Did first take last year, but never got time to amend and post it up
Lyrics:
I was lost inside my head

Like I was drifting through the pages

of a book, just to look for a

word  I thought you’d said.


I was lying in your bed

knowing that I loved you

But I couldn’t find the words

The phrases didn’t seem to rhyme


Images of you

Are flooding through my mind

And I think your eyes are blue

And I hope you love me too

But I really need to know

Where our story goes


You can Change a drop of ink

But you'd  change the story line

I'm looking to the future

Will you  still be mine


I’ve been in love before

I couldn’t take no more

If you told me No

Where could I go…….


We’d be lying on the beach

Lying hand in hand

In the sun, sea and the sand,

Worries far out of reach.


I’d be singing you a song

Telling of the times

That I hoped you would be mine

Praying nothing could go wrong


Images of you

Are trapped inside my head

Now I know your eyes of blue

And I know you love me too

But I really need to know

Where our love will go….


Lost (2nd Take)

Lyrics and Chords

G_______C ________________G
Marilyn I loved you from the start
 ____________Em____________C
Although you always broke my heart
 _____________G ______________C
Each time you looked at me
G________________C__________G
Always more than just a movie queen
_______Em _______________C
When I watched you on the screen
 ____________G
You were my fantasy


Am _______________Bm
What you meant to me
C__________G
You’ll never know
Am______________Bm
Other stars might come and go
C_________________
But they were never
C____________G____________C
Marilyn Munro

G_____________C ______________ G
Peggy Sue why did you break my heart
_____________Em ___________C
I thought that we would never part  
____________G_________C
When Buddy sang to you
G___________C _________G
What a sunny Summer’s afternoon
_____________Em __________ C
But then you went away too soon
_______G
I really miss you too 


Am_______________Bm
What you meant to me
C__________G
You’ll never know
Am______________Bm
You said you’d be true
C___________________
But you left me lonely 
 _________G__________C
Peggy Sue


G _____________C ________________G
Barbara-Anne I watched you on the beach
_____________Em _________ C
But you were always out of reach
_________G __________________C
When the surf was up
G _________C _____________G
Californian Girls were on my mind
 _____________Em___________C
But they were oh so hard to find
__________G                                  
When the surf was up


Am _______________Bm
Looking through my memories
C ______________G
Doesn’t seem so long ago
Am_______________Bm
Still just seems like yesterday
C_____________________G________
That I loved you Marilyn Munro

Marilyn (First Take)

Reminds me of Dundee where I grew up

Key of G:
Summertime

Anytime

Loving times you looked my way



We'd change our names

Part of the game

You'd come around

But wouldn't stay



The sun brought auburn to your hair

The autumn turned it brown

I saw the love light in your eyes 

You told me, you thought I was the one



(We'd_talk), through the night

It felt so right

It always seemed

(You_knew) just what I'd say



Eyes of green

What had they seen

You'd look at me

Then turn away



The words you wrote, I have them still

Your image in my mind

Each Summertime that comes along

Reminds me, of our loving times 

Summertime

Scotland, of course

Key of C:
It's not the colour of the flag, 

That flies upon the hill

Or castles though the mist,

Or glens so quiet and still

That could  call me back to there

The place I called my own

Back to Caledonia,

The place that once was home



It's not the blood that's been shed

O'er land so dearly fought

Or Wallace or the Bruce,

Or freedom dearly bought

But it's the ceolmor from the pipes

And the fiddle gently played

That calls me across the time I've lost

With words and thoughts unsaid



But telling stories only helps

To keep the past alive

And yesterday's companions

Can't read tomorrow's tide

My boat it sailed so long ago

My harbour's not so clear

And I've taken every port in a storm



Along the Broomielaw and Clyde

The yards are standing quiet

Few welders now or riveters to light the sky at night

Though the roustabouts and riggers 

Might keep the place sustained

I watch each tide flow past my ship

Each wave a wave of change



But when I hear a young girl sing

In the Gaelic of the North

Or I hear the Lallans tongue

From Fife down to the forth

Where'er my ship has sailed

And where'er my path may go

Still I sing. Still my songs

Slowly grow



It's not the colour of the flag

That flies upon the hill

That brings to mind my distance sailed

My journey moving still

It's the Ceolmor of the pipes 

And the fiddle gently played

It calls me cross the time I've lost

With words and thoughts unsaid

It's Not The Colour Of The Flag

Wrote this when down at my brother's flat overlooking Hampstead Heath - amazing to watch people moving about in the park on Sunday morning.  

Lyrics below:

Alice on Hampstead Heath

It's a Hampstead morning 
There's a hole beneath my feet 
Don't know what I'm doing here 
Or who I've come to meet 
The Rabbit’s coat is silky smooth 
His eyes they burn so bright 
He looks to the horizon and then he takes to flight 

And I'm falling and my world is spinning round 
My feet can't seem to hold me to the ground 

Late Hampstead morning 
The Sun is out to shine 
People walking in the park 
But no one here that's mine 
It’s a Hampstead afternoon 
The ducks are in the pond 
I see a man with a strange hat on and then he waves his hand 

And I'm falling and my world is spinning round 
My feet can't seem to hold me to the ground 

Late Hampstead evening and the trees are cold and bare 
There'll be sunlight in the morning but I still can't feel you here
The world is shifting up and down 
I suddenly feel so tall 
The queen of hearts has a pack of cards 
But I can’t tell at all 

Why I'm falling and my world is spinning round 
My feet can't seem to hold me to the ground 
 And I'm falling and my world is spinning round
My feet can't seem to hold me to the ground


Alice On Hampstead Heath

The lyrics for this emerged very much from the guitar rhythms

Here they are:

Falling

I see you, on the street,
You're a girl I'd like to meet
(Think I'm) falling
I'm falling ...... for you
  
I watch you walk this way
And I really want to say
(That I'm) falling.  
I'm falling for you

People walking up and down,
Their eyes fixed on the ground. 
I would give just anything 
To see you turn around

Think of you all the time
You never leave my mind
Guess I'm falling.  
I'm falling for you

Agony or ecstasy,
Will you go or will you stay
(Guess I'm) falling.  
Falling for you. 


Falling

What I imagine it must be like for someone who feels trapped and wants a change but isn't sure what to do

Lyrics below:


One-way street


I'm moving down a one-way street
There’s no one here I want to meet
My life feels so incomplete and blue
Without you

I hoped that you could be my friend
For ever till the very end
What I wouldn't give to spend some time 
Some more time, here with you

Instrumental break 

I feel I'm here on borrowed time
In a life that isn't mine
They say that it will turn out fine and true - 
Without you

I’m thinking that I ought to go
I’m wondering if you’d ever know
I seldom let my feelings show right through
When I’m living without you 

I'm moving down a one-way street
There’s no one here I want to meet
My life feels so incomplete and blue
‘Cause I’m living without you

One Way Street

In some ways this is the same type of song as the traditional Scottish one 'Poor Roving Lassie', though it's a different tune. It fits together nicely if you sing it immediately after Poor Roving Lassie.

Lyrics below:
Beautiful Stranger
				

The first time I saw her, was just before dawn
With the stars slowly fading, as the morning grew strong
When the sun finally set, by the end of that day
My heart had been captured, and stolen away

Her hair was the fairest, her eyes deepest blue
She came with the sunrise, she was just passing through
And though she soon told me, that she’d not take my name
I knew that I loved her, I was hers all the same

We talked through the day, as we slowly walked on
Of the poets she’d read and the songs that she’d sung
As the sunlight it danced, from the bracelets she wore
I fell under her spell, I was hers ever more

But when I awoke from the spell she had thrown
My heart it was broken, I knew she had gone
Like the morning dew melts, when it’s mixed with the rain
My beautiful stranger, I’d not see again
My beautiful stranger, I’d not see again 


The First Time I saw her

This came to mind when I saw a recruiting poster during the second Iraq war. Just brought to mind the futility of kids 'answering the call' and hoping to build a 'new Jerusalem' - which of course doesn't happen.

Lyrics below:

Jerusalem

Your deep blue eyes, still show surprise
And in your smile, you’re like a child
Just seventeen, or twenty-one
You look too young to hold a gun

But you’ve gone to save your country, you listened to the call
You hoped to build Jerusalem
But Jerusalem, oh no, Jerusalem, wasn’t built at all

Your weary voice, tells me the choice
You made that day,   seems so far away.
Your picture hangs, upon your Mother’s wall
She’d take you home, at any time at all

But you’ve gone to save your country, you listened to the call
You hoped to build Jerusalem
But Jerusalem, oh no, Jerusalem, wasn’t built at all

You wake at dawn, and feel alone
You know she'll pray, you’re safe today
And time will come, when you’ll return
Her blue-eyed boy, her pride and joy

But you’ve gone to save your country, you listened to the call
You hoped to build Jerusalem
But Jerusalem, oh no, Jerusalem, wasn’t built at all

No Jerusalem, oh no Jerusalem
Wasn’t built at all

Jerusalem

I saw this as the sort of song that might be sung at the end of a music festival or the like

Lyrics below:

Gonna Shout at the moon

Time's flowing too fast, like water in a stream
Don't want this moment to pass, (my colours) bright, my lines all clean.
But I know the clock that's ticking on the wall.
Means the future's coming, any time at all.

But I just want to stay here with my friends.
I don't want our carnival to end.   
I hear your voices laughing loud.    
And I see your faces in the crowd.  

Don't want to go with the flow, gonna bide my time
So many friends that I know, and I want to keep them mine.
As the minute hand it circles round the dial
I want to make it linger for a while.

'Cause I just want to stay here with my friends
I don't want our carnival to end
I hear your voices laughing loud
And I see your faces in the crowd

Gonna shout at the moon, stop it in its tracks
Don't want the sun to come up, 'cause then there's no going back.
And slowly as the sands of time run out
Gonna raise my voice and stop it with a shout

'Cause I just want to stay here with my friends  
Don't want our carnival to end
I hear your voices laughing loud
And I see your faces in the crowd

Repeat and fade

Shout at the moon (Time's flowing too fast)

The Sun's going down 


The Sun's going down, not a cloud in the sky 
It's getting dark here, out on the street 
Lucy and me did some talking tonight 
Now I need to get out of this heat 

I can hear a train echo at the edge of the town 
I wish it was her calling my name 
It's getting so quiet I can hear my heart beat 
Almost hear the blood pulse in my veins. 

Gonna climb in my jeep, gonna drive through the night 
Gonna turn my back on everyone here 
And wake up tomorrow, with the sun on my face 
And the thoughts in my head chrystal clear 

I can hear a train echo at the edge of the town 
I wish it was her calling my name 
It's getting so quiet I can hear my heart beat 
Almost hear the blood pulse in my veins 

Lucy and me we’re from the same side of town 
And we both know what’s wrong, and what’s right 
It was Lucy who showed me how to dance with no shoes 
And we danced in the rain through the night 

But now I hear the train echo 
at the edge of the town 
Hear it slowly moving away 
As it moves through the dark, 
now leaving no mark 
Another traveler just making its way


The Sun's going down

This is a sort of 'alternative' Christmas message

Bethlehem

This was written for a pal of mine called Tim, to sing to his partner Emily McEwan from Pittsburgh, who he was shortly to get married to. Doesn't seem to have caused a divorce

Emily

Lonely Street

Although uploaded slightly late for the celebration of the demise of the unlamented Mrs Thatcher, better later than never, I hope.
The lead guitar on the track is my son Ruairidh, and the piano, is Marlon Bordas 

The Devil is dead

I'm a university lecturer, but have played music all my life really. Never started trying to write songs till about  2009, and am up to about forty five - hope you like them.

Douglas Chalmers Music

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks