Dystopia (Micke Lagersson music/vocals)

One More Day to Write a Different Story

by Phil Hawker

One more day to write a different story
One more day to make it all OK
Not much time remaining before we
End up going on our separate ways  

It didn’t have to be like this
It didn’t have to be like this

You may say that you had no intention
Of making me feel that I was wrong
The only thing you didn’t mention 
Was you’d been cheating on me all along

Now’s your chance to redeem your actions
Give him up and say that you got it wrong
Now’s your time to write that different story
Now’s your time and you haven’t got long

One More Day To Write A Different Story (with vocals)

Uptempo dystopian synth-pop. My lyrics, music/vocals M. Lagersson. Copyright 2023 Jay Rich and Micke Lagersson. Lyrics below:

                 Holdout Humans 

V1:

Turn back time just fifty years
See what the doom-mongers feared
When AI was taking off
They knew there would be a cost

V2:

Now we're forced to colonize
Other worlds to fit our size
We've grown exponentially
And it's led to travesty

Lift:

There's less need for agriculture
Or for proper homes
Planet Earth has now become
A huge rewilding zone
Areas for energy-efficient software minds
Both futuristic and return to olden times

Ch1:

Holdout humans, we're the true ones:
All that's left of sapiens
The rest morphed into hybrid androids
Holdout humans, we're the true ones
Our race almost destroyed
We now face an existential void

Bridge:

The general myopia
Has fed this dystopia
Could we not see this would lead
To a strange, alien breed
From this thirst for progress, novelty
And quest for immortality
We're overpopulated
By the spares and clones that we've created
From this nightmare there is no escape

Ch2:

Holdout humans, we remain fixed
With the others we don't mix:
We're all outlaws, throwbacks
Sidelined renegades
Limited in territory
Outcast by the enemy
To this shadow life held hostage
That mankind has made

Outro:

It's now gone so far we can't be saved
And that's how we'll stay until the grave




Holdout Humans (Micke Lagersson music/vocals)

Folk number from way back merging a few concepts... Lammas is an August harvest festival and Martinmas a November cattle-slaughtering and salting-down for winter one. Plough Monday celebrates the burying of a corn 'dolly' made from the last harvest sheaf to 'embody' the corn spirit and provide a winter refuge prior to its summer rebirth. Kine is an old word for cattle. How in touch with the land were rural folk from centuries past, and how disconnected we seem today in our little plastic techno-bubbles.🙄My lyrics, Mr. L's music/vocals. Copyright 2008 Jay Rich and Mr. L. Lyrics below:

                John Barleycorn

V1:

Hail old John Barleycorn
Your once ripe earth is so forlorn
With weeds instead of grain it's overgrown
From its trials it seems so worn:
Planted seeds as yet unborn
Lie dormant in the soil in which they're sown

V2:

Come summer, crops stand tall and strong
With you to urge their growth along
So Lammas brings in rich and heavy yields
Reapers sing Thanksgiving songs
Nights are short and days are long
The harvest moon shines bright upon your fields

Ch1:

Hail old John Barleycorn
Arise and be reborn
John Barleycorn arise and be reborn

V3:

Lush pastures flush with feeding kine
And Mother Nature marking time:
Her rhythms and her cycles so well known
To you a reader of the signs
Knowing what she has in mind:
Horn of plenty for the harvest home

*****Break*****

V4:

Plough Monday's corn doll offering:
A ploy to ward off suffering
Tombed in the first furrow of the year
With Martinmas comes slaughtering
Of fattened stock now herded in
Feeling nature's bounty will bide near

V5:

As seasons pass embrace your fate
Of lyring low and enforced wait
Retirement though won't suit John Barleycorn
You'll do no more than hibernate
Your reappearance never late
Your spirit will return to be reborn

Ch2:

Hail old John Barleycorn
Arise and be reborn
John Barleycorn arise and be reborn

Ch3:

Hail old John Barleycorn
Arise and be reborn
John Barleycorn arise and be reborn

Outro:

John Barleycorn arise and be reborn
John Barleycorn arise and be reborn



John Barleycorn (Mr. L music/vocals)

Quirky indie-pop. One of my earliest lyrics from way back. Music by James T, session vocals, pro demo. Copyright 2007 Jay Rich and James T. 

The story behind this is strange... I sent the lyric to 6 potential co-writers, with 5 either not responding or saying 'too quirky, uninspiring' etc. But I liked it so pitched it to a 6th - James, who went on to become a music teacher. He loved it and gave me a great tune straight away, so I had the song pro demoed... The moral being stick to your guns if you think something works and ignore the naysayers!  What do they know anyway...🙄Lyrics below:

                  Tokyo, Tokyo

V1:

I got a yen for the sushi and a geisha in kimono
Chopsticks, karate, and judo at the dojo
Then I saw a samurai who told me his bushido
He said if I was up to it he'd show me some aikido
Next I met a sensei who offered me a bonsai tree

Lift:

He harboured an ambitious plan
To make me a top fighting man
A Nippon-style Chan or Lee
Like a sumo wrestler in a gi

Ch1:

Tokyo, Tokyo, find where to go in Tokyo
Catch a show in Tokyo
The land of the rising sun is really such a lot of fun
I love it so much that I'm gonna tell everyone

V2:

Unless you're the Lone Ranger you could be courting danger
But there are worse places for unwary strangers
Once I faced a mugger on the streets of Calcutta
He tried to steal my pocket book
I gave him such a dirty look
Because I know my kendo I hit him with a cane bo (stick)

Lift:

But not my oriental sword
He was my makiwara board
It hasn't happened in Japan
For that I feel a lucky man

Ch2:

Tokyo, Tokyo, the lights are low in Tokyo
Take it slow in Tokyo
The land of the rising sun is really such a lot of fun
I love it so much that I'm gonna tell everyone

Bridge:

Now Tokyo's a busy city buzzing with high energy
Tall towers, ferris wheel, zen tranquillity
Rainbow Bridge for sightseeing
Venus Fort and doll museum
Puffer fish, a gourmet dish, and all the kaiso you could wish
Dazzled by the neon signs
Sozzled on the sake wine
I came in on the bullet train
Narita flies me out again
Narita flies me out again
Out again

Ch3:

Tokyo, Tokyo, feel the glow in Tokyo
There's rarely snow in Tokyo
The land of the rising sun is really such a pretty one
I love it so much that I'm gonna tell everyone




Tokyo, Tokyo (James T music, session vocals, pro demo)

My latest solo write pro demo with session vocals, a pacy folk-pop number. Copyright 2024 Jay Rich. Lyrics below:

                    Unrequited     

V1:

I see you moping around
Well haul yourself off the ground
I hate to see you in a state
But don't go making no vows
That wouldn't work anyhow
And you'll regret it far too late
You say you're waiting for me
But did I say I'd wait for you
And was I asking you to
I know that sounds so uncool
But I'd rather speak the truth
Because you're wasting your time
And you're way out of place
In my heart there's no space
And if there were, then I'm afraid
It wouldn't be for you

Ch1: 

You've got a case of lovesick blues
And I'm sorry to be giving you bad news
It's uninvited, unrequited
It's misgiven, and it's ultimately blighted
And if you think I'm cruel
Or I don't understand
Then let me tell you I do
Oh, let me tell you I do
'Cause I've been there too

*****Break*****

V2:

So dry the tears from your eyes
Try to find a better guy
Run a comb through your hair
Then go grab something to eat
You'll soon be back on your feet
Get a man with love to share
But don't go waiting for him
If he wouldn't wait for you
And don't assume he wants you to
I know that sounds hard advice
But it's best to think twice
'Cause in matters of the heart
It's all too easy to lose
And start falling apart
That's why I'm sorry for you
'Cause I've been there too

Ch2:

You've got a case of lovesick blues
And I'm sorry if it's sounding like old news
It's uninvited, unrequited
It's misgiven, and it's ultimately blighted
And if you find me cruel
Think I don't understand
Well I assure you I do
Yeah, I assure you I do
It's why I'm sorry for you
'Cause it cuts through deep
And it makes your heart weep
So I'm sorry for you
And all I'm putting you through
I'm truly sorry for you
'Cause I've been there too
Oh how I've been there too


Unrequited (solo write pro demo, session vocals)

Piano ballad pro demo with session vocals. My lyrics and music, copyright Jay Rich 2024. The second title, Pro Patria Mori, refers to the Wilfred Owen poem Dulce et Decorum Est (it is sweet and right) Pro Patria Mori (to die for one's country). Owen took the line from the Roman poet Horace and quite rightly called it 'the old lie'. These are Owen's (a sad casualty, dying just a week before Armistice) unsentimental words:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est

My scathing lyrics below:

The Aggrieved Dead/Pro Patria Mori

V1:

Suppose for just a moment
That heaven's truly real
And the dead could all come back
To tell us how they feel

V2:

Especially those fallen
In the two world wars
What would long lost soldiers
Say to mine and yours

Lift:

I can see the warning signs:
What they'd make of modern times
Maybe they could offer us advice

Ch1:

Would they say we died for you
And this is all that you can do
Most of us were way too young
To lose our unlived lives by brutal tank and gun
You stab each other in the street
Your standards are down at your feet
And what it feels like watching you
Is that the sharpest knife has run our hearts right through

*****Break*****

Bridge:

So yes we're really well aggrieved
Like we've been meanly deceived:
Signing up for King and country
Fighting for our peace and freedom
Nothing much has come of it
Nor will, nothing's right or fit
Broken Britain, you ain't kidding
Now we're cynical and bitter
There was no real point in winning
Save to check the long-gone threat of Hitler

Ch2:

Would they all say we died in vain
'Cause there ain't been no worthwhile change
So many young are feral thugs
Who waste their money, get blind drunk, and take hard drugs
As adults you got no real sense:
You just go starting wars again
So if we could turn back time
We'd surely never ever face that firing line

Outro:

Owen's moving poems
Said we suffered such indignity
Pro patria mori - the lie:
For this land we'd never die
How we wish we'd done things differently
So differently, so differently, so differently




The Aggrieved Dead/Pro Patria Mori (solo write pro demo, session vocals)

Folk-pop. Solo write pro demo with session vocals. Copyright 2024 Jay Rich. Lyrics below:

                    Am I In Ruins

V1:

You didn't tear me down:
I realise you cared
And for a while
Precious memories we shared
But in time's deep maw
Raw feelings they got lost
As we both saw
And then found to our cost - mmm, mmm, mmm

V2:

But it's a no-blame
Although sad situation
And there ain't no shame
Nor indeed accusation
We just fell apart:
The ground beneath us shifting
As your heart changed
And set us to drifting - mmm, mmm, mmm

Ch1:

I see trouble brewing
But am I too late or too soon
I'm mulling it over
That I ain't hearing your tune
The landmarks are missing
It's like navigating the moon
Am I in ruins
Is this what you've brought me to

*****Break*****

Bridge:

It's a state of limbo or ambivalence:
Don't make no sense
Neither here nor there
Stuck in a wasteland
And a tad defensive
Feeling out new ground
And so uncertain if I'm lost or found
It'll take some time to come around

Ch2: 

I see trouble brewing
But am I too late or too soon
I'm mulling it over
That I ain't hearing your tune
The landmarks are missing
It's like the dark side of the moon
Am I in ruins
Is this what your love can do

Outro:

Am I in ruins
Or am I fin'ly immune


Am I In Ruins (solo write pro demo, session vocals)

Breeze (4 seasons freestyle) IG breezeaol

Novelty reggae, my lyrics, Peter's music/vocals. Copyright 2024 Jay Rich and Peter Davis. Lyrics below:

         Put The Crack Pipe Down

V1:

I've always found modern life
Truly quite surreal
Folk go yapping, their jaws a-flapping
I ain't on on this weird deal

V2:

Are you speaking fluent Martian
Or maybe Chinese
Ying yong, ping-pong, your head's all wrong
You got a serious disease

Ch1:

Dude, you're talking out your butt
So put the crack pipe down
You chunter like this every day
Can't understand a word you say
Quit smoking the banana peel
And tell me something real

Bridge:

Coherence is a sacrament
So practice if you can
And give praise for all the ways
You could grow up to be a man
Put your thoughts in order
Don't get sidetracked or you'll end up floored
Deny yourself the drugs and booze
There's far too much to lose

*****Break*****

Ch2:

Dude, you're talking out your butt
So put the crack pipe down
You ramble like this every day
No sense at all in what you say
Quit smoking the banana peel
And get a life that's real

Outro:

Get a life that's real
Get a life that's real
You gotta get a life that's real



Put The Crack Pipe Down (Peter Davis music/vocals)

The Deltics - get ya brothel creepers on, it's time to groove! Raggedy Fool taken from their newly released album Looking Back - They're loud, they're twangy and hopelessly irresistible. Catch ’em live... 


THE DELTICS - Raggedy Fool (UK)

I use digital software, guitar and keyboards to produce my music. My music is completely original and I compose and edit using Logic Pro. i'm not exactly a great singer, as you'll see from my vocal tracks, so other people's vocals or collaborative vocals for any track are very welcome. I am very happy to collaborate - as long as it's a balanced collaboration!

I have always loved music. I learnt piano as a child and have dabbled with guitar without ever learning it ... until now! I have been in choirs most of my life but have not really delved into making music until the last few years. After initially playing around with Garage Band, I moved on to Logic Pro and that's how nearly all of my music has been produced. I love the interaction on Soundcloud and the comments from other musicians and composers are so helpful and supportive. Keep making music everyone!

If you like the artwork on many of these tracks, visit www.summerlandsart.co.uk

One More Day To Write A Different Story (with vocals)

Phil Hawker

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