1. Ebbing Tide (from gratis?)
2. Sabina (gratis?)
3. Safety, Grace (unused lyrics, given to S.L.Y.C.)
4. Future Times (gratis?)
5. Rainy Street Wets the Cheeks with Droplets of Beauty (in a weird chalet)
6. Watching Over (unused lyrics, given to Legs 11)
7. Sweet Companion (gratis?)
8. Absolutely! (fables for another time)
9. Polyxo’s Ghosts ( (in a weird chalet / gratis?)
10. Quantum Suicide (in a weird chalet / fables for another time)
11. Walking by Your Window (in a weird chalet)
12. Ridiculous? (fables for another time)
13. The Atom Time (in a weird chalet)
14. All You Can Do is Love (in a weird chalet / fables for another time)
15. In a Child’s Hand (in a weird chalet)
16. Ancient Invasions (in a weird chalet)
17. Lucette Visits Céline in Prison (in a weird chalet / fables for another time)
18. I Didn’t Hear (in a weird chalet / gratis?)
19. Come Find Me (in a weird chalet)
20. Lighthouse Beam (in a weird chalet / gratis?)
21. Salt Song (version 2) (lazybird compilation)
22. The Last of the Mohicans (hold music)
23. Later (fanning session)
24. Hello Daylight (fanning session)
25. Salt Song (version 1) (fanning session)
26. Section 20 (hold music)
27. Underwater (mis-showbusiness)
28. Dreams (mis-showbusiness)
29. Muse (mis-showbusiness)
30. Sable (mis-showbusiness)
31. Trivia (ultramack session)

1. EBBING TIDE

All the same mistakes leading to the ebbing tide
You were flying high, least that's what they said was high
Driving in your car, cross the mountains, see the stars
Or that is the sea or the city far below
Leaving on the tide, you were on the mighty side
River and the tide, leave it with an ebbing sigh
Only free, did you live so free?
Or purchase on the side, living for a higher price
We were always friends. Were we and were we again?
Listen to the time ticking on the wall beside
We were sometimes high and sometimes the lower kind
Read it in the spell, you can read it just as well
You have seen the sign, left beneath our comfort-sky

Were we free? Were we ever here?
Did we touch the bleak despair or the happy highs?
Did we have life to despise or love it so close?

2. SABINA

He will come to you when he wants fever
He will come to you when he wants fever

That's why you don't sunbathe, that's why you bathe in the moon
That's why you don't sunbathe, that's why you bathe in the moon

She will come to you when she wants fever
She will come to you when she wants fever

That's why you don't sunbathe, that's why you bathe in the moon
That's why you don't sunbathe, that's why you bathe in the moon

3. SAFETY, GRACE

It sounds like drums, looks like starlight
It smells of lilies, feels like flesh
It tastes just like ambrosia
You are missing it.

We've used the features of your dreams:
The riddle of the chocolate eggs,
The bright blue folders on the sands…
You are missing out.

Safety can't be had without it
Grace will come, you'll be astounded
Pain you have will be confounded.

4. FUTURE TIMES

When Simon took Helene from Tyre and brought her into Jerusalem
The first thought of God because he believed
We will have this again in future times.

The photograph was of a blonde leaning against the mast of a yacht,
A modelling career from the age of 15,
We will have this again in future times.

“I am looking for a man of means, someone who can provide the finer things.
I’ll cook the food and serve the beer.”
We will have this again in future times.

Na-na-na-na-na waiting game

“There is one condition attached, you must help a dear friend of mine.
He needs a start in life; this condition is absolute.”
We will have this again in future times.

“It has to look like an accident, when my ring of diamond becomes gold.
Remember the times when the days were long –
We will have this again in future times.”

Na-na-na-na-na waiting game

5. RAINY STREET WETS THE CHEEKS WITH DROPLETS OF BEAUTY

Rainy street now wets the cheeks with droplets of beauty
We walk along like ciphers in a song colouring the scenery
We don’t need to greet the brand new day
Don’t need to love the sun up above for us to come out to play

It’s only rain that’s falling down
It’s only rain that’s falling down
The lights are on and all are home
Warm laughter echoes round the rooms

Don’t look for weakness in us or in the plan
Wait forever – giving up is not an option
Not when we’ve seen the odds that Vegas is giving
And out in the desert, the Navajo might be singing:

With beauty may we walk
(With it behind us may we walk)
With it before us may we walk
With it above us may we walk
(With is below us may we walk)
With it all around us may we walk

No deception, no sudden shocks
No disappointment (great fuckover) will ever come
No spanners in the works, no floating, floating
Like a dead goldfish in its bowl.

6. WATCHING OVER

In glass houses where people will throw stones
Beelzebub your beelzebuddy was drinking with his cronies
With friends like that who need enemies?
I could see you watching over
I could see you watching over me
But people say you are crazy
People say that you are crazy
People say that you are crazy
People say that you are crazy

When you're gone you won't have to watch over stray animals
When you're gone you won't have to see stupid scenes
When you're gone you won't have to see the life I would've lived
I could see you watching over
I could see you watching over me
But people say you are crazy
People say that you are crazy
People say that you are crazy
People say you're crazy

7. SWEET COMPANION (duet)

male Sweet companion, it’s all over now
female Sweet companion, we leave here satisfied
male Sweet companion, twilight in your smile
female Sweet companion, sunset in the glass
male Sweet companion, the houses like flickering fires

female Hold for the hold, hold for the sake of holding
female You know this embrace, it’s lost if you don’t, lost in time

male We were companions, as your head moved
male We were companions, I seemed to catch in your hair
male Like a flower or a clip, my fingers affectionate clasps
female We were companions, it’s all over now
female We were companions, we leave here satisfied

male We live boxed into rooms
male In a city hive
female Watching people below
female With their shopping bags
male And the light falling on bridges
male For part of the day

female Hold for the hold, hold for the sake of recompense
female You know this embrace won’t save the world but someone really cares

male Sweet companion, it’s all over now.

8. ABSOLUTELY! (duet)

male Absolutely not, gone too many days
male You seem to be where I should be
female Without me you might love the dead of night
female I seem to be where you should be

female Time was it just didn’t feel right
female I could be effortlessly blue
female The time came when it just felt right, it felt right and
female You know that’s absolutely true

female Your eyes light up I have to stare,
male Your shape as you rise from your chair
female You seem to be where I should be
male My collar turned against the cold,
female My breath visible with the snow
male I seem to be where you should be
female An orphan loves opportunity,
male A scarecrow loves a sunbeam
female You seem to be
male Where I should be

female Time was it just didn’t feel right
female You could be effortlessly blue
female The time came when it just felt right, it felt right and
female I know that’s absolutely you

male Gone too many days
male Wipes the memories
male You got up on your feet
male And gave yourself some peace
male I thought you might, I thought you might
female and

female Time was it just didn’t feel right
male Could you be effortlessly kissed?
female The time came when it just felt right, it felt right and
both You know that’s absolutely yes

9. POLYXO’S GHOSTS

Colossus in the harbour, like in New York
It splits the sunlight over the ships in port.
Helen watching the scene from her garden seat
Sees the ships come and go on the quiet sea.

Polly is an old friend and she lives nearby.
“Polly, they whisper to me on starry nights,
Mystery sounds from strange shapes accusing me
Of the things done in my name, my rarity.”

Polly calls Helen to her…

A sunrise on a stone face, Colossal tears
No ships are in the harbour, yet Helen stares
There are stains on the grass and her neck has broke.
From a tree in her garden, swings from a rope.
She sways in the sea breeze like a plastic bag.

Polly calls her maidens to her…

Who would ever know
There were victims of the war
Where the blue skies meet
The blue water?

Who would ever know
They would trick Helen so
By dressing up as ghosts
Until she took her life?

It is not a single joy
To sing of Helen of Troy
She has already paid
Her debt to me

Blue eyes
See the empty sky
Where are the stars tonight?
Have they fallen into
Your blue eyes?

10. QUANTUM SUICIDE

Quantum Suicide is a scientific thought experiment. The scientist sits in front of a gun that is set up to either trigger or misfire, depending on the decay of a radioactive atom. With each run of the experiment, there is a 50% chance the gun will trigger. Under the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, the gun will eventually kill the scientist. But if the “many-worlds” interpretation is correct, then at each run of the experiment there will be a universe in which the scientist lives, and another in which he dies. The scientist can only ever be conscious of the world in which he LIVES, and so never seems to die. This leads to the fanciful speculation that the many-worlds interpretation implies all conscious beings are immortal.

(Imagine the scientist, realizing he cannot die, stepping outside the lab and seeing for the first time what is worthwhile about existence).

Misfire, stand up, leave the room, enter the room, sit down,
Misfire, stand up, leave the room, enter the room, sit down,
Misfire, stand up, leave the room

I can’t paint but I dreamt I saw a picture on the wall
Three old bearded men held a dragon by the tail
It’s a wonderful world, it’s a wonderful world
Two cars can pass each other driving by here
Without either of them crashing off the pier
It’s a wonderful world, it’s a wonderful world
It’s a wonderful world, it’s a wonderful world

Billions of different things could happen
Billions of different things could happen
And in these eventualities I live
And in these eventualities I live
How can anything truly die – How can anything truly die –
- When this goes on and on? – When this goes on and on?

Misfire, stand up, leave the room, enter the room, sit down,
Misfire, stand up, leave the room, enter the room, sit down,
Misfire, stand up, leave the room

11. WALKING BY YOUR WINDOW

Now the kids are back in school
And I was walking by your window
Someone was listening to “Roadhouse Blues”
And the sky’s still clear and blue

Tomorrow’s Hallowe’en
The bonfire will fight the rain
The kids collected the wood
And now they’re wearing their masks and hoods

Cycling in November rain
Going downhill, can’t see a thing
And another bloody truck
You come home covered in muck

Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve
And it’s hard to believe
It’s good to close up the shop
And the clock will never stop

12. RIDICULOUS?

You’re so beautiful it’s actually just ridiculous
The world that lingers at your feet is a sun rising up
People come, people go
What’s that resistance now for?

Ba-ba da-da etc.
Where are the quiet voices? Where have the quiet voices gone?
Turned on the radio, turned on the TV and blocked them all out
Turn on the last thing we knew
So ridiculously true

The world’s no longer at your feet, you feel a nice rain coming down
Left some thoughts upon the street, turn the corner, pick them up again
People come, people go
Why resist that any more?
Recall the last thing we knew
So ridiculous
Recall the last thing we knew
So ridiculous

13. THE ATOM TIME

I pick it up, the thread, from where we left off
Under the rain, in the night, on us all
Secrets, no more, open your smile
To me, your true beauty is in the way you gesture now

One rush doesn’t touch the brief slots once rushed and
One rush doesn’t touch the brief slots once rushed and

Oh, in the atom time
Oh, in the atom time
Oh, in the atom time
Oh, in the atom time

You helped me and maybe you want nothing
Just air, and freedom, there’s no despair any more
One late evening, traffic far behind
A cloak of darkness is lifted from your mind

14. ALL YOU CAN DO IS LOVE

What suburban car crash made you so cold?
What would find your warm side – what is diamond, what is coal?
When the leaves are falling you know it’s not spring
When the years are passing we must talk, we must think

“Be filled with love, it’s a good thing”
So they said but it hurts anyway

We are not meant to steal each other’s souls
We are not meant to pretend it’s gold
Collective amnesia of toppled lovers
Bet you no angels
Could change us now
Ooh-ooh

What urban conflict would make me now good?
What has good and evil got to do with love?
The love they talk empty in the church and cinema
Or the only love I have left to give you now?

“All you can do is love, the rest is out of your hands”
All you can do is love, the rest is out of your hands

We are not meant to steal each other’s souls
We are not meant to pretend it’s gold
Collective amnesia of toppled lovers
Bet you those angels will chase
Us down
Ooh-ooh

15. IN A CHILD’S HAND

I don’t know if you saw
When you were a child: a little boat
Out on the sea, far from the light
Of a candle, in your tiny hand
Out on the cold, blue waves
I don’t know if you saw

The first cold drinks in a long time
Sorted me out, on the inside
Fragrant to touch, so loud to taste
So warm to hear, in a long time
Who were these people? Oh I know them
Outside the night, a glittering kingdom

First torch went up, the band started playing
All of this beautiful, oblivious melding
Were you a light I meant to hate?
A poison flower, but invisible
This not the sybil, this not abased
Carry the lantern, into the tunnel

16. ANCIENT INVASIONS

Well I’ve been dreaming of ancient invasions
But it just feels like your breast in my hand
And I’ve been thinking about blood
But I just feel your fingers on the inside of my arm
And you ask me can you love

But whatever I say it doesn’t matter
You just know it will be so perfect
‘Cause we’ve got this rare thing under control
We can control this bit of our lives
It’s a small thing we own

Reminds me of a recurring dream
With my family in a weird chalet
By an airport and we all have flights
But we are frightened by the next day

And I’ve been dreaming about ancient invasions
And I think we know what that means

The invasion is just a relaxation
Only as ancient as the kiss I give

That’s not a simile you should just trust in
Just forget about events reported
I feel your fingers on the inside of my arm
And we know we can love each other
Well I’ve been dreaming about ancient invasions
And I know it won’t interfere

Well I’ve been dreaming…

17. LUCETTE VISITS CÉLINE IN PRISON

Who – bathed in light?
Who – sat in a hole?
Who – trick of the light?
Who – not alone?

Who – bathed in light?
Who – sat in a hole?
Who – trick of the light?
Who – never alone?

You are asking me a question
You look so surprised
But I’m not innocent like that
These things have gone

I will never get them back
And you were so lovely
I could not have stayed or escaped
You were so lovely

We have to speak English –
I am alive
Eat three carrots –
I am alive
And one lemon –
I am alive

18. I DIDN’T HEAR

This night will bring calm
The moon and the stars are shining, inviting
This night will bring peace
The tired children are sleeping, dreaming

I didn’t hear
I didn’t see anything
But I’m as sure
As if I pulled the trigger myself

This night will relax
The hungry owls are flying, hunting
This night will bring calm
The moon and the stars are shining, inviting

I didn’t hear
I didn’t see anything
But I’m as sure
As if I pulled the trigger

19. COME FIND ME

The night has come, the night has come
Rest your head by mine
The night has come, the night has come
Our old, old bodies have to fly

Come find me
Across the dried up sea
Come find me
In the old ocean mountains

The night has come, the night has come
Everything is complete
The night has come, the night has come
Passing headlights, waves on the beach

Come find me
Across the dried up sea
Come find me
With you
Unaware of the passage of time

20. LIGHTHOUSE BEAM

Leave you this morning, there’s no rain
But there’s no sunlight, it’s just grey
Leave you this morning, on the train
There are no people, just faces

Lighthouse beam, going out
There’s brightness with the day
But there’s no sunlight, it’s just grey

Ship ashore, long at sea
The sailors walk the town
There are no people, just faces

Make a wish

Wandsworth Park, one weekend in February. The park’s tennis court was empty. In the playground, there were seven adults supervising only six children. A policewoman on a white horse trotted through the park. I sat down on a bench and she disappeared behind me. The bench on which I was sitting was marked with the year 2003 on my left, and 1903 on my right. On the river, flat, featureless mooring pontoons were anchored all in a row, and from here gulls flew, and landed, and flew.
There were pretty, sporty boats at the marina, at the leisure centre, tucked away in the corner of the park by the river. In the grey water a small boat moved in the distance. A single speedboat went past. I could see the train going over the river from East Putney station to Putney Bridge station. The arches of overhanging tree branches made the river path look like a tunnel. A jogger was emerging from this. The overhanging trees were bare on both sides. I could see the apartments of Hurlingham, and the boats of the Hurlingham Club, opposite, on the other side of the river. I looked at the map to read names of places on the opposite side: Rivermead, Carnwath… The gulls were cackling. The anchored pontoons and buoys were rocking in the water. My hands were cold. The sky was an icy grey, I remember.

21. SALT SONG (VERSION 2)

I, you - all night.
Your words talk.
Our lives come,
Go.

I, you face me,
You face me,
You can face
Me.

And come in.
"And come your self."

22. THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS

He used to read to me
As a child before I'd sleep
Treasure Island, Moby Dick
Stories of the sea
I forgot the other books
But there was a number
One night he brought to me
The last one I remember
It was The Last of the Mohicans
A hardback volume
With a paper sleeve
The colour yellow for the plains
And green for the trees
He read a couple of chapters
For some reason we didn't finish
I don't know how life interrupted
But it was the last he read to me
The Last of the Mohicans
And in the hospital in Antibes
A dragonfly danced through his room
He said he'd seen another
With four painted wings
A body like coloured lights
Blue and brown - and yellow and green
And I never finished that book

23. LATER

See those eyes, captured light
Bottled by successive ties
Wake her in the dead of night
Go outside, our skin is blue-grey
The moon shatters like crystal
Pieces fall somewhere distant

What does it mean?
Later, much later, she'll see
Later she'll see
Later, much later, she'll see

See those lips, crimson ships
Wrecked on terra incognita
Take her picture every day
And sunlight on the staircase
We pretend we've just met
Amaze them with liberties we take!

24. HELLO DAYLIGHT

Hello daylight, I'm waking up, no sound so I'm the first
It's easier this way, just me and the break of day
On the wall hangs a picture, I can't see it in the sun's glare
I recall what it portrays, I know its ideal way

Hello daylight, I'm woken up, by a sound - a welcome one
It's sweetness this way, birdsong in an empty place
On the wall hangs a mirror, I can see my face from here
There's no bitterness, no pain, no anger, no hate.

25. SALT SONG (VERSION 1)

Why do we always fight?
Why do our words attack and our lives become defences?
Or why do you have faith in me,
When you don't have faith in anyone?
Why do you have faith in me?

Anger comes from within
Your anger comes from nowhere else

It's not right, but it's not wrong
It's just sad

26. SECTION 20

(based on section 20 of the Tao Te Ching)

What people dread, do not fail to dread.
How confused and the end's not yet.
People are merry as though they're feasting
Or like ascending a terrace in spring.
I alone show no sign,
Infant not yet learned to smile,
Weary and immobile,
I seem to have no home.
People possess more than enough,
I seem to have lost all.
Mine's a mind of ignorance,
Indiscriminate and dull.
I seem like the wind blown about,
Without destination
But I have sustenance.

27. UNDERWATER

I was fourteen years old when the divers went down where your body drowned.
I stood at the edge, their equipment lay around.
They said you didn't know the water would rise above.
Like virginity lost in an old dark house, it was sudden.
They found nothing down there but reeds.
Your image passed into dreams.
Truly youth eternal and I thought you were beautiful.

I was nineteen years old when I went down myself where your body drowned.
I stepped off the edge, my clothing lay around.
I searched for you in the dark, deep under.
Like falling in love, I was taken down.
What I found was horrible.
In rags. Your smile was skeletal.
I'm ashamed to admit it was useful to know the truth is not always beautiful.

28. DREAMS

The rocket shoots off to light up above.
We're left with our thoughts which turn to life on Earth,
Down here by dim lights in all the merry bars tonight,
I know I can say this 'cause you'd do the same I suppose

I love you when you wish like me
For the breakouts neither heard nor seen,
The value of this world is in dreams.
I love you when you wish like me
For the breakouts no-one hears or sees,
The value of this world is in dreams.

The long grass sways on the plains below.
Upon the hill a lifeblood flows:
Hooves against wood kicking,
Paddock fences splintered open,
A team of horses, zeal unchained,
Gallops down into the plains.

29. MUSE

I won't break the news tonight,
Some other time will be right,
I don't want to shade the light
That keeps some of us alive
She draws the blinds here
And sits down in her chair.
Glistening drink, what inspires?
Thin hope for words of fire.
Glistening eyes, she weeps,
Slim hope for sleep.

She says love and faith
Shouldn't be explained,
Everything holds lies
To break those who try
But when I receive this I merely take.
She is all around me...
But she won't break my fall...

You see I take it up wrong,
Just hold her and close down
As if a moment's sadness
Is a place of solace,
As if the way to act
Is to exalt her feet:
She breaks in her shoes tonight,
Sore left but okay right,
Go out, gravitate to light,
Go out, try to stay alive.

30. SABLE

We tried to call you in the night,
Like many tried, alter your fate.
Wheel your sister in her chair in daylight,
Winged djinn and peris bound the churchyard gate.
Women under pretty hats, flowers sailing to the earth.
You said "Don't shed a tear... for me."
When you read my story you felt the storm and waves.
You said "Don't shed a tear... for me."

You descend alone to the world underground.
If I am the ground, kick up my dust.
You rest alone in ground under the world.
If you were the world, I got there.

You showed us the soul and wonder,
We squabbled over your robes,
At the cross you lie under, altar above the sorrows.
The ball is over, time to lock the door.
All that glittered, rags and bones once more.
Don't shed a tear... for me.
Fly up above all the winter raindrops
And watch the snow fall on all the rooftops.
You say "Don't shed a tear... for me."

31. TRIVIA

How far would you have to go
Before you'd know me?
Against the white heater
I'm looking outside, below
At the parts of street
Under lights in the winter evening
She walks, coming out of dark
Wrapped in her coat, mouth in her scarf

The window looking out is my inside trying to be out
The apartment is up but she and I are down
The rushing air is ice as she's walking home
But when she comes up she's still only somewhere cold
Cold

I touch the things around
Table, fruit bowl, sofa, white walls

She kicks golden leaves at the gate
She has her keys, she is back now
I fear when I'm alone
That I'm not here, somehow
Stepping up the stairs
She loosens her hair, free from work now
I don't move to the sounds
I keep staring out at the rubbish below

I touch the things around
To feel I'm here, not a ghost.