Author: Glen Johnson

Crown Estate

Crown Estate

Look at that rich girl twitch –
Like me she can’t sit still
How would you want it seen?
Just like when you were ill?

When you hear the way they talk –
The rosy cheeks of the ruling classes
You can argue all you like –
They swear by early nights

Never meant to be like this –
A lot colder but the people were warm
If anyone was coming to get you –
Armed only with a sugar bowl

Used to leave your back doors
Used to leave your back doors open
Used to leave your back doors
Used to leave your back doors open

All the houses on the Crown Estate all look the same
That nut from four doors down wandered in by mistake again
And said to your old mum,
“I think it’s best that you sit down
I’ll make a cup of tea
And you can show me what a woman looks like with her head turned inside out”

Used to leave the backdoors, etc

 

(Lyrics – Simon Rivers)

Crown Of The Lost

Crown Of The Lost

The night settles down on the water
The feathers of sun gather in
The trees wave their way to the morning
The birds think about what they’ll sing
I have dreams in which you’re a nightmare
I have dreams in which you’re unfair
But angels still dance in your garden
And flowers still grow in your hair

My tears leave a skull on the pillow
My tooth leaves my blood on the sheet
My heart sways the way of the willow
My heart sways the way of the wheat
But you are the queen of the lowlands
You have the crown of the lost
I found you broke up like a shipwreck
I found you broke up on the rocks

The horses come in from the cliff tops
Their shadows upsetting the sea
The waves swim their way to the bottom
And stay there until they’re forgotten
And you know about birds when they’re dying?
How they know that they’re going to die?
How they hide in the heart of the forest
And sleep until death chances by?

You know that

You know that

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Dark Ages

Dark Ages

None of us are what we were
I know you’ve heard this all before
I know you’ve heard this all before
but none of us are what we were

But it’s a dark age, a dangerous time
I’m on the last page, the end of the line
But it’s a dark age, a dangerous time
I’m on the last train, the end of the line

Outside the bar on the road to the Madrid
A curious frost settled down on my ribs
These were the badlands, the sad lands
I wanted to leave but I wanted to give

Whispered in song in the tops of the trees
“Tears are the only rain that we see”
Whispered in song in the tops of the trees
“Tears are the only rain that we see”

I get up too late to wave off the night
I get up too late to wave off the night

 

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Dark Horses

Dark Horses

When you’re preoccupied
Like a moth with the light
We are ‘sacking your life
We are bleeding your pipes
When you’re hooked by the line
By the crook of your spine
We are sparking the knives
We are Frankenstein

When you’re preoccupied
By the junk of your life
We are marking your card
We are catching off-guard
When you’re thanking the Lord
For the fat of your land
We are cutting the cord
We are back of the hand

Our love is the love of the loveless
Our tears are the tears of the bird
Our side is the side of the sideshow
And our blood is as good as our word
Dark horses, our handshake is fatal
Our seal is a stamp to the heart
We cut through the din like a rattle
Our violence is closer to art

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Dark Secrets Look For Light

Dark Secrets Look For Light

Get me an ugly wife
No man will look twice
I can fall asleep at night and dream of someone else

I found an ugly wife and she’d led an ugly life
Take my hand, this ray of hope,
Crawl out of this hole

She weaved her spell on me
And I fell hopelessly
I swore to put it right
I blessed her every night

Tried to put the truth away
Cruel water finds it’s line
Cruel mouths are open wide
Dark secrets look for light

I ran back to the flat and found her hanging there
Silk nightdress, fallen chair
I found her hanging there

Wait til the end turns white
I closed my eyelids tight
Here comes the blinding light
This light will guide my life

 

 

(Lyrics – Simon Rivers)

Deleted Scenes

Deleted Scenes

Your life’s like a comic book –
All shadows and childhood fantasy
The people you love, disguised
In a velvet glove biography
But I recognise what’s going on : deleted scenes
And when your eyes go out
You play them back, as broken dreams

I don’t get you anymore
I don’t get you anymore
I don’t get you anymore
I can’t respect you anymore

You got a letter from an old friend
Asking why you never spoke again
You leave your lovers cast in amber past
And those times you can’t evoke again

I don’t get you anymore
I don’t get you anymore
I don’t get you anymore
I can’t respect you anymore

You’re in denial, you’re not on trial

 

 

 

(Lyrics : GA Johnson)

Disaffected

Disaffected

Anything can happen in life –
Especially nothing, mainly nothing
Once you know that, you’re fine
Once you know that, you can retire
Set your clock by your heart
Work’s over-rated and it will kill you
Finish nothing you start
And start nothing you think you’ll continue

I’m disaffected now
I’m disaffected now

And to this model I’ve kept
I surface at 3 in the clothes that I slept in
And though I’m drowning in debt
I’m richer through all the things I’m rejecting
And in a rare, certain light
I have a strange charm,
I think you’d like me
And the rain brings me out
The rain makes me happy

I’m disaffected now
I’m disaffected now
Set your clock by your heart
Work’s over-rated and it will kill you

 

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Echoes On Ice

Echoes On Ice

I have letters from you that you wrote in your sleep
A map of your heart and a plan of your street
And echoes on ice on a blue Winter night
From the spokes of your bike in sub-farenheit

The fox makes a sound like my heart
On the backs where they’ve laid out the traps
Planes filter back through the night
Making light work of constellations and maps
My opencast heart rewinds back to the start
And plays us again, should we ever part

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

England’s Always Better (As You’re Pulling Away)

England’s Always Better (As You’re Pulling Away)

Though I love the rain and I love the grey
And I love the estates where the flags decay
England’s always better as you’re pulling away

No, you dont back down, as you’re driving through town
But control yourself, ‘cos this is not our town
A smile and a joke and then a line of coke
Watch the sun going down on our rusty crown
All apologies and queues and bright red people with ludicrous views
And the last day of summer trickles down the drain
Tears for the wedding and smiles for the funeral
Stay in your car, you know youre not as useful as you were
Oh what now?
I came to your school fete, I’m a sucker for a raffle
I couldnt see the trees but I could smell the rotten apples
Quick, everyone inside, were wait until the rain ends
Was our year cursed?
Another dead school friend burns away
Tears for the weddings, smiles for the funeral
Stay in the car, you know you’re not as useful as you were
Oh, what now?
Where ridicule is something to be proud of
Mopeds buzzing by like angry wasps in the dying light
Tears weddings for the weddings and smiles for the funeral
Stay in the car, you know youre not as useful as you were
Oh, what now?
See the sun going down on our rusty crown
Feel the blood running down our rusty crown
See the sun going down on our rusty crown

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson/S Rivers)

 

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)