The King Cannot Be Found

The King Cannot Be Found

I know your story
I looked into your eyes
And everything had died
Time was, you glistened
You had a lot to say
But you threw it all away

And now your silence is just an excuse
And I’m embarrassed by the lies you produce
You start to crack up when you’re faced with the truth
You start to crack up when you’re faced with the truth

The king cannot be found
The king cannot be found

I know your story
Your hands are cut to maps
Your heart, a photograph
Time was they loved you
You wore the Golden Fleece
You had them on their knees

But now you’re missing from the history
Now you’re missing from the tapestry
And there’s a shadow where you used to be
There’s a shadow where you used to be

The king cannot be found
The king cannot be found

Black out the windows
It’s the start of the plague
Black out the windows
It’s the start of the plague

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

The Last Engineer

The Last Engineer

I feel alone in the city
I feel alone in the crowd
I tried to listen to reason
But the city’s too loud

I took my heart to a doctor
He took one look in my eyes
He told me hearts may be broken
But the love never dies

I tried to follow my father
He was the last engineer
But they’d closed all the factories
And his steps disappeared

I thought I’d follow the train lines
But it started to rain
And everything looked clearer then
Everything was in its place

 

 

(Lyrics by GA Johnson)

The Nightmare Goes On

The Nightmare Goes On

I cannot shake this notion
It haunts me through the streets
The height is that of giants
The depth is that of seas
The words refuse my tongue
They tear me from my sleep
You ask me why I cry
But I cannot bear to speak

The nightmare goes on
Won’t somebody wake me?
The nightmare goes on

I cannot bear this notion
Its hand, an icy clasp
I bear its weight at all times
You need not even ask
This sadness in my eyes
The burden drags me down
It shames the storm outside
God knows I’ve tried and tried

The nightmare goes on
Won’t somebody wake me?
The nightmare goes on

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

The Nostalgist

The Nostalgist

I can’t get on
I can’t get on
Because I live in the past and it’s too strong
I can’t get on
I can’t get on
Because I live in the past and it’s too strong

And the present is imperfect
And the future, well, it’s conditional
And the past’s a foreign land
That I’m trying to understand

And all the girls are framed
In the order that they came
And the best friends do their worst
To remind me that I’m cursed
And I’d just like to say
That I’m sorry to everyone
That just wants to get on
That just wants to get on
But I…

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Theory Of Ghosts

Theory Of Ghosts

I’ve a theory of ghosts and I’m a monster to girls
I stick in their heart like a rusty spur
But I’ve a theory of ghosts :
They’re alive and we’re all dead
That they’re trying to tell us that it’s this way around

And I’ve a theory of girls :
They always seem to leave in the Spring,
As if they know that it hurts more
To carry a heartbreak through the Summer

In the calendar storm,
I circled a day and tried to hold on
And in the last powercut
I whispered her name ‘til the lights came on
Smoked my Indian pipe
Listened to static,
The snow on the wire
Smoked my Indian pipe
Listened to static,
The snow on the wire

I have one photograph that captures her smile
But I don’t have a tape of her laugh

Watercolours can’t help me

 

(Words – GA Johnson)

The Season Is Long

The Season Is Long

The season is long and I’ve got the chills
The city steps back, replaced by the hills
There’s snow on my heart and snow on my pills
The season is long and this season kills

Don’t you ever think that you might love me?
Don’t you ever think that you might love me?

The season is long and I’m coming home
I captured your ghost in the throat of the phone
There’s snow on my heart and snow on my pills
The season is long and this season kills

Don’t you ever think that you might love me?
Don’t you ever think that you might love me?

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

There’s No Need For Us To Be Alone

There’s No Need For Us To Be Alone

I can’t believe she said that
Can’t believe it’s true
Can’t believe she’s faithful,
She is wicked through and through
She’s read too many books
She’s had too many screws
Unfortunately I have fallen don’t know what to do
When Spring turned to Summer, I swapped her for another
She drank herself stupid
Threw herself down the stairs
She put whiskey with her aspirin
My records in the dustbin
She pleaded me to take her back
I knew she would, I knew she would
Want without needing
Love without leaning
Hold without clinging
Don’t suffocate, don’t suffocate
She wore a coat too warm for summer
Socks too short for Winter
Shoes too scuffed for parties
And lipstick far too tarty
She wanted without needing
She loved without leaning
She held without clinging
But she suffocates, she suffocates
There’s no need for us to be alone anymore
There’s no need for us to be alone anymore
She wanted without needing
She loved without leaning
She held without clinging
She suffocates, she suffocates
She wanted without needing
She loved without leaning
She held without clinging
But she suffocates, she suffocates

 

(Lyrics – Darren Hayman)

The Slightest Of Threads

The Slightest Of Threads

She slips out of bed
In the fold of the night
And the temperature drops
With the cry of a fox
It’s the exit of a thief
It’s the falling of a leaf
The dust is disturbed
And her shadow is stirred

She looks back at the lover
But he dreams of another
The violence of his breath
Betrays his gentleness
And their minds have never met
It’s always been just sex :
The finest of chains
The slightest of threads

She navigates the stairs
In the absence of the light
A ghost that’s self-possessed
A soul not laid to rest
And the painting in the hall
Well, it seems to say it all :
Still life, abstract
Worthless, glass cracked

And here, in the fold of the night, she cries
Cos the trains have all left and the ships have passed by
And the seasons, too many, have blurred into one
They seem to have stopped before they’ve begun

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

The Tollbooth Martyrs

The Tollbooth Martyrs

The tollbooth martyrs, 21 – 56,
Leave their lives at the gate
And beneath the standard issue crucifix
Push their summers to the side of the plate

Live their lives through diaries
Can’t get jobs in libraries
Live their lives through diaries
Can’t get jobs in libraries

The calendar model, long-retired
Expecting her third, joined a choir
The saucer of coins marks off the years
From college to dole to tollbooth cashier

Live their lives through diaries
Can’t get jobs in libraries
Live their lives through diaries
Can’t get jobs in libraries

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

The Unwritten Law

The Unwritten Law

You turn on your side
Like you have to face North
Or else you can’t sleep :
The unwritten law
But how can you sleep with my heart so loud?
Like a scream in a jar
Like the sound of a crowd

And way out at sea
The waves and the masts know that they’ve lost
That they’re heading for rocks
But the captain’s adrift in dreams of dry land
Of the view from the lighthouse
Of my name in the sand

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson

(The Way We Treat) The Animals

(The Way We Treat) The Animals

The way we treat the animals
Will govern how we’re judged
And if you slay the animals
Your soul, it will be dust
But no, the bloodless hunter
Makes light of precious words
He clears the land of wondrous beast
He decimates the birds

He pays no heed to august plume
He cares not for its grace
He cocks and shoots with disregard
He lays the swan to waste
The way we treat the animals
Will govern how we’re judged
And if you slay the animals
Your soul, it will be dust

I’ve tried to comprehend the type
That must annihilate
That cannot leave a life to live
That must obliterate
But come the fateful morning
When silence rules the world
We wiped it clean of every beast
We wiped it clean of every bird
The way we treat the animals

Will govern how we’re judged
And if you slay the animals
Your soul, it will be dust

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)