Sam Fender - album lyrics: "People Watching" (2025)

"People Watching"

I people-watch on the way back home

Envious of the glimmer of hope

Gives me a break from feeling alone

Gives me a moment out of the ego

I used to feel so invincible

I used to feel there was a world worth dreamin' of

Back in the Gasworks, screamin' the song

Just the beauty of youth would quell my aching heart

Oh, I feel so dark rememberin'

Oh, my heart, I feel so dark rememberin'

I people-watch on the way back home

Everybody on the treadmill, runnin'

Under the billboards, out of the heat

Somebody's darling's on the street tonight

Oh, I can't stop runnin'

I see the whole town fall

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

(Ooh-ooh)

(Ooh-ooh, ooh)

I came back home after seven years

Wide awake, tracing tracks of her tears

Cornered the nurse to get the gist of it

I promised her I'd get her out of the care home

The place was fallin' to bits

Understaffed and overruled by callous hands

The poor nurse was around the clock

And the beauty of youth had left my breaking heart

But it wasn't hard when you love someone

Oh, I stayed all night till you left this life 'cause that's just love

I people-watch on the way back home

Everybody on the treadmill, runnin'

Under the billboards, out of the heat

Somebody's darling's on the street tonight

Oh, I can't stop runnin'

I see the whole town fall

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

Above the rain-soaked Garden of Remembrance

Kittywakes etched your initials in the sky

Oh, I fear for this crippled island and the turmoil of the times

And I'll hold you in my heart till the day I die

Oh

I people-watch on the way back home

Everybody on the treadmill, runnin'

Under the billboards, out of the heat

Somebody's darling's on the street tonight

Oh, I can't stop runnin'

I see the whole town fall

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

I people-watch on the way back home

(Ooh-ooh)

(Ooh-ooh, ooh)

(Ooh-ooh)

"Nostalgia's Lie"

It caught me off guard

Tears were streaming, my eyes were teeming

With all of nostalgia's lies

It emptied my heart

All the weight dropped out my stomach

With all my defences down

What is this place?

Can you take me back to somewhere darlin'

Where I feel safe?

Down the violet path and the oak tree hollow

Spinning and laughing

Was it ever what I thought it truly was?

Oh

These streets break my heart

There's pain unfurling and desperate yearning

For all my friends who are gone

Those were the times where we all had nothing

Most my friends are still against it

For all I've gained there's something lost

What is this place?

Can you take me back to somewhere darlin'?

These purple days

Left a violent mark on the oak tree hollow

I was, spinning and laughing

Was it ever what I thought it truly was?

Before I'm pushing up daisies

Give me a long heady summer

With arms open wide

I won't take this world for granted

I'll become what I've been asking

I'll accept the path that lays before my eyes

All my defences down

What is this place?

Can you take me back to somewhere darlin'

Where I feel safe?

Down the violet path and the oak tree hollow

I was, spinning and laughing

Was it ever what I thought it truly was?

"Chin Up"

I'm rising up with the sun

No time to victimise myself

Two steps, I'm walking to the rhythm of it

Sometimes it's healthier to wallow in it

I'm cashing out on my loss

I'm going all-in on a dead horse

Two steps, I'm walking to the rhythm of it

I feel the changes when I wallow in

Entitled idle and dumb

28 still sucking my thumb

Hard truth's I'm dancing to the rhythm of it

Scarred youth, but now I'm actually going through it

I will try to keep my chin up

Oh, my head is bent on bringing me down

Under the floorboards of this broken home

This one-horse town

My friends at home are in pain

Chucky debt. God, I hate cocaine

I keep moving to the rhythm of it

Can't be responsible for everybody

The marred streets put fire in my bones

People turfed right out of their homes

Our Jackie navigates through the penury

He lost his job again in January

At night she's hearing him cry

Getting stains out his shirt and tie

The cold permeates the neonatal baby

Can't heat the place for fucking love nor money

I will try to keep my chin up

Oh, my head is bent on bringing

Me down

Under

The floorboards

Of this broken home

This one-horse town

Chin up I'm dancing to the rhythm of it

Sometimes it's healthier to wallow in it

Chin up I'm dancing to the rhythm of it

Sometimes it's healthier to wallow in it

Chin up I'm dancing to the rhythm of it

Sometimes it's healthier to wallow in it

Chin up I'm dancing to the rhythm of it

Chin up I'm dancing to the rhythm of it

"Wild Long Lie"

As he rails one again

And turns to me and says "imagine Boris in your hand, full police gear tonight"

He said it's tougher sentences, that's what they're trying

But we've seen how that went down stateside, it didn't fly

It's that time of the year again, when your past comes home

And everybody I've ever known wants it large

Jimmy's in my ear again, with a motormouth

God I love the kid but we need to slow it down

Woahhh

Back to the bathroom, back to the core

For another wild long lie

Back to the kitchen

Sprawled on the floor

For another wild, long lie

And I'll tell it all night

Everybody's dying for their turn to pull out anecdotes fraught with bloody lies

And I've gone quiet 'cause my heart is still choking up from a love I tore apart

Oh, I've got so much pain here, so much love

But it's drowning every inch of my soul

So, I go back to the bathroom

I'll line you up

For another wild, long lie

Back to the kitchen

Sprawled on the floor

For another wild, long lie

Back to the bathroom

I'll line up

For another wild, long lie

Back to the kitchen

Sprawled on the floor

For another wild, long lie

And I'll tell it all night

I think I need to leave this town

I think I need to leave this town

I think I need to leave this town

Before I go down

I think I need to leave this town

Before I go down

Back to the bathroom

I'll line you up

For another wild, long lie

Back to the kitchen

Sprawled on the floor

For another wild, long lie

Back to the bathroom

I'll line up

For another wild, long lie

Back to the kitchen

Sprawled on the floor

For another wild, long lie

And I'll tell them all night

And I'll tell them all night

"Arm's Length"

I was making out then that I was fine and light

Oh, maybe you can do anything that you want tonight

But, oh, do you have to know me, know me inside out?

Do you have to know me, know me inside out?

I was holding on hope, for a kind of friend

Oh, the blazing inferno of fuck ups kind of got in my way

So do you have to know me, know me inside out?

Do you have to know me, know me inside out

To have a good time?

Holding hands back of the ride home

Baby, you're looking like you're out to kill

I'm selfish and I'm lonely

Arm's length, small talk and then some company

But oh, do you have to know me, know me inside out?

Do you have to know me, know me inside out?

Do you have to know me, know me, know me?

Do you have to know me, know me, know me?

Do you have to know me, know me inside out

To have a good time?

Oh, to have a good time?

Have a good time

Have a good time

Do you have to know me, know me, know me?

Do you have to know me, know me, know me?

Do you have to know me, know me, know me?

Do you have to know me, know me, know me?

Do you have to know me, know me, know me?

Do you have to know me, know me, know me?

Do you have to know me, know me, know me?

Do you have to know me, know me, know me?

"Crumbling Empire"

Road like the surface of the moon

A Detroit neighbourhood left to ruin

Gil at the wheel, showing me the sight

Of this crumbling empire

Following suit in the Atlantic mirror

Under the Byker bridge, they shiver

It's one for me, and one for the dead and one

For my crumbling empire

I'm not preaching, I'm just talking

I don't wear the shoes I used to walk in

But I can't help thinking where they'd take me

In this crumbling empire

My old man worked on the rail yard

Getting his trade on the electrical board

It got privatised, the work degraded

In this crumbling empire

My mother delivered most the kids in this town

My stepdad drove in a tank for the crown

They left them homeless, down and out

In their crumbling empire

I'm not preaching, I'm just talking

I don't wear the shoes I used to walk in

But I can't help thinking where I'd be

In this crumbling empire

In this crumbling empire

In this crumbling empire

In this crumbling, in this crumbling empire

Earl was a kid when they threw him out

Living on the streets down Camden Town

Under the arches, strung right out

In a crumbling empire

Twenty five years on crack and dope

Begging to pay for synthetic hope

Just another kid failed by these blokes

And their crumbling empire

I'm not preaching, I'm just talking

I don't wear the shoes I used to walk in

But I can't help thinking where they'd take me

In this crumbling empire

In this crumbling empire

In our crumbling empire

In this crumbling empire

In our crumbling empire

In our crumbling empire

In our crumbling empire

In our crumbling empire

"Little Bit Closer"

They break you in like a wild foal

Target the dole queue broken souls

I don't disagree with everything they do

I was a child in the peak of a panic attack

The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back

Was the wailing sound of my cousin slain in spirit

Well

Come on, lift your head

Get out your frozen state

You're starting to look like Otzi now

Come on, wake the dead

Show me you walk on water

And I'll get a little bit closer to it

Oh, I have friends who were cast aside

A young meek lad with a curious mind

Just terrified of what the church would have to say

Oh, I don't know if I believe in it

But when the rapture comes, if this is a sin

I'll burn with everybody that I know

Yeah, I was lost in their sermons and lies at God's camp

Trying to pray the gay away

Something was shook in me

A birth of a new foundation

That gets me a little bit closer to it

I can't live under the notion

That there's no reason at all

For all this beauty in motion

I don't buy the deities spoke of

But in love, there's something to hold

And I get a little bit closer to it

What is God?

What is God?

What is God?

I never found it

I can't live under the notion

That there's no reason at all

For all this beauty in motion

I don't buy the deities spoke of

But in love, there's something to hold

And I get a little bit closer to it

I get a little bit closer

I get a little bit closer

I get a little bit closer

I get a little bit closer

I get a little bit closer

I get a little bit closer

I get a little bit closer to it

"Rein Me In"

I let go of everything I ever had

'Cause I couldn't give the love you deserved

By the Gunner you shouted, "Oh my God"

It seemed churlish, but it's what I was owed, I suppose

Every flagstone of this town bears our prints

And all the bars 'round here serve my ghosts and carcasses

I wish I knew these things when I was young

'Cause now I've just grown so numb

We take whatever we can to get the reason back

So please don't rein me in

Don't rein me in

Please don't rein me in

I'm working myself up to a nice warm bliss

All my memories of you ring like tinnitus

If I stop, it's just pain

Please don't rein me in

I wish I could tell you everything

But my stomach was too weak

Sometimes it's easier to throw away your love

Instead of accepting its defeat

Don't rein me in

Please don't rein me in

I'm working myself up to a nice warm bliss

All my memories of you ring like tinnitus

If I stop it's just pain

Please don't rein me in

And I'm, I'm stood here chewing everybody's lugs off

Telling everybody how much I fucked it up

Telling everybody how much I fucked it up

Telling everybody but you, how much I fucked it up

Slow down

Slow down

Now, I'm working myself up to a nice warm bliss

All my memories of you ring like tinnitus

If I stop it's just pain

Please don't rein me in

I'm working myself up to a nice warm bliss

All my memories of you ring like tinnitus

If I stop it's just pain

Please don't rein me in

"TV Dinner"

Hypothesise a hero's rise and teach them all to then despise

It is our way to make a king, romanticise how they begin

Fetishize their struggling, while all the while they're suffering

In every worming memory of what they truly are

The rigmarole, the tortured soul, the constant spin, the merry-go

Roundhouse-kick into the face, sheer loss of private space

The moths, the snakes, the tiny waist-coat tail riders suck the grace

And little colour out my face, the cancer in a padlock case

No one gets into my space

No one gets into my space

The market before anything

The darkest days are yet to sing

Like Winehouse, she was just a bairn

They love her now but bled her then

They reared me as a class clown

Grass fed little cash cow

I cashed out, headed hell bound

And now they point and laugh

No one gets in to my space

No one gets in to my space

Am I up to this?

Am I up to this?

Am I up to this?

No one gets in

I'll sell my story when it's true, I'll paint a pretty pic of you

I'll walk amongst the ones who walk and talk when I am born

I'm in the embryonic state

On borrowed time I clean my plate

With a TV dinner I spectate

The fucks all gesticulate

The chip on shoulder pulsates, my hatred it mutates

Had me irate, we said 'we're all the same'

Are you wild? Do you have enemies?

A start with no amenities?

A mark that bleeds a legacy?

A spark without tuition fee?

A darkness that they envy?

They frenzy to befriend me

But I know ye, you'll sell me

You'll sell me, you'll kill me

No one gets into my space

No one gets into my space

Am I up to this?

Am I up to this?

Am I up to this?

Am I up to this?

Am I up to this?

Am I up to this?

No one gets in

To my space

"Something Heavy"

Stomping 'round the village with you again

I'm clapped out on up-and-downers tonight

Both know what we're in for tomorrow

Drinking anything as a pre-emptive strike

God, she's full of pain and I know it

Got a kink in her smile that her dad put there

We both know that we're gonna regret it

Selfishly, we stay to dodge a lonely night

Everybody here's got something heavy

I'll shoulder it a while if you just want a night off

You and I are dangerous fucked lovers

Whittling away at this bag of rocks

Carrying each other up the avenue

The city's never felt so tired

Half the joints bombed after COVID

My friends reached for the rope and tied

Oh God, how come we keep missing signals?

We almost lost Joey on that horrid dark night

She grabbed me by the arm

Kissed me to disarm

The anger that've carried like a rock me whole life

Everybody here's got something heavy

I'll shoulder it a while if you just want a night off

You and I are dangerous fucked lovers

Whittling away at this bag of rocks

I'm drinking for two down in Arthur's Bar

This place severely lost its charm

I'm working on the words that I would have said

Had you have still been around

Oh God, what's in the water in this town?

So many good people falling victim to the dog

So call me if you're down

I'll help you come around

The kettle on a rolling boil until it's sorted out

Everybody here's got something heavy

I'll shoulder it a while if you just want a night off

You and I are dangerous, fucked lovers

Whittling away at this bag of rocks

Everybody here's got something heavy

Everybody here's got something heavy

Everybody here's got something heavy

Everybody here's got something heavy

Stumble 'round the village with you again

I'm clapped out on up and downers tonight

"Remember My Name"

If I was wanting of any more

I'd be as greedy as those men on the hill

But I remain forlorn

In the memory of what once was

Chasing a cross in from the wing

Our boy's a whippet, he's faster than anything

Remember the pride that we felt?

For the two of us made him ourselves

Humour me, make my day

I'll tell you stories, kiss your face

And I'll pray you'll remember my name

I'm not sure of what awaits

Wasn't a fan of Saint Peter and his gates

But, by God, I pray

That I'll see you in some way

Oh, 11 Wark Avenue, something to behold

To them, it's a council house, to me, it's a home

And a home that you made where the grandkids could play

But it's never the same without you

So humour me, make my day

I'll tell you stories, I'll kiss your face

And I'll pray you'll remember my name

And I'll pray you'll remember my name

And I'll pray you'll remember my name