Opening with Alive, now familiar from Abbey Road Live, Water on Snow was Colin’s second solo studio album. The title track is one of Colin’s most accomplished songs, starting with unaccompanied singing by Alison Clark and building to a crescendo over nearly seven minutes, trickling away gently at the end. Famous was Colin’s sardonic take on fame.
I should be a star, driving all the girls insane…Wear the finest clothes, have a brand new nose…Oh, I should be famous.
While Colin’s songs are sometimes written in the voice of other people, Cool was the first time he sang a song written for a female narrator:
It would be so cool to be your girl.
You lift me up was a re-interpretation of the 1991 b-side of the same name.
The album was Colin’s most generous for songwriting credits, with four songs written collaboratively.
The album was released exclusively through colinvearncombe.com
Listen to the silence growing louder A whisper can sometimes be louder than a scream Even in your wildest dreams Oh growing louder But I am Never more alive than when I am Lying in your arms again
Some say that each and everyone of us is dying They don’t admit that they have never really Lived at all And swung it at the big ball Oh I don’t fight it ’cause I am never more alive than when I am lying in your arms again
Some people act like love was just a kind of guessing game So when they want you what the hell are they responding to? And some people act like they’re immaturing I don’t know if I am growing younger But I am never more alive than when I am lying in your arms again
I like alone, won’t be lost without you Hadn’t you noticed or don’t you care Why not alone, why keep the pain around us Hadn’t we noticed or don’t we care and both too tired and old?
Even if I was in love with you and wore the ring, the name tattoo These things could never hope to keep me here With the bitter words and cool embraces The fading sweeter tastes I have started to forget too soon to hold them back Did I do wrong just to believe that there’s a last day of a long winter
Full of empty pride in yesterdays and things you only threw away on those that didn’t ask you But you had to You’re just fat and bone and monkey chips Disgust upon your wrinkled lips That you no longer try to hide from me Did I do wrong just to believe that there’s a last day of a long winter Cause I believe that there’s a last day of a long winter
After the parties when I’m more drunk than lonely Sinking down into only sweet thoughts of you I see you waltzing in slow, slow circles With your hair hanging down like a waterfall
I’m aching to hold you, wrap and enfold you and make you mine My black eyed Susan
But you’re his When he wants you, whenever that is And I wouldn’t change it even if I wanted to
I’m aching to hold you, wrap and enfold you and make you mine My black eyed Susan
I’m aching to hold you, wrap and enfold you But it’s him, no-one but him For black eyed Susan
Did I sleep? Do I dream of cold, silent water So deep and dark And the wires are singing our song? Our song
As we lay back and stared into cloudless skies And the stars up there The wires are singing our song The wires are singing our song
Your face, now so plain, once was so lovely A beautiful refrain, duet with stars But your smile now in disguise became a flat line And to never love again like you did before Was all
Why go on with it, why go on with it? Why, to let it flow, like water on snow?
I know what you want, what you are thinking To drift beyond the pain and out of reach To sit, be safe and warm inside your sorrow And listen to the slow, slow morse tapping of the rain But it says:
Why go on with it? Why go on with it? Why to let it flow like water on snow?
She’s got the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen And I’m paper thin She’s staring through my skin at what was unspoken She said: there’s no need to cry you’ve always known That the ones who fly can take on too much strain And be broken
And if you can hear me, hear me sing I don’t remember anything Those days are dead and gone away Let the wind blow, let the wind blow Let the wind blow
And I couldn’t cry, we’d made our peace when he turned and smiled “remember me with joy” he said “or don’t do it all”
And if you can hear me, hear me sing I don’t remember anything Those days are dead and gone away Let the wind blow, let the wind blow
The bravest man I have ever known “I’m standing on the edge”, he said “and looking over ?? Let the wind blow, let the wind blow”
When we bathe in the afterglow And your eyes gleam like the streetlights In the road And I’m so weak I can hardly stand I’ve exhausted my supply and demand
You lift me up You give me hope And you make me feel like I don’t care anymore And I don’t
I heard love was like staring into an abyss And I’d guess that it’s true But I never saw one Until I saw you You lift me up You give me hope You make me feel like I don’t care anymore
You lift me up You give me hope You make me feel like I don’t care anymore Feel like I don’t care anymore Cause you lift me up, you lift me up You lift me up
I should be a star driving all the girls insane Shower me with oysters, swimming in the best champagne I’d never lift a finger Just be the biggest swinger I, I should be famous Yes, I should be famous Wear the finest clothes, have a brand new nose
A chauffeured limousine, Jacuzzi in the back for two A mystery companion, you could be that girl If you can swing it in the fast lane Silk lingerie and cocaine
I, I should be famous Oh I, I should be famous I’d say “no, no press’ change my mind Say yes and then turn and smile In my own sweet style
I’d never lift a finger Just be the biggest swinger I, I should be famous Oh, I should be famous I should be famous
Fake diamond rings on every finger Purple shadows around my eyes I show Americans del norte The best of Paris’s underside
I worked the dirt in Oklahoma and ate my crow and humble pie Though I walk through the Latin quarter It’s still a dust bowl in my mind
You can’t make me go home When I don’t wanno go!
I’ve lived on peanuts for the season Bathtub martinis extra dry Down in the thirteenth arrondissement I waste my money on good times
You can’t make me go home Don’t make me go home, I don’t wanna go You can’t make me go home, la la la When I don’t wanna go
Fake diamond rings on every finger Purple shadows around my eyes Down in the thirteenth, the fourteenth, the fifteenth arrondissement I waste my money line by line
You can’t make me go home Don’t make me go home, I don’t wanna go You can’t make me go home When I don’t wanna go
It’s just a trick of the night How you set me alight On the edge of the shadows curve I’ve been learning to be Like the people you see Who get all the love I deserve No, you won’t be sorry I want you to feel me
It would be so cool to be your girl It would be so cool to rule your world I willl be so cool when I’m your girl, will be so Cool
Don’t be scared, you won’t have to care I never leave a hair out of place I’ll be shaving you bare tied to the chair Licking the sweat off your face You give me the hunger I want you to feed me
It would be so cool to be your girl It would be so cool to rule your world I will be so cool when I’m your girl, will be so cool
I’ll only live to please you, make you so happy And we could play blessings and curses, doctors and nurses I’ll let you be king for the day Any way you want it is fine by me Any way you want it is fine Take anything you see that you think you might need Anything as long as it’s mine
It would be so cool to be your girl It would be so cool to rule your world I will be so cool when I’m your girl, will be so Cool
It would be so cool to be your girl It would be so cool to rule your world I will be so cool when I’m your girl, will be so Cool
3 comments on “Water On Snow”
Alison Clark, where is she now ?
Could you please mail via blacklist when this album will be made again? Would mean a great deal!
Warm regards, Annemieke Hansma The Netherlands xxx
3 comments on “Water On Snow”
Alison Clark, where is she now ?
Could you please mail via blacklist when this album will be made again? Would mean a great deal!
Warm regards,
Annemieke Hansma
The Netherlands
xxx
[email protected]
Please please release this masterpiece on vinyl! For the love of Colin!