BACK AND FORTH

1. WATCHING FEATHERS FALL FROM ANGELS

Gerry Colvin cc

And so here we are, just you and me

Watching the stars and sitting here quietly

It’s been a long week, it’s been a long day

It’s been a long time since we have been this way.

Listen to the beating of their wings

Moving to the rhythm of the wind

We're lying on our backs watching feathers fall from angels

Those angels know how to dance at the celestial ball

You know the rumba, the lambada and the waltz and the samba

Those angels know them all

Watch those Cherubim grab those Seraphim

As they start to swing and the choir sings

And the feathers fall down from above

On to the unwanted and unloved.

BACK AND FORTH

2. FATE'S FAST CAR

Gerry Colvin cc

Somewhere in a cupboard in the corner of your eye

There is a shelf where they reside all immortalised

And in that place you see them exactly as they were

And they'll always be a part of who you are

As you sit in the back seat of Fate's fast car.

The true love and the lost love and a couple in between

The friends and foes and so's and so's and that darn family

They wake you up in the dead of night, alive and well eyes burning bright

And they will always be a part of where you are

As you snooze in the back seat of Fate's fast car.

It’s no use complaining about your parking lot

The only things in life you can be sure of

Is that the sea is high, the sky floats

And you can hide and you can run but Fate decides the road you're on.

You pull your thumb from baby gums and start to hitch that ride

It's neither up or neither down, it’s horizontalized

Emperor Fate controls the way, whether smile or frown

And they will always be a part of what you are

As you hitch in the back seat of Fate's fast car.

BACK AND FORTH

3. ONE MORE WEEK

Gerry Colvin cc

In the corner of this field is the place I saw you kneel

Praying to the God of Love as I squint at the stars above

In my mind you're standing there, bits of grass still in your hair

Drinking pints of lager top, I wish that summer it had never stopped

Love is blind and time will soon restore its sight

What I'd give for a time machine tonight.

Put the leaves back on the trees

Turn the sun back up to heat

Let this summer last for one more week

Find yourself an open field

Feel the earth beneath your feet

Let this summer last for one more week

In the corner of this room is the place I stare at you

I wouldn't trade for anyone, but where's our summer love all gone?

Country walks and country smiles have been replaced by bathroom tiles

Lawns to cut and bills to pay, our summer love it has all gang astray

Take my hand and we will build a funeral pyre

And put the last three weeks upon the fire.

Put the leaves back on the trees

Turn the sun back up to heat

Let this summer last for one more week

Find yourself an open field

Feel the earth beneath your feet

Let this summer last for one more week

Kick off your flip-flops and come dancing in the stream

try and capture back that summer dream, but it’s just not the same to me

One More Week – chorus

BACK AND FORTH

4. THE MAN THAT SHE LEFT YOU FOR

Gerry Colvin cc

I know that you are hurting 'coz I'm hurting too

There are no words of comfort I can offer you

We go back such a long way

That's what's killing me so

Because the man that she left you for

Is closer than you know

It wasn't my intention, there was no plan

Who knows where cupid’s arrow will finally land

Three tiny hearts are broken by fate's cruel blow

Because the man that she left you for was closer than you know.

Who can explain the unexplainable?

Who can you blame for something so natural?

There are no simple answers to the questions you ask

The future that I'm facing is now part of your past

I hope one day you'll find a way to look at life all anew

Because the man that she left you for was closer than you knew.

There's just one thing you must believe and then I will leave

The man that she left you for will always be

Closer to you than you know.

BACK AND FORTH

5. THE BELL

Gerry Colvin cc

I am the vein under the ground

I am the vein the miner has found

Pulled from the soil through man's sweat and toil

I am the vein, I am the stone

I am the ore in the stone

Pulled from the rock with chisel and block

Put to the fire and moltened and mired

I am the vein, I am the stone, I am the ore

In the Furness blast I'm mixed with copper and brass

I'm left for a day as the workers pray

I'm taught to sing and tuned to ring

I am the vein, I am the stone, I am the ore, I am the bell

I rang for the old and I rang in the new

And I heard you pray as the harvest grew

I called to the men come in from the fields

I am the bell come hear me peel

I sent you to war and I brought you home

And I heard you cry for the bullets you've thrown

I watched your beards grow long and grey

I am the bell come here to pray

I saw generations of congregations

I watched this town turn conurbation

I saw this church dwarfed and ignored

But I'm still the bell the voice of the Lord

I am the bell cracked and worn

I am the bell from the tower torn

Thrown in the earth ne'er ring again

I am the bell, I am the stone, I am the ore, I am the vein

I am the vein under the ground, I am the vein the miner has found

BACK AND FORTH

6. SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES

Gerry Colvin cc

Standing at the Rollright Stones, holding hands and so alone

As wondrous a place as two people could possibly be

But still you are not satisfied, you have to look through ocean eyes

You claim the clouds are the waves and the stars are the sparkling sea

We stand on a green beach, the stones become whale bones

As raven black sea crows womb and weave up above

Don't ask me if we're nearly there yet, we will get there when we do

But we have to stop along the way to go dancing with the moon

Patience is a precious gift you always seem to lose

Why do you always want to be somewhere else and in someone else's shoes

You say you like Snickers bars, but not the chocolate or nougat

I say that's just nuts if you look at it logically

Its hard to love and understand someone with a half empty glass in their hand

You tell me empty and full are absolutes actually

We stand at a cross in the road, you ask me which way do we go

I say how the hell should I know, just being here's heavenly

Don't ask me if we’re nearly there yet, we'll get there when we can

Why can’t we stop along the way to go dancing on the sand

Envy is the deadly sin you always seem to choose

Why do you always want to be somewhere else and in someone else's shoes

Destiny and destination are just a page away

Don't be so impatient and just enjoy today

Don't ask me if we're nearly there yet, the journey still goes on

We have to stop along the way to go dancing in the sun

Jealousy is the very thing that has a hold on you

Why do you always want to be somewhere else and in someone else's shoes

BACK AND FORTH

7. THE TRAGICAL CONCEIT OF CAPTAINS MILLBANK AND KAT

Gerry Colvin cc

Cutlass Kat looked out of the Black Lion

To her ship rigged and ready below

And she swore that she'd never sail The Harridan

With god knows who, to god knows where, 'til god knows when

She had left Captain Millbank a sleeping, dreaming of his Lady Fayre

But he was unaware that his Lady Fayre

Was one and the same as the cursed Cutlass Kat

Run Cutlass Kat, Run Cutlass Kat

The man that you love is the man that you can’t have

Run Lady Fayre, run Lady Fayre

The man that you love is the man that's never there

The Captain's dream it did turn to a nightmare

And he woke with a start and shout

Landlord Martin burst in, told him of the Harridan

And how Cutlass Kat had stole his sweet young bride

She had sworn revenge on the Captain

He had cost her a chest of Welsh doubloons

But as her hate grew, so her love for him did too

Disguised as Lady Fayre she set out to steal his heart

Kat she knew they could nay lay together

For he would see the scar that gave her name

Always together and always apart

She'd sail to her death with a broken pirate’s heart

After twenty odd years of searching

Captain Millbank returned to New Quay Bay

One woman he did scorn the other he did mourn

But vowed to stay here 'til tomorrow turn yesterday

In the Dolphin Lookout you can feel them

Two tortured souls there do dwell

Always together and always apart

These are the ghosts of the Black Lion Hotel

BACK AND FORTH

8. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Gerry Colvin cc

There's a flame that keeps us moving on

There's a light that shows us right from wrong

It’s made up of the flickering hopes of every broken heart

It’s made up of the sparks of every revolution past

It’s tended by a force that gives us strength in times of need

It brings the rain that grows the tree that will shelter me

There's a flame that keeps us moving on

There's a light that shows us right from wrong

It’s made up of the flickering hopes of every broken heart

It’s made up of the sparks of every revolution past

It lights the path that leads us back to where we all belong

It dries our tears and banishes the fears in everyone

It sees the beauty that's within, not the colour of the skin

It gives us all one voice to sing and helps us in remembering that

There's a flame that keeps us moving on

There's a light that shows us right from wrong

It’s made up of the flickering hopes of every broken heart

It’s made up of the sparks of every revolution past

And the flame gets higher and it can never die

Because it’s part of the fire that's burning deep within mankind

There's a flame that keeps us moving on

There's a light that shows us right from wrong

It’s made up of the flickering hopes of every broken heart

It’s made up of the sparks of every revolution past

BACK AND FORTH

9. THE NINTH SONG

Gerry Colvin cc

I'm the ninth song just the ninth song

Holding up the eight, other songs deemed greater than the ninth song

I'll never make you sway like Sinatra's Night and Day

I'll never make you dance like Astaire's Fine Romance

I'm the ninth song, just the ninth song

I'll never make you cry like Fitzgerald's Lullaby

I'll never make you cringe as when old Paul Anka sings

I'm the ninth song, just the ninth song

I'll never make you cheer like Steve Knightley and Phil Beer

I'll never make you sing as when a Jack Jones song begins

I'm the ninth song, just the ninth song

At any rate I'm not an eight, but then again I'm not a ten

I'm the ninth song

But someone somewhere out there

Thinks that I'm number one

I'm the song that made the girl cry at the office sing-along

I'm the ninth song, just the ninth song

At any rate I'm not an eight but then again I'm not eleven

I'm the ninth song

BACK AND FORTH

10. THE NEVERENDUM

Gerry Colvin cc

Did you ever get the feeling that you made a mistake

But you just don't know what mistake you made

Did you ever get the feeling put a cross in a box

But you already know that the cause is lost

Did you ever get the feeling that you vote for someone

But they just don't know what's going on

Did you ever get the feeling that the people you trust

Just don't seem to be like us

Repeat ad nauseum, just like the politicians!!!!

BACK AND FORTH

11. HOUSE OF THE SETTING SUN

Gerry Colvin cc

She touched his photograph for luck, but one touch was never enough

She had to touch it twenty times, one touch for all her crimes

By then it was half past one and then the soaps would be on

And then there'd be a matinee and what was outside anyway

In her sleep she whispers why don't they notice me

How can madness seem so ordinary?

The man upstairs is banging a gong but the gong's inside his head

But if he keeps perfectly still, does what the doctor says

He can make it disappear until the end of the day

When he hears the girl downstairs and remembers why the gong is there

In his sleep he whispers why doesn't she see me?

How can madness seem so ordinary?

And nobody hears them crying

Nobody hears them laugh

Nobody shares their future

And nobody cares about their past

Deep in their souls they are screaming

Mother Mary what have they done

It’s all gone very quiet inside

The house of the setting sun.

The love birds peck at a cuttle fish as she prepares another dish

That she will spend a silent hour watching him noisily devour

Then they'll go to the living room that she calls the living tomb

And she will pray for Sacha Distel to come and save her from this hell

From his chair he whispers why doesn't she notice me?

All she does is feed those birds and make the tea