The Neighbour's Radio

Lyrics

I was pegging out the sheets when it drifted over the fence
A tune from a crackly radio, and it made a kind of sense
Old Mr Alder's kitchen window, open to the breeze
And a melody I half remembered came and put me at ease

My father used to whistle it while he mended the back gate
I haven't heard it in twenty years, I'd say, or very late
The singer's voice is gentle, and the strings are soft and low
And I'm standing in the garden with a feeling I can't quite show

Turn it up a little, neighbour, let it drift my way
There's a song across the garden from another day
I don't need to know the name, I don't need to know the year
It's the sound of someone home, and it's the sound of someone near

He's humming now, I hear him, slightly flat and slightly slow
And I find myself joining in, and neither of us knows
That we're singing in a duet with a hedge between the two
Two quiet voices in the afternoon, and the sky a washed-out blue

Turn it up a little, neighbour, let it drift my way
There's a song across the garden from another day
I don't need to know the name, I don't need to know the year
It's the sound of someone home, and it's the sound of someone near

We never talk much over the fence
Just weather and the state of the roses
But music says what we can't say
And leaves the kinder door ajar

So turn it up a little, neighbour, let it drift my way
There's a song across the garden from another day
I don't need to know the name, I don't need to know the year
It's the sound of someone home, and it's the sound of someone near

The sound of someone near
The sound of someone near