Category: The Troubled Sleep Of Piano Magic

Comets

Comets

Came to London to find myself
But in ten million people, where do you start?
Drunk at a party, you asked me if I was someone else
And I say, “Yeah, if it helps you, I won’t be myself”

Like Japanese poets who capture a Summer in only three lines,
With just one kiss, I want to tell you
But it takes all night

You just can’t wait for the right time
Because like comets, it could be the last time
You should always tell them you love them
In case you never see them again

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Help Me Warm This Frozen Heart

Help Me Warm This Frozen Heart

Outside, the fairground in snow,
Revolves like a waltz, funeral slow
And summer has gone, collapsed like a chair
Like the heart of a bird, a bell on the air

Inside, the wireless in snow
The orchestra drowns, funeral slow
And autumn has gone and with it the bloom –
The harvest of stars, like moths to the moon

Help me warm this frozen heart

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

I Am The Teacher’s Son

I Am The Teacher’s Son

Started mailroom
Moved up through Clerical
Now Obituaries
I am the teacher’s son
I am the teacher’s son
I am the teacher’s son
I’m the teacher’s son

Never seen a sky so big
Like it’s been saving up for years
Clouds from Russia press-ganged in
Until the dateline disappears
I have loved and lost
Like the river’s lost and found
But I’ve never fought the tide
And I’ve never fucked around
I’m the teacher’s son

My favourite sound is churchbells
And my greatest love’s the sea
Though I never learnt to swim –
Never trusted it with me
I wrote a novel in my twenties
Though it never left my head –
A thousand words a sitting
’til all the characters were dead
I’m the teacher’s son

My father was a poet
Though he never got the chance
‘cos his words looked like another’s
If you took them at a glance
But he met a girl so pretty
That he asked her to a dance
And there his words they died liked flowers
There his words, they lost all power

I’ve been told I have his ways
I’ve been told I have his grace
But he left me on my birthday
And the only thing remains :
I’m the teacher’s son

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Saint Marie

Saint Marie 

Out of season, out of heart
I cross you off beneath the stars
Autumn leaves a nasty scar
And with the leaves, the heart departs
You’re off the map
You’ve left the book
I’m off my head and treading luck
And it’s too late to call you up
The heart migrates
It comes unstuck
I light a candle for Saint Marie
In the hope she never brings you back to me
I light a candle for Saint Marie
In the hope she never brings you back to me

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

Speed The Road, Rush The Lights

Speed The Road, Rush The Lights

Geography, be kind to me
For the miles apart are killing me
Tonight I would die to be by her side
So speed the road and rush the lights
Speed the road, rush the lights

Even bad girls sleep tonight
Even bad girls sleep tonight
Their aspirin white legs, scarred by young lust’s overbite
Even bad girls sleep tonight
Even bad girls dream tonight
Their aspirin white legs, scarred by young lust’s overbite

The snapped Ratner’s chain glints cold in the night
The snapped ankle chain glints cold in the night

Caution is thrown to the wind
And it does not blow back
Caution is thrown to the wind
And it does not blow back

Geography, please be kind to me
For the miles apart are killing me
Tonight I would die to be by her side
So speed the road, rush the lights
Speed the road, rush the lights

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

The End Of A Dark, Tired Year

The End Of A Dark, Tired Year

The end of a dark, tired year
I slept bad, in bad dreams, on bad beer
I tried to get on but you nagged in my ear
And London is fucked – a busted bike with rusted gears
I walk around with a knife in the cuff
But that’s not gonna be enough

The end of a dark, tired year
I slept bad, in bad dreams, on bad beer
I tried to get on but you nagged in my ear
And London is fucked –
A busted bike with rusted gears
It makes me dark, dead in the eyes, a shark

 

 

(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

When I’m Done, This Night Will Fear Me

When I’m Done, This Night Will Fear Me

When I’m done, this night will fear me
Ghosts of ghosts of ghosts will hear me
Black just got blacker
Attacked became attacker
When I’m done, this night will fear me

The silent movie extra, left for trash on the set
Asserts his revenge
Calls in the debt
And when I’m done, this night will fear me
Ghosts of ghosts of ghosts will hear me
Black just got blacker
Attacked became attacker
And when I’m done, this night will fear me

Black star in a white night
Like a blue wave in a black sea

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)

 

 

 

(Lyrics – GA Johnson)