Forget The Radio

Switch on your amplifier
And put a record on
Lay back on your pillow
And hear your favourite song
Feel the music breathe
Sing the melody
Read the sleeve notes through
What the musicians do
And when you’ve found the groove
Or if the lyrics soothe
Concentrate and listen really close

Forget the radio
Send the DJ home
You’re better on your own
Forget the radio

All my favourite records
I never see or hear
And here’s the plague of zombies
For power and career
Andy Partridge, Robert Wyatt
You hear it you buy it
The tail seems to wag the dog
The music’s thick, lost in the fog
Without analysis
This is all we wish
Image kills the qualities below

Forget the radio
Send the DJ home
You’re better on your own
Forget the radio

 

Swan

If you sway
In the breeze of moving reeds
Swim away
Then fly out in the universe
With grace

Softly down
You lose a feather from your snow
There’s no sound
Just whispers from the waters
You have found

Wings of silk
Curves of beauty to behold
Face of milk
Oh my swan
The gift of you unfolds

White opaque
Fabled goddess
Drifts and dreams
In your wake
Astounded by the wonders
That you make

You glide by
I stay loyal to my queen
Don’t have to try
Swans they stay together
All their lives

Raise your head
Stroke your neck
That’s soft and long
Have I said
Oh my swan
The gift of you I want

Wings of silk
Curves of beauty to behold
Face of milk
Oh my swan
The gift of you unfolds

 

Wondering

Well I want to tell you
Things I’ve seen
I never knew you then
I think about the things you did
I wish that I knew when
But I want to think about you now
I never left you long
Though the things you said you did
Don’t fit into this song

I’m wondering if I’ll ever see you
Wondering if I can
Wondering if I’ll ever see you
I think I will I can

Cause I’m wondering, wondering out loud
Wondering, wondering out loud

Sometimes when I think about you
Lying on your own
I still think I’m gonna love you
Gonna take you home
I still think things about you
I know I haven’t seen
Perhaps these things will come and tell me
What I really mean

But I think about you every morning
Even when you’re gone
I think about you and your heart
And think about how long

And I’m wondering, wondering out loud
Wondering, wondering out loud

But I think about you every morning
Even when you’re gone
I think about you and your heart
And think about how long

I’ll be wondering, wondering out loud
Wondering, wondering out loud

 

Sanctuary

After the party with wine in your hair
There’s a shot in the dark
So you’ll fall in despair
And you’ve chipped your tooth
So you whistle when you speak
And there’s tunes in your head
Till the end of the week

The feast in your hair is up to a swing
But whoever you touch
You don’t feel anything
So you brush off the cobwebs
That seal you up
To get past the part
With the crack in your cup

Farewell Saturday, love tomorrow
Always the next day
For to find sanctuary
For there’s unkept promises
Crimes and jealousies
Always the next day
For to find sanctuary

Then a slice of the silence
Remains on the bed
As the hue of the sun
Whispers heat to the dead
And the glow won’t wash off
When you’re already gone
And you lock all the doors
Where the silence just shone

A sip of green poison that jades your blood
Till the blue of your veins
Turns as brown as the mud
The continental shift in your
Earthquake heart
It isn’t a cure
But at least it’s a start

Farewell Saturday, love tomorrow
Always the next day
For to find sanctuary
For there’s unkept promises
Crimes and jealousies
Always the next day
For to find sanctuary

 

Waves Towards The Moon

Only stones
That skim across
The surface of the sea
I have thrown
To see if Neptune
Sends them back to me

If you talk
Then words will only
Splinter into sound
Where’s the sun
When all your conversations
Shadow bound

Time waits for you
And I do too

Wind in the curtains
I am so certain
Did I hear your silky tune
Tapped on my window
You make the night glow
Then you’re gone like the
Waves towards the moon

Presence felt
I can’t see you
But I know you’re there
It’s like you melt
And disappear like water
In the air

Just a glimpse
Somewhere in the corner of my eye
Upon your lips I will settle
Like a butterfly

Time waits for you
And I do too

Wind in the curtains
I am so certain
Did I hear your silky tune
Tapped on my window
You make the night glow
Then you’re gone
Like the waves towards the moon

 

Goodbye

Sky fell on your face
Smothered you in blue
And when you shook it off
Your history fell through

Another chapter gone
Your character’s alive
They live inside your head
They make you laugh and…

Time has come
Upon the sinking of the sun

Goodbye

Blushing in the wind
Roasting by the fire
Lying in your bed
As solitude conspires

Shakes you till you sleep
Doesn’t leave you long
Pretends to be your friend
When suddenly you’re

Falling hands
Shifting secrets of the sands

Goodbye

Time has come
Upon the sinking of the sun

Goodbye

 

I Don’t Think So

Well I wonder if you’ll ever see me dancing
In a reggae club in Stockholm in the day
Will the sky be blue and the snow still be falling
Will the night belong to someone else today
Will you be there

If I’m fucking up so badly, but I love you
If the journey’s looking dark, will I return
Will the night time come and take the days away from you
Will the shadows fly in uniform and burn
Will you be there

I don’t think so
I know so

The tragedy of everything you mentioned
And it’s the truth that’s in your words that really hurts
When I look into your eyes I see the love has gone
And I don’t know if it’s for better or for worse
Will you be there

I don’t think so

Even though the night is looking handsome
And the stars are looking pretty in the sky
Remember when you said that you would be there
Do you think that you will be there when I die
Will you be there

I don’t think so

 

Watching Us

On this walk
Interlocking fingers
On this day
The devil cringes

Death is crying
He can’t have us
Pity him
Angels gather
Watching us

The bride of the light
Trailing petals and passion
This gigantic bite
Of peace and compassion
Delirious beckoning
The soft and bejeweled
The breeze in the heat
First cooled then fueled
A necklace of grace
‘Round the heart of your face
All commotion and fuss
And they’re watching us

Up in heaven
Silhouettes of gods
In butterflies wings
Delicate nods

As we touch
Near the jaws of envy
As we sway
To the dance you send me
Watching us

In a goblet of wine
Sipping mutual pleasure
And the gold of the rim
Frames our endeavor
At the foot of the throne
With its flowers and fruits
Like a pack of cards
That only has suits
A tremor of tears
From a satisfied heart
All commotion and fuss
And they’re watching us

 

You Bring Your Love To Me

Diamonds and snow
And crystals that grow
A tune in the trees
That hangs on the breeze
And you bring my love to me
You bring my love to me

If I had a choice of an angel’s voice
If I could empower
For one single hour
Then you’d bring your love to me
You’d bring your love to me
And we’d kiss and entwine
For all time

Garlands of flowers
And sweet springtime showers
Your hair in the clouds
Your tresses unwound
And you bring your love to me
You bring your love to me

The patterns and shapes
That fall into place
The light of the moon
That shows me your face
And you bring my love to me
You bring my love to me
And we’d kiss and entwine
For all time

 

After Eight

You told me you were coming after five
If I’m alive, after five
I told you it’d be better after eight
When it’s too late, after eight

And if you hear a floorboard creak
Be sure that it’s not me
My feet won’t touch the carpet
Now the world has set me free

If you wanna be there in good time
Get off the line, drink your wine
If you don’t think you’ll make it, it’s okay
Gone tomorrow here today

And if silence is what shocks you
It’s just a different kind of noise
It’s bad for you, but it’s good for me
I didn’t have much choice

 

All Those Wires

Life’s a rolling stone
Are you prepared to be alone
To go to battle with your mind
But can your head put up a fight

All those wires coming out of you
Don’t confuse them
Yellow, pink and blue

Gracious, turn you inside out
Chasing all your demons out
Just knowing disconnects their hold
You warm up as they die in the cold

All those wires crossed inside of you
Thoughts don’t tire
Don’t tangle yellow, pink and blue

All those wires coming out of you
Don’t confuse them
Yellow, pink and blue

Hair hanging loose in grief
Come turn over your new leaf
Put your money on your self
Let me suck on all your wealth

Heaven’s upstairs
First door on the right
Don’t stay under
Just make sure your grip is tight

All those wires coming out of you
Don’t confuse them
Yellow, pink and blue

 

1929 Vintage Wine

Electrifying lighting
Arcs around your face
Blood red lips and cream skin
Blue eyes make my head swim
Let me sip your bouquet
Rubies in the Beaujolais
1929, you’re my vintage wine

Moisture on your top lip
Playing with a grape pip
And you’re as soft as a Sunday
Beauty’s in your resume
Let me breathe your aroma
You shook my heart from its coma
1929, you’re my vintage wine

You released a depth charge
Like a miracle, a mirage
A silver thread of moonlight
A golden box of sunlight
Something special on the wine list
Impossible to resist
And what really grabs me
Is when you open up your Chablis
1929, you’re my vintage wine

 

Wreck (A Sea Shanty)

There’s a twisted piece of jagged metal
A broken shoe and a rusting kettle
A bed of sand in which to lie
A clear blue sea in which to die
And as the breath slips from your lung
There’s no more words on your swollen tongue
And fishes pick your melting flesh
Living on your recent death

Dawn has promised you your dreams
And mentioned not your unheard screams
Set your course in your sky blue boat
You couldn’t guess you wouldn’t float
Who could sink such pretty craft
You jeered and rolled and shrugged and laughed
How vicious can a colored reef
Bear its sharp and yellow teeth

Too beautiful a day to die
Too memorable to be forgotten
A sea of tears to wave goodbye
A silent wreck to haunt the bottom

The ripples whimper on the surface
Jellyfish, transparent purses
Their sting the strength of hoarded gold
The gifts they’d buy remain unsold
So what’s the worth of the dead’s desires
When waterlogged are life’s cold fires
With seaweed hair and barnacle bones
In the powerless court on a seashell throne

Back on land your loved ones wait
For news that saunters in too late
Their salty tears mix with the sea
As they wait for all eternity
And later all that is recovered
A defiant ring that graced your lover
But to the sea now he is wed
In a ceremony of the dead

Too beautiful a day to die
Too memorable to be forgotten
A sea of tears to wave goodbye
A silent wreck to haunt the bottom

 

What Is Her Name

One day in the attic
I became ecstatic
Never such a photograph I’d seen

Although the picture faded
And the light up there was shaded
I held onto the stranger’s face and dreamed

The air was still and musty
And all the treasures dusty
I climbed back down the ladder to the hall

The steps were weak and creaking
My heart I felt was breaking
I fell down and I landed on the floor

What is her name?
Sarah or Jane?
Constance or Charmaine?
What is her name?

Where is she from?
Rebecca or Yvonne?
Sabrina or Siobhan?
Where has she gone?

Sat down in the kitchen
Inventing tales of fiction
About this beauty I held in my hand

Around her throat a locket
Her hands were in her pocket
And soon my heart had issued a command

In her eyes was sorrow
Her thoughts though I could follow
Her cheeks were pale as moonbeams in the sky

Her mouth it made me wonder
Inside I felt like thunder
I’d guess her name or at least though I would try

What is her name?
Sarah or Jane?
Constance or Charmaine?
What is her name?

Where is she from?
Rebecca or Yvonne?
Sabrina or Siobhan?
Where has she gone?

What is her name?

 

All That Remains

Turn the page as you do
See I’m staring at you
Carry on if I’m gone
Not for long and it’s true

If I fall through the cracks
And the shards of the glass
That litter the floor
All these things I’ll ignore

All that remains
Is to start up again
So we do, going to, me and you

Take a queen from the pack
Put her heart on your back
Take a quill from a bird
Write your name though absurd

Though I caught your attention
And with hardly a mention
Between the sip of your drink
And your moment to think

All that remains
Is to number your page
So you do, going to, I love you