What if nobody comes to your door
What if nobody should care
What if there were no pretty green bows
To tie up your lovely red hair
What if the wolf came to dinner one day
What if your cloak was red
What if you couldn’t scream anymore
What if the woodcutter’s dead

Chorus:

Dance little darling, dance to the music
Dance to the sea on the sand
Dance with your eyes and arms opened wide
Dance with the Sun on your hand

What if the moon should follow you home
And cover your life time in blue
No pink for your dresses, no pink for you bows
No pink for your bonnie boys too
What if the fox crept by in the night 
And the door to the yard laid open
The weary old Tomten lay fast asleep
What if a promise was broken

Chorus:

What if a shadow as big as a bear
What if you heard a girl scream
What if a demon jumped out on your back
What if you had a bad dream
What if a river should take me away
What if I slept in the sea
What if the man who came to your door
Didn’t remind you of me

Chorus:

Dance To The Music

One cycle of the tide in The Gap and 4 fictional characters.  See the animation on youtube.
http://youtu.be/KqpZB50A3zk 
The tide slides in and hangs on the harbour wall
The flags hang loose upon the masts, the seagulls stall
The sun is pinned behind high surrounding hills
The river flow is flat and slow – it’s almost still

The baker burns his back upon his oven door
The cleaner bends to kneel upon the banker’s floor
the banker sits and neatly splits his boiled egg
The banker’s wife wraps her arms around her legs

And the tide begins to slide out towards the sea
And the ropes that hold the boats are binding to the quay
As the sun begins its daily haul the level of the water falls
In that place plainly called 
The Gap down by the sea

The baker stacks the rack of crackling, cooling bread
The banker’s wife tries rubbing bruises in her head
The cleaner quietly leaves. She shuts the bank’s back door
The banker sets his desk just like the day before

And the tide has gone now. The harbour floor is bare
The anchor chains upon the mud are drying in the air
The driftwood is stranded now up upon  the tidal brow
You might think it changed somehow 
The Gap down by the sea

The baker’s apron wipes the sweat from off his face
The banker’s wife finds room enough to fill her case
The cleaner climbs her stairs. She does not live alone
The banker taps his pen upon his telephone

And the tide begins to rise once more from the bay
It trickles in, it ripples in, pushing on its way
Old man scratching in the mud looks to see the rising flood
Soon all trace gone for good in
The Gap down by the sea

The baker lies upon his bed, his back is bare
The cleaner bends and gently strokes it with her hair
The banker’s wife is on a train that’s leaving town
The banker puts his telephone, un-answered, down

And the tide once more hangs upon the wall
The sun is sinking in the sea, setting on it all
One more trip around the bay and another day has slid away
The Rheiddol flows on its way to
The Gap down by the sea

The Gap Down By The Sea

Written in the 1990s in response to the Bosnian war and  the conflicts of religion.
Down an empty side street screaming
Is it real or is she dreaming
She looks away as if it seems
The fist around her wrist is not there

Pinned against the doorway quaking
The soldier in her face is shaking
With the thought of what he’s taking
Taking his revenge ‘cos she’s there

This is for my long lost daughter
This is for the endless slaughter
This is for what you ought to
Get for being you and being here

Slowly to the floor she stumbles
Blindly in the corner fumbles
In the darkness faintly mumbles
Where are you my darling baby Rosa

Chorus:
Wise men would say
It should never be this way
But wise men are hard to find 
And from a distance all the signs
Are  out of sight and out of mind

High upon the mountain side 
There’s a cave and just inside 
There’s a man who tries to hide
Between the daylight and the darkness

He gets up in the morning light
Rubs his weary eyes that fight
The vivid vision of the night
The vision of his darling baby Rosa

He clambers downwards on his knees
Finds a haven in the trees
Has no feeling for what he sees
In the town that lies below him

The barrel of his rifle shines 
With a coldness that he finds
A comfort to his troubled mind
An easy answer to the problem

Chorus:


Woman waiting wrapped in black
When is Allah coming  back
She just wants to see a crack
That opens up the light into the nightmare

Then in  a doorway Rosa cries
And as her mother slowly dies
She looks  into the woman’s eyes,
In God’s name, save my child

It doesn’t tell in the Qur’an
The story of the Samaritan
But still you can do what you can 
To open up the crack to let the light in

she says
I will take her in my arms 
Allah will keep her from harm
And I will sing to her the Psalms
And bring her up as my own daughter

Chorus:

High up in the mountain trees
There’s no sound, there’s no breeze
As a finger begins to squeeze
On a trigger no-one sees or minds

Silver bullet speeding downwards
Across the gardens of his childhood
Whining through the streets and onwards
To the final point of no return

Woman running wrapped in black
Silver bullet in her back
Falling by the railway track
Baby Rosa dying in her arms

And he says 
That was for my long lost daughter
That was for the endless slaughter
That was for what you ought to get
For being you and being there

Chorus:

Wise Men Would Say

acoustic upbeatBaby I’m On My Way

The snows have melted now
The calf is with the cow
The bulbs are pushing through
The frost has turned to dew
And the shadows in the bay
Are shorter every day
Baby I’m on my way
Baby I’m on my way

The door was swollen tight
But now lets in the light
The purple saxifrage
Is growing on the ledge
And the track down the hill
Was a river but now’s a rill
Baby I’m on my way
Baby I’m on my way

But there’s this line on the ground
Then there’s the world spinning round
And I just can’t explain
The fire in the rain
Baby I’m on my way
Baby I’m on my way


The river’s silver-grey
My canoe glides away
The paddle’s cutting deep
And while you’re fast asleep
I’m slipping back to you 
‘Saying darling – yes I do’
Baby I’m on my way
Baby I’m on my way

The river’s slower here
Night-time’s drawing near
Tired arms are heading for
A beach up to the shore
I’ll stay here for the night
Then travel with the light
Baby I’m on my way
Baby I’m on my way			[chorus]

There’s a track leading up the hill
Everywhere is soft and still
Up ahead I see a bend
I cannot see the end
But I do not deny
I want to go and try
Baby I’m on my way
Baby I’m on my way

The geese fly past the moon
The snows are coming soon
Hot coffee in the cup
The bull is rising up
And the door is swollen tight
So I’m going to say goodnight
Baby I’m on my way
Baby I’m on my way			[chorus]

Baby I'm On My Way

Elena la Buena

In the hills near Zaragoza
In the middle of a storm
Sheltered in an old taverna
That was where my love was born


Sitting by a friendly fire
Sipping on a friendly beer
Caught the glance of a senorita
Pushing her hair behind her ear

[chorus]
Donde esta Elena la Buena
donde esta Elena Buena
Elena la Buena, La Buena Elena
Elena la Buena

Her eyes were brown as Spanish leather
Her hair was black as raven wings
A smile as wild as mountain heather
Her voice was how the linnet sings

In a blanket, in a corner
I dreamed of her, the night was long
In the morning with the cockerel
I was up but she was gone

[chorus]

I travelled through the high sierras
On the promise of a dream
looking for my senorita
By every single mountain stream

Westwards to Barcelona
Through the fields of olive trees
Southwards to Cartagena
to search the harbour bars and quays

[chorus]

I looked for her in old Toledo
I looked for her in sweet Seville
Lost her beauty in Alhambra
found her on Gibraltar Hill

As the kites flew high above us
As the choughs flew o’er the sea
As her raven hair caressed me
I knew she was the woman for me

[chorus]

Elena La Buena

Folky ballad
Take me down to the river, I’m aburning
Leave me there and let me drown
Three long years and I’m still yearning
My love has left me on the ground

Yes my love she flies on golden feathers
My love she soars on northern winds
My love she hunts upon the heather
But I love my love still deep within

She comes to me when shadows lengthen
She cuts the sun from wing to wing
She strokes my brow and I am strengthened 
To face the night-time’s journeying

For as the full blue moon is swung
Across a steep and starry sky
I feel the lick of a hunter’s tongue
And I must bid my love goodbye

For I  must sweep the snowy mountains
Searching for a hunter’s prey
And while my love lies asleeping
I must hunt till the break of day

And only when the day is dawning
That ghostly edge of black and white
Just as my human heart is forming
A whispered kiss is wished in flight

What curse is this that leaves me crying
Ever together but ever apart
I can make the choice of dying
Or living with my aching heart

But if I drown I’ll surely lose her
But if I live the day may come 
When we can live our life together
And fly away up to the sun

Take Me Down To The River

Wide Awake Day

That's It Jack

Sitting in a city cafe thinking of a full moon rising over a faraway mountain missing contact with the  natural world

No silver-tabled city bar
With demerara sugar jar
And gold-rimmed cup of cafe latte
No black-haired, blue-eyed teasing smile
That makes me want to stay awhile
Will keep me long from coming back your way

No colonnaded, fountained square
With people rushing everywhere
It’s so easy for me to be so hard to find
No glossy, glassy Pallasade
With windows draped in cheap brocade
Will keep you long from coming to my mind

chorus
That great, big, yellow galleon of a moon
Comes sailing right over the hill
She’s fine, so fine,
And I know that she is mine still

The fading memories have begun;
I mistook a street lamp for the sun
I don’t know which senses I can trust
So I leave the spiders in my room
To see if they can catch the moon
But all the empty webs are catching dust

chorus
That great, big, yellow galleon of a moon
Comes sailing right over the hill
She’s fine, so fine,
And I know that she is mine still


I look for her down every street;
In all the people that I meet
I try to find her in their eyes
For if I were to wake at night 
I would want to see her light
With that there can be no (no) compromise
 
chorus
That great, big, yellow galleon of a moon
Comes sailing right over the hill
She’s fine, so fine,
And I know that she is mine still

Galleon Moon

Words taken from a Stevie Smith poem turns into a song for lockdown!
Shut me not alive away from the light of every day
I need to see the boiling, bright blue sky
Shut me not in prison walls.  I just hate these mirrored halls
A kaleidoscope of me burns my eye

Chorus
Well, you gotta believe there’s a key inside that door
A key that’s meant for turning.  That’s just what it’s for
You gotta believe there’s light inside your heart
A light that’s always shining. Tear those walls apart.
Yeh, you gotta believe

Shut me not inside a room, straight and narrow as a tomb
I need to move my lungs to breathe the air
Shut me not from the human race. I need to see a smiling face
Someone to whom I can be there

[Chorus]

you gotta believe my friend, you gotta believe
you gotta believe, you gotta believe
you gotta believe my friend, you gotta believe
you gotta believe, you gotta believe

you gotta believe my friend, you gotta believe 
(Shut me not alive away from the light of every day)
you gotta believe, you gotta believe			
(I need to see the boiling, bright blue sky)
you gotta believe my friend, you gotta believe	
(Shut me not in prison walls.  I just hate these mirrored halls)
you gotta believe, you gotta believe 		
(A kaleidoscope of me burns my eye)

[Chorus]

BT Williams

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