Acoustic

Acoustic Player

Lyrics & Notes

Scroll down or use the table of contents to see the lyrics and notes for these songs.

A Love Song

She’s sitting in the flashing light
At a table with her friends
And the way I feel the way I hurt
I know I can’t pretend
That it’s anything but love
That it’s anything but love
I feel for her

And I feel it in the night-time
I feel it through the day
And I just can’t remember
If I’ve ever felt this way before

I’ve seen her on a sunny day
And I’ve seen her in my mind
The way she looks the way she smiles
I know I’m going to find
That what I feel is love
That what I feel is love
For her

And I feel it in the night-time
I feel it through the day
And I just can’t remember
If I’ve ever felt this way before

And across the crowded dance floor
I see her sitting on her own
Will this be the big night
Or just another chance I’ve blown

Then one magic moment later
She’s dancing in my arms

Then come the final curtain
We kissed and said “Goodnight”
And I could tell deep down inside
That everything was right

Now I see her in the night-time
I see her through the day
And I just can’t remember
When it was any other way

This song was recorded in 1986 and digitised in 2006. Rather shockingly, it took me until this year (2008) to do anything with it. It had to be trimmed a little at either end, normalised and then I decided to add a delay effect to change the feel of it.

Of course it is a bit cliched but I’m kind of fond of it because the idea was actually sparked off whilst sitting in a club somewhere, way back in college days when it seemed that someone was “falling in love” every other time a group of us students went out for beers and dancing. Can’t remember whose turn it was on this occasion. Who knows it might have been mine if I hadn’t had my head full of lyrics and potential guitar riffs.

Imagine A Man

Imagine a man in a light grey coat
Sitting beneath a carnival float
Writing short songs with the blade of a knife
Songs about heroes and songs about life

Imagine a man in a tree in a park
Singing his songs until it gets dark
Songs about freedom and songs about nuts
Songs of oppression and a pain in his guts

Songs of injustice
Songs of love
Songs of religions
And the stars above

Imagine a man with a long furry tail
A man who’s at one with the worm and the snail
A man who writes songs with the blade of a knife
Songs about heroes and songs about life

Songs of oppression
Songs of love
Tales of depression
And the stars…

Imagine a man who plays in the grass
Dancing on cans and broken glass
A man who writes songs and sings to the trees
A man who’s at one with the wind and the breeze

Imagine a man in a light grey coat
Sitting beneath a carnival float
A man who writes songs and sings to the trees
A man who’s at one with the wind…

What can you say about a song that came about as a result of a friend making an off-hand remark about a “song-writing squirrel”?

Well, it’s one of my oldest songs and can be traced futher back than this “definitive” 1985 version. It’s also one of my favourites because I think of it as quirky and very much not part of the mainstream.

This version was recorded in 1986 (again!) but has been nicely updated using my good friend Audacity and some samples from The Freesound Project:

forestsurroundings.mp3 by Luftrum, and;
Wind1.aif by pushtobreak.

Their excellent work in recording these samples is much appreciated and they’ve helped to add some nice atmosphere to this recording. Thanks!

The Jester’s Tale

Spinning lights that dance upon a stage
A wild-eyed hero stands before the world
The crowd are sighing crocodile tears
As they await the Jester’s sorry tale

He’s dancing in the entrance hall
And singing blues to the stalls
A tear in his eye he spreads his arms
Bows down low and cries “Goodbye”

The curtains fall for us to leave
We see the lights begin to fade
And in the street so far below
The Jester cries in his Ferrari

Neon lights go whirling crazy past
His car becomes a bright red blast
The streets are flying the tyres burning
And then he cries “I just can’t carry on”

From dancing in the entrance hall
And singing blues to the stalls
Pain’s filled his head its killed his will
Twisted him so he’s a broken wreck

Then up ahead he sees the warning
But carries on with no regard
Until he hits the darkened road-end
And his car explodes in a bloody flash

But a ghost still dances in the entrance hall
And singing blues echo through the empty stalls
Far out in the night his spirit is crying
Stranded in the silver air another lost soul dying

He is gone
The Jester is gone
He is gone
But still we love him

Another favourite and yes, this one is a bit of an epic which owes it’s existence to my prog rock roots. It was written way back in 1983 and I’ve recorded it several times, this being the clearest and best performance (from 1987). I cleaned it up a bit and then added various sound effects to give it a bit more life. All of the sound effects used were obtained from The Freesound Project and here are the attributions for them:

No transmission.ogg by Jobro
Ferrari F456.wav by djbono
smallAudienceChatter.wav by oniwe
Approx 850 – Enthusiast Audience.wav by lonemonk
20070224.siren.flac by dobroide
HeartbeatEnhanced.wav by HerbertBoland

So thanks to all these guys, without whom … etc.

Touch

I’ve lost track of all these nights
I’ve sat here on my own
All the time that I’ve spent waiting
For somebody to come home
To hold me close
To keep me warm

And just a little touch
Would go such a long way

I’ve lost count of all the days
I’ve struggled to get by
All the time that I’ve spent wishing
That I was not so shy
That I could love
That I could feel

And just a little touch
Would go such a long way

And now the winter nights are drawing in
I really need that warmth
The warmth of another soul
To hold me close
To hold me tight
And keep me warm throughout these nights

And just a little touch
would go such a long way now

I need someone to hold me
I need someone to love me
And just a little touch
Would go such a long way

This is of the same vintage as Another Day, having originally been recorded in 1987. I used the same tools to digitise it but this one took a little more work.

The tracking was a bit off so I had to speed it up a tad after denoising it. Then I decided that it was way too long in its original form having an overlong intro and middle section that didn’t really add anything – instrumental breaks in acoustic numbers aren’t always the best idea.

So, it has been slashed from a monstrous 4m 57s down to a much more manageable and (dare I say listenable) 3m 36s. It also had to be brightened up a bit as the original recording was quite muddy.

This Is Rock And Roll

I know this guy called Johnny from a no hope town
And he is really sick of all these new wave sounds
He knows he can do better than these manicured has beens
‘Cos Johnny’s got the talent and Johnny’s got a dream

Singing – this is rock and roll
We’ve got the heart, we’ve got the soul
This is rock and roll
We’ve got the heart, we’ve got the soul

He wants to get a band together hit the music scene
Shake it all over making everyone scream
Take it to the outer limits take it all the way
They’re gonna give it all they’ve got they’re really gonna play

Singing – this is rock and roll…etc

So this simple guy called Johnny from that no hope town
He’s got it all together spreading the word around
Telling all the stories about the people he’s known
And how life just ain’t worth living when there’s no rock and roll

Singing – this is rock and roll…etc

I said – this is rock and roll
We’ve got the heart and we’ve got the soul

I trimmed about 40 seconds off the original version of this using Audacity then added some effects to freshen it up a bit. Despite the cliched lyrics I think it isn’t a bad song especially as I was trying very hard to write something with normal, accessible lyrics at the time.

Sacred Heart

You came here from so far away
And I hope that you are going to stay
Because now that I have seen your face
Feels as if I’ve witnessed an angel’s grace

This feeling won’t go away
I know you’re the one I need
If only I could tell you how
I long to hear your sacred heart beat

There has never been anyone else
That’s made me feel so unlike myself
I’ve been dazzled by the blazing light
That shines from you a goddess dressed in white

This feeling won’t go away
I know you’re the one I need
If only I could tell you how
I long to feel your sacred heart beat

I long to hear your sacred heart beat
I long to feel your sacred heart beat

This feeling just won’t go away
I hope so much that you are here to stay
You’re the one that I really need
And I long to hear your sacred heart beat

Next to mine

More cliches and more trimming to make this a lot more to the point musically and a lot less indulgent.

Beauty And The Beast

This girl is really something
She lights up the room
And as she breezes in
You can’t help but turn
Turn and look her way
And when she smiles you just don’t know what to say

She’s the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen
The original Beauty
The most beautiful girl there’s ever been
She’s the orignal Beauty

They say her guy’s a zero
But he stands out in a crowd
And as he saunters in
You can’t help but think
Think he’s got some kind of power
But it’s something as dark as the midnight hour

He’s the moodiest guy you’ve ever seen
With more than a touch of the Beast
The moodiest guy there’s ever been
He’s got more than a touch of the Beast

And you can’t help but wonder what she sees
It’s a classic case of the Beauty and the Beast

This was written and recorded in 1987. The original recording is much longer but I cut at least a minute of aimless riffing off at either end to produce the version presented here. As recordings go, it’s a bit rougher then the others and it starts rather abruptly (because of the edits) but I like the lyrics and that is why I decided to post the song.

Another Day

Ain’t it funny how time seems to fly
When you’ve got something that needs to be done
Ain’t it funny how time slips away
When you have got errands to run
No matter how you try
It passes you right by
There’s nothing left to say except
There goes another day

Ain’t it strange how plans can go astray
And you never get a chance to get it right
Ain’t it strange how time seems to run
So that day is suddenly night
No matter how you try
It passes you right by
There’s nothing left to say except
There goes another day

It’s maddening how time seems to fly
When you’ve important things to do
It’s frustrating how time slips away
And how the flow is always against you
No matter how you try
It passes you right by
There’s nothing left to say except
There goes another day

Ain’t it funny how time seems to fly
When you’ve got something that needs to be done
Ain’t it funny how time slips away
And you never get time to have fun
No matter how you try
It passes you right by
There’s nothing left to say except
There goes another day

Ain’t it funny how time seems to fly
Ain’t it funny how time passes by
Ain’t it funny how time slips away
And you realise – that you have lost another day

This was composed in 1985 and most recently recorded in 1987. I used Audacity to normalise it and then boost the volume after using Magix Audio Cleaning Lab to transfer it from tape and remove some hiss and tape noise.