Desire Regained

 

Unusual places to drive

will you dream about me

the way I dream about you

walking into the light

lead me from the  hive

oh what it is to be alive

take me with you

unusual places

unusual places to drive

 

if you can’t love her madly

if you can’t love her madly

better not love her at all

 

will you dream about me

the way I dream about you

oh what it is to be alive

in unusual places

unusual places to drive


Perpetual Adoration

in your alligator shoes

it could be your salvation

if I could be those shoes

it would be a revelation

 

something in the blue

of your eyes

leaves me perpetually adoring you

 

if I could be those shoes

and see you when the time comes

see when the time goes home

if I could be those shoes

and always walking with you

to sway towards a swamp

ask me why I loved you

 

there’s something in the blue

of your eyes

leaves me sometimes

perpetually adoring you


Two cats on the piano

your cat is called Rangoon

last night he played me a wee tune

he sang he loved you more than I do

I told him that couldn’t possibly be true

 

my cat I called him Mac

like me he only wants to win you back

I told him love is endless pain

but then in love we have so much to gain

 

I knew that night was falling

it was without hope now

that I tried to carry on

what is that sonic beauty?

why it’s the 20th century exposed

by a brass doorbell

why with such beauty

she could carry

the summer breeze

on her sleeves!


Ave The Leopards

ave little mamma meet

me at the fountain tonight

bring your french silver pistols

and blast them in the cool of the night

 

two latin leopards

moving on the shore of the bed

on the crest of a shiver

you shake them from your beautiful dress

 

ave little mamma

make me choose you all night

hear the daybreak rustling

brave a smile in the teeth of the night

 

ave little mamma run as Sophia can

ave little mamma trust in Sophia again

meet me when mischief befalls me

from the whispering drains

 

ave latin leopard mobile in the whispering rain

mind me when mischief befalls me

from the cruel and the vain


Pandemonia

friendship in love

should be enough

when disillusion has caught you up

but it isn’t

when Pandemonia stakes her claim

 

heartbreak

I know you’ve had your fill

but I can hear you laughing still

yet I loved her

Pandemonia was her name

 

furies in the mansions

serpents in the wells

every chance of happiness

surely gone to hell

though tonight we feel broken

tomorrow we’ll grow stronger still

Pandemonia you fought in vain

 

if you fell in love with me

there’s nothing I couldn’t be

I would disown her

for Pandemonia I was insane

yet love I know must surely die

but then again not between you and I

to endless summer!

to Pandemonia it’s all a game


Girlfriend

isn’t she fine

really just the sweetest of her kind

really just you see her and you’ll find

she has that look

in her eyes

and you gotta see us now

we’re moving up & on

yes up and up

girl we’re on our way

love is here to stay

 

she’s the kind of girl

who will always find a way

yes will always have her say

and I’m the kind of guy

whose dreams will rise unashamed

who will love you until the end

who will love you until the end

‘cause you’re my

girlfriend

 

isn’t she wild

really just the last word in style

choosing you beside her for a while

it’s goodbye fake

and it’s goodbye hollowness

and my girlfriend knows

we’re moving up & on

yes up and up

girl we’re on our way

love is here to stay

 

goodbye fake goodbye


For Saskia

could you love me

love me

love me

as I love you?

 

your namesake brought

Rembrandt to his knees

likewise love for you with me

but was it just a dream

was it really just a dream?

 

French girls will ask you

for your cigarettes

and pleasure and regret

 

I couldn’t keep you

for too long

but I can keep you in a song

forever young you seem

forever in a dream

 

if you see Saskia

maybe you could ask her

ask her how she feels

how does she really feel

and I hope she finds love

finds the perfect love


Thrive

she stood beside me

on the windy drive

kissed me sadly

then she waved goodbye

 

but if you find her

let her know

just tell her I’m sorry

that she had to go

 

just remind her

that I’m still here

on the west coast waiting

I wear the rain like tears

 

when your heart has been broken

you’ll know better than to cry

leave the words unspoken

wear your latest disguise

 

and just you remind her

that I’m still here

on the west coast waiting

I wear the rain like tears


The Belle Sisters

caught in a memory

of a dream I once had

I cartwheel I’m tongue-tied

crashing with duck eggs

so here they come now

caught in the night train

mad with confusion

ask if I feel the same

are you the little band?

without the little band

there’s nothing left to believe in

and the thing is that

 

sooner or later

we all run out of ways

to hurt the ones that we love

if I could just sit here

learn how to laugh

try hard to forget

with the Belle Sisters

 

I saw her this evening

way up on Ashton Lane

I could tell she was leaving

she didn’t even call my name

she held out her hands

when she held out her hands

she was holding

her artificial halo

hunger in a horse’s head

she rides up before me

knowing good love

can always go bad

what could I want

what could I need

if not the Belle Sisters

if not the Belles


Sunpowder

last night I heard myself sing

“nothing else exists”

“nothing else is real”

can I tell you something

nothing left to trust

and everything is love

when everything is lost

when you sold your trust

when it’s way past midnight

 

in cinemas

coffee houses

golden buildings

on empty streets

the Thurmanesque

the Florentine

Sunpowder in the Glasgow sleet


The Angel on Ruskin

believe it or not there’s an angel on Ruskin

I saw her up there with my own green eyes

she danced along among the chimneys

her golden wings caught the evening sun

 

hardly knew if I was still breathing

as I lost my way on the eastern stairs

she trashed my car she trashed my paintings

as ribbons flew from her midnight hair

 

I was always in love’s power

down in love’s power

down on my knees

 

all was lost and all was broken

brought to heel like an anxious guest

on the eastern stairs I stole some token

I chased a kiss on her golden crest

 

I was always in love’s power

yes always drawn in love’s power

down on my knees

you would fall

should you look into those eyes

 

believe it or not there’s an angel on Ruskin

I hear her laugh and I hear her sing

there’s evil abroad there’s a stranger on Ruskin

and memory lies like a girl on the wing


Last night I loved you

last night I loved you

when you opened your heart

and let yourself sing I said

so long so long

to the best thing in my life

 

I got no reason to deny

that I’m out of my mind

it’s way past my season

but that’s alright

it’s just a Saturday night

another Saturday night

 

and I still love you with all my soul

as I walk in the freezing cold

I wish the healing had begun

 

I’m outside the station

set to ride

no destination in mind

you can call it treason

that’s alright

anything you like

 

last night I loved you

when you opened your heart and let yourself sing

so long so long

to the best thing in my life


Pandemonia

(part two)

c’est la petite phrase de la sonate du phantome

“n’ecoutons pas”

tous ses souvenirs du temps ou elle etait eprise de lui

et qui’il avait reussi jusqu’a ce jour a maintenir invisibles dans les profondeurs

de son etre

trompes par se brusque rayon du temps d’amour

qu’ils crurent revenu, s’etaient remontes lui chanter eperdument

sans pitie pour son infortune presente

les refrains oublier du bonheur

 

dans cette nuit qui lui avait semble presque “supernaturelle”

et qui en effet appartenait bien a un monde mysterieux

ou on ne peut jamais revenir quand les portes s’en sont refermees

et il apercut, immobile en face de ce bonheur revecu

un malheureux qui lui fit pitie: il dut baisser les yeux

pour qu’on ne vit pas qu’ils etaient plein de larmes.

 

c’etait lui-meme

 

I thought of what might be in store for me:

to try to forget her seemed to me to be painful,

but sensible, and for the first time possible,

even perhaps easy.


The night is young

the night is young

young is the night

the dream is over

long live the dream

 

in the street

we hear mandolins

the winding violins

and our hearts

they’re much stronger

they had been broken

now they’ll mend

 

can you hear

the beating of wings

the beating of angel’s wings

they will follow

they will follow us home

 

I kiss you once

I kiss you twice

on a tenement stairwell

 

the night is young

young is the night

the dream is over

long live the dream


Danger in love

Love?

are you crazy love?

love

when you find love

then you begin

to live again

 

tonight

we have nothing left to prove

tonight

somehow

we felt just too hazy

can’t remember

just how young love felt

and even though

we’re tired we can’t surrender

can’t surrender

 

but feel inspired

to feel the fever

to field love

to feel it all

in all its faded splendour

in all its raging glory

to know that once again

we will surrender

to love


Kelvingrove baby

sometimes I used to

fly away at night

on the wings of an old love song

somehow I used to feel that I was weak

then I grew strong

and the funny thing was

I called your name you called my name  

until doubt among us

rose like provincial song

will we be strong enough to carry on?

 

I’ll be waiting for you

waiting ‘til you’re sure

under the circus down by the trees

under the august sun

if the glory of love will see us thru’

I don’t know maybe

then you can be my

kelvingrove baby

 

if I could reach you

I would walk all night

to hold you in the racing dawn

someday I know that you’ll be back

I can hear you laugh in an old love song

and the funny things is

you knew my name I knew your name

drawn to the rose thru’ the crowded thorns

will we be strong enough to carry on?

 

something about time

something about loving

and fading footsteps

down a long distance line

somehow desire forever flickers

in her green and cinnabar-flecked eyes

and when your girl looks at you

then she sighs

and she moves beside you

you want the moment touched with magic

and immortality

you want rain

you want soft music

and the last words to be about love


Desire Regained

baby I’m 19 and I’m crazy about you

I’m crazy about you

I’m crazed

I’m 19 and I’m crazy about you

I’m crazy about you is that so strange?

 

crushed by the crush

rushed by the rush

bound and tied

by your dark sweet eyes

how I dissolved

revolved and evolved

I was deranged and derealised

you were cute

but I was resolute

and hip!

 

I’m 19 and I’m crazy about you

I’m crazy about you

I’m crazed

 

there’s a phantom

in this room now

somehow conjured up

from the hotel

swimming pool

she carries the bliss

of a half-remembered kiss

and a vision of wild swans

and the jazz kittens at Coole

 

baby I’m 19

and I’m fuckin crazy about you

so crazy about you

I’m crazy I’m crazy I’m crazy


Once upon a time on the Rapenburg

along the flooded broken mansions

I did all my best to see

her laugh in playful passion

where once gorgeous phantoms glide

 

among the long and soothing shadows

she gave all her best in time

and wearing oils of hypnotic sweetness

she kissed me with the moist pout of her mouth

as lightning played on the water

laughing she muttered a soft damn

once upon a time on the Rapenburg

I’d trade all the best in life

hold her close in a distant season

caught beneath a Vermeer sky


Twenty-Two

you were 22

when I first saw you

with your painters smile

and your eyes of blue

tell it like it is

or something like it was

I swear I heard aplause

when the tight-lipped boy

eyed the starlit girl

and the starlit girl

has brightened up his world

she was 22 only 22

from the twilit gardens

in the pouring rain

you took  me to your house

you made me laugh again

Babe you’re 22

and you’ve got your life in

front of you


If love could last forever

they flutter down like fireflies

tugging at your sleeves

somehow rise to shame you

bring you to your knees

 

haunt your every sunrise

everywhere you’ve been

always walk beside you

haunt your every dream

 

if love could last forever

forever and a day

and she would wake beside you

each and every day

 

Cupid held his Psyche

naked and disarmed

Cadmus held Harmony

forever in his arms

 

you’re feeling none too special

feeling all too vague

but if you could lift your head up

show that you’re not beat

played out beaten

cast down broke

heads down defeated

lost to all hope

 

if love could last forever

forever and a day

and she would wake beside you

each and every day

 

Recorded January-June 2001

at St Vincent Sound Studios, Glasgow

Additional recording at Berkeley 2,

EK Theatre, Cava Sound Workshops

 

Chris Thomson- vocal, guitars, bass, keyboards

Hazel Morrison- vocal, drums, percussion

Callum Mcnair- electric guitar

Ken Mchugh-bass

Sam Loup-bass

Robert Henderson-trumpet

Barry Joe Overstreet-saxophone, backing vocals

Elizabeth Fraser-vocal “Sunpowder”, “Danger in Love”

Catherine Leroy- Voice Pandemonia (part 2)

Gordon Wilson-drums “the night is young”

Douglas MacIntyre-bass

Violins:

Ian White

Mark Wilson

Dervelagh Cooper

Gllian Leitch

Guido de Groote

Lizelle Le Roux

Viola

Aoife Magee

Cellos:

Isobel Campbell

Helen Mcsherry

Strings arrangements: Paul Leonard Morgan on “once..”& “for saskia”

Thomson/ White/Wilson on “the night is young”, “danger in love” & “sunpowder”

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