1. |
Narcissus
05:07
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Narcissus
I laid down, my body limp,
full of curls and dreams and fancies,
pale and fey and beautiful
and soft, like a satin sheet -
my belly full of melancholy,
my blue eyes watery and weak;
sweet music on my mind,
like waltzes and harmonies,
saying lay down lover,
lover lay down next to me.
And I was many miles from home,
full of finery and art I let the night
seduce and take me
to a world subteranean and dark
where eyes like mine
stared from the shadows,
bodies pressed against my body, saying:
“Let me hold you my sweet thing,
you need no longer be alone -
lay down lover,
every stranger needs a home.”
But I found a pool of clear water,
took a sip and saw a face,
was drawn to it,
now I was captivated -
there was nothing
left in the world for me,
my love lay just beyond my fingers,
when I tried to touch
he just disappeared.
“Let me hold you my sweet thing,
I'm a fool for you my love
come on lay down lover
I can never give you up.”
And time goes by...
And all that time
it has gone for good -
all the years of frustrated love
and finally I see who is before me:
A man broken and alone,
there is something in his dimming eyes
i'm just beginning to recognise:
There's sweet music on his mind,
like waltzes and harmonies,
saying lay down lover,
lover lay down next to me;
let me hold you my sweet thing,
I'm a fool for you my love
and though my body has grown wasted
I can never give you up...
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2. |
Serenity
04:30
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Serenity
Speeding around, the worlds confusion about me -
Who am I? Who am I before the light?
Vision and sound, jungle ideas within me -
Who am I? Who am I before the dawn?
I dream of love and not oppression,
I dream of space and not compression -
Who am I? Who am I as the world presses in on me?
Who am I? Who am I before the light?
And the night is so long and the pressure unending -
I want to let go of the troubles in mind:
Serenity, come to me…
Short flashes of light burst into my tiny room
Waking me from dreamtime,
Helicopter blades slash the air, curtains flutter,
I lie awake and stare at the sharp shadows on the wall.
I don’t want to be awake but my sleep has been taken,
Adrenaline and thoughts of when I’ll have sorted the situation
Pound away inside of me and there is no relenting,
No way that I can think of to bring an ending to the tension,
To these compacted questions that are stressing my system
With the darkest of visions; if I could just switch them off
And untwist them - pacify, rectify, this nervous condition,
Unclutter my mind, relax and drift off back
Into the universe of sleep, peace uncoiling these issues, I would
But this pressure is high pitched and screaming, unyielding,
And my patience is bleeding…
And the night is so long and the pressure unending -
I want to let go of the troubles in mind:
Serenity, come to me…
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3. |
Who Do You Love?
05:13
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Who Do You Love?
Time spent alone in the centre of a city,
ideas and change rushing around my body:
Who do you love,
who do you love,
and what is it you need?
Learning how to dance in the company of strangers
but where all this goes – god only knows;
and those you left behind, your old friends on the old streets
still call you in your dreams, you hear them in your sleep, saying”
“Who do you love,
who do you love
and what is it you need?”
Cold handed days, the clashing of colours,
lying awake counting all the mood changes,
remembering those days of wide skies and clear lakes,
cool at last, diving deep...
and who do you love,
who do you love
and what is it you need?
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4. |
Magdalena
05:20
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Magdalena
Though its cold and winter roams through the night,
bare branches scrape the sky and rain falls,
I walk with an imprint of her in my mind,
hallucinations of her in my eyes and I am drawn
to the city, the music, the colour, the life
and Magdalena;
stripped to the bone by the cold wind that blows
for Magdalena.
She is cradled deep in the heart of the night,
most alive in the centre of fire, she burns with a blue flame.
I am lost to myself for as long as it takes
to unhook these dreams from my heart or to live
in the heat of her gaze.
Though I run from that flame I will always return
for Magdalena;
deeper and deeper into me she burns,
Magdalena.
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5. |
Cool Love
06:13
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Cool Love
The t.v. was on for hours at a time,
it filled up a gap in the heart of my life
where there was no love and no one to talk with.
I felt out of place, like the world was not right -
I wanted to change something, make my mark,
be a light, to be someone who meant something to someone.
But that night her doorway was open to me
and the night lights burned until morning -
cool love create something from nothing -
and pleasure itself was a world without end,
we were its greatest explorers -
cool love, create something from nothing.
Morning came quickly, zooming into the room,
light darted and bounced and the world was renewed;
the heat of her body was a balm to my pain
and I forgot what it was to be lonely.
A cup of black coffee, fresh air and a walk
from Redland down Zetland Road to Stokes Croft;
slipping through the crowds I headed to my place,
to the same room, the same air, the silence, the stillness,
the ache -
Cool love, create something from nothing.
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6. |
Break In
04:43
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Break In
There is a love on my heart,
And it crawls like a thief on the roof;
Midnight comes
And I'm still waiting
For you to break in,
For you to break in,
Break into my heart.
Winter nights,
Winter nights and it's raining;
Who's going to hang around until dawn?
Why don't you break in?
Come on and break in,
Break into my heart.
Summertime, summertime seems such a long, long way away,
Summertime, seems such a long, long way away -
Why don't you break in?
Come on and break in,
Break into my heart.
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7. |
Shadows of the Skyline
04:27
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Shadows of the Skyline
From the suburbs to the city,
In cafes, bars and clubs,
I worked to find a future,
A good career and love -
My head spinning round
With the pressure and the pace.
The only thing I've known for sure
Is change...
I tried my best to fit inside
A world that was not mine -
I bent and squeezed and changed my shape
Just to tow the line -
And though old habits die
The hardest way,
The only thing I’ve known for sure
Is change…
As shadows of the skyline
Stretch across this street,
Swell into the alleyways
And call me
I take my coat and step outside,
Deep into the freezing night
Alone, alone, alone,
But for the company of night.
Framed by shops, graffitied walls
And lit by evenings orange glow
I slip as if invisible
From scene to scene
And passing conversations...
I move amongst these buildings
Like a word inside a mind
On the edge of being spoken
And born to some new life -
Though mid-winter comes
Soon the days will grow again,
And the only thing I've known for sure
Is change...
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8. |
Prisoners
05:16
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Prisoners
I get propositioned most mornings on my way to work,
Near the orthodox church and the underpass;
The faces often change but the questions are the same:
“Do you have a light? Do you want any business?”
Day after day I shake my head and I walk by half asleep
And listless.
As I walk through St Pauls, down City Road to town
The first bus of the day lights on by;
Sleep still in my eyes veils everything in sight
With ghosts of dreams that circle around my shoulders
As I walk the pavement past green lights and crossroads.
I've filled my bucket with water and chemicals,
Mopped these cells and these corridors
Every single day for so long now I forget
What life was like before -
It's just one more day, another dirty floor.
It's too early to get up but I have to pay the rent,
My passport to paradise has not been earn’t yet.
I do the best I can to escape when I'm able
And on any given night you will find me
Slumped across some bar-room table…
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9. |
Wake Into The Day
05:41
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Wake into the Day
I wake into the day with desire on my mind
And a longing in my belly for something that I’m still trying to find;
It's like I hooked on having anything I can get my dirty little hands on
And I want much more besides, my appetite knows no boundaries.
I wake into the day from the dreams that held me tight
And I stare into the morning with it’s cool, hard light;
I'm in debt up to my eyeballs and everywhere I turn
They say “spend, spend, spend” as if there's money left to burn.
I wake into the day praying for a turning of the tide.
There's more to me than who I've been, a depth I've barely given time;
And I just want to get by all these barriers and conflicts -
I don't want to die ashamed, alone or afraid.
England says she loves me, tells me that I'm good for her
As she sells me everything she can to keep a window on the world...
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10. |
Dancers
02:58
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Dancers
Blues turn to black as day turns to night,
A horizon of fire burns;
Space opens wide, flings stars through the skies,
Rhythms awake and dancers take flight.
Entranced by the music, its beauty and grace,
Our bodies are satellites;
The past has no place here, the future no weight -
We are dancing through movement and change
And I want to feel the heat of being wanted by you.
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11. |
Driven High
04:16
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Driven High
Out in the night, flying high overhead, alone in the moonlight,
I saw you and swooped to be near your light and your song;
I thought I recognised a kindred spirit,
Somebody to roam with me for a while.
Nobody here on this earth, no stranger or friend,
Had any idea of the depth of my loneliness,
But your eyes seemed to be two points of light in this darkness
Breaking through the blind haze of my blues,
the night flashed by bright and new...
You charmed me and I let go
Driven high, driven low;
You called me and I followed
Driven low, driven high.
And when my eyes were opened
And I felt what had been given
By the touching of our bodies
In the dawn light -
It was a gift I couldn’t fathom,
A song within a silence,
A surprise that left me humbled
By its sweetness.
I lay awake in the tatters of my dreaming
Another life meeting mine,
And in the closeness of your breathing
I remembered all the reasons for my flight;
And in the first hours of our weaving
I watched the slow revealing
Of unfamiliar skies.
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12. |
Free To Go Anywhere
03:50
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Free To Go Anywhere
At four o'clock in the morning
I finally put down my guitar,
Left the night to silence
And walked out of the bar.
The shattered night
Lay scattered on the street
As I walked my crooked way
Between the LeftBank and my sleep.
Travelling that distance
Just like a ragged ghost
I watched as the sky was stripped
Of its dark and ragged coat
And on Stapleton Road
Held by the beak of a blackbird
I saw a silver heart on a silver chain -
Yes, I’m free to go anywhere,
To follow my own sense
Anywhere in the world…
Anywhere in the world.
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