Old gold

You lose yourself in fantasy

escaping from your loneliness

you dream up some fame ecstasy

you sharpen up and then finesse

and now you’ve got the contract

no one here has signed before

you made it yes, and that’s a fact

no one’s ever walked that floor

          oh the finest restaurant

          and the television crew

          no you’re not a debutante

          not exactly new

          no, you’re old gold

          if the story be told

          you’re old gold

You dream and lose yourself again

oh my god, you’re famous now

and all the women, all the men

will stop and ask you, baby, how

did it happen, pray do tell ?

you really made it in the end

we are shouting and we yell

you are our only dearest friend

        refr.

23/10/11

     

Poor darling

Oh you’ll live

only until tomorrow

oh what gives ?

nothing but our sorrow

poor darling

you’ve been brought low

Harvest comes

oh it sure overruns us

love has gone

and its shadow shuns us

poor darling

what is all the fuss ?

             If this museum burns down

             with all its tearful clowns

             and its many stags at bay

             Silly Milly will just say

             poor darling

             it was simply not your day

             poor darling

Love is strange

not only in the manger

love is change

into something stranger

poor darling

all outside your range

Forget the past

just stare into the future

questions asked

by all the absent tutors

poor darling

looking for Venus in furs

     refr.

23/10/11

Neighbour

Money and sadness

and mud in your eye

make for mad romance

so full of glib lies

      You go burn a candle

      when you feel you can’t handle

      the pain of not knowing

     where your illness is going

     so ask for the favour

     of strength from your neighbour

Searchlights picking out

schemes and mad reasons

cannibals and kings

of all tomorrow’s seasons

        Refr.

Money and sadness

make you feel a lot less

than you dreamed of yesterday

but it’s life, yours anyway

anyday

       Refr.

 

                    And I know there’s a place

                   where we all have a different face

                   where we stop counting the clouds

                   and stop thinking what it’s all about

                   where we go into the city

                   where we go into the fields

                   and we think it’s such a pity

                   that some withdraw from what life yields

1990’s

Loose ends tied

Harvest of the lonely

in their arid quiet fields

with crops of bitterness

and only aimless mind for yield

            Snowfall breaks your tires

            politicians prompt your ire

            life is all loose ends

            that just don’t get tied

            Sing a sweet song

            till way past midnight

            and before too long

            loose ends are tied

No celebration, just evenings

like curtains on their days of loss

of confidence, where all their

rolling stones just gather moss

            refr.

1990

The die is cast

Oh how I’ve hankered for

you and you and then some more

blood and sweat and tears just flow

around us as around we go

we long and cry and hope and fear

we never seem to be right here

now I stub out my cigarette

thinking of the way we’ve met

          My mistakes are in the future

          and my crimes are in the past

          but today nothing is moving

          still I know the die is cast

I’m drinking in a bar

I’m wondering where you are

all the women passing by

full of beauty so damn right

flickering like flame and fire

on the altars of desire

you never seem to be right here

you’re just a memory dear

          refr.

1980's

Hope

Here goes our reason
it trickles away, is fickle
it's the time of the season
and who wields the sickle ?

We're alive and we thrive
we harvest and reap
we cycle and we drive
we're on top of the heap

     oh lord give me mercy
     oh lord give me hope
     'cause without mercy
     I just cannot cope
     so lord give me hope

We look at the women
but who do you choose
the women, the men
are all on the loose

I look at the windows
I stare at the doors
I stand in the shadows
and need to know more

       refr.



18/10/2011

Flagpole

Have you come here to bore me

have you come here to adore the

bright girls behind the bar

who won’t tell you who they are

to see them carry someone out

too drunk to know his whereabouts

and be sent off home in a taxi

to show the devil where the axe is

It’s not necessary someone says

somewhere in the middle of the mess

he’s gone and left his wife

and what to do now ‘bout his life ?

she’s probably on welfare

or in her old grandparensts’ care

waiting for it to blow over

get back to crimson and clover

       and the barman knows all stories

       brought them from Texas on a lorry

       he's the bright boy on the pinball

       and he oversees us all

       he’s the flagpole that won’t fall

And I’ve seen the artificial sunrise

burning up God’s very eye

right by the pinball machines

singing the praise of Satan’s dreams

in the bloodhot penny arcades

where the poor are on parade

for the lucky headstrong ones to see

I wonder what it means to me

     Refr.



early 1980's

Love built this town

We all know that hatred
will tear any world asunder
cruelty and war will
unleash their senseless thunder
and their uselessness will
make it seem we'll all go under

Betrayal and mistrust
always seem to win the day
cheating, rape and treason
have their senseless useless way
but there is a better reason
that will finally save the day

        Love has made this world
        that's the warp and woof
        love of child and man and girl
        we are the living proof
        love has built this town
        that nothing will tear down
        and love is all
        the sweetest call

Love preserves the village
weaves it like a sheet
it covers every blemish
and this is where we meet
a place to heal and cherish
all that really makes us free

We all know that distrust
and dishonesty can't rule
tho' we bear the weight of lies
we've been done, we've been schooled
and we know the price of pain
we are lonely, we are fools


     but: refr.


16/10/11