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30-track double-CD released November 2002
Smoke Up Close is an acoustic album of 30 songs, written in three months and recorded in seven sessions.
No overdubs, no edits. Because I said I would. I needed to stand naked in front of the world.
CV
Encouraged by the audience reaction to the acoustic tours, Colin took the opportunity to create songs and record them without any of the lavish arrangements often associated with his work.
As 30 acoustic tracks spread across two CDs, it’s demanding of listeners and one of his least accessible works. But while the album can be challenging, as single albums (or tracks shuffled on an iPod, perhaps?) the music here is among Colin’s most touching and most rewarding.
While Water on Snow could have been a Black album, Colin insisted that Smoke up Close was too personal to ever be anything but a Colin Vearncombe solo album.
Read ‘Smoke Up Close – Essay No. 7 in the series The Music of Black (Colin Vearncombe)’ here.
Lyrics
Disc 1
The Wishing
i should have married nancy
it’s five years to the day she said:
you face and choose me
instead i turned and walked away
i did not understand
what happened to those plans could have happened to them all
the wishing’s not enough to make a dream come true
i’m going somewhere don’t know where but the wishing’s not enough
wishing’s not enough, wishing’s not enough
and it never was
i could have been a sailor, the ocean set me free
wear my trousers inside out and golden earrings in both ears
i’d drift the wide pacific the harbours and the bars
making friends of sickness with the dockside whores and stevedores
a tattoo on my shirt, the kind that doesn’t hurt: jonny could have had it all
the wishing’s not enough to make a dream come true
i’m going somewhere don’t know where but the wishing’s not enough
wishing’s not enough, wishing’s not enough
and it never was
now i’m a stranger to the razor
a stranger to myself
and when i look in the mirror i see someone sitting on a shelf
Seeds and Stalks
born like the age of a hurricane
the reverend john was his favoured name
one of many
he loved his women and being high
and they laughed in his arms as they looked in his eyes and loved him
like you would too
if he did like he’s telling you to
ask her, ask her, ask her
if you can’t remember what it’s like before
you lose the sense that life is only
seeds and stalks (ask her)
he lived fast and loose he played long and hard
played right down to the final card
if he had to
he said: here’s the thing it might seem insane
if i love ’em once i can do it again
if you ask them, they’ll say the same
the better part of john is that he never blames
ask her, ask her, ask her
when you can’t recall what it was like before
you realised you needed more than seeds and stalks
only rainy eyed women could make him sad
lose everything that he never had
‘cept for choosing
he’d say: honey, come you can tell me it all
all of the thoughts you shouldda had before
especially the ones you tried to ignore
legs in the darkness and you only fall
’cause you’re pretty but the armour’s wearing thin
ask her, ask her, ask her
you’ve got the time if you need to talk (to)
dreamin’ it up again as more than seeds and stalks
there’s no-one there because no-one cares
’cause they learned to smile and they’re off somewhere playing happy
(are you) gonna live your life somewhere else entirely
than the place i see you stand before me with your mind anywhere
but in your skin
’cause it don’t fit the shape you’re in
ask her, ask her, ask her
the full moon’s not the time to want to talk
to criticise and say your life’s
just seeds and stalks
no maam!!
Dyin’ for the Quarter
twin deceiver
unbeliever here i am
got no horizons, stuck with me eyes on
where i am
i never wanted to like the others do
never want to think like you want me to
i do anything i want to
don’t ask why when the sun don’t shine
do anything i have to and
i don’t mind if i never get around to wynona
i’ll wait for wynona
dying for the quarter
floating or sinking don’t get ’round to thinking which it is
sit like a beggar at an eighty gig Sega
and ride the whizz
you never have to live like the others do
you never have to look like they want you to
i do anything i want to
’cause i don’t mind if the sun don’t shine
do anything i have to
and don’t ask why would you want to
change the wine in to water (and)
lie in the water
dying for the quarter
rocking and riding both running and hiding
here i am
thee could go thine way ’cause all of it’s my way if i can
an angel in my head that i can’t ignore
i never have to ask what it’s in there for
i’ll do anything i have to
i don’t mind if the sun won’t shine
do anything i want to
if i don’t fly i may never get around to wynona
i play for wynona
dying for the quarter
It Doesn’t Matter Now
memory is such a fickle friend
it can hold on to the pain of yesterday
and this place has no pity it’s not hard to hate this city
’til you think you’ve found your own place in the sun
you are haunted by the spaces that she leaves
make you want to look the other way
she’s the answer to the question you didn’t want to ask
the one you’ve been avoiding everyday
it doesn’t matter now
it didn’t matter then
the only thing we choose
is how to feel when we’re loosing
and once the page is read
it’s better thrown away
were you stopped by the dancing, the loving standing up?
stopped by the laughing in the face of giving up?
stopped by the past when the future looked so good?
would you dance on your own grave
if you thought you could?
was she satisfied to simply walk away
to drop you from her life without a trace?
was she seeing another as you looked in to her eyes
or only the reflection of her fame?
you’ve been carrying that torch for far too long
to grieve beside a hole that isn’t there
for the first time in your life be as brave as you are scared
and live it like you’ve lived it once before
live it
like you’ve lived it
once before
it doesn’t matter now
it didn’t matter then
the only thing we choose
is how to feel when we’re loosing
and once the page is read
it’s better thrown away
If Not You Then Who?
who pulled me clear
and free from the wreckage as I drew near
to spinning in freefall out of view?
who laughs through the tears
and stands in the wreckage scorning fear and makes the good times seem overdue
who if not you
tell me who
if not you?
who’s like a dream
that moves into places stretched between
the centuries sleeping
when they’re gone
and never seems tired
still facing down headlights
while you’re wired
out running and smiling
in the rain?
the first time you let someone else come inside
the first time you get to feel really alive
like the first thing created from a life underrated
the possible high from impossible why’s
throw your hat in the air like you saw on tv
a prisoner released, nineteen fifty three
the struggle’s unfinished the struggle goes on
the struggle is everything
why not have it as fun?
The Bride
the air was static charged
you could hardly breathe
the night she reappeared
as if from the sea
her hair hanging like darkness
a car pulled into view
more than two metres wide
the windows tinted blue, i strained to see inside
trace her silhouette the lines that mark her passing by
don’t say that i was only dreaming
i’d know her anywhere, i know what she can do
a drop of evil in the sweetest kiss
call her the bride of the abyss
(and now) you sit and stare so gone you’d
watch your thumb on fire
each night to lie awake
your mouth turned desert dry
and count the distant sirens as they mark her coming closer
and no one can comfort you
you know she’s come for you
to join her in her vicious games
there’s no escape from her it always ends the same
don’t say that i was only dreaming
i’d know her anywhere, i know what she can do
a drop of evil in the sweetest kiss
call her the bride of the abyss
Come to Me
am i the only one strung out and smiling at your shadow?
when i dream it’s always you
black seams and touching up your lipstick
oh and it’s alright, i’m free
i can stay all night (with you)
i’m hungry i can’t sleep: i’d ride the breath out of an angel
no cure and no relief
until you’re here, a part of my reality
and it’s all right, i’ll say please
come and stay all night
i may be much that is wrong with you
but right now i want you with my heart and my soul
and i would wait back it takes so long, so long
come to me, come to me
my star my saving grace
you hit the stupid bit inside of me
and unsure, i smile in case
i change my mind
and then i’d have to lie to you
that it’s all right with me
cause i want you all night
with me, me
so come to me, come to me
there may be much that is wrong with me
i’m outsize and rusted in my heart and in my soul
but i’m here and waiting but it takes too long
much too long
Graves of Rockers
we could sit in here and drink right through the night
hear the tales of drugs and alcohol and fights
and where the stories go around the car park in the snow but
it’s a black and white world to live inside
marx was wrong and groucho’s gone (why not)
give chance a piece of what’s going on
the little white lies and the long white lines
only hide the cracks in what we’re standing on
we are born and then we become what we are
strung between the lines of a guitar
and many seem to want what none would surely choose again;
the graves of rockers
you don’t have to suffer like you do
this is the strangest place you’ve been
sat in the back
of a stretch limousine
you drink to ishmael the one that’s left alive
a drink is an article of faith
to someone with more than one face
to show to the world when you cannot sneak it past
and you want to have it all, ahead of time
there written on each granite slab of stone
above the bleaching, brittle bones
the numbers don’t add up, there’s none
would surely choose again
the graves of rockers
few things hurt more
than being ignored
face up in the bath a stupid smile upon your face you only
forget why you’d done it all
there written on each slab of frozen stone
above the bleaching, brittle bones
the numbers don’t add up there’s none would surely choose again
the graves of rockers
River Ride Women
get to believe the signs; there’s you by the roadside
and breaking into a smile you light up the black top and white lines
with the skyline for miles and the road rushing by
and a new day dawning
i found a new way
wrapped up with your name on it
all my life i’ve waited on someone i
could not depend on and
i found myself saying i love you
river ride women get me hot
everything changes now you’re here on the inside
and i get to believe somehow
i learn to deserve it and with
your back to the door and my foot to the floor
and the sunlight pouring
in through the windscreen
wrapped up with your name on it?..
all my life i’ve waited on someone i
could not depend on and
i found myself saying i love you
river ride women get me hot
as i’m driving in the rain start thinking i am someone else
the radio starts playing i give up wishing i was someone else
and with the skyline for miles and the road rushing by and a new day forming
i found a new way, wrapped up with your name on it
all my life i’ve waited on someone i
could not depend on and
i found myself saying i love you
river ride women get me lost
Different Lies
getting older wearing loose fit no more dreaming of the prize
you give it all up the only thing still growing is your size
defined by glaciers and groaning like the icepack after dark
when you were younger believing lies the things you said were always true
’cause you were younger you take up the slack; the sorry lines they feed to you
when you’re going nowhere you know that any road will take you there
i will lay you down to rest, lay me down to sleep
to let my soul and spirit soar (’cause)
it knows a hundred places it can’t hide
if each of us is living different lies
confined to wanting clinging onto things you know you should not have
becoming smaller shrinking down inside the guts you did not have
confined to wishing
wishing on a star that died a million years ago
Having a Good Time
restless in the pale moonlight, the scratching of the stars
like the growing pains of tv heroes that fade away like scars; so slow
to a pindrop speck of cobalt blue
from a rainbow, just like from a rainbow
headstones as far as the eye can see
let the heartache begin
the spiral take you down again
there’s space to grow, there’s room to breathe
it only hurts you while you fall
and then it doesn’t hurt at all
it only hurts you as you drop
and then it stops
but it’s cold here, as cold as sitting in the dark sea of tranquillity
so high and dry, dreaming of my
having a good time
laughter in the street below
the sweep of passing cars
late night carousers spilling out on to the streets
from late night drinking bars, oh yes
and they all say will you marry me?
’cause i need a rainbow, yes i need a rainbow
headstones as far as the eye can see
Radio Silence
beneath the radar
the sun, moon and stars
i am breathing, waiting not only to inhale
i am a form forgotten
the reaching out and touching; the duetting
to harmonise with stars as i am breathing
seeking not only to inhale
breathing,
i will scorch the heaving clamour with the
stillness of breathing
driven by the beauty of its’ lacking
there’s no going back here
beneath the radar
i am stronger than i seem as i lay reeling
waiting not only to exhale one wild guess
breathing,
i will scorch the heaving clamour with the
stillness of breathing
driven by the beauty of its’ lacking
there’s no going back here
When I Was Him
the old cliché, why to begin?
include me out of any mess you’re stepping in
but if he swings you need to know
la ronde can have slipping further down than you have ever known
you and i, wonderful life
it already hasn’t happened yet and here’s the why
on your back or on your knees it seems to make no difference
to what you think you need
tell me something i already don’t know
tell the reasons why you have to sneak around
and go with him
i know when i was him
i wanted more than clichés
you and i and me and him
there’s something that this whole wide world can’t come between
to sit in hell and count the stars
as they flicker dimly and then one by one go out
tell me something that you don’t want me to know
a secret burns away to leave an acid hole
that’s filled by him
i know when i was him
i wanted more than chocolate sex
and amyl high and supernova suicides
to only laugh to make him cry
a fantasy of how you’re right
to strip your clothes and pawn the crown
everyone’s a winner when you’re on the way down
enjoy before you lie and sleep forever
Joni
don’t look behind ’cause what’s in store
is what you spent your whole damn stupid life
just trying to ignore
another dream you’re getting ahead
and nothing changes until you’re dead
when only a fool
or a coward trying to grow a dick
would turn from joni
and walk right out of here
turn your head, decline the call
but only a fool
would turn from joni
losing track still keeping score
does this remind you of someone you thought you knew before her
no longer lonely, just alone
the lights are out and no-one’s home
only a fool or a coward trying to grow a dick
would turn from joni
and walk the other way
you only laugh to hide the sound
the tears of a clown
the words of joni
only a fool, the kind defines the crime
who could fall and keep on falling
but stalls and keeps on stalling. only a fool
the kind of guy could turn from joni
She Loves My Life
she brings the dead space to life
she moves into the darkness and it comes alight and
she takes my hand and guides me to the distant places
i never knew were close at hand
she creates crimson from grey she
hot wired my heart and drove it away
it hurts as much to say as own
the only time i’ve known that i’m
alive’s when someone hurts me
but she lights my fire
and builds it higher
she lights my fire, then i know why
she loves my life
she can what she will when she tries
she drills the spectres that walk the night
’cause i too have been so very green
a little in love with death as seen
in stupid movies
but she lights my fire
and builds it higher
she lights my fire and i know why;
she loves my life
and then the chill falls away
feel like i’m sprawled out in the sun
on my back she’s writing: “welcome,
welcome to the fun”??.
she lights my fire and builds it higher
she lights my fire and i know why:
SHE LOVES MY LIFE
Disc 2
History of Rock and Roll
showered with offers at twenty one
by the age of twenty two she is nearly long gone
they keep calling her the heir to the rock & roll crown
man, it weighs so heavy it was dragging her down
wants it ’til she’s got it then tries to run away
a hunger so deep it can never go away
no way to fill it, to turn down the dial below the limit
if she could only stop from crying
she says: i love him
but he’s the kind to be clever with, i’m ready
maybe soon make it better
but she’s wanted him for so long she’s forgotten how it goes
this is the history of rock & roll
all fogged up can’t even see to ride
a .44 magnum on the passenger side
pops a table for the cramping but it just wont’ fade
she starts hearing things she used to say;
to love you’s to surrender, it’s the need to lose
to want to step inside a king of raging feud
between the sea and sky, my head and my heart
and choosing which of them is blowing me apart
he says: i want her
want her so much i can taste her when i’m sleeping
she’s the scale of the ether
how much is it worth if it is free: just don’t
this is the history of rock & roll
haunted by images, the planet’s turning
the sun going down on mississippi burning
only darkness has the power to make her
open up her heart
and play it to the world as though they’re only
tears for crying
we want the future
maybe soon, maybe never, when we’re ready
but we act like we hate it
how much is it worth if it is free?
we’ll never know
this is the history of rock & roll
Quinn’s Old Flame
she met him nearing easter with the
flowers coming through and
the rains start to recede
the sky to turning blue
she met him as a lover
the finder to the spark
he met her as the latest
lonely question mark
and so he wonders how he get here
and he wonders what he’ll be
he calls it fate, he calls it destiny
take any road and it ends the same
not strong enough to choose her he is
quinn’s old flame
he loved her in the abstract
each of her body parts
he loves her still: at night
he draws a mental chart
(and) puts the parts together
and smiling to himself
he draws her to him, he draws her to him
he wished he was handsome
or at least well read
that his name was rock or rocky
t-bone or red
he calls it what he wants gives it a thousand names
a born again loser he’s quinn’s old flame
he entertains a dream
of putting down some roots
in every place of business that
he’s passing through
he can’t forget what they could have been
she liked him as he came
quinn’s old flame
Child’s Play
we walked on out to the tip of the sound
and we rolled in the surf like seals there
and she sang songs to the dolphins and whales
that move through the deep waters
we ran and laughed to tumble over each other
sprawl in the long grass
and you kissed my hand
and I wept like I was in heaven
Tremayne was born on the fifth of July
and she grew like a wild flower
and plays with love as a dangerous thing
runs deep as the still water
she runs, she laughs, she twists inside
of herself to land where she ought to
’cause from on your back
you can see straight up into heaven
and it’s child’s play
New York in fall and Paris in the springtime
all the different places we can go
revolving like the backdrop to the show
“if i couldn’t live without you”
to be standing in the places that i didn’t wanna go
looking at the faces i never thought i’d know
the clearing of the lines for her to step into
thinking of the things that it might mean to you
you can walk on out to the tip of the sound
Summer Rain
did i? yes i thought your name, your body line, your auburn mane
a forgotten half remembered game that’s lost in time I
loved you once i love you still though it seems we’ve had our fill
of things that linger on until we can’t look away
this place has everything you want but nothing that you need
and it’s hard to leave
what we can’t reveal they already see
we can’t see ourselves from the outside in
looking back at where we’ve been
and grinning at the mess we’re in when we could cry
had you forgotten i’m a man, a rebel on his knees
smart enough to love you but afraid of what it means?
enough to want to hide all the things you have inside
where none can see
what we don’t show they already see
good time boys and print through girls
thin cotton dresses clinging, dancing and singing
in the summer rain
come on in the water’s fine reminds me of the time
i skinny dipped with Madeline and didn’t take her home that night
and it’s not that i don’t care no more
just as we live our values change
one more thing to re-arrange until it fits
Afterlife
i came as soon as i could
didn’t know when but i knew that you would
you weren’t born in disguise
i’ll only go if i must
got an itch can’t wish it away
pick me up like a Warratah wave
it’s not the fear when i stop
but what i’m making it mean
i won’t wait
i do what i have to do to make it right
why be him
be anyone but yourself and die inside
in an afterlife
who am i when i look at your face
who are you when i look in your eyes
only seeing myself
what i’m making it mean
it’s there in every face:
who am i, how long have i got?
do you think about me like i think about you?
i won’t wait
i do what i have to do to make it right
why be him
be anyone but yourself and die inside
in an afterlife
The Hurting Kind
a good friend to me said love can be
the thing that keeps you close but still not loving
it holds you to the things you say
when all you want is to run away
and hide
and there’s a place i go
a bit part in the monkey show
the lover in the leading role
the villain singing dark and low
that she knows, she knows
she knows what it’s like to be the hurting kind
and standing in the bitter wind
feel it like a blade drawn across my skin
and then she says: why don’t i guess,
what could you want that i have left?
another soundtrack fades to blue
can’t fade the real thing, face the truth
the lover in a monkey suit
with singing eyes don’t dim but shine
i know, i know, i know what it’s like
to be the hurting kind
and standing in the wings you don’t see everything
a king without a throne, a king without a crown
a king without a queen to throw his arms around
a king without a place a queen without a face
but the hurting kind
and half hidden by the shadows i
move before the rolling tide
Trouble Forgot You
this is a kind of surrender:
to stop then carry on
you walk in to an empty space
and wonder why, you wonder how
what’s going on?
this is your story
of where you wanted to
the breaking down and breaking through
i know that you
you think of yourself as someone who’s lost
who’s sitting on the fence
where you can’t carry on but there’s
nothing really wrong
trouble’s forgotten you
a picture speaks a thousand words
each and every one of them’s a lie
just look out on a sunny day
every frame of your existence is the question
why .you’ve the puncture marks of living
and a cold wind blowing through
the feeling so scared but still wanting to
’cause i know that you
you think of yourself as someone far gone
who’s sat up on a shelf and you can’t carry on
but there’s nothing really wrong
trouble’s forgotten you
and the only thing to say
is that you don’t know what you did
but you did it anyway
when i know that you
you thought of yourself
as someone who’d lost, was sitting on the fence
like you can’t carry on
but you can’t carry on
’cause there’s nothing really wrong
trouble’s forgotten you
Thumbnail
i have a sister i haven’t always known
she tells me things i haven’t seen
the kinds of vision appear in widescreen
she says i am the dream
where the buskers play sibelius
and dance while singing shakespeare
agonising over eliot
when it’s yeats they wanna hear
who is your friend that looks so strange at me
who is your friend that looks so strange
could get to feeling i am afraid of her
but what’s the use to me in being afraid
big as a thumbnail as small as the moon
within your eyeline
paint your thumbnail, chew on the moon
ignore the skyline
’til the buskers play sibelius
and dance while singing shakespeare
agonising over eliot
when it’s yeats they wanna hear
who is your friend that looks so strange at me
who is your friend that looks so strange i
could get to feeling i’m afraid of her
but what’s the use to me in being afraid
Waitin’
the night sits on us like a great black bird
and somewhere out there the big cats are prowling
and the women are out on the street
ripe and sleek
in dresses like gauze
are you listening?
we are ready, we are waiting
waiting for you to come
there’s an old crone sitting in a rocking chair
nursing a colt ’45 as she teases up her hair
and her mouth’s like a door for the dead
lipstick red
and she grins without cause
we’re not unhappy, we’re still unsure
we’re moving
moving out today
moving on to a different place
waiting for you to come
you can see ten miles along highway nine
and you know you don’t wanna be a sad old guy
like a mirror held up to turbulent times
knowing your only crime
was you were too scared to fight
we’re not unhappy, we’re still unsure
we’re moving
moving out today
moving on to a different place
waiting for you to come
Murphy
the first time i saw murphy she was comin’ in to land
flapping out her arms and grabbing at my hand
to swear allegiance ’cause she’s the kind that can
get you to feeling like you never have
wrong, wrong, wrong there is nothing going on
don’t get me wrong, wrong
before i’m gone
i’ve been holding on too long
the morning after of a different time
longing claims to what could not be mine
she’s everything i once thought of as bad
but she had me wanting things i’ve never had
the second time i saw her ends with us both bathed in sweat
the act of love an act of mutual contempt
so she could find her way back when she’s scared
more afraid of what she’s forgotten
than of what she’s learned
wrong, wrong, wrong there is nothing going on
don’t get me wrong, wrong
before i’m gone
i’ve been holding on too long
she has a humour entirely her own
makes people edgy; think they’ve never know
what it’s like to laugh and never care
if they’re the only one that’s laughing there
lost for a reason you’re lost for words
inside a victory you cannot declare
she says: shut up and listen
’cause here’s the thing
i was allergic to my wedding ring
Needle Time
there’s no-one i need less in this whole word than you
but you were what i had so i guess i want you back
someone to chide me when i am old
someone to lay beside me when i’m tired and cold
’cause there’s a place inside of me that you can’t reach
a place where i am singing in my dreams
a little piece inside of me that you can’t change
there’s nowhere left to run
and no one left to blame
you bought me on the evening america went to war
No one recognises me in pictures from before
you’ve changed everything a camera could see
kept changing everything but what you mean to me
cause there’s a place inside of me that you can’t reach
a place where i am singing in my dreams
a little piece inside of me that you can’t change
there’s nowhere left to run
and no one left to blame
the things that used to make you laugh now
drive you to distraction
the little things that made me smile have lost
all their attraction
but i’ll put you behind me like the way i used to feel
’cause everything you bought does not include
what you can’t steal
cause there’s a place inside of me that you can’t reach
a place where i am singing in my dreams
a little piece inside of me that you can’t change
there’s nowhere left to run
and no one left to blame
Stormy Waters
i’d call it through, i’ve seen the signs
won’t waste my time any longer
you made your choice so go let it loose
go play and lose with the rainbows
where i don’t know who i see when i look at you now
did you lie down for him
did you give yourself to him
and dip your stupid toes in stormy waters?
you look lonely and cold, a thousand years old
and your eyes don’t show what you have
but what you’ve sold
i don’t need to know but i want to know
let it all come on (let)
the bad times roll
i don’t know who i see when i look at you now
i’ve told you once, i’ve told you twice
the hundred thousand times that i have tried
i’m doing fine, i’ll be alright (i)
don’t waste my time chasing rainbows
’cause i don’t know who i see when i look at you now
did you lie down for him
did you give yourself to him
set yourself alight on stormy waters?
you crossed the bridge of sighs
as he spattered yours insides
to sink up to your neck in stormy waters
The Sunshine
you put the sunshine back in my life
and i never thought i’d see that day again
the sunshine’s back in my dreams
from head to toe in indigo blue jeans
and it listens to my heartbeat
and it knows what i am thinking;
i want the sunshine back in my life
a canopy of colours in 3D
i play the sunshine reels in my head
and i run them ’til they hook up with my dreams
a backdrop to the singing
and the wishing i was singing
singing to the children
and the children to the dolphins
you wear the sunshine smile in your eyes
a waterfall cascading in your hair
the sunshine splashed on your skin
and i’m lost inside the spaces that we share
but not drowning i am waving
and what i want’s to keep on saying;
i’ve got the sunshine back in my life
i never thought i’d feel this way again
the sunshine’s back in my dreams
a movie in a stack of broken needs
and you’re playing to my heartbeat
are you thinking what i’m thinking?
children in the sunshine
and we share it in the singing
the sunshine’s back in my life
That Was Yesterday
he was once bitten twice shy;
he was that type of guy
an honest man no doubt with much to be honest about
but he laughed as he danced as if turned inside out
he says: the injured have their reasons not to hear the word no
they skirt the actions and the has beens
the sour sour pussies and the glamour queens
they say: i’ll find you baby, i’ll find you
even when i cant’ face to turn the lights
down low and dream
’cause that was yesterday
that was someone who lived inside yesterday ‘sif
yesterday was the only place he knew
she was ten times shy she’d known the kind of guy
who could undress her slowly only with their eyes
and wish the million miles between their places
she said: i like your eyes they’re like headlights in the rain,
what are you doing tonight, won’t you tell me your name?
we could go down to the piazza of tiny feet
amid the cheap perfume and the cigarette smoke
and the vials and pills for no specific ills
but without them you feel like you’d choke
on the blackness and waste of your heart
but that was yesterday that was someone who lived
inside yesterday like yesterday’s the only place he knew
that was yesterday
when i was someone who
lived in yesterday
as if yesterday’s the only thing he knew
i wanted yesterday
like i wanted to
live inside yesterday
it was the only place reminded me of you
we wanted yesterday
we still want yesterday
but now
somehow
we want tomorrow too
Blonde Trouble
she’s the kind could clean you out
strip your clothes and blow up your house
stand you naked in the rubble
making promises with your fingers crossed
counting the cost of the things you’ve lost
count the cost of things unfound
blond trouble
she’s like the driving force of fate
a mirror thrown from a speeding train
an elastic rope that’s drawn between two points
her voice says: would i lie to you?
the eyes say something different
she says: i think i love you
but it’s not the thought that counts
roll a six ’cause you know you can
stare down the barrel of a loaded gun
move to a place that seems remote
she’s the kind could clean you out
strip your clothes blow up your house
stand you naked in the rubble
blond trouble
Original album credits
Produced and mixed by Colin Vearncombe and Martin Green.
All tracks written by Colin Vearncombe except Come To Me written by Colin
Vearncombe and William Topley and Trouble Forgot You written by Colin
Vearncombe and Graham Henderson.
Recorded by Martin Green, mastered by Pete Brown.
℗ & © 2002 Nero Schwarz Limited.
All tracks published by Hornall Brothers (Music) Ltd. Except Come To Me
published by Hornall Brothers (Music) Ltd./BMG and Trouble Forgot You
published by Hornall Brothers (Music) Ltd./copyright control.
30 songs written in three months, performed in seven sessions – no overdubs, no edits.
With love, Colin
30 songs because I said I would.