Song: “Don’t Bring Me Down”
Saturday, May 28th, 2005A tune by Shez, which we recorded on our ever first day in a recording studio back in 1991.
Continue reading Song: “Don’t Bring Me Down”
Archive for the 'my music' Category
OK, here's some demos that I made. They're a wee bit rough but you can play the mp3s and scroll down to see the lyrics. If you'd like to pay me a massive advance to record an album or write for you (yes, Britney, I'm talking to you), tell me you like them, or even just tell me that they're shit, please email me..
Above is a picture of the Lucies and John Peel (RIP) at a gig we played that he hosted in Stafford, 1991. Our claim to fame! Left - right, Andy Cope (drums), Peel, me, Shez. Thanks to Patrick H Lauke for digitising an old negative made from a photo on an ancient disc camera!
Song: “Midsummer Morning”
Saturday, March 19th, 2005The guys in the band challenged me to write a vaguely happy song, so this song celebrates a midsummer’s day when I sat at twilight watching a race of about a dozen hot-air balloons fly low overhead, while smoking a spliff with a girl.
Continue reading Song: “Midsummer Morning”
Song: “Closing My Eyes”
Sunday, February 13th, 2005Woh!! Teenage - or rather, early twenties, angst. There was half an hour at the end of a long recording session so we quickly did this - and kept it, sandpaper throat, microphone pops and all, due to our being out of time and money. It was a staple of the live set, the rest of the band nicknaming the song “One for the ladies” due to its popularity with the girls in the audience.
Continue reading Song: “Closing My Eyes”
Song: “Kitty Fisher’s Locket”
Monday, August 9th, 2004Kitty Fisher was a lover of Charles I. "Kitty Fisher’s Locket" was an old English folk song that I’d heard of (it was a rude song, as locket was slang for vagina). I never found the original words or tune, so wrote my own. Alison Eglinton sings double-tracked vocals, I play double-tracked guitars and a bit of keyboard. Listen to “Kitty Fisher’s Locket.
(Here’s the demo version, recorded on a rainy Sunday afternoon as I was writing it, with me on vocals and double-tracked acoustic guitar: original demo version .)
If Kitty Fisher gives you pictures Make sure that you frame them.
“Here’s one I drew, that man’s you; It’s of heaven when it’s raining.
There’s saint Peter in a mac, he’s got two wings on his back. Do you like it?”
If Kitty Fisher, seeking pleasure talks of making love with you.
Softly kiss her, speak in whispers, watch how she moves under you.
Hold her while she weeps when you both come.
Let the silence in to soothe her.
If Kitty Fisher gives you treasure keep it in your pocket.
Memories in filigree That’s Kitty Fisher’s locket.
“That’s me and my mother when I was a little girl.
Do you think I was pretty?
That’s me in a forest, another time, a different place.
Do you like me?”
Words / music © Bruce Lawson, all rights reserved
Song: “The Libby Purves Megamix!”
Friday, June 18th, 2004So a mate of mine, Bruce, was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 by Libby Purves the other day, and asked me to burn a CD of the interview. While doing so, I hit upon the idea of splicing up some of the dialogue and making a dance song that had Libby mocking the size of mate’s dick. I don’t usually like dance music (cos it’s piss-easy to make) but I’m rather proud of my Libby/Bruce mega-mix (Download it) (2 meg MP3).
And, sorry Bruce!
Song: “The Woman Who Weeps”
Friday, March 19th, 2004The tune was written 5 years before the lyrics came together, the title stolen and song inspired by TS Eliot’s La Figlia che Piange. Alison Eglinton sings vocals, I play guitar. It was done in 1 take, except the final 5 bars (which we got wrong), then 1 take for the guitar overdubs.
Listen to “The Woman Who Weeps”
The woman who weeps has borrowed my life tonight.
I’m failing to keep myself to myself from you.
I watch as you sleep; you breathe untroubled, rhythmically,
and I do not wake you to ask you to hold me.
This woman who weeps could love you if you’d return it,
But feels it weak to lower defences.
this woman could teach you so much if you’d like to learn it.
I wonder why we live such pretences?
The woman who weeps has kicked up the autumn leaves.
This woman you see has seen very few summers through;
this woman who weeps can’t be what she wants to be.
I weep for me. I don’t weep for you.
Words and Music ©Bruce Lawson, all rights reserved.
Song: “From Ocean To Sky”
Friday, March 12th, 2004From Ocean To Sky” was written when I’d been reading a lot on Pythagoras’ discoveries of the mathematics of music and the mathematical foundations of Da Vinci’s paintings. I’ve always wished I could draw or paint. The long outro didn’t work as I’d hoped; the first take had some screaming feedback guitar for the last 45 seconds which the engineer’s son accidentally taped over when he was pissed. Ah well. Vox are Bruce and Alison, quad-tracked harmonies so there’s never a breathing space in the vocal lines; violin by Naomi Cooper. Guitars and keyboards by Bruce.
When we were singing songs
you said, “All music is proportion - rules and numbers.
the words are unimportant, and each one
has the feeling of autumn with its dying fall.
A melancholy sweetness; rules and numbers.
Falling down, I know that everything I see is falling down.
Towers, homes and all your lies are falling down,
to be built up again, twice as beautiful when
they stand, and then they crumble. Falling down.”
Everything to me sometimes seems so real I wish that I could paint you what I see;
shapes and shades and shadows to show you
perfect symmetry.
And in the centre, there’s me, neatly caught between points A and B;
in mathemagical proportions. Rules and numbers.
Words and music © Bruce Lawson, all rights reserved.
Song: “Then You Come Down”
Monday, February 9th, 2004Found another song lurking on a dusty cassette - that never got recorded in a studio because I never managed full lyrics - " Then you Come Down". It was made on a rainy Sunday; the tune came
into my head, the scratchpad words while working out the chords, and the demo was made in an hour: headphones on, quickly plug a mic into the Fostex 4-track, point mic at guitar and subsequently at mouth, and you’re done.
The analog 4-track is still a great machine; sure, I’ve got 256 audio tracks at 9 gazillion bits/ second sampling rate on the computer, no tape-hiss, but by the time you’ve got everything set up, you’ve forgotten the song.. The Fotex really is plug-and-play.
Song: “The Song of Laughter and Forgetting”
Friday, February 6th, 2004Alison Eglinton and me on vocals, I play double tracked guitar. there’s a couple (!) of guitar fuckups, but I really like the fade-out. Listen to “The Song of Laughter and Forgetting”
All of your secrets are pressed between the pages
Of the books you don’t open and nobody reads.
All out of sequence, in cryptic arrangements;
they’re reminders of the memories that you no longer need
but I have seen how the winter is reflected in your eyes.
I will sing a song of laughter for you.
A song of forgetting,
A song to remember me by.
You stand, wrapped in memories while the twilight is filtering
the warmth from the world, and the darkness falls again.
You hide all your feelings, despise them as your weaknesses
when the world seems bewildering, you wear your mask of cold disdain.
I have seen how the winter sometimes darkens your eyes.
I will sing a song of laughter for you.
A song of forgetting,
A song to remember me by.
You look like two children, one golden with spring’s blessings;
the other quiet and frightened by the solitude and dark.
When the world seems unforgiving take my song of forgetting;
there’s no shame in admitting that you’re scared and you’ve been scarred.
I have seen how the summer can be greeted by your smile:
I will sing a song of laughter for you.
A song of forgetting,
A song to remember me by.
A song to remember yourself by.
Words and music, © Bruce Lawson
Song: “Killing Time”
Saturday, December 13th, 2003The Lucies’ first ever attempt at recording. Shez on bass; Andy Cope on drums, me on guitars and vocals. Mark Ponsford guested on piano. I wrote it about getting to know a girlfriend at the time, and spending ages in conversation through most of a summer but somehow not really managing to say what we felt, so “Killing Time”
Centre Stage is Julie; in prompt corner’s Bruce.
I say I love you truly but you make a poor excuse.
We’ve listened to your records by the New Kids on the Block.
the conversation’s drying up, the intimacy’s lost -
and what comes next?
Won’t you come round for a little while and we can get together.
Won’t you come round for a little while? We’ll talk about the weather.
Did it rain on your holiday? There were blizzards during mine.
Metrological conversations help to fill the time.
You put on airs and graces and I put on a tape.
you cower in the corner like I’m contemplating rape.
Did you see that programme on the TV last night
about the duck that’s learned to skateboard and the monkey that can write?
So what comes next?
Won’t you come round for a little while when the pub has closed?
Won’t you come round for a little while and we’ll discuss your clothes.
Your brain is made by Gucci, and your breasts are Calvin Klein.
designer label conversations help to kill the time.
We’ve talked of quantum physics and the duality of man
and how you’ll trade your Mini in for a supercharged Trans-Am;
poetry and politics; do you think God is real?
We’ve told each other what we think but never what we feel -
and what comes next?
Won’t you come round for a little while and we can get together.
Won’t you come round for a little while? We’ll talk about ‘forever’,
because I’m looking for a union of body, heart and mind;
we’re killing ourselves slowly when we’re only killing time.
And I’ve got to say, that we must make hay
’cause the sun won’t always shine.
Music / Words copyright © Bruce Lawson