The Bigger They Are

[Verse 1] He bought the mill on Carrick Road Then bought the council chair A brass plate gleamed above the door His name was everywhere He shook the hands of men who'd cursed The smoke that stained the sky Now every widow in the town Could see him riding high [Pre-Chorus] But the ledgers kept a colder truth Behind the polished glass A house built tall on borrowed ground Can tilt before it cracks [Chorus] The bigger they are, the harder they fall Hear the old floorboards groan in the hall He climbed past the steeple, he towered over all The bigger they are, the harder they fall [Verse 2] He poured whiskey at harvest time While wages missed the week He called the strikers parasites Then smiled for every speech But Maeve kept copies in a tin Beneath the kitchen stair Three missing years, a dozen names And numbers stripped bare [Pre-Chorus] Now boots are ringing down the lane And torches line the wall The man who thought he owned the town Can't buy the night at all [Chorus] The bigger they are, the harder they fall Hear the old floorboards groan in the hall He climbed past the steeple, he towered over all The bigger they are, the harder they fall [Instrumental] [Bridge] No crown survives the winter tide No locked gate stops the rain When every hand ye've stepped upon Comes knocking back again Raise yer glass, but keep it low The tower's lost its flame A king can wear a borrowed coat And still go home in shame [Final Chorus] The bigger they are, the harder they fall Let the fiddle cut through plaster and wall He climbed past the steeple, he towered over all The bigger they are, the harder they fall Tonight the town remembers all [Outro] Down Carrick Road the mill stands cold The brass plate's gone by dawn And every voice from door to door Sings what he thought he'd outgrown