A sign of times: 2021 back in 1930's musical treatment

Morning Star read the Morning Star
Fix my compass to the morning star 
Got me a ticket on the one way train 
Stopped at the border I’m back again 
Take my money  I praise that morning star 

Bad news comes bad news goes 
Lots of crying confected blows 
Gnashing teeth and pulling of hair 
Put out your anger cause there’s 
Plenty to spare 
Take my money the bad news never slows 

We take a lot fake a lot
Plays both sides from a moveable spot 
Uptown world  through  two way eyes 
Standing on the corner while checking out the dives  

Markets up the markets down 
The yellow bellied index goes round and round 
The scores are in for some it’s fine
Others get screwed and left behind
Burn my money the markets up and down 

Don’t eat this don’t drink that 
Looking  at a sofa will make you fat 
Plenty of freedom plenty of time 
But it only works from the back of the line 
Don’t push in now please read the sign

Curtain rises no one there 
Sirens chorus with an empty chair i
Spotlight hits on the children’s toys
That’s the manifesto for the girls and boys 

Words and numbers long since passed
They take their place at the back of the class 
Here comes the cook with his  half baked pies
Burn to a cinder the protester cries
Get your tickets the showtimes tonight  

Morning Star Morning Star
Your city smells like a burnt out car
Wasted time wast of space
Toys are thrown not back in place
Leaving town had you morning Star
Leaving town I’ve had you morning star

MORNINING STAR

Addiction comes in many forms and Fortuna deals with one of the major one!
Fortuna 
You have my Love
My devotion
I can promise both the sky and the ocean
The motors running and the wheels are in motion 
It’s an itch that needs a soothing sort of lotion 

The second chance 
A third maybe 
The keys the lease and the bank account baby 
I leave it all with the the croupier lady
Clubs, diamonds over hearts or spades maybe 

Fevers gone but I’m still burning 
Count off the minutes as I feel my luck is turning
The sky is red and sea it is churning 
Thought I’d quit  but now I’m just returning 

See how quickly numbers fall 
In technicolor with spinning balls
Over ice and make it a tall
The golden calf is the sirens call 

I’m chasing snakes up and down the ladder 
The pole is greasy the house is getting fatter
The lights are bright my thoughts are now scattered 
Night or day time it doesn’t matter

Meet my new friend name of China White
Down from Hainan and underneath the lights 
Her face betrays a life of pain and strife
She needs a reset a different sort of lie

Dressed in red and gold 
silver chain with dragon
She whispers in my ear 
Luck it has no pattern
The perfume’s sweet
Against the skin and satin
Just another chance 
Placate the gods of mammon

Watch the pretty numbers fall
In fields of baize the dealers call
Straight up and make it tall 
Fortuna bless all the coloured balls

In a moment fate will call
Through dice and numbers, spinning balls 
Over ice and make it tall 
Fortuna bless me count the score

Fortuna

The slow version of Fortuna. A slightly more countrified version.

You have my love
My devotion
I can promise both the sky and the ocean
The motors running and the wheels are in motion 
It’s an itch that needs a soothing sort of lotion 

The second chance 
A third maybe 
The keys the lease and the bank account baby 
I leave it all with the the croupier lady
Clubs, diamonds over hearts or spades maybe 

Fever's gone but I’m still burning 
Count off the minutes as I feel my luck is turning
The sky is red and sea it is churning 
Thought I’d quit  but now I’m just returning 

See how quickly numbers fall 
In technicolor with spinning balls
Over ice and make it a tall
The golden calf is the sirens call 

I’m chasing snakes up and down the ladder 
The pole is greasy the house is getting fatter
The lights are bright my thoughts are now scattered 
Night or day time it doesn’t matter

Meet my new friend name of China White
Down from Hainan and underneath the lights 
Her face betrays a life of pain and strife
She needs a reset a different sort of lie

Dressed in red and gold 
silver chain with dragon
She whispers in my ear 
Luck it has no pattern
The perfume’s sweet
Against the skin and satin
Just another chance 
Placate the gods of mammon

Watch the pretty numbers fall
In fields of baize the dealers call
Straight up and make it tall 
Fortuna bless all the coloured balls

In a moment fate will call
Through dice and numbers, spinning balls 
Over ice and make it tall 
Fortuna bless me count the score

FORTUNA slow version

A different time a different place:
                                       
You took a big step lately
Closed a door on a life a little crazy
 Let your hair down with and spilt a little gravy 
 And took the long way home  

Headed out of the city
With the top down the the car’s so pretty
And  the bags packed now you’re ready 
All the bridges have been blown 

You put the foot down 
Feel the freedom of not slowing down
Eat up the miles to the next town
Now the demons have gone underground 

You’ve left the bills behind 
 bit parts that were tough to find 
Bad reviews were so unkind 
All the seeds were never sown 
 
The book you wrote 
To keep the business and the house a float  
Packed  in boxes on the disused  boat 
With  the things you store below   

No more agents meetings 
Stock options and plastic greetings 
Festivals with back row seating  
Distribution that was taking a beating 
 
At the motel reception 
For sale sign it gets some attention 
A lick of paint and some  invention 
A little wood a little stone   
A country place 
Small town gossip with lots of space 
A breakfast order that ain’t no race  
Just an office with a phone 

Some rooms need attention 
Have to look at the washrooms dimensions 
That will keep my hands full a little tension
Hear the bell it’s coming from reception

I paint the walls and the entrance
A good price for a change of direction 
Enough time to get some  redemption
A little touch a feel of home 
A little touch a little home

SUNSET INN

Regrets, we've all had a few. Even those involved in life's more nefarious activities!

I watch the sun slowly sinking
This time of day it gets me thinking 
Among the faces that I remember 
For different reasons, time dismembers

Was it one or two we buried 
Beneath the freeway that now carries 
The weary workers with all their worries 
It’s not for me now to say I’m sorry 

Time pushes (just moved) on
What’s done is done

Riverina a few years later
Cheap wine country but something greater
Would hit the streets and make us money 
Change some lives in a hurry  

Paid protection and it was seeded 
Brown paper bags was all we needed
A little business to wash the money 
It was so easy it wasn’t funny

Time moves along
What’s done is done 

Getting by in this costal  town
Just a few doors down from
A deal in exchange for a favour
Known by a different name 
I still feel the same 
It’s all just part of the game 
I hear some rumours now and then 
About where and when 
Her and them
But never feel put upon 
The antenna’s on 
To just stay under the  radar 

The years are rolling right past my window 
Did I do wrong but maybe who knows?  
To get some peace and some reflection 
I don’t need change or direction 

The past it sits upon my shoulders 
Sometimes silent sometimes bolder 
But in the end I did what I did 
Never ratted or lifted a lid

Life just rolls on
What’s done is done

Cassowary Coast

Time moves on but some times/places seem frozen until they're not.

Incense holders and paper cars
Smoke that rises from a coloured jar
Send to spirits far beyond the stars
Reflecting light from the golden bars

Amid the refugees from everywhere
Who fill the bars and the statued squares 
Climbing ladders with a devil may care
In need of service and of quick repairs

Of all the things that were left undone 
A T10 warnings when the day was done  
The high humidity and blood red sun 
Amid the whispers for those put upon

The lives enjoined out on different plains 
Look too closely you could see the strain 
The midnight riders always entertained 
Invested with both joy and pain 

Where men of empire once were feted
Amongst the tea where the opium traded
All the treaties have been since updated
Stored with pictures that have long since faded

Everything is now left behind 
A postcard from another time
Flags of colony a different bind
Tears and rain as the church bells chimed   

The Royal Rifles came in ‘41
To a Xmas and a rising sun 
The border posts quickly over run
Empire day had been put upon

Now the march is to a different beat 
Flags have changed out on the streets
Withdrawal is now a quick retreat
All that’s left is endless summer heat

All we knew has been blown away
Clouds of dust into another day
The tide of time has now had its way 
Crusoe and the  castaway

Everything is now left behind 
Postcards from a different time
The tide and time has now gone away 
Crusoe and the castaway

CHIN CHIN

It's a jungle out there, from the boardrooms to the backrooms to the playrooms!

CHANCERS

A couple getting by and making do whatever that involves;

Never had a plan
Or drew lines in the sand 
When money slowed
Tanks are dry again
Will it ever end
And when who knows?

I ditched my truck it needed care
Rented rooms I thought were spare 
I worked at night did some deals 
Borrowed short and skipped on meals

Back in town again 
Jainee loves to spend 
From go to whoa
All the wiser heads
Both alive and dead
They surely know 

That she reads palms 
Sells some weed
A little more for weekly needs
The local cop don’t really care 
His time is short a year he’s there

She flies away into her dreams
Heaven knows  just what it means 
Her childhood doll sits on the chair 
Lends the room a gothic air 
The day is long as night is cold 
She seeks both freedom and control  
To dance away and leave it all 
Behind the trouble that she knows  

She wants out again. 
Bags are packed to send 
I never know 
Like the times before 
The cash behind the drawer
Is getting low

I’ll cook some food 
Open wine 
Tell some tales of better times 
I feel the rain is coming soon 
I hold her close and sing some tunes

One more year we’ll get it done 
Paint the house, time in the sun 
Fix the shed plant some seed
A simple life like that’s all I need

JAINEE

The sign on the fence says it all
For sale or lease complete in a month or more
Up on the hill
beneath the big sky
Clouds are building, from the west a sign?
Gods of Thunder please this time

Decades had passed since the war
But Pa disappeared one day with his case through the door
Through cattle and sheep seasons rolled by
He never built any steam to the day he died
Something went missing inside

Smell the summer rain
Finally back again
Like a long lost friend
Rarely comes around
Chases ghosts to ground
Lays my burdens down

His folks are buried down by the gates
Right by the orchard in the tree breaks
Got in too early or got in too late
The market dives or it’s interest rates
He’d hoped for something better than fate

Feel the summer rain
Coming back again
She’s a long lost friend
Rarely comes around
Often skips my town
It’s a joyful sound

Brother and sister made the call
Sell up the land
cash out it all
She’s on the south coast with a new guy
He’s all North Shore living his lie
Mortgaged and leveraged besides

Feel the summer rain
Finally back again
Like a long lost friend
Rarely comes around
Chases ghosts to ground
Lays my burdens down

SUMMER RAIN

Reflections on another time and place.

Out with the street life 
Faces abound
You can see so many things 
Your feet won’t touch the ground

You’ve climbed up the mountain
Through the setting sun
Parked yourself in a thousand bars 
and then some

Stake out the morning
And roll through the night
Spending every waking moment
Getting things just right

To chase the highest highs 
And come down slow
Who cares about tomorrow 
I just don’t want to know
For all the time here 
One thing I know 
Read it in the shifting tide
With the things we left below
Because here where we stake our claim
This town is a small town
Down at the crossroads
Where it began
I’ll take my medicine 
Just like a man
Through the looking glass is something 
Drawing me back here
To  the joy’s and ennui
Of all those star crossed years

For all my time here 
What do I know 
You can take your silver dollars 
And rap them in a bow 
Because here where we stake our claim
This town is a small town

To some it’s still morning
In the city of light
They bet their house of cards  on it
And hope things turn out right

And look the other way 
When the thief  kicked down the door
I know for me at least it’s full of mirrored walls

For all my time there
One thing I know
Wrote it on a scrap of paper
Forgot what I didn’t know
Because here where we staked our claim
This town is a small town

SMALL TOWN

Carnival  on the edge of town 
Painted faces tents and clowns
Come tomorrow that’s where I’ll be found 
 
Reality its out of bounds 
Vacant kids they hang around
The rides the sideshow  and merry go round

Not a place to stay too long 
Load the trucks and move along
By Monday morning we’ll all be gone 

One day it’s the Ferris Wheel
Popcorn and the three card deal
The Ticket man on the edge of the field

I take the kids on the monster mash 
Haunted house then  a dodgem crash 
Next  town will be a midnight dash 
Snake oil and we sell  in cash 
Coloured lights a revolving floor
Painted sky  I can’t find the door 

Magic potions a cure for all
Pick a number on the spinning balls

Another year will send me on 
Far up north that’s where I’m from 
Back pocket cash from the tales that I’ve spun

Travelled roads to kingdom come
Bit of trouble but had some fun
But things get old and my time it is done

I skid marked the open roads
Towns and cities have their secret codes
Lived in sensory  overload 
I’m turning back to a different mode 

Find a place a little off the track
Where money lasts I’ve a little stack 
A rented house that’s crack a Jack 
I’ve paid my dues I won’t be back

BIG TOP

Backroads master

A road journey which includes a Vietnam vet and memories of the bombing of Darwin
he Monsoon rain the sugar cane
My hearts black stain 

Life was full of bills and mortgage woes 
I saw no future so I hit the road
Headed north was a clear escape 
I knew no one no one knew my fate
It was a circumstance an old romance 
Such a bitter fight lead down the track to the darker side

Arafura end of highway one 
Through the centre scared of what I’d done 
Left the family in a deep dark whole and I wonder are they still wondering 
Through these truck stop towns
For the broken down 
With a freeway ride 
To these shacks on the lower side 

The monsoon rain the sugar cane my hearts black stain
Diamond light the colours bright the fetid night

Now I live beside a mangrove swamp
Sheets of fibro build on timber stumps 
The ghosts of soldiers back from ‘42
At night I hear them and the Zeros too
I did my time Vung tau ‘69
And those dragon’s eyes
Pushed me over to the outer side 
So I bide my time 
Drinking rum and lime 
Hide my bitter pride 
Chart my day through the sun and the tides

North Of South

Year of the Tiger

Mr Smith

3 on the tree

Hymm to the River

Bossa Nova chords, time and place is definitely Hong Kong and it speaks of many things and some people!
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Writing songs and pushing them out into that great black hole of cyber space. Hope it connects with one or two souls out there!

chris gordon 35

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