A Short Journey From Platform 4a
Theme From The Basher
I Catch The Last Bus Home With The Driver Of The Flying Scotsman
This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By (Reprise)
Credits:
Communications Unique
Thoroughly Sound Products
CU007
All songs written and performed by Alan Brown
©2011 Alan Brown Copyright Control
Produced by Anthony Chapman and Alan Brown at The Cooler, London
anthonychapmanaudio.com
Cover by DrinkMilk from a concept by Alan Brown & Simon Williams
drink-milk.net
www.thegreatleapforward.net
www.facebook.com/thegreatleapforward.comm.unique
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license
all rights reserved
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The Great Leap Forward (1986-?) is the very long term solo project of Alan Brown - former member of John Peel favourites
bIG*fLAME, A Witness, Sarandon.
Incisive political and social commentary layered on top of melodic danceable guitar pop music.
Or the naive and incoherent ramblings of a middle-aged dweeb - you choose.
... more
discography
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May 2012 -
Oct 2008 -
Oct 1990 -
Oct 1988
contact / help
For help with downloads, click here.
For all other inquiries, including help with merch, click here.
- Track Name: This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By
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Batten the hatches and tighten your belts (again)
Paying the price for the failures of laissez-faire
We’ve been here before, girls –
or have you forgotten all those rainy days
They’ve boomed now we’re busted –
we’re taking the brunt for their gambling ways
Our savings are worth less – let’s hitch a tax hike down Austerity Way
All our plans for the future have been Way-laid
and then magicked away
So batten the hatches and tighten our belts (again)
Look what’s in power – well, you know what happens next…
We’ve seen it before, boys –
it’s come full circle but now with added interest
Slashing public spending, taking machetes to the services’ needs
All for feeding the systems
sustaining wealth for the few who won’t bleed
Politicians serving their market friends
Politicians scared of their banking friends
Serve the markets, serve the wealthy
Serve the markets, serve the wealthy
To save their world, we’re getting screwed for more and more and more and more and more and more..
We’ve been here before love – yet again the need for radical change
So with the people now taking the streets
When their future’s bleak then how much further will they go? - Track Name: Turning Difficulties Into Goals
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hat do you want instead of the problem?
Describe to me what your preferred future looks like
and let’s get solution-focused.
Solution-focused approaches turn all your problems into goals
If there’s an issue then what is the opposite we want?
This then becomes our preferred future – where our energy is focused on
Working on solutions so that life can work out better for everyone.
If all our problems were resolved then what would that look like?
How will you know when your goal’s achieved –
how would it be so good for you?
Where are you now on a scale of one to ten towards your chosen goal?
What have you got in your skills bag that says that number not zero?
What’s the first small step that will move you
towards the next point up the scale?
If all our problems were resolved just what would that be like?
So flip the coin and change the tune – here’s a different way
Where sunshine and positive views burn those clouds away.
What’s your preferred future? What’s good enough for you?
What’s in your resource bag – what helps you win through?
People live much better if they focus on what works rather than what doesn’t
People are much happier if they nurture a forward-looking positive mindset
Here in our hearts are the forces to change the way we think and live.
Flip the coin and change the tune – what’s it like today?
Sunshine and a positive view burn the clouds away.
What’s your preferred future? What’s good enough for you?
What’s in your resource bag – what helps you win through?
When you’ve reached your chosen goal – what’s that say about you?
• Suppose that this song turns out to be useful to you.
• How will you know that it has?
• What will you be doing differently back in your life?
• What else?
• Who else will know that this song has been useful to you?
• What will they see you doing?
• What else?
Who will be least surprised? - Track Name: Race To The Bottom
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Smile son, let’s go and give thanks:
The government hasn’t increased the tax rates
For businesses such as Corporation Tax
‘Cos business needs all its money
Creating jobs and wealth (or so that’s what they’ll say)
So stay healthy and clean up your plate
The government is cutting the budgets for
Everything that you’re entitled to
To get us out of this big hole –
That’s the one we didn’t dig (but you’d think that we had)
Racing to the bottom
Avarice at the top
Smile hun, ‘cos I’m losing my service job
Don’t want to hamper those entrepreneurs and financiers
Who will usher in national growth
‘Cos we don’t need no education
Best keep the people dumbed down (so they don’t get ideas above their station)
Smile Toraigh and give your friends huge amounts
Of tax money whilst health and welfare are cut
How come the rich are given more money as an incentive to work harder
Whereas the poorer have money taken away as an incentive to work harder?
As an incentive to work longer?
Racing to the bottom
Avarice at the top
And so we’ll run son, as if our keks are on fire
We’re giving up on the bottom
The bottom 99%
All for the sake of the richest 1%
We’re in a race to the bottom
Where the loser loses first
But the richer still win
And the people come last
So we will run love, and get the washing in
We’re in a race to the bottom
Capitalism comes first
Where the people don’t count
Just a resource to be exploited
To keep the privileged few
Feeding at the top table. - Track Name: Here Comes Your Pain
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You don’t follow the diktat – the global capitalists are after you…
The IMF and the World Bank
They want to steal your resources (Oil is God)
So we’ll portray you as evil
The willing media supports us (Murdoch is God)
With propaganda deceitful
Tomorrow’s terrorist is yesterday’s lifetime friend
Here comes your pain
We’ll build up troops and resources
Address the threat we’ve invented (Right is God)
Taxpayers money will fund us
To buy the arms we need from our family firms and friends of friends
Here comes your pain
Here bombs your day
Then we’ll invade and destroy you
Install a puppet to force our will (Might is God)
Rebuild your country – make a healthy fortune
Democracy brought to heathens too (Christ is God)
Keep world opinion happy
With smiling children waving flags on BBC News 24
Here comes your pain
Here bombs your day
Smile for the liberators
Who’s next to hit – on the list – for the hit?
Here comes your pain
Here bombs your day
Tomorrow’s terrorist is yesterday’s lifetime friend - Track Name: Tax The Richer
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So where to go to avoid more tax –
let the little people take the flak
Exploiting tax loop holes down in Jersey and in Monaco
or box it up at a Swiss PO
But if you played your part for your country –
NO NEED FOR CUTS AT ALL
So we say:
Tax the richer down
Reclaim every pound
Tax the richer
Cos they’re not in together
So who d’you know?
I’ll evade more tax –
get my friends in power to turn their backs
So I’ll just carry on dodging paying billions back
and laughing all the way with my friends in the banks
But if you worked in the nation’s interest –
NO NEEDS FOR CUTS AT ALL
So we say:
Tax the richer down
Reclaim every pound
Tax the richer
Cos they’re not in together
Hit the companies owing tax and those evading tax
because they’re “not in it together”.
I’ll leave these shores
If I’m forced to pay back what’s yours
My only loyalty is to me and me and me
For I’m the traitor now
(BUT THERE IS ANOTHER WAY…)
Quadruple the number of Revenue staff
to collect the billions of unpaid tax
Cap the wealth of the richest one percent
to improve education and the Nation’s Health (Service).
Windfall-tax unloyal corporates,
raise Corporation Tax to the G7 rates
Lower the band of highest income tax
from £150k to £100 grand
People’s banks for the people’s finance –
take control from reluctant bankers
Tax transactions at a minimal rate –
bonuses only through social consent
This is how to address the cost
of unfettered greed and weak governance
If we shift the burden from the poorer to the richer
THERE’S NO NEED FOR CUTS AT ALL
So we say:
Tax the richer down
Reclaim every pound
And for the companies that are dodging the Crown
Chase them round and round
Tax the richer
Make them pay their pound of flesh today
Hit the companies owning tax or evading tax
because they’re “not in it together”.
No, they’re not in it together, no. - Track Name: Capital Is Wonderful
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Capital is wonderful
When it works we make a pile
Capital is wonderful
When it fails, the taxpayer saves us
Money Monster had a virgin birth
Ascends to heaven, now rules the Earth
Mystical and immutable
Markets rise and Markets fall but
Capital is wonderful
When it works we make a pile
Capital is wonderful
When it fails, the taxpayer saves us
Trading in commodities
Gratifying our wants and needs
Causing havoc based on confidence
Amassing wealth by selling more than we bought ‘cos
Capital is wonderful
When it works we make a pile
Capital is wonderful
When it fails, the taxpayer saves us
Until credit falls on its own sword
Where regulation is a well-mocked word
Plough billions into our bonus pots
Just top us up ‘cos we don’t give a shit
Capital is wonderful
When it works we make a pile
Capital is wonderful
When it fails, the taxpayer bails us out - Track Name: Not The Full English Breakfast
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Must be the eyebrows that meet from your nose to your feet.
It’s a family thing.
Life has a different perspective
When you’re not quite the full English breakfast
Gripped in limbo depressive affliction
Holding on to the door frame
Stuck in confusion and mid-flight
Only two feet and surely that’s not right
Manic staring – so take Moclobemide
To forge a way through this strange life
Social Anxiety Disorder
Makes the Seratonin search much harder
All those false gods and demons come calling
To torture you in your half world
Only two feet and they’re too big
Who listens when your DNA speaks of
The stain on your genes that can never be cleaned
Flailing around in this dark life
Where d’ you go, Zopi Clone
When your world goes down?
But rest assured, Zopi Clown
You won’t get left alone
Life has a different perspective
When you’re not quite the full English breakfast
There’s no light at the end of your tether
In this catatonical stupor
Out of reality’s clutches
It’s the death in your eyes that conveys such
Desolation – it’s not the Lorazepam
That’s calling the shots in this nightmare
But rest assured, Zopi Clown
You won’t get left alone
You won’t get left alone
You won’t get left alone
No, you’ll never be left alone - Track Name: The Power Of Positive Thinking
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Widespread adoption of Positive Deviant approaches can lead to profound social and cultural change for the better.
You may be one in a million
Contradicting the mainstream
Demonstrating resilience
And all for making a difference
Doesn’t have to be huge steps
Just little actions with big change
Bringing change for the better
We’ll find better solutions to our problems
Bringing change for the better
We are working together to improve this
Solve this ourselves!
You’ve got uncommon behaviours
That cut conventional wisdom
Combatting illiteracy
Disempowerment and poverty
Doesn’t have to be huge steps
Just little things that bring big change
And they’ll say:
Bringing change for the better
We’ll find better solutions to our problems
Bringing change for the better
We are together in solving all our problems
Doing it ourselves!
Determine, discover, and then develop
We’re bridging the “knowing/doing” chasm
Determine, discover, and then develop
We’re bridging the “knowing/doing” gap
So that you and your family too are well nourished and
Soon able to grow more food and thereby much improve
Your quality of life chances.
Bringing change for the better
We are working together to improve this
We are united in solving all our problems
We are the Positive Deviants in your home town
See our successful behaviours and adopt them
Share the benefits with your own communities
Share them – share all.
Doesn’t have to be big things
Just little steps that bring big change
Doesn’t have to cost so much
So make the change on your doorstep… - Track Name: Heaven's Just A Short Journey From Platform 4a
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We had cause for celebration
And so for the occasion
We went out for the day
We got the train out to Edale
And then walked up Mam Tor
Where we cracked the champagne
England is so beautiful despite it all
England is still very beautiful
Derbyshire is beautiful despite it all
Yorkshire though is prettier by far.
We then fell down Winnats Pass
And into Devil’s Arse Town
Where we had chips and pints
We then walked back to Hope station
Caught t’ train back to Flat Town
Completing my passage o’ rights
England is so beautiful despite it all
England is still very beautiful
Derbyshire is beautiful I love it all
Yorkshire though is prettier by far.
Waltzing through the luscious and green countryside
England is still very much home
I had a great day with all my mates
On my birthday in Derbyshire
England is so beautiful despite it all
England is still very much a home
Even though I don’t see myself as being English
When it comes to passport control
England is still pleasant and so green yet
Yorkshire is still prettier by far.
Escape from the city every now and then
Re-discover life beyond the urban fringe
Forget the petrol cap and don’t be a dipstick
Or a slave to the tarmac and a big horn beeper prick -
Heaven’s just a short journey from platform 4a. - Track Name: Theme From The Basher
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Well my first’s in Bullshit, but the third reSpects
That my fifth’s in tolErance where my conscience lives
With my second in Arsehole I need my fourth in Hope
But my sixth’s in hyp- o- cRite and that’s the joke
‘Cos I’m a hypocrite – I’m a contradict.
Hold on to your future
Stay true to your values, love
I’m not intellectual – I can’t reel off Paine
What my deep held values are I can’t explain
All I have is blind faith and convictions strong
And a spreading gut feeling of
What‘s right and what’s not wrong
Hold on to our future
Stay true to our values, love.
Hold on to your future
Hold on to your dreaming
Hold on to your future
Hold on to your leanings
I’m the Hyper Crater, I’m the Wee Raker
On my way to sainthood
I’m a hypocrite – and I’m a contradict
But don’t worry about it
That can spoil the beer
Really spoil the ale
That can spoil your beer
Really spoil the ale
That can spoil our beer
I’m the hypocrite
I’m the contradict
I’m the Hyper Crater
I’m the Wee Raker. - Track Name: I Catch The Last Bus Home With The Driver Of The Flying Scotsman
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I catch the last bus home with the driver of The Flying Scotsman
We’ve been in Donny for a bevvy –
And it’s brought back heavy memories of back when
Back when our paths first crossed and the future was less uncertain.
I was sat on the wall down at Bowbroom on the Sheffield to Leeds line
An excited small boy caught in rapture and awe as you thundered by
Huge wheels speeding through, the whistle that blew,
the smoke and the sulphur.
So that’s when we first met and what have we done since between us:
Well,you’ve driven trains for the last five decades
whereas I’ve been driven insane
Incessant review of life chances that blew –
tho’ suppose shouldn’t grumble, however..
The signal looms ahead of us to shunt us down the sidelines of history:
Are we in pieces inside or at peace with ourselves now we’re out of the driving seat?
The years have steamed through all those hopes we accrued – here we are on the Last Bus.
What were we then, where are we now – when’s the Last Stop?
Because I’m 447 too.
What were we then, where are we now – when’s the Last Stop?
Because I’m 447 too.
What were we then, where are we now – when’s the Last Stop?
Look at us then – look at us now: when does The Fun start?
I catch the last bus home with the driver of the Flying Scotsman
We’ve been in Donny for a bevvy but I’m too fecking leathered to hoots mon -
What was I then, what am I now – when will my dreams stop?
Because I’m 447 too.
So what can we show – should we die tomorrow
To those in the cheap seats? - Track Name: This Is Our Decade Of Living Cheaply And Getting By - REPRISE
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This is our decade of living cheaply and getting by
But more to the point:
WHY is this our decade of penny-pinching and paying a price?
We’re not here to be servient to the frailties of demand and supply!
I’m glad you don’t have obsessions
with making money as the be-all of life
For rounded humans with feelings
are of more value than those selfish pin stripes
To a judicious society – where it’s tolerant, fair, gentler and kind
If this is our decade of living cheaply and getting by, then
Many ventures cost nothing,
and give more happiness, fulfilment and pride -
A surrogate Age of Plenty –
where life is priceless and no money can buy.
Open up the hatches, what solutions can we find?
Focus on the values that bring together, not divide
This will be our decade of aspiration – hope is for life.
