The first one of the night for the last of the musketeers
Now down to two of us where once we were four
Shifting sands beneath my feet on Connor Street

So there’s me and my host dancing round the ghosts of the times of our lives
And how we’d fly without words 
He told me a story
I’ve no reason to believe It’s a lie

How every day he climbs this hill to see the sun
To feel the blood pump through his veins and his heart staying strong
Ah, the things that we’ve seen 
Shades in a dream
Who've forgotten what it means to move on

While the world goes to hell in a hand cart...
Top me up

And how he’ll watch the evening news like he cares
Like he feels for all the people
Like they’re sat upon the stairs
By the bags, by the boxes 
Odds and sods - By the Gods 
That he’ll step round one more time before bed

Oh and I… 
Did I tell you I saw her? 
That her head’s above water and she’s doing ok
Though the lie 
The lie came easy
The spirits danced for the first time that day

And while her song is no longer upon him
The music and the words still mean the same

On how he felt like he was walking on air
No explanation needed - we were 
All
Ready 
There
Keep it coming 
The camera running 
And the film is falling from my eyes

While the world goes to hell in a hand cart...
Top me up

Northern Lights EP

Top Me Up

We should have never let him go
The firefly in the bottle that we found in the hedgerow
That ran west to east past cherry trees
Humming wires and buzzing bees
That danced between the red, the blue, the green
And the colours in between

The air fair crackled round our ears
Poets, scholars, vagabonds full of big ideas
And you had always got a plan
Of all of us the better man to get us there and bring us back in style
And we could see for miles

Now they’ve started putting badges on the Israelites
And funny little aerials on traffic lights
No one’s thinking
How they should
Hearts of stone, feet of clay, heads of wood

Never one for times gone by
I always faced tomorrow and looked it in the eye
But now what’s staring back at me with devil’s eyes
It’s plain to see right through if you can see the signs 
In between the headlines

And a symphony is turning to a requiem
The pushers pushing lies in to the brain stem
These billionaires from Mars are closing all the bars
To build a better world if you believe them
If you believe them

Now they’ve started putting badges on the Israelites
They’ve started putting badges on the Israelites 
And Babylon is watching via satellite

We should have never let him go
The firefly in the bottle that we found in the hedgerow

Firefly

I remember that we were building a shelter from the storm 
In a clearing in a corner of the world
The grass we lay upon
The trees that kept us dry
Took our breath and gave it back to reach their fingers to the sky

In the days before the coming of the hollow men
In every corner of the world
Our lives were not so hollow then
And we’ll dance on their bones when they’re gone 

Are you awake
Do you hear the thunder
Are you still lost inside the dream
While the sandmen are knocking at your door

Every street and every brook
Every valley, every nook
The air is getting thinner and the cracks are getting wider
And they talk and they talk and talk and talk

And I hope that you remember 
The days before the hollow men come 
The days before the hollow men come 
And we’ll dance on their bones when they’re gone 

And I remember
And I remember
And i remember
(I will never forget)

The Hollow Men

I can’t be sure but someone that I knew before
Opened up this damn door, reminded me of you
Its strange feeling like I’m spare change
Pictures have been rearranged and painted over

And you’d think I’d break the circle by now
I always wanted to change
The scenery somehow

I’m flying solo
Lost in the afterglow
So far so good
So far
To go

Don’t follow me down
Don’t follow me down
For being bound makes no sense and no sound

Now I’m sure
Now I’m sure that I’ve been here before
I’m stuck in a revolving door
A carousel
Now it’s playtime
We drown in summer
Moonshine
Headed for the brightest star
In a fast car

Why would anyone want to break this chain?
Touch the stars again and again and again

I’m flying so low
Lost in the afterglow
Love is a drive by
A storm cloud
In blue sky

Don’t follow me down
Don’t follow me down
For being bound makes no sense and no sound

And it’s open season in my heart
And my reason for being bound
Makes no sense and no sound

Love is a drive by
A storm in a blue sky

Northern Lights

Afterglow

On the way back home I took the crooked path
Up the hillside In a faded photograph of kingdoms lost
In a mirror world long gone that never quite shook my reflection

Through the gap between the rowan and the briar
There’s a clearing and some stones where you can sit a while
in solitude with views across the bay you can feel the world in revolution

Oh Mother Brown, soon I’m coming home
There’s an aching in my heart like I’ve never known to dream another dream
I must confess, on the line between this world and the next

Lately I’ll just sit and watch the sunset
Chase a sickle moon across the sky
Listen to the thunder of the ocean
Hear the breakers roaring through the night

These days have left me chilled to the core
There’s a longing in my bones like a river for the shore
Twisting past the shadows of this life
Trying to keep my spirit on the rights

And Granny Sparrey save a glass for me
And you know that you can count on my reciprocity
And you can tell me all the secrets that i missed
On the road to my absolution

Through the gap between the rowan and the briar
There’s a clearing and some stones where you can sit a while
in solitude with views across the bay the rolling waves can carry me away

Maybe I’ll just sit and watch the sunset
Chase a sickle moon across the sky
Listen to the thunder of the ocean!
Hear the breakers roaring through the night

The Crooked Path

I set the candle in the glass and settled down for a smoke
Shielded the flame from the wind and the rain behind the old oak
To watch it burn down to a flicker
Light
Still in my eyes for a dream
I was chasing sparks down a trail
Back through history and time

While you sleep the scenery is moving
Men in black are taking down the set

The last time we saw a storm such as this in these hollows
By the tree line on this cold beacon hill
Where the light of the watchman lingers still

While you sleep the dogs of war are running through the towns
Cos a new world is coming and they’ve all got some kind of fever of late
And a living to make

Should you ever meet the ghosts of the men who held the line
In these hollows where they sleep
Where truth is buried deep
Tell them better luck the next time

See them fall like shooting stars one by one
Hearts beating out of their chests
Scattered like leaves in a storm heading west
See them fall like shooting stars one by one
See them fall like shooting stars one by one

On Beacon Hill

Wagon Song

by the time we’d left the coast 
still running yet forced to follow
from a night began in song where the whiskey flowed like wine
till we lost our sense of time and so much more
as we fell like angels to the floor

we took our tonics on the beach
and we left our footprints in the sand
how we sang a valiant song with a taste on our tongue
of septembers to remember come what may

oh as the sun set over Rhum standing tall and proud
head up in the clouds
I didn’t know the best was yet to come
even after all this time i was still
I am still

i don’t think you know 
I do not fall at your feet without reason, without love
without sensing that the earth might fall away since that day

oh as the sun set over Rhum
she was standing tall and proud
her head up in the clouds
I didn’t know the best was yet to come
and even after all this time i was still
I am still

and how i wished for calmer seas
for the boat to carry me on a wind that shakes the trees
and makes the rustle of the leaves whisper softly 
i’m your rock, your heart, your home
and where no man is an island made of stone

A Rhum Do

We should have never let him go
The firefly in the bottle that we found in the hedgerow
That ran west to east past cherry trees
Humming wires and buzzing bees
That danced between the red, the blue, the green
And the colours in between

The air fair crackled round our ears
Poets, scholars, vagabonds full of big ideas
And you had always got a plan
Of all of us the better man to get us there and bring us back in style
And we could see for miles

Now they’ve started putting badges on the Israelites
And funny little aerials on traffic lights
No one’s thinking
How they should
Hearts of stone, feet of clay, heads of wood

And i was never one for times gone by
I always faced tomorrow and looked it in the eye
But now what’s staring back at me with devil’s eyes
It’s plain to see right through if you can see the signs 
In between the headlines

And a symphony is turning to a requiem
The pushers pushing lies in to the brain stem
These billionaires from Mars are closing all the bars
To build a better world if you believe them
If you believe them

Now they’ve started putting badges on the Israelites
They’ve started putting badges on the Israelites 
And Babylon is watching via satellite

We should have never let him go
The firefly in the bottle that we found in the hedgerow

Firefly (better recording)

With a shake of the tail and a bump and a grind 
We were airborne 
Catching the winds that chase the mountains to the sea 

Carried for miles
Taken a ride by the song of the water over the stones
Where the ripples shake the sky 

Where I stop for a while below the tree line
In the shade of the evening
I can still see the ghosts of everything 
We were to be

But on these very rocks
Nothing is far below the surface
Making the waves that lay me low and set me free

Oh the shapes that we made
Beneath the moonlight in black and bone white
Will carry me home to the end of the ride

Where the path underfoot no longer drives me forward
Marking the moments
I’ll see them again
Some precious time

Some Precious Time

Always in some band or other for years, I thought it was time I wrote more songs. Guitarist in the 80s, switched to bass in the 90s for the freedom of not having to stand near the front & to groove with myself & the drummer, enjoy the gig, & save money on booze & the like. In this time I had the privilege to play with 3 really good songwriters, & this over time inspired me to try harder myself.

Davey Hall

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