1. |
That Boy
02:43
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That boy
Spent the summer playing hard in the wrecker’s yard
Getting high on the paint while we drifted apart
I met you in the pubs and I met you in the clubs
We held hands for a while and I left without a smile
That boy
The rumours running round that I was hellward bound
With a hole in the lung and a girl I’d found
Then I came sailing home and everything had changed
You’d got another man and another name
Suddenly that summer the times slipped out of joint
Suddenly that summer I couldn’t see the point
Scribbling stories with the stone-age sun going down
Dreaming of glory and getting out of that Tory town
The queen was on the game and no one acted the same
The sun of the 60s flipped out of the frame
Old ladies sipping tea in a land of anarchy
And nothing there to keep me in the bosom of my family
That boy
That boy / with his Burroughs and Leary
That boy / with his poems and theories
That boy / trying hard to be someone
That boy / trying hard to be
Trying hard to be someone
Trying dreaming wanting needing
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2. |
Butterfly
03:13
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Butterfly
I loved the way that you played butterfly on me
Spread your wings and fly spread your wings and fly
Butterfly
Spread your wings and fly
I loved the way you gave me all your clothes
Your German army jacket and your purple velvet waistcoat
I loved to wear your Levis and your beads
Your perfume travelled with me in the pubs and windy streets
I loved to climb the wall after your curfew
Then through the window that led me to your refuge
I loved the way you gripped me round the waist
And gave a little twist the moment just before we blissed
Butterfly
Spread your wings and fly
I loved the day we tripped out in your room
The day we drew the curtains on the fragile afternoon
I loved the way it felt so transcendental
When we laughed at evil and I swam into your temple
I loved the busstop and the cold air on your lips
I loved our bodies pressed together at the hips
And on the bus the sadness in your eyes
I was so glad you didn’t turn it into lies
Butterfly
You didn’t try to turn it into lies
When you spread your wings to fly
Maybe I don’t recall your name
Maybe you forgot me just the same
Could be Julie Alison or Sue
But what I remember is you
I loved the way that you played butterfly on me
Spread your wings and fly spread your wings and fly
Butterfly
Spread your wings and fly
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3. |
The Briefest Time
02:42
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The Briefest Time
I have no evidence of you
Nothing to prove that I knew you
Nothing to show that we lived side by side
For the briefest time
Used to have your carte orange
And snapshots from a time we danced
1979 poised to kiss and laughing
For the briefest time
Used to keep the letters we wrote
With that pseudo-literary touch
Telling you I wanted you so very much
For the briefest time
Fragile shreds of life
That only saw the light of day
For the briefest time
Now there’s nothing left
I only have these dreams of you that stay
The briefest time
Do you ever think of me
The way I always think of you
Perfect and young I was yours you were mine
For the briefest time
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4. |
Unmade Bed
03:12
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Unmade bed
Dogs are barking kids are laughing
Cars are passing by down on the street below
I wake up in the afternoon
Cast my eye around the wreckage of our room
I put on your clothes
Cause they’re the first that come to hand
Wander round the flat like I’m shell-shocked
Out in nomansland
In nomansland
When you look the truth in the eye
It turns away as if it was ashamed to lie
And what I said I knew it was true
Until it swung its head and looked from me to you
Now I’m lying in an unmade bed, alone
In this unmade bed
With my own words drumming in my head
In my head
Is it, is it too late
To look at my world through your eyes
Dogs are barking kids are laughing
Cars are passing by down on the street below
And I’m staring at the window
Gazing out at nothing I could ever want to know
Cause I’m lying in an unmade bed, alone
In this unmade bed
With my own words drumming in my head
In my head
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5. |
Creatures of the Pen
02:50
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Creatures of the Pen
Stanley Lee and Jackie Kirby
Were the men when we were ten
Steven Ditko and Jim Steranko
Never bettered since
Unsurpassed since way back then
Dr Strange and Sgt Fury
Coolest creatures of the pen
Yellow Claw and Dread Dormammu
Always wanted to be them
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6. |
Perfect Years
03:36
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Perfect Years
Now that you’re in your perfect years
Are you going to throw them all away
Now that you’re in your perfect years
I can see it happen
Now that you’ve grown your perfect skin
And you’re shining like the seas of the moon
Now you can taste your perfect season
Without thinking of its passing
Cause it goes so soon and it goes too soon
Now that you’re in your perfect years
Are you going to throw them all away
Now that you’re in your perfect years
I can see it coming, I can see it happen
Now that you’ve found your perfect bearing
There’s no wind that can tear you down
When you’ve a past and you’re past caring
You’ll wonder when you hit the ground
Like we all do with a tearing sound
Life will never taste so sweet
So don’t let it pass you by
The world is laid out at your feet
And there’s a goddess staring out from your eyes
Now that you’re in your perfect years
Are you going to throw them all away
Now that you’re in your perfect years
I can see it coming, I can see it happen
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7. |
Evening Star
03:02
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Evening star
The evening star’s sailing low above the Hotel Voramar
Long horizon’s blushing pink
Turquoise shadows are deepening in the sea
We’re talking about tapas and a drink
They still haven’t robbed us of this blue
The jewelled riches of the sea and the sky
One day they’ll find a way to make us pay
Take out a patent on our eyes
There used to be a bookshop right here on this street
The sign is still up on the wall
There used to be a cellar here with little marble tables
Or maybe it was never there at all
I’m looking for something in the past
In a town full of chain stores and franchise bars
History bleeds away before your eyes
Old houses stuffed with tat and awful abstract art
There’s nothing left of what the village used to be
The fishing nets and bohemian haunts
Even the ghosts are dead and buried deep
Beneath the bright lights and the Disney restaurants
The evening star has been and gone
It’s many years since the boho folk moved on
Now they’ve vanished in the night
But their laughter still echoes in the dawn
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8. |
Candy Floss and Rock
03:11
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Candy Floss and Rock
You were looking for a scene and a lungful of sea air
So you headed for a beach with a caravan to share
The train ground to a halt at the south coast queen of tack
You were only 17 and now there’s no looking back
I was working by the Punch and Judy selling candy floss and rock
And I looked up and saw you share a spliff beneath the jubilee clock
Two freaks in loons and frizzy hair the happy families milling round
You asked me where to score I said come back at four I’ll show you round
And I’ll show you round
Then I went on my way to a hipper cooler place
And I thought that my past had been buried without a trace
So I went back one day to strut down my old street
And ignore all the old friends that I didn’t want to meet
Cause there’s no looking back
I saw you walking on the front with the wind plucking at your hair
That’s when I asked you about the kid you had riding in that pushchair
And you laughed out loud when you saw the light of panic in my eyes
That’s when you said he’s none of yours, he’s none of yours but all of mine
And we’re doing fine (thank you)
In the pub between the bands
We added up our one night stands
They came to quite a score
And we had more before we got bored
Cause there’s no looking back
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9. |
Templeton Terrace
02:34
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Templeton Terrace
It’s getting harder and harder to leave
Cause I’m just starting to believe
That we were meant to live immortally
Here between the mountains and the sea
And all the days could blur into one
While we’re drinking wine in the sun
As if our lives had only just begun
And the best was still to come
The best is still to come
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10. |
Things I Didn't Do
04:26
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Things I didn’t do
I never got out of my brain on smack or crack or cocaine
I never went naked to a party or had sex in a park in the rain
I never set out one fine day to work my way round the bars of the world
I never went deep into lust and love with a feline Tokyo girl
I never hitched out to Greece and wrote poetry on an island in the blue
In the end I just stuck around town and ran into you
Into you
I could write a whole book about the things I didn’t do
But in the end the book that I wrote I wrote it with you
With you
I never joined the vanguard party and burned out my utopian dream
I never went down to Janov’s farm and purged my past in a primal scream
I never trekked out to Tangiers in the tracks of Burroughs and Bowles
I never went out on the road to unravel the routes of rock and roll
I never got lost in the heat and dust and sat at the feet of some shady guru
In the end I just stuck around town and ran into you
Into you
I stayed in London in 77 and met you amid the greyness and grime
Thought I’d died and gone up to heaven but I didn’t wake up in time
And I could write a whole book about the things I didn’t do
But in the end the book that I wrote I wrote it with you
With you
And the day that I turned around and saw not a word of it was true
That day I scratched it all out and started anew
Without you
So tell me what
What do you do
When you find out the truth
The truth isn’t true
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Steve Bruce Roberts Barcelona, Spain
anglo singer-songwriter living in sant boi, near barcelona.
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