1. |
They Never Found Me
03:48
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I can’t bring myself to seek the truth any more
Don’t ask me how I feel
I’m neither up nor down
Who’s keeping score anyhow?
I can’t face you fully or look you in the eye these days
Don’t think that I don’t want to
But my heart is sore
I’m looking down and down I go
I know two worlds
and I don’t know which is real
so I choose each word
and the darkness I conceal
chorus
Ah, oh! Where did he go?
High then low I’m still searching for my soul
So near but they never found me
and I’ll wait a while in my silent purgatory
I can’t bring myself to say I love you any more
Don’t think that I don’t want to
But on these words
I’m choking now somehow
I try to hold you but my arms are thin these days
Don’t think I should be leaned on
This beam’s been brought down
and down I go once more
I know two worlds
and I don’t know which is real
so I write this down
and hope the light I can reveal
chorus
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2. |
Done With Calling You
03:51
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We’ve come a long way down divergent dusty paths
You see through my lifeless stare and oh I’ve felt your wrath
I don’t mean to be churlish but your voice it starts to grate
Time for us to close this door oh chain up this gate
chorus
Oh oh I see a brighter road
Oh oh given you everything you’re owed
Oh oh I’m taking back the rest of my life
Oh oh I’m done with calling you
For sixteen years we struggled on each day harder than the last
More twisted now than ever before and pining for the past
But pines grow tall their needles fall and rot into the earth
You’re needles are your poison words eroding my self worth
chorus
I dream of freedom and how sweet that fruit must taste
The dream it sours and I’m still caged - Oh God! My life’s a waste
You say you’ve tried your best and I’ve not tried at all
Look around the ink’s long dried the writing’s on the wall
chorus
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3. |
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Red the anger as the sluagh fold your soul deep in their wings
A quarter gill man, for page and quill
That viscous liquid orange hit the hospital room floor and glazed my shoes
A quarter gill man, for page and quill
My clear eyed boy long gone I saw the windows to your soul awash with yellow
A quarter gill man, for page and quill
Green was the fairy that would chase away your fears
Long your days spent feeling blue as your months tumbled into years
Take a drink man, for leaf and ink
Indigo the veins that spread like vine across your face
You question why I thought it right to enter you in the human race
Take a drink man, for leaf and ink
That fragrant scent of violet on the breeze that blows gently through the yard that marks the space
Where we laid your bones to rest
and they served whisky at your wake
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4. |
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Its just gone ten years since I met you
There’ll be ten more and there’ll be a score and
Still our fire gently smoulders and
That little bit fire still glows close to your door
Just enough to let the light in
Just enough and no more
Me the yang, you my shining yin
Oh we paddled our boat and I lost my oar
Must be nine since I loved you
A love that would sink the worlds hate
And, still our fire gently smoulders
and that little bit fire still glows close to your gate
Then its eight since I left you
Since I put my foot on the brake
I was just young and uncertain
With much growing to do but you couldn’t wait
Just enough to let the light in
Cut away with your blade!
Hand in hand and skin on skin
We built our castle of sand and I broke my spade
So for seven long years and a day I have mourned
I know you have too and if you only knew
That I was just young and uncertain
Left a hole in my heart for you to look through
Just enough to let the light in
You’ll find a shimmering blue
I watched you weary and grow thin
Etched our prism of faith but I proved untrue
For six years and five I lost my way
Hurried along and been less right than wrong
And in four and three suffered sickness
And this cyclical dream where I don’t belong
Two then one the fire fades
Our torch it dims now and it won’t be long
and for one or two you’ve been married away
and I missed my chance to sing you this song
Close your chest don’t let the light in
Bury this kist and melt down the key
all meaning is lost and I’m frightened
Now where will I go and who should I be?
Shut my eyes don’t let the light in
For my mornings are cold
And in the next life I’ll begin again
But as penance for now, I’ll be growing old.
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5. |
Gates of Saints
04:11
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I don’t have long left on this earth to write
I tried my worst but I must soon give up this fight
I’ll close my eyes and turn my thoughts to the light
God didn’t grant a happy ending
you look on me with smiling eyes
you try and help me to rise above this
sense of certainty my liberty’s been taken from me
and I’m headed for my longest night
God didn’t grant a happy ending
At least this ward is warm and quiet and clean and bright
and all the doctors dress in robes of pearly white
Just like the gates of saints, where angels they take flight
but, God didn’t grant a happy ending
I wish to live with all my might
Hold the string of my favourite kite
Instead I’ll lie here as my chest grows ever tight
God didn’t grant a happy ending
No, God didn’t grant a happy ending.
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6. |
Clutching At Straws
04:31
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She sits alone at the foot of the bed
Staring straight through the old books that she’s read
She cycles through the thoughts of that day
She knows in her heart that they’ll all go astray before morning
She sits a while at the old writing desk
Sifting through papers each line now a test
There in a drawer a letter from him
Opening it now her head starts to swim
chorus
And she’s clutching, clutching at straws
the wind in the willows a song for her loss
She’s holding, holding that stone
Its hung forty years round her neck as she’s grown
Older alone
Grasp the meaning in each twisted line
Here is a man who was not of his time
The end of the page is signed with a kiss
This part of the story she still seems to miss
chorus
They walk side by side now he sets the pace
Tries to explain he abandoned the race
‘All that I saw was fuel for the fire’
‘Even you my love couldn’t lift me higher’
chorus
And he’s shifting, shifting his feet
‘I’ll turn away now we’ll no longer meet’
‘And someday this grief it too shall pass’
‘While over my head grows the longest of grass’
chorus
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7. |
Fly
03:38
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I’ll sing you a tale of a chance encounter
and a girl that I once knew
This is a tale of vast space and short time
and a love we secretly grew
we secretly grew
The story is set in the old world
a waltz through Europe you’ll see
Zurich and Zug, Venice, Vienna
In all their bright glory
In all their bright glory
Now a glance, now a stare
I look up alarmed and my bell rings
Does she know that I am bewitched?
and the toxin it spreads, unfolding its wings
Unfolding its wings
Butterflies! Does the belly lie?
Time fits, time starts, she pauses and sighs
and the hour aches, as the hands tick
talking with her, those little hairs rise
those little hairs rise
Not a man who would drop his guard
but you caught me, easily
easily burned, you should have spurned me
thought better of this and walked away
But I saw you stumble
You felt me crumble
then the waves of love
swept over our heads
Causing us to tumble,
tumble into bed and then
Twenty nights and one day, bowl me over
Wrap me up in your arms and let me stay
But I must fly, fly me over
fold me up in my suitcase, be on my way
be on my way
She clings to me now as I kiss her face
We both know that this is the end of our tale
So I turn my back, shut the door
Sorrow grows in the space where love hangs in the air
where love hangs in the air
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8. |
As I've Grown Older
02:52
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Am I allowed to be proud
of something you’ve achieved?
The small part that I may have played
The wisdom I imparted well received
I close my eyes and there’s no darkness, you’re there shining brightly
and I’m sure that I was right to only touch the tiller lightly
chorus
As I’ve grown older my disease has made me colder my own Sisyphean boulder
You see when I was under all I heard was deafening thunder as my mind was torn asunder
You see, I’m still troubled
By something in my past
But I’m sure that I will know myself
And grow myself with time before the mast
Hope springs eternal from the bottom of your well
You navigate life’s paths and in your stride you surf the swell
chorus
Am I allowed to be proud
of something I’ve achieved?
The small part that fate may have played
Illusions of free will they’re ill conceived
I close my eyes, there’s only darkness - I’m alone - the world is frightening
And I wish my time away had been a little less enlightening
chorus
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9. |
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Taken swiftly, our first chess piece on life’s board of broken dreams
No prodigy, no wonder, but the boy I call my brother nonetheless
While oft times life ebbs slowly
You were wrested from our family, cruelly
suddenly, just twelve years of age
chorus
And I lay the blame squarely
on the shoe below my knee
my shattered knee
My final year of high school
Your first, our first with matching tie and pleated trews
Your toothy grin eyes a wonder
as I turn the key and move on through the gears
While others slowly fade away
You were taken in that instant
Now that instant haunts my each and every day
chorus
Though spared I wasn’t able
To say farewell all dressed in black and at your side
With bones and spirit broken
Life it seemed so cruel and wholly fathomless
Mirror, signal, then manoeuvre - that was the drill
the other driver he’d been drinking and chewing pills
That lapse in thinking means I’ll always be enslaved.
chorus
Still I lay the blame, squarely
on the shoe below my knee
my shattered knee
Well the years the creep by
and I have shared a little joy with those around me
and these new young lives my daughter grows
may yet set me free
I’m sorry I know Jo
All I really want is one day more
Touch your shoulder, squeeze your hand Jo
For you to walk with me and meet my children
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Mike Vass Glasgow, UK
'Warm, engaging melodies and sparkling performances combine with Mike’s peerless skills as an arranger for a truly delightful album.'
FolkRadioUK
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