Dougie MacLean: "Ready For The Storm"

READY FOR THE STORM

The waves crash in and the tide pulls out

It's an angry sea but there is no doubt 

That the lighthouse will keep shining out to warn the lonely sailor

And the lightning strikes and the wind cuts cold through the sailor's bones, to the sailor's soul

Till there's nothing left that he can hold except the rolling ocean

CHORUS

But I am ready for the storm, yes sir, ready

I am ready for the storm, I'm ready for the storm

Oh give me mercy for my dreams

Cause every confrontation seems

To tell me what it really means to be this lonely sailor

But when the sky begins to clear and the sun it melts away my fear

I'll cry a silent weary tear for those that need to love me

CHORUS

The distance it is no real friend

And time will take its time

And you will find that in the end it brings you me, the lonely sailor

And when you take me by your side you love me warm, you love me and

I should have realized I had no reason to be frightened

CHORUS

--Dougie Maclean

A favorite song, like so many of the great Scotsman's creations.

Four Anchors: sculpture mix; jade glazing.

Nick Drake's "Time Has Told Me"

TIME HAS TOLD ME

Time has told me
You're a rare rare find
A troubled cure
For a troubled mind.

And time has told me
Not to ask for more
Someday our ocean
Will find its shore.

So I`ll leave the ways that are making me be
What I really don't want to be
Leave the ways that are making me love
What I really don't want to love.

Time has told me
You came with the dawn
A soul with no footprint
A rose with no thorn.

Your tears they tell me
There's really no way
Of ending your troubles
With things you can say.

And time will tell you
To stay by my side
To keep on trying
'til there's no more to hide.

So leave the ways that are making you be
What you really don't want to be
Leave the ways that are making you love
What you really don't want to love.

Time has told me
You're a rare rare find
A troubled cure
For a troubled mind.

And time has told me
Not to ask for more
For some day our ocean
Will find its shore.

--Nick Drake


Seek out Nick Drake's CD Five Leaves Left for the original song, from which I have taken these lyrics. Gorgeous music too.

Lightning Strike: Bob Mould's "Stupid Now"

STUPID NOW

Please listen to me 
And don't disagree
Even as we fight 
It doesn't matter to me
(3x)

Here alone in this place
Here alone in my bed
I feel your warmth on my face
And these thoughts in my head

Everything I say to you feels stupid now
Feelings that I shared with you are over now
Haven't I been enough of a fool for you?
Everything I say to you feels stupid now

(Please listen to me 

And don't disagree

Even as we fight 

It doesn't matter to me)

Everything I say to you feels stupid now

Feelings that I shared with you are over now

Haven't I been enough of a fool for you?

Everything I say to you feels stupid now
(2x)

Let me out let me out let me out

Let me out let me out let me out
Let me out let me out let me out
Let me out let me out let me out

(Everything I say to you feels stupid now)

--Bob Mould, 

the opening song to District Line -----
The words alone, I like, but the music, the music, will take you higher.

As Archilochos said, "The truth is born as lightning strikes."
(Guy Davenport's translation in his excellent 7 Greeks.)

Bob Mould: "Walls In Time"

Here is another set of lyrics from Bob Mould's oh so excellent District Line, though you should really listen to the song . . . .

WALLS IN TIME

Is it a crime to want to show your soul?

Waste enough time, another black hole

Misguided, not even lost, not even sure

Now find the disease or the cure

Has life lost all its glory and wonder

Sad tales are told again and again

Sleep, toss and turn, my old bed

What a tale, again and again

Now all the stories of the world could fit in a building

In a building high and wide

Filed under headings that no one's quite sure of

Lord knows that everyone tried

When the pen meets the paper

When the mind, it begins to stray

How a soul could lose its will to explain

Oh, explain again and again

Day after day, day after day, day after day

Flowers losing life when picked from the ground

A nice arrangement for the occasion

But flowers, when moved from place to place

Lose all meaning, dislocation, dislocation

In a fit of fitless night, a flame attempts to spark a soul

Ignite, burn, candle light, a waste of time, another dead soul

If these walls around my soul could talk

The words would lose importance

Within these walls I hold so dear these words

We all want to leave a mark somewhere

For those of us who feign to care

In all unfortunate times we find a way

To build up these walls in time

To build up these walls in time

Is it a crime?

--Bob Mould

"Tied-Up House": Lyrics By Jackie Leven

TIED-UP HOUSE

found a little stone on a harbour wall
sea-spray-soaked and very small
big bay rough and turning brown
little shrimp boat on a dangerous sound

i can't go back to the tied-up house
tied so tight people can't get out
you can hear them wail, you can hear them shout
or they sit in chairs till the silence hurts

the ocean roars from room to room
leaving tide marks in the shallow gloom
i got cuts on my hand from i don't know where
and a sobbing hall that i just can't bear

--Jackie Leven,
from his CD Shining Brother Shining Sister

"A Jar of Pain": Lyrics By Jackie Leven

CLASSIC NORTHERN DIVERSIONS

I took a train out of leeds in the smear and stain

I saw the city pass by in the shuffling rain

I'm in huddersfield drinking in the slubber's arms

and i walked through slush by broken farms

where huddling sheep are turning grey

in the cold light of a nothing day

it took me fifty long years just to work out

that because i was angry didn't mean i was right

now i'm sitting in a bar alone

with the jukebox playing a terrible song

the bartender says I see it's you again

I been drinking deep from a jar of pain

Ch -- i remember once i went home like this

i had my mother in tears as i felt her kiss

now my mother is heavenbound

and her body lies in unmarked ground

in every heart in every home

there's a dying man who lives alone

he close the door and he turn away

and the tide rushes in on a fatal shore

i can never get too close to coal

with a glass in my hand and the ember's crack

but the fire's gone out and the chimney's closed

and there's a round jeer sticking on my back

ch --

I took a train out of leeds in the smear and stain

i saw the city pass by in the shuffling rain

and with chimneys leaning to the sea

i got the salt of sunderland creasing me

i took a jar of pain to the soaking field

and to the lonely seawall inn south shields

if i was a man which i am not

standing in the last of the rotten snow

i'd fall on my knees and cry out loud

to the snowy river and the icy flow

i took a train out of leeds in the smear and stain

i saw the city pass by in the shuffling rain

--Jackie Leven

from his CD Shining Brother Shining Sister

The Crash Test Dummies: "There Are NIghts When All My Aching Bones Won't Let Me Sleep"

THE GHOSTS THAT HAUNT ME

There's a skeleton in everybody's closet
I can think of one or two in my own room
But I would like to introduce them both to you
You'd shake their bony hands and so dispel the gloom

'Cause you're so kind
I know you would not mind
You'd send away the ghosts that haunt me now
And the things I fear
Just wouldn't seem so near
And when I stroll out late at night
There would be nothing rattling at my heels

There are nights when all my aching bones won't let me sleep
And demons come to plague me as I lie in bed
But I know if you were sleeping there beside me then
That you could fend them off and they would let me rest

There are nights
When the wind comes howling through my old place
I have dreams
And I wake up with the sweat pouring down my face
And I wait till the morning comes

There will come a time I fear when all my days are done
And they will come collect my corpse and bury me
And then I hope you'll come over to the Other Side
To join me in our new life, keep me company

--Brad Roberts

from the Crash Test Dummies' debut album:

The Ghosts That Haunt Me

B-SIDE

Lyrics from an Old Notebook (mid-80's vintage):

You need to imagine Early Elvis Costello crossed with The Smithereens here, if you want to be kind.  Oh, and you have to recall vinyl records, especially singles, with A-sides and B-sides.


B-SIDE
I'm here breaking records
While he's out stealing shows
The anger doesn't bother me
It's just how much she knows
I've been hanging around now
Till I feel like packing it in
It's not a case of do-or-die
But more like where-and-when


These things I discover
Make it easier to decide
He's her A #1 Lover
I'm just lying on the b-side


I need to break her records
I need to break her heart
But like a fool I'm waiting
Because I loved her at the start


These things I discover 
Make it easier to decide
He's her A #1 Lover
I'm just lying on the b-side

--MD



(Until a few minutes ago, the second verse had a full eight lines too.   Here is the part I just cut:

I give her all my money

I give her all my love

Still she goes out shopping

Hopping in--I know--his hot tub

Pretty lame, that hot tub line, but I wanted . . . well, who knows now what I wanted then?  I do think the lyrics still work, after all these years, as a rock and roll song, particularly with those four lines excised.  Now, if I could remember the tune in my head at the time too . . . .)

Time-Travel: Play That Funky Music

Cleaning out the garage can lead to strange discoveries. Just the other day, I found something I typed up in 1996 based on lyrics I wrote in 1984. This may be odd enough to be fun.

(Slightly edited today.)

A B-Side Production

"Like a Glove" was inspired by an earlier lyric --"Kid Glove" in 1984 --that I never developed to my satisfaction. I like the satire. Influences? Still Elvis Costello and company, but also harder rock than "The Armor of Your Virtue" or "Different View." A nod to Sting's "Set Them Free" (that revision of "Every Breath You Take") for clues to how I revised the original ending. Value? Meaning? I have my ideas. Another twisted riff on frustrated love and psychology. (I mean, the speaker almost gets it. You'll see.) Sing "Different View" if you want a finer reflection than this funhouse mirror.

LIKE A GLOVE

I've got a coatrack for a conscience

Cat-of-nine-tails on my back

No, I'm not a closet fascist

No, not a clothes horse jockey off the track

Oh, the loose and limber subtleties of love, love, love

I want to fit you like a glove, like a glove

Like a glove I'll fit your hand

Like a lamp I'll light your life

Like a glove, like a glove

Love, love, love

Too many people beating me unconscious

With the bruising boredom of their tongues

What I desire is hardly so atrocious

I want to fly where I've been flung

Oh, the loose and limber subtleties of love, love, love

I want to fit you like a glove, like a glove

Like a glove I'll fit your hand

Like a lamp I'll light your life

You don't wear gloves? --I'll understand

How can my light just blind your eyes?

Oh, the loose and limber subtleties of love, love, love

I want to fit you like --what you want

I want to be the house that you haunt

I want to be your tongue when you taunt

I want to --fit you like a glove

Oh, the loose and limber subtleties of love, love, love

I want to fit you like a glove, like a glove

Like a glove, like a glove

Love, love, love

P.S. I wish that I could recall the tune. I do recall singing this to myself all the time for a while there.

Cheers!