Gerry Colvin album!

BACK & FORTH

"Back & Forth" is out now. Scroll down for lyrics, and then go to the "Shop" page to get your hands on it!

LYRICS

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!!

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

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