1. Clown Shoes (Colvin)

I’m wearing my clown shoes on my clown feet
That keep taking me down the road where I shouldn’t be
I’m wearing my clown paint on my pretty little face
But I don’t see it that way so I slap on my clown paste

And if you think I scare you think what its doing to me
I have to hide my sensitive side just to survive you see
So I put on that clown coat its too big for me
But it’s the only thing I feel comfortable in

Everybody knows my name
But I remain anonymous just the same
I’m your man in the clown suit
Smoke and mirrors whatever you choose
A punch line to take away your blues
I’m your man in the clown shoes

You’ll find me down the clown town Piccadilly
Where Eros frowns down on the clowns like me
I’m appearing at the clown court but its not really me
I send a trainer clown to take the custard pie for me

Everybody knows my name
But I remain invisible just the same
I’m your man in the clown suit
Smoke and mirrors whatever you choose
A punch line to take away your blues
I’m your man in the clown shoes

And if by chance I scare you that was my intent
I’ll say sorry with a squirt of a flower
We’re the same we got no sense

I’m driving in my clown car with the show spoiler
Selling you an uncut joke to all you country folk

Everybody shakes my hand
But I remain the untouchable man
I’m the joker in the clown suit
Smoke or mirrors whatever you choose
A punch line to take away your blues
I’m your man in the clown shoes

I’m on the circus train crossing those county lines
With a honk of my horn I’ll perform for the sad a forlorn

2. When the Light Switch can’t be Found (Colvin)

I don’t want to go to bed just yet
Because I’m afraid that I’ll forget
Just one single second of the day I spent with you
That is something that I really do not want to do
I don’t want to leave this beach just yet
We’ve Barbecued and argued, then argued again
Guess we knew since ’92 that it would be like this
One day we’re kids in clover the next on a precipice

But when the dark nights bring you down
And the light switch can’t be found
I will be your guide back to the brighter side
This match we’ve struck burns longer than you know
I will always find the way back home

I don’t want to see your face just yet
Until it’s got a smile as wide as the day that we first met
Go get that old photograph a looking glass back to the past
That’s the person peeping at you from behind that gloomy mask

Because when that dark place brings you down
And the light switch can’t be found
I will be your guide back to the brighter side
This knot we’ve tied just cannot be undone
I will always find a way back home

Go in tandem down this rocky country road
I’ll do the peddling and lighten up your load

Because when that dark mood pulls you down
And the light switch can’t be found
I will be your guide back to the other side
This match we’ve struck burns brighter than the sun
We will always find a way back home

3. Tunnel to the Moon (Colvin)

I knocked a man down to the ground for a bite of cheese
A fist of bread and a cheek of meat
I wish that I could say it was to feed my family
But it’s just the way you survive the day at the Mittelbau Factory

I watched a woman bribe a guard with a hollow kiss
From professor to a whore they made us into this
Don’t think about tomorrow because tomorrow will be worse
That’s just the way you survive the day
In the tunnels of the Mittelbauwerks

They got their man on the moon
But to me it’s made from a bite of cheese
A fist of bread hollow kiss and a cheek of meat
Surrounded by the fallen stars of the Mittelbau-Dora……… Factory

He looked at me in ’43 as if I wasn’t there
Both adorned by skull and bones our insignia
The next time that I saw him was in 19..63
In the back of a limousine with John F Kennedy

They put a man on the moon
But to me it’s still made of a bite of cheese
A fist of bread, tunnel kiss and cheek of meat
Looked down on by the fallen stars of the Mittelbau-Dora…... Factory

It seems the end justifies the mean
That’s what I tell myself when I think of that round of cheese
What shame we bury and bore just to live for one day more?
And survive.
One small step for him, a giant lesson for the rest of mankind

They sent a man to the moon
But to me it’s still made of a bite of cheese
A fist of bread, a hollow kiss and a cheek of meat
In a tunnel to the moon, walked by the fallen stars
At the Mittelbau-Dora…... Factory

4. Dulcima and the Serpent (Colvin)

Her name was Dulcima sapphire eyes and steely air
Chants the starling from the eaves and charmed the snake in me
Was not me that followed hence was the snake down the lane went
Where she lazed upon the gate that led down to St Patrick’s lake

The snake hid by the apple tree as she sang unto the breeze
Shoulders bared in the warm air she plucked the Adam out of me
Dulcima I softly called it was not my voice at all
I slithered as if in a dream the serpent had his hold on me
Her laughter at my face grotesque my threadbare clothes my farmer’s breath
Caused the snake to writhe within the sky turned grey the sun went in

I found myself back in the Square when news broke of poor Dulcima
Lain by the tree next to the gate that led down to St Patrick’s lake
It was the snake the hammer bore that played upon sweet Dulcima
The apple cradled in my palm proved my sin and damnation

Not for me the coiled rope waits not my body but the snake’s
That she charmed from deep within when I’m dispatched so shall be him
Her name was Dulcima that hexed a snake that was her end
By gate and lake and apple tree beware the serpent that lurks in thee

5. Him of the Sea (Colvin)

No more days of sails bereft of breeze
No more nights of stars that do not favour me
No more slashing rain that cuts you to the bone
No more fishing nets full of stones

I spent too many years the wrong side of the sand
Pledged to plant these sea legs firmly in the land
Ne’er breath salty air that drives a man insane
Purge this bloody brine from these bloody veins

Been a long time coming but I finally see the Quay
Oh Lord my boat so small vast is your sea

But in every furrow ploughed I see a breaking wave
An ocean sunrise in every field of hay
In the sound of scattered crows I hear the flap of sail
The winter breeze through hedgerow trees becomes the siren’s wail

Been a long time coming but I finally see the Quay
Oh Lord my boat so small vast is your sea

But on every land-locked day Poseidon called to me
In every nightmare he drowned out Persephone
You try to live a lie and shun Almighty destiny
But you cant ignore the lure I am the him of the sea

Been a long time coming but I’ve finally found the Quay
Oh Lord my boat so small vast is your sea

6. All Over Again (Colvin)

It happened again one November night just after nine
At the Embankment tube station Bakerloo Line
That’s when it happened again
You ran for the train I missed mine just wasn’t my day
It’s amazing how we could be so close and so far away
It’s happening again
The turnstile of time only spins around one way
At least that’s what they say but just for today
It happened all over again

I stared at the space where I’d just seen your face a moment before
It’s funny how you were still there but not anymore
It’s happening again
The escalator of time only moves one way
That’s what they always say but just for one day
It happened all over again

The present we’ve been sent is the price of the past that we spent
No waiting room is big enough
For all the times that I’ve thought of
It happening again

So there we are minding the gap in the baggage car
Between who we were then and who we are
It happened again

Old Father Thames of time only flows one way
Above us the waves as we go our separate ways but for just for one day
the years have slipped away it happened all over again

7. The Laird of Loch Doon (Colvin)

In the time of the Great Plague when the dragon roamed the skies
On an island in Loch Doon was a castle where we did hide
Thought us safe behind two walls one of water one ancient stone
But this fiend no claymore bore cut us down no mercy shown
No potion could be found no magic pured the air
In the time of the Great Blight in Loch Doon I was the Laird

First my wife and little ones then my men at arms they fell
To a masked faceless foe, no Fern Rue could dispel
So, I walk the walls alone watch the centuries roll ahead
In the time of the Great Flood on Loch Doon I am the Laird

Now the castle sits on the shore the isle below the waves
I can roam the earth once more but here through fear I remain
Just a shadow of a man I envy those who succumbed
Lulled by gull and cormorant whilst I haunt these halls alone

Scars will heal and bones do knit but this fear in me still lives
On the banks of Loch Doon in the ruins I am still Laird
In the time of the Great Plague when dragons roamed the sky
In a castle on Loch Doon is the place where I still hide

8. Malcolm’s Song (Colvin)

Lightning will strike in the same place again
When Great Birnam Wood moves to High Dunsinane
In this fair realm two Kings cannot reign
One must to Hell and the other remain

North wind show us the way to our land that calls from afar
Fly on nightmare and dreams we journey to set Caledonia free
Blunt not the heart from the task that we start
Enrage it with a lion rampant heart
Cut your blade on the whetstone true and strong
A fair battle to right the foulest of wrongs

Lightning will strike the same place as before
By the cut and the thrust of the clan of Canmore
March ‘til the heather is soft under heel
God’s will be done on that cursed hill

If Kings are mere swords with which spirits do fight
This King claims his Divine Right
Raise the standard pipers begin
Macbeth I knew not yet he’s my countryman

Lightning will strike again in the same place
As we fight for our people our blood and our race
March ‘til the heather is soft under our feet
I grant him bloody luxurious defeat

On this stage of a world with all hope bereft
They will write of brave Malcolm and misguided Macbeth
In this world that’s a stage they will write of our deeds
And know of our just and complete victory

Lightning will strike out this cankerous sore
By the thrust and our trust in the clan of Canmore
Carry us back to our kith and our kin
When justice be served let the healing begin

Light the night bright northern star
Cousins unite Alba Gu Brath
Fates call upon us by grace of Grace
We’ll perform by measure, time and place

North wind show us the way…Take us home, to our home.

9. Paranoid (Colvin)

I’ve got an itch that I can’t scratch next to the monkey on my back
Beside the chip that weighs me down my brow is permanently frowned
I see the blinking light on the closed-circuit TV
I’m not paranoid they’re really watching me

They know when my short fuse is lit which avocado that I pick
The funeral plan that I chose my favourite rockabilly pose
They know when I didgeridont and when I didgeridoo
I’m not paranoid they’re really watching you

Watching me watching you watching everything we do
From your supermarket loyalty points
To your Facebook Twitter and Bitcoins

They know which one is Ant or Dec and even I can’t tell that yet
They know my internet history even the sites that I delete
I’m wearing a tin foil hat ‘til 2053
I’m not paranoid they’re really watching me

Watching you watching me omni presently
From your linkedin profile Tinder app
To your Tik Tok Watsapp and Snapchat

They’ve got my DNA genes I sent off innocently
Apparently I am a Norse as most of us turn out of course

I’m changing my identity the person you know is not me
He had no sensibility just trusts what he googles and sees
What creatures live in this Brave New World of fake news
I’m not paranoid they’re really watching you

Watching me watching you recording everything we do
When your credit card has been declined
To the fake cheque the promoter signed
I’m not paranoid they’re really watching me
I know who they are and I’ve had enough
I’m not paranoid they’re really watching us

10. On the Holly Tree (Colvin)

Little boy riding a hobby horse on Saint Agnes Eve
Little girl wearing her party frock leg-o-mutton sleeves
We’ll never get them off to sleep mamma said
Best do as your mother bade papa said
I don’t recall who took that snap or why she wore my cowboy hat
But I remember how we felt like being wrapped up in warm velvet

We were green as the Holly rosy cheeks like the berries
On the holly tree

A lock of hair a passport photograph in a keepsake box
First broken heart first cigarette consulate
Things will get better wait and see mamma said
Just look at your mother and me father said
I don’t think of that girl too much or why I kept that little box
But I remember the break-up grief like clenching on a spikey leaf

Ever green as the holly rage as red as the berries
On the holly tree

Old photographs crack and fade loose their gloss the corners fray
But the feelings still remain they are the lines upon my face
And I carry them with me some blood red some evergreen

Little boy wearing a wedding suit on Saint Petroc’s Day
Little girl in a dress of blue matching veil
At least the sun has stayed the course mamma said
Is that our boy on the hobby horse papa said

I can’t recall much of the day I thought that it might have rained
But I remember how we felt wrapped again in warm velvet

Evergreen like the holly burning bright like the berries
On the holly tree, feeling are evergreen