ALBUM LYRICS AND INFO

  

THE FIDDLER OF DOONEY

Yeats lyrics (very slightly adapted) on music and religion

- with music coming out on top!

When I play on my fiddle in Dooney

Folk dance like a wave of the sea

My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet

My brother in Mocharabuiee

I passed my brother and cousin

They read in their books, in their books of prayer

I read in my book of songs

That I bought at the Sligo fair

And when we come at the end of time

To Peter sitting in state

He will smile on the three old spirits

But will call me first through the gate

For the good are always the merry

Save by an evil, an evil chance

And the merry love the fiddle

And the merry love to dance

And when the folks up there spy me

They will all come up to me

With 'Here is the Fiddler of Dooney'

And dance like a wave, and dance like a wave

And dance like a wave of the sea

GLOBAL RHYTHM

 

Ok come on tell me can you hear it?

A rhythm a global beat

Pulling us out of history’s quicksand

Getting us up on our feet

People under despots, military strongmen

Women and men, black white and brown

Little children born into poverty

People living in shanty towns…

They’re sending up signals

For someone to see

Sending up signals

We want to be free

Alright come on tell me

What are you freedom?

You are clothes and fire and food

The peoples’ energies freed and harnessed

Going on to build the common good

You are justice and a law that is impartial

And elections that are free and fair

So if the rulers don’t please the people

Why they just vanish into the air

Well now one day we could be dancing

To the global beat

Everyone dancing together

Everybody up on their feet

And sending up signals

Foir the wide world to see

Sending up signals

'We're finally free'

KINGDOM OF THE SENSES

We all live in the kingdom of the senses

Taste and touch and sound and sight and smell;

The emotions like a light with coloured lenses

Over every action throw a spell

The poet feels the world of the eternal

The people know the art of living now;

The philanthropist will struggle on for progress

The selfish to their mirrors make a bow

We all live in the kingdom of the senses

Taste and touch and sound and sight and smell;

The emotions like a light with coloured lenses

Over every action throw a spell

The lovely women on the beach

Are always lying there;

I hear their laughing voices

Coming walking on down the air.

I would be happy if I knew

That everyone was free

To know and live and realise

Their full humanity

ASIAN HIGHWAY

Travelling overland to India from the UK in 1974 we began our return journey on 5th April 1974. I remember on that day having a farewell cup of tea at a chai shop and looking out at a scene of misery, pile of rubbish, dogs with sores, children in rags. Exactly a generation later on 5th April 2004, again leaving India for the UK, a friend of my wife's gave us dinner and drove us home in a Mercedes. Hence the conclusion of the song:'I've seen a deal of progress/Since that journey over orient ground'.

Hitching through the desert on the Asian Highway

On the road to Afghanistan;

We were together in mind and body

Travelling without a plan

Travelling, travelling,

Beneath an autumn sky;

Bounded minds unravelling

Orion way down low in the sky

When we passed through the Indian villages

The people parted like the sea;

Grinning and pointing upwards

At the sight of my companion and me

Hitching East with a convoy

Over the Great North Indian plain

Preparing for the night ride

Tht would evade the heat of the day

Travelling, travelling,

Beneath an unfamiliar sky;

Bounded minds unravelling

Orion moving up in the sky

We got down before Kolkata

Where the drivers were to find their beds

And thousands slept the streets at night

Just the pavements to cradle their heads

They’d come in from the country

When their crops had failed out in the fields

Then they’d sent their kids out begging

To get some kind of relief

Unequal world we’re part of it

Shopping malls and shanty towns;

Yet I’ve seen a deal of progress

Since that journey over orient ground

Travelling, travelling,

Beneath an unfamiliar sky;

Bounded minds unravelling

Orion rising high

BOMBAY MOON

Written in the 1990s, Bombay Moon references people like The Beatles

who travelled to India for brodly spiritual reasons; the

Parsees who fled Muslim persecution in Persia (Wikipedia entry on the Parsees) and the women who travelled to India to seek husbands

during the British Raj. Written before the terrorist attack

on Mumbai in 2008, the penultimate verse still seems to anticipate

the atrocity.

A crescent moon above the high-rise

Buildings of Bombay;

Those eve-of-travel sharp reflections

Now the mind will stray...

Not far from here the gate is standing

Where the travellers made their way;

Some as conquerors, some as pilgrims

Intent on changing night to day

Or fearful of a wrathful imam

Whose bloody sword betrayed his creed;

Spurred by gold, spurred by glory

Each explorer had his need

In fact the ladies came this distance

From the isle of worldly power

Brought to make a fine alliance

A soldier in an orient bower.

Arabs, Portuguese and English

Brought their spirits to this shore

For good or ill they lived or perished

Bringing order, bringing war.

Passion fills the daily landscape

In the earth and in the air

A hidden force that stirred and beckoned -

India’s heartbeat…..

PLURALISM RULES OK

A collage of impressions of London which started in Brixton in the 1980s, resumed in Wembley in 2002, swung through Speaker's Corner and Oxford Street in 2005 and finished in Lincoln's Inn Fields in around 2007. All topped off with an awesome Shelley quote from 1812...

I saw a yuppie and a rasta and a fat man up a ladder

On the day I went to town;

And when I paid a call to the discount shopping mall

I saw black and white and brown

I heard a ranting demagogue and saw a mosque and synagogue

A church and temple too;

And then I passed the national and sceptical and rational

Atheistic Soc's HQ

Well I wouldn't have thought it when I was young

But when I saw the courthouse door;

I felt a kind of pride to know inside

All were held in balance by the Law

Down Oxford Street the people pass reflctions glinting from the glass

In pulsing, moving streams;

Behind the eyes a worlds inside with memories and family ties

And hopes and fears and dreams

I saw some Muslim ladies who were laughing oh so carefree

And some girls on mobile phones;

And a mother with her dauhter who much happiness had brought her

And a couple in two tones

That couple walking arm in arm, their love for all to see

Animated by that timeless force that drives humanity...

I saw a yuppie and a rasta and a fat man up a ladder

On the day I went to town;

And when I paid a call to the discount shopping mall

I saw black and white and brown

I heard a ranting demagogue and saw a mosque and synagogue

A church and temple too;

And then I passed the national and sceptical and rational

Atheistic Soc's HQ

And when I got home from my day out I replayed it in my mind

And thought of the unquenchable diversity of humankind

(OK, here it comes, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1812)

"The day is rapidly approaching when the Muslim, the Jew, the Christian, the Hindu and the Atheist

shall live together in one community, equally sharing its benefits, united in the bonds of charity

and brotherly love".

(Adapted from Shelley's essay A Letter to Lord Ellenborough)

For John's album of songs with Shelley lyrics 'Percy Bysshe Shelley: Rock Star' click here

 

TURBULENT TIMES

Hopefully the continual crises of the contemporary world

are gateways into better ways of living; this song takes its

punchline from something written in ancient Greece:

'Ready, resourceful Man, ... from desperate plagues he has plotted

his escape' (Sophocles, Antigone, The Hymn to Man)

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna live in turbulent times

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna live in turbulent times

Wellington the Iron Duke

Champ at Waterloo;

Went back into civvy street

The people for to rule.

From where he aye rejected

All calls for needed change,

From where he had his windows smashed in for all his pains

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna live in turbulent times

But when the Commons were reformed

And down sat new MPs,

He saw the world continued

`What dreadful hats’ said he

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna grow through turbulent times

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna grow through turbulent times

Hitler invaded Poland

And sparked a mighty war

The greatest generation rose

And said ‘That’s it, no more

We’ll leave behind our husbands

We’ll leave behind our wives

We’ll leave behind our families

We’ll sacrifice our lives’

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna live in turbulent times

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna live in turbulent times

But when the war was over

And Hitler’s power was bust

All saw they’d helped democracy

To grow from out the dust

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna grow through turbulent times

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna grow through turbulent times

There were some clever bankers
And highly were they paid

They did some awesome magic tricks

But got carried away

They took a pile of money

And made it disappear

But then – oh no –something went wrong

It never reappeared

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna live in turbulent times

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna live in turbulent times

Now the caravan of history continues on its way

Travelling down its rocky road, moving night and day

But one thing you can be sure of

- no matter what the scrape
Its drivers and its riders will be plotting their escape

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna live in turbulent times

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna grow through turbulent times

SHINING TOWERS

Inspired by a story told by an art therapist working in New York

at the time of the 9/11 attacks.

You know the day it happened,

The day they seized the planes

And brought the shining towers down

In smoke and dust and flames

Well there was a man who worked all week

With victims of that day;

Who tried to soothe their troubled minds

With talk and art and play

Now each weekend he would spend some time

At an urban wildlife park;

To be with a little orphaned bear

They'd put into his charge

Now it usually was mischievous

And naughty in its play;

It would cuff him with its little paws

And rush about all day

But that weekend it was subdued

It didn’t run or jump

Or cuff him with its little paws

Or sit down with a bump

Guess what that bear had felt

The sense of sadness in its friend

It had somehow sensed that day of hate

And tried to make amends

For to our friend’s astonishment

It came and held him tight

To offer him its sympathy

And try to make things right

You could say those acts of hatred

Offended Nature too;

Some spirit of benevolence

Awoke to heal the wound

And it ain’t too sentimental

To say that Love arose

It wakened in that little bear

And in our thoughts for those

Who’d suffered on that dreadful day

When all was upside down

~ It rose to counter hatred

And was felt throughout the Town

LIGHT IN THE CAVERNS

There are places in the natural world

Where sunlight never falls;

In the Ocean's deepest reach

In caves beneath the moors

But those with skill and courage

Who carry torches bright;

Explore these darkened regions

And make them blaze with light

Andthough they soon return to night

They can be understood;

So in a way that light still burns

On tape, on film in books

There were places in the human mix

Beyond the reach of mind;

Where Reason could not penetrate

And the wisest eyes were blind

But those with skill and courage

Who weren't afraid to fight

Explore these darkened regions

And make them blaze with light

In the eggshell of the skull there are no direct lines

Wo knows what is waiting there? - never underrate the human mind.

MORNING LIGHT 

It's alright, you're gonna come out

On the other side of the storm;

It's alright, you can get some rest, you can sleep right until

The morning light is shining bright again

I see in your eyes, the confusion you feel

With things flying round in your brain;

But all you've got to doi is centre yourself

And then you'll see clearly again

When the morning light is shining, when the morning light is shining

When the morning light is shining bright again.

Sweet liberation, I love you best of all

- You make me feel like a high-flying man

You make me feel I can hurdle the wall

Of the everyday life, and everything else,

That takes up so much of the time;

You make me feel I can get something done,

Pick myself up of the ground

When the morning light is shining, when the morning light is shining

When the morning light is shining bright again.

ROCKIN' THE RECESSION

 Recession in the sense of financial recession and also in the sense of a 'state of being set back'. This one is especially for today's young unemployed and should be thought of as a voice coming out of somewhere at 4.00 in the morning.

You know the sky’s the limit

But your feet are on the ground

You’re gonna blow some fuses

When your time comes around

It’s true, so come on now why so blue?

When your inner light shines on you

You can make it through

You know these chains that bind you

Are only in the mind

There’s a network a community

There for you to find

Oh yeah, so come on now don’t despair

And the times when you care

And share – you’re already there!

You’ve always got the feeling

That the wolves are at the door

One day you’re gonna wake up

And they won’t be there any more

I tell you it’s a matter of frustrated energy

You’re looking for an outlet

For your creativity

You’ve always got the feeling

That the wolves are at the door

One day you’re gonna wake up

And they won’t be there any more

It’s those who have a vision

Find directions for the world

Those who know the future’s

Like a plant in the seed there curled

It’s true, so come on now why so blue?

When your inner light shines on you you can make it through

When your inner light shines on you, you can make it through

When your inner light shines on you, you can boogaloo

CHANGE IN THE WEATHER

'I believe that fortune is the arbiter of half the things we do,
leaving the other half or so to be controlled by ourselves. I compare
fortune to one of those violent rivers which, when they are enraged,
flood the plains, tear down trees and buildings, wash soil from one
place and deposit it in another. Yet although such is their nature, it
does not follow that when they are flowing quietly one cannot take
precautions, constructing dykes and embankments so that when the river
is in flood they would keep to one channel or their impetus be less
wild and dangerous. So it is with fortune. She shows her potency where
there is no well-regulated power to resist her, and her impetus is
felt where she knows there are no embankments and dykes built to
restrain her.'
(Niccolo Macchiavelli, The Prince, 1513-1516). 

There’s a change in the weather

There’s a change in our lives

That sends us journeying off into the night

World at the crossroads

In the coming years

Let’s go for laughter

Let’s not go for tears….

I remember going off to Greece

And camping up on a hill;

One morning we crawled out of the tent

And saw in the air so still

Two black ravens flying,

Flying out to sea

And for a moment we caught a glimpse

Of a world in harmony

Living out on a spinning globe

Out in the middle of space;

Is it too late for wisdom

From the human race?

World at the Crossroads

In the coming years

Let’s go for laughter

Let’s not go for tears….