1. |
Reich #2
03:49
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2. |
Hanging by a Thread
04:29
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HANGING
BY A
THREAD
It’s not the first time
It won’t be the last
That I walk this broken line
Between the darkness
And the break of day
Between the blessing and the curse
Hanging by a thread
Between the devil and the clear blue sky
Between the fire and the storm
Between the camel and the needle’s eye
Between the hound and the wolf *
Hanging by a thread
SOLO
Beneath the softness of a gentle hand
Between the heartbeat and the sigh
Beneath the deadlock of a one-track mind
Between the promise and the lie
Hanging by a thread
It’s not the first time
Bet it’s not the last
That I walk this broken line
Between the gloaming
And the still of night
Between the blessing and the curse
Hanging by a thread
© Ian Lilburne
Music: September 2014
Lyric: July 2015
* A variation on the French phrase, ‘entre chien et loup’, literally ‘between the dog and the wolf’, i.e. between twilight barking and night howling, metaphor-ically between sunset and the dead of night, as echoed in the last verse.
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3. |
Sail Away
03:48
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SAIL AWAY
(ON THE WIND)
I rolled and tossed all night
On a sea of battered dreams
My spirit longed for flight
To sail off on the wind
Been caught up in a chain
Of emails + deadlines
Pressure, stress + strain
Those petty thieves of time
s that how it’s meant to be?
I yearn for a timeless day
I’d head down to the sea
And simply swiftly
Sail away
(On the wind)
Sail away
(On the wind)
The sun shining bright
The sea riding high
I’ll cruise off like a kite
Across a clear blue sky
MIDDLE EIGHT
Now darling don’t you hold me back
Just let me slip away
On this horizon tack
On this clear timeless day
Sail away
Sail away
Sail Away
WILD SEA SAILING SOLO
I rolled and tossed all night
On a sea of battered dreams
My spirit longed for flight
To sail off on the wind
Sail Away
(On the wind)
Sail away
(On the wind)
© Ian Lilburne 2011
MuiscC: 1986
Lyric: 2011
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4. |
Bridges
04:38
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BRIDGES
(JOHN HARRIS)
A bridge is a crossing to the same end
It's people to people and then back again
A bridge gives a city its sense of pride
Be it over the Mekong or over the Clyde
Bridges are stone wooden or steel
To bear the great weight of the boot and the wheel
A bridge in a battle is worth fighting for
A bridge is a prize in peace and in war
A bridge is a river over the sky
A bridge is a river o’er the sky
A bridge is a place where you take a fall
When there's no one to turn to―no one at all
A bridge has a side hidden from light
The homeless find shelter under its flight
CHORUS
Bridges and lovers are deeply entwined
They’re seen on the bridge o’ the river that winds
A bridge is an excellent place to be kissed
The crossing alone your lover you'll miss
CHORUS
As we travel the roads and rails of our time
We come to a bridge at the end of the line
A bridge that will take you to the unknown
Every woman and man must cross it alone
MUSIC + LYRIC: John Harris
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5. |
The Reckoning
03:08
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THE
RECKONING
What’s a guy got to do
To get a little bit of tenderness?
All these women are so cool
Like they’ve been through a holy mess
Waiting
Watching
Listening
Understanding
(As best you can)
Being mother to your man
Must be the hardest thing
To have you love turned around
Is so disheartening
Listening
Accepting
Waiting for the
Reckoning
(That rarely comes)
INSTRUMENTAL BRIDGE
I must have paid my dues
Trying to be a gentle man
It was the right thing to do
Just didn’t fit the master plan
Waiting
Watching
Listening
Understanding
(As best you can)
What’s a guy got to do
To get a little bit of tenderness?
FEMALE BACKING VOX:
Grow up!
MUSIC: 2017
LYRIC: 15 Oct 2017
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6. |
Cypher
04:27
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CYPHER
The city’s cold
The wind whips wildly
Down the alleyways
And the avenues
The narrow streets
Are quite bleak
In the falling night
The café’s quiet
The spy sits waiting
For his rendezvous
In a Burberry coat
He jots notes in code
In a little book
Enter Cypher
She stands by the doorway
Framed in the moment
Of a hidden past
They cross outside
She ghosts him back to his hotel
It overlooks the Quai
The clouded sky
Seems liquid
In the gelid moon
The room is small
The bed is wide
There’s an antique chair
And a cheval mirror
With a finical golden frame
They lie together
Through the long night
Caught in the trace
Of a difficult lust
That should’ve been better
SOLO
The air is charged
In the frosted light of
a dappled dawn
Cypher lies awake
His hand heavy on her thigh
She gets up
Gets ready
As he lies asleep
With graceful ease
She erases her trace
from the room
She waits a moment
By his pillow
Kisses him on the head
Then steals away
© IAN LILBURNE
MUSIC: 1977
LYRIC: 1987― 2019
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7. |
Fool for Love
05:56
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FOOL
FOR
LOVE
Baby, let’s hit the town for a while
Let me bask in your sweet smile while we’re dancing
Show me that crazy step that is yours
The way you move across the floor in the moonlight
But baby don’t get carried away
Laugh at what I say
Take it lightly
Cause I’m a fool for love
I just can’t get enough
It’s deep in my blood
My love
Sweetheart I love it when your cheek brushes mine
The way you smile in recline as you hold me
You’re a sweetheart - maybe an angel in disguise
At least, through these hopeful eyes you look perfect
But sweetheart don’t let me in to your life
Don’t let me know what you’re like lest I love you
Cause I’m a fool for love
It’s deep in my blood
I just can’t get enough
Of love
Middle eight
The sentiment of the street — nimble in retreat
Keep cool, be discreet — wreaks havoc with me
I love a grand old time
Stir the shaken lines
Set off fireworks
Ring wild chimes
Flaunt the mystery
Cause I’m a fool for love
It’s a hit I have to have
A case I’m yet to prove
My love
Baby Let’s hit the town for a while
Let’s dance away the night in a frenzy
Show me that special move that is yours
Come on, give me the grand tour, the sneak preview
But baby don’t get carried away
Lie a little on the way
Say you love me
Cause I’m a fool for love
I just can’t get enough
It’s deep in my blood
My love
Yeah I’m a fool for love
It’s a hit I have to have
A case I’m yet to prove
My love
Fool for love
I’m a fool for your love
A fool for falling in love
My love
Yeah I’m a fool for love
A fool for falling in love
Its’ written in my blood
Love
IAN LILBURNE 2021
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8. |
Medea
02:38
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MEDEA
Can any good come of this?
We’re acting out an ancient script
It’s compelling and deep
I just wish that I could sleep
Oh Medea you’re in my blood
What is this poison that makes me feel young?
Oh Medea it’s way too much
I want you
I need you
Can any good come of this?
We’re wounded deep in our sex
Warning lights flash o’er our heads
There’s a curse on this bed
Oh Medea you’re in my blood
What is this poison that makes me feel young?
Oh Medea it’s way too much
I want you
I need you
I need you
I love you
SOLO
MUSIC: 2013
LYRICS: 2013|2017
© Ian Lilburne 2017
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9. |
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(THE SILENCE OF)
SYLVIA’S PINES
SPOKEN
It was a cool clear djeran day
We climbed into Sylvia’s car
And headed into the country
There was a hidden forest
She wanted to show me
A private place
Special to her
An hour’s drive from town
It sat just at that point where
The city passes into the country
One of those lines
You cross without knowing
A subtle change of key
We pulled off the road
Scrambled from the car
And headed into the wood
At once a deep calm
Settled upon us
A glowing peace that was
Both in us and in the world
Even Sylvia’s excitable dog felt it
She ran ahead but didn’t bark
The further we went into the forest
The stronger the feeling became
We didn’t talk
Merely basked in
The deep serenity
Rich and mystical
Numinous, if you will
Soft sunlight
Filtered through the trees
Cast long shadows
Marking a kind of pathway
A grid of inter-cutting arcades
While the pine-needles
Cushioning the earth
Softened our footfall
The stillness
Gathered round us
Was somehow spiritual
Like a cathedral
A cathedral en plein air
The silence of Sylvia’s pines
The silence of Sylvia’s pines
Ian Lilburne
MUSIC: Dayton Ohio 1981
POEM: Perth 2018
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10. |
It's Not Over
03:43
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IT’S NOT
OVER
The old is not gone
And the new yet to be born
Stuck in these middling years
What strange symptoms do appear
Holdin’ on to the past
In the hope it just might last
Even though the die is cast
It’s not over
The fire burns bright
And the smoke clusters tight
While the fiddler on the throne
Doesn’t see anything wrong
But until the long race is run
The sad songs have all been sung
And the portraits all been hung
It’s not over
It’s not oooh-oh-ver
It’s not over
It’s not oooh-oh-ver
Until the roses have all been plucked
And the lemons have all been sucked
And the horny people all been fucked
(The director calls the final cut)
It’s not over
MIDDLE EIGHT
It’s not over
Til the bells stop ringing
It’s not over
Til the fat lady stops singing
solo
The old is yet to die
And the is new strugglin’ to be born
Stuck in these maddening years
What morbid symptoms do appear
But while the fire is burning bright
And the stars shine down at night
And the crack lets in the light
It’s not over
It’s not oooh-oh-ver
Its not over
It’s not oooh-oh-ver
It’s not over
Til that fat old girl stops singing
It’s not over
Come on girl
Keep on singing
It’s not over
© IAN LILBURNE 2016
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11. |
Creepy Thing
03:53
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CREEPY
THING
Ain’t it just like luck
Trust me to fuck it all up
Things were lining up so well
Then one dumb word sent it all to hell
What can I say?
Such is life
What can I do?
Go to sleep at night
What can I think but
Ain’t it just like life
Soften the jagged edge with light *
Square peg in a round world
The ragged shape of a human soul
Is there a time and a place
A kind of saving grace
That shines a light on us all?
Does a divinity shape our end **
Karma make amends
To rise must we sometimes fall?
SOLO
Every creepy thing on earth
In its own way has its worth ***
Every creepy thing that we do
Holds a grain of truth
Is there a time and a place
A kind of saving grace
That shines a light on us all?
Does a divinity shape our end
Karma make amends
To rise must we sometimes fall?
© Ian Lilburne 2013
* C/f Leonard Cohen, Anthem: “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”
** C/f Shakespeare, Hamlet: “A divinity shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will.”
*** C/f GENESIS 1:25: “... every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”
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12. |
Golden City
04:23
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GOLDEN CITY
Crystal towers
On a limestone plain
A meandering river
With a double name
The pastel colours
Of a lazy port
The terminal terminus
At the end of the world
Unreal city *
Virtual town
All the money’s made
Underground
Everything new
Little built to last
A city that always
Reinvents its past
But they all go broke
When they knock the
Good stuff down
Secret City
Numinous Town
The ghosts and angels of a
Lost playground
MIDDLE EIGHT
In the river’s bend
A hidden cove
A private-public space
La bonne vaux
SOLO
Melted sunlight
On a cloud-scattered sky
Mauves and burgundies
Cast awry
Golden sunset
Golden town
Golden city sitting
Upside down
Sometimes I wonder why
I just don’t leave?
Guess it’s all the
People here I love
Golden City
Golden Town **
© IAN LILBURNE
JUNE 2012/MARCH 2017
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13. |
Shadowfall
04:24
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SHADOWFALL
In foam-crested wavelets
The ocean heaves
Rolls, billows, surges
To the heavens from the deep
Shadowfall – edge of darkness
Shadowfall – frail fit of green
Shadowfall – winds of madness
Shadowfall – the narcisscene
Comprized of atoms
Composed in time
Exposed to nature
Sublime
Shadowfall – winds of madness
Shadowfall – the narcisscene
Shadowfall – heart of darkness
Shadowfall – Gaia’s scream
Away
Away
Turn away
Away
Away
Darkness falls
Turn away
solo
Shadowfall – heart of darkness
Shadowfall – Gaia’s cry
Shadowfall – sheen of sadness
Shadowfall – empires die
© IAN LILBURNE
MUSIC: 1982
LYRIC: 2011 | 17
The opening verse is an adaptation of a stanza from Virgil’s Aeneid. I first read a variation of the couplet ‘Comprized of atoms|composed in time’ in an article on climate change in The Guardian (alas I didn’t note the name of the writer) but subsequently learnt that it refers to Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura. ‘Edge’ and ‘heart of darkness’ allude respectively to the 1980’s BBC TV drama and the Joseph Conrad novel. Narcisscene is mine, a neologism.
THE LOST VERSE
Cyclones, tsunamis
Lightning, hail
Earthquakes, volcanoes
Awesome all
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14. |
Mystery of the Rose
04:09
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THE MYSTERY
OF THE ROSE
The mystery of the rose
The emperor has new clothes
The King is on the road again
We’ll watch him on TV
Download the app for free
Pretend he’ll always be our friend
But I want to hear the angels singing
All the busted doorbells ringing
The tired and huddled clinging on and on
Who never dream they’ll win the fight
Never claim it is their right
Who fall asleep alone at night
Unknown
Fine and fair it flows
The mystery of the rose
To lead is but a pose these days
Complexity the cost
The jewel that has been lost
We watched it all get tossed away
But I’m sick of playing second fiddle
Reading all the cryptic drivel
The tricks and torts that piddle on and on
As I lay me down to sleep
I pray to Christ my soul will keep
Then hurtle on and creep away
Unknown
SOLO
The mystery of the rose
The marvel of repose
The miracle of those who know
That truth’s a tricky thing
A harmony to sing
A hook to bring it all back home
But I’m sick of all the greedy cunts
Their money, land and schoolyard stunts
That leave us here the brunt
Of all they own
I want to shake ‘em from the tree
Make ‘em one time finally see
They were only ever gonna be
Unknown
Ian Lilburne - music + lyric 2018
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15. |
One Too Many Martinis
03:18
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The invasion of the body snatchers
It carried me away
One too many Martinis
And D-g knows what I’ll say
Always a strong drinker
Can hold my tongue
Rarely sloppy
Never overhung
But one too many Martinis
And I’ll spend the day in bed
Having spilt without thinking
Everything that’s in my head
No secret too sacred
No confession too grim
No compliment inappropriate
No matron too prim
BRIDGE
A Vesper is the worst
The classic Casino Royale
Three parts vodka
Five parts gin
A dash of Bitters
A twist of lemon
Completes the mix
Two of them
And I’m a mess
One too many Martinis
Undoes me every time
© IAN LILBURNE 2017
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