Attention To Life

Attention To Life

For once will you please try
And pay attention to your life?
You called me from the coast
A breaking, crackling line
You said your ship was waiting
But I’ve known you far too long
You know the words by heart
But you never sing the song

I have pinned you to a mattress
I sang you ‘Wild is the Wind’
Your nails, they dragged a bloody trail
Your teeth, they broke the skin
You were tattooed in a mining town
By a boy too drunk to care
You said you wanted broken hearts
And dragons everywhere

My wife, she’s never met you
But she sees you in my eyes
We’re beaten if we’re honest
And beaten less by lies
For once will you please try
And pay attention to your life?
For once will you please try
And pay attention to your life?

 

 

 

(Lyrics – Glen Johnson/Peter Milton Walsh)

Closure

Closure

Let’s get this thing sewn up
Let’s get this thing signed off
Let’s tie up these loose ends
‘Cos you say we can’t just be friends
All these people, open wounds
The English always too polite
To say what really must be said
They’d rather take it to their death

But you never get (oh-oh)
No, you never get
Closure

Let’s shut the lid on this
Let’s move this rock and seal this cave
‘Cos this show has over-run
I am done, I am done, I am done

I’d rather stick a sword in my eye
Than go through this again
I am moving to Alaska
I am moving to the moon

But you never get (oh-oh)
No, you never get
Closure

Let’s wind this up
Let’s wind this down
It’s just a ghost without a body now
It’s just hanging around

But you never get (oh-oh)
No, you never get
Closure

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Exile

Exile

There was a time when I’d tell you
There was a time when I’d say
But I can’t look in your eyes now, baby
Since you sent me away
And I’ve been living in exile
I’m not allowed at the door
You don’t answer my phone calls
You just don’t answer at all

I’ve been tempted to turn up
Unannounced like a ghost
But I know I’m not welcome
I know the options are closed
‘Cos 13 years is a long, long time
And maybe that’s what it takes
’til we can sit in the same room
And for our hearts not to break

Oh, can I tell you that I’m sorry
Without you hating me more?
Oh, can I tell you that I love you
Without you asking what for?

There’s no use in me trying
I know it’s better I’m gone
So I just wander the landscape
I’ve lost the will to go on
But I just wanted to tell you
That should you have second thoughts
Well, I still live in the same house
Just come and knock on the door

 

 

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Landline

Landline

You used to call me on my landline
You used to leave your voice behind
As I lay upstairs, fast asleep
In the midst of the night
In the midst of a dream

You used to call me on my landline
You used to leave your words behind
But now you’re consigned to a turbulent past
Your ghost, on a tape
In a drawer, at the back

You used to call me on my landline
You used to leave your voice behind
As I lay upstairs, fast asleep
In the midst of the night
In the midst of a dream

You used to call me on my landline
You used to leave your voice behind
In the ungodly hours
In obsession and lust
You were carnal, obscene
And now you are dust

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Let Me Introduce You

Let Me Introduce You

Let me introduce you to all my friends
Then I’ll get out the way
Yeah I’ll step out the way
Let me introduce you to all my friends
Then I’ll get out the way
So you can go and play

Well, I’ve never been one to hold on to anyone
I don’t have the will to keep the glass half-filled
And I don’t have the might to stay up half the night
So you go out and dance ‘cos I don’t stand a chance

Let me introduce you to all my friends
Then I’ll get out the way
Yeah I’ll step out the way
Let me introduce you to all my friends
Then I’ll get out the way
So you can go and play

There’s a guy over here that I’ve known for twenty years
There’s a girl over there who’s collecting my tears
And this guy here plays in a band you need to hear
You’ll probably fall in love with him and then you’ll disappear

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Living For Other People

Living For Other People

Don’t you ever wonder, don’t you ever care
That you’re living for other people?
Maybe it’s time that we ask the question here? :
Are you living for other people?

When the ‘I’ gets lost in the ‘us’
When the ‘me’ gets swept out to sea
Are you doing this for yourself?
Or are you doing it for somebody else?

Don’t you ever wonder, don’t you ever care
That you’re living for other people?
Maybe it’s time that we ask the question here? :
Are you living for other people?

I’m not attached to my attachments
I’m not obliged to tow the line
And all those bachelors, unfettered
They look to me they’re doing fine

When the ‘I’ gets lost in the ‘us’
When the ‘me’ gets swept out to sea
Are you doing this for yourself?
Or are you doing it for somebody else?

North East, t’ward Rotherhithe, nimbus, expectant
Grey as a bad tooth, rolls o’er the Thames
The dregs of the morning, sacked and bound
Here and there, a glint of sun
Like scissors through canvas
I am pacing these streets, ashen of beard,
Blown around like a leaf
Void and devoid, unpossessing
I need no map, no companion
Just the soft, gentle light, the stir of the breeze
I am most happy, alone beneath these Victorian railway arches,
With a smoke from a tin
And a tea in a styrofoam cup
Phone in airplane mode
In the bliss of the monotony of days,
Passive, watching :
These women, never ever having suffered charm
These knotted men with upturned hearts,
Brooding over losses,
Tangled like tape from a broken cassette
These days, fading, weathered Polaroids

 

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

You Never Stop Loving (The One That You Loved)

You Never Stop Loving (The One That You Loved)

Well, you may think you have an option
Well, you may think you can opt out
And you suppose time is the healer
And that you’ve learnt to live without
Well, you can burn all those letters
Tie them up in a sack
And you can throw them in a river
Tell yourself that you’ll never look back

But you’ll never stop loving the one that you loved
No, you never stop loving the one that you loved

Well, I heard you found another lover
And me, I found another too
But there’s a consequence of reason
There’s an undeniable truth
For in these moments of solitude
There’ll be a knock at the door
What was once in the shadows, at the back
Now, it will come to the fore

But you’ll never stop loving the one that you loved
No, you never stop loving the one that you loved

 

 

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)