Floating into Wonder

Now that the border’s open - she’s on the overnighter
Up near the universe so vivid as it’s shining brighter
So long in isolation – We living on our phones
But what a torture that is - needing flesh n bone

And I’m waiting near the runway’s end
Watching descending lights 
And that final roar overhead – hey I’m lifted so high

And we’ll be floating into wonder (mm mm mm)
Gifted this new path
Cause she is out the other side of it (now we can be)
Floating into wonder

This kiss is never ending - senses remember her
Flooding skin in waves - how to find the words?
We walking tied together – in love with baggage claim
In love with everybody – and I just say her name

And how we’ll sing - and the car will sing
As I bring this girl back home
And all who love her wait in clover at the end of the golden road 

And we’ll be floating into wonder . . .

Yeah I’m chosen one tonight ‘cause I got my lady home

FLOATING INTO WONDER

Exhaust Pipe

In the shadow of a smokestack rising eating up the air
Kinda gritty look you give me on this street to God knows where
We’re ducking under extrusions in the face of water walls
At least we got each other ‘neath this sky that’s like a war

Eye brows on the ceiling even though we got the word 
Imagining is one thing but reality’s absurd

Part of me is chill
And part of you is screaming
Now that we got choked in earth’s exhaust pipe
I can pull you closer
You can stare me out
It’s getting hard to breath in earth’s exhaust pipe

Creating scenes a hotel room the balm of bodies close
And bricks so thick to hide the world is all that we can hope
Nose in flesh the best to hide like puppies suckling mums
And after rain the swollen streets be scorching in the sun

How did it come to this . . .
I just want to love you . . .

EXHAUST PIPE

RnB demo featuring Hamish Low on lead vocal

Songwriter - Steve Low

HONEY TAP feat Hamish

Last of the Summer Flies

At last you have left - my insecticide is spent 
Though your screw driver voice is reverberating   
Your tongue it got bent - drilling holes in my head  
Now I’m smoothing hurts by restorative ironing 
And though they must have a role in ecosystems          
I’m so glad to see the last of the summer flies           
I’m so glad to see the last of the summer flies          

I guess you’ll find a niche – with some human who can reach
To find that tiny star behind the grating
Your sun first shone so bright – enough to launch a kite
But that superficial wind was soon deflating
And though . . . .

It’s in the news each day
Insects will fade away
Unless we realise
Every living thing has a vital place

I wish you the very best – maybe both of us are blessed
We were counting down our days so surely numbered
Hey you’re not to blame – I’m dreamy and often vague 
And for the earth I’ll pray for flies now just departed

LAST OF THE SUMMER FLIES

UR7 Final Flight

The tail of aviation dies, 
As engines roar and cough.
Vapor trails once crossed the skies 
But here’s the last take off 
 I stare out of my window 
And my heart sinks like the moon
I grab your hand so tightly 
While the cabin’s like a tomb
UR7 final flight

We know the skies are danger now 
They had to legislate
The flights are full of terror gusts
 So wings they bend and break
But let’s remember odysseys 
Romantic wanderlust
As engines start their shrieking now 
As though they speak for us
UR7 final flight

And which asylum beckons me 
Now that we are broke
A girl on Spanish beaches taunts
Those years were full of hope
Now feel the nose start dipping down
Towards an aerodrome
We’ll walk to different taxi’s now 
Love’s no longer home.
UR7 final flight

UR7 FINAL FLIGHT

I had this title – 'come back to real' – lying around unused and thought it would work with a lyric about an imaginary couple with different views on the topic . . .

Come Back to Real

You’re the one who found revision
History’s just a false depiction you say
The government’s trolling all our messages
But it seems to me – not reality.

Hey, I know the world ain’t perfect
But you could make your life much more easy yeah
Don’t buy virus is fiction claims
Cause I’ve been to see and I know what’s real

Come back to real 
Come back to real and free your mind - free your mind
Come back to real 
Come back to real and love re-find - love re-find
Come back to real – Come back to real – mmm mmm yeah

I get up in morning n seek out the sunshine
But you meet agents with a war to fight
Cause RNA gonna claim your body
What a shame you’re lost to conspiracy

You’re a hell of lady and I’m always wanting you
If only you could reason like the majority
There’s a warm breeze off the ocean - come and cruise with me
Flick the switch – and come to real

COME BACK TO REAL

Hazy Ocean

I see you at the break of day
A flash of gold across a bay
I watch you you’re a dolphin riding rail
And then it comes the perfect wave
And balancing you show the way
Your love of life it’s written in your trail 

Hazy Ocean - you wash all over me
And I’m diving after you 
Like the tide follows the moon
Hazy Ocean - your spirit’s phosphorent
And your colour’s vivid blue 
While my love is all for you

You’re always wanting cosmic rhymes
To come and take us for a ride
And when they do it’s reason to believe 
There’s trust in nature’s open door
It lets you know why you were born
Your real life’s the script of other’s dreams

And when you paddle to the shore
You’re reaching out to one and all
You know the truth that happiness is laughter 
And across the night your flame is warm
Your star is up and all adore
They’re crowding round 
They’re hanging from the rafters

HAZY OCEAN

In so Deep 

I'm carryin' weight – beast of burden streets of Ankara
My feet they hurt – my saddle gonna wrench apart
My hunger never stops – the wave it never crests
I’m drowning in consequence

I’m in so deep – and I won’t let you down a bit
It’s history – I made you all these promises
Our worlds depart – the continents divide
I’m in so deep – I can look you in the eye

Haven’t felt a falter – never told you a lie
Is it in the realm – that the others will survive
When I see you in the door – I’m clutching a sea wall
In the Bosphorous

Long ago – she had my full devotion
I changed her name – like Constantinople
I felt the streets go dead
All the hawkers they had fled - Into armament

Behind a curtain – breathing incense and a huffin’ pipe
Mural on the wall – the mountains of Anatolia
If I have to pick and choose
I can’t crawl away from you - You’re in my heart

I’m in so deep – and I won’t let you down a bit
It’s history – I made you all these promises
Our world’s depart – the continents divide
I’m in so deep – I can look you in the eye

IN SO DEEP

Miss Rocket Launcher

Hey hey you this Joan of Arc - Miss Rocket Launcher
Love you sending into space – those flying saucers
Your eyes they dart and sense corrosion
You’re leaning forward in silky motion
You know who is fit to govern
For those who aren’t they get concussion
Your elbows dent the seats of power
Your rocket roars it’s getting louder

Hey hey you Sister of Mercy – Miss Rocket Launcher
Love it that they’re on your mind – the poor and poorer
When you sense their exploitation
Your voice it cracks and lips are brazen
I’d hate to be your target right then
A volley gone to crack their heads
We’re hungry like Cohen’s Partisan
We’ll force ‘em to the stones and hear the doors slam 

Room dust scatters as your strident voice rises
Tables go silent as you render the kaiser

Hey hey you this Mother Theresa – Miss Rocket Launcher
Can feel the warmth inside of you – and getting warmer
When they wallow in their greed
You let one go and make em all flee
I’m feeling for the hem of your gown
The reverent touch the best to be found
I know that you will win in the end
And sharing it with you – what a send

MISS ROCKET LAUNCHER

Not really alt rock but the guitar solo at the end is fairly anarchic. 

To Fly or not to Fly 

To fly or not to fly YES!
To fly or not to fly NO! 

To fly or not to fly that is the question.    
It’s a no brainer ‘cept for the greedy and absurd.   
There’s kilos of carbon coming from engines. 
While the earth below - floods and burns

M’lady says she’s gotta fly yeah it’s in the blood            
She’s gotta have exotica - it’s there for the taking
Even though people of the world - are under the pump
And down there in the wheat fields – the crops are baking

To fly or not to fly YES!
To fly or not to fly NO! 

Hate being a gloomy carrier pigeon
But the writings there on the internet
The forecast for earth - it’s grim and turgid
Makes it dumb to fly airliner jets

M’lady says the scientists - will find a solution
There’s no need to live  - like a peasant farmer
She don’t need to feel shame - about her vapor trail
Hey she’s never been - to West Estonia

TO FLY OR NOT TO FLY

HEY LOVE YOU!

Hey love you                                                      
More than LC would’ve craved for Marianne                 
No manuscript could sing with more devotion 
A paper chain enough to fill an ocean                    
I’m always up so close and being dutiful.      
Yeah I fix your hair and say you’re beautiful.   
Yeah I fix your hair and say you’re beautiful            
Mmmm breath you in ‘til I’m insensible   

Hey love you 
Like we’re barefoot down a street in Hydra 
It’s feet on top of feet in café’s shadows
I hear applause and faintly drifting cello 
In sticky heat our limbs are stuck like glue
And I kiss your brow and murmur hey I love you
Yeah I kiss your brow and murmur hey love you
Mmmm taste your cheek ‘til I’m insensible

Hey love you 
Bathe your flashin’ teeth in tangerine
The last of breezes scurry into hiding
Nights are satin sheets with harbour lighting
I’m layin’ out your silk across the dresser
I hold you close knowing it’s forever
Yeah I hold you close knowing it’s forever 
Mmmm moving slow ‘til I’m insensible

HEY LOVE YOU

New recording of this song that was in the finals of the NZ MLT songwriting awards 2010


Is This Who I Think It Is 

Another tumble ‘cross the dance floor
A tender hold onto someone I call my own 
A look into her eyes that lingers
Another drink that goes from loving hand to hand

Is this who I think it is
A touch and a blown kiss
I look at her
I look at him
Is this who I think it is

A frozen minute in a lifetime
I lurch and stumble to the dancers of the night 
As I push myself between them 
My life with her is playing out in black and white

I wonder at the blind man
Who was missing all the clues
Once a happy go lucky guy
Now with leaden shoes

I am dancing in a wasteland
She is speaking but I cannot hear a sound
Her face resigned to do to her duty
I can see him and his eyes are shifting round

Is This Who I Think It Is

After 10 songs of jazzy singer songwriter it's time for a change. But not much! As science based as we are there's still that feeling of karma or whatever. So - better do some good!

Better do some Good.      

Hey I don’t mind complicity in drinking all that wine
It’s good to get the wheels up, but just from time to time
But dwelling on this comfort food is brewing up a blood red sky 
You lapsing into navel gaze is goading kharma’s battle cry 

Better do some good oh darlin’ 
Make a start tonight
You never know who’s out there watching
Know your wrong from right
Do  do do do do do do do

It’s no good you walking round as tho it’s you who’s missing out
With lips so taught and victim eyes 
You’re looking like a sour kraut
You’re always going to lose the war living in this ugly mess 
If Gods don’t see u clean the floor 
The frontline beckons to the West

It’s a round and a round you’re swirling down
Consumed and jealous
You’re wanting needing ‘n nursing greed
In a sump of trench warfare
Aaah ooooh 
Nothing but the best 
Everyone at your behest 
Better do some good tonight 
Better do some good tonight

BETTER DO SOME GOOD

Alexander King parachuted into our town from New Orleans via Brisbane and set up a recording studio. We combined on this song 'Collect the Moment' which I'd just written on piano.
Alex: rhythm track, bass, some guitar, recording, production, mixing
Steve: Vocals, keyboards, guitar

Alexander King soundcloud site - https://on.soundcloud.com/PkSYD

Alexander Ross Music (ARK)- alexanderrossmusic.com 

Collect the Moment

You in sintered glass buildings - trapped in recycled air
And I the frequent advisor - holding a too long stare
Do hormones control decisions – I ruminate in silence
While you the puppet’s mistress - are still non-compliant
As a gaggle collects - a space encroachment    
And I brush your arm to collect the moment 
Is it just I who’s a physical poet?
Did you brush my arm to collect the moment?

Now here’s the start of something - a fomenting act two
A party has erupted and lava like here’s you
The music creates a wall – an easy place to hide
To move the chess pieces – silently they glide
Randomly dancing – it’s I the proponent
And I brush your arm to collect the moment
Is it just I who’s a physical poet?
Did you brush my arm to collect the moment?

What do they mean these tactile encounters
Just a small hill or a range of mountains

And naked by proximity – alone in a lift
This accident of timing – embarrassment or gift?
We blurt it out together – something about today
And then an awkward silence – my courage gone astray
But we’re squeezed together through the door’s opening
And I brush your arm to collect the moment
Is it just I who’s a physical poet?
Did you brush my arm to collect the moment?

COLLECT THE MOMENT (Feat. Alexander King)

Continuing the Jazz injected pop-rock theme of Collect the Moment and Better do SOME GOOD this one references AJA though it could easily be ASIA. My time spent in AJA (Steely Dan) was about the same time we were dissecting preserved bodies in Otago Medical School. Playing live then I was channeling more of a Neil Young, Bob Dylan and THE BAND pre Americana country rock thing. But jump ahead 40 years and here we were just this last Saturday night churning out JOSIE from AJA in a set of originals and covers full of Jazz Chords and RnB beats. So this new song absorbs a lot of that stuff. 

HR Kiosk

Next to you, I feel a hero
The maintenance of normal, while you’re a trip to Cairo
Circa 2023 I’d like to paraphrase
Cause cities like that and Khartoum
Once set a soul ablaze

So book yourself into an HR Kiosk tonight
There’s gotta be an on-line guru who could shine a light
Infiltate you with guile
Make you think there’s actually an I in why 
Yeah yeah yeah

Time spent in Aja did it make me cynical?
Made me feel ok to rave 
And pull you off your pinnacle
Of course it’s arrogant to judge, someone on culture
But I see you circling thru the sky, with the eye of a vulture

Know you kinda inside out
So I’d try it with a hundred grand
I bet you on your virtual couch 
You’re lying on a slippery Sam

Course you’re going even lower - way below zero
Sayin’ hey let’s all be friends
Like Ghandi and Nehru
Your time at the Taj Mahal, did us no favours
After breathing in the rarified shrine
Where’s your reconciliation pavers

HR KIOSK

Behaviours are so important going forward. Going to have to be some selfless work from everyone - be exemplary. 

Exemplary

We look out the window and we see it’s our turn
We want to, we need to
The river is rising and grass is burnt
It’s a headache, it’s a heart ache
So we’re walking through the streets so purposefully
We’re marching, some are running
We’re shoveling sand, we’re hosing the land
We’re a commune, to the rescue

Ba da ba da - We’re exemplary
Ba da ba da - We’re exemplary

Children are leaving their classes in droves
They’re frightened and enlightened
They’ve worked it all out, they actually know
They can see it, they’re not stupid
It’s everywhere they look, vapid posturing
It’s so obvious, it’s so odious
It’s all about ownership and total control
They detest it, they reject it

Ba da ba da - They’re exemplary

Mother and daughter father and son
By the 60s we could be gypsies
Everyone a nomad everywhere a land grab
Fight it – be united
Ba da ba da - Be exemplary

EXEMPLARY

Combining childhood and later relationship memories with the early sounds of electric piano: first heard on Help!  "Chalking up belief" references 'Chalking up the Hurt" in the great Michael McDonald song 'Real Love' from the time when he created amazing piano based pop-rock, now termed Yacht Rock. And the song title 'Your Gold Teeth ii is of course piano based from the highly influential Steely Dan and makes a nice rhyme with 'room.'

ELECTRIC PIANO

Out of the womb into a musical reign
Feeling it grab like the first light of day
Bro old enough to procure some Help!
Takes to my soul like the face of the girl

Electric Piano you are chalking up belief
A silky emotion walking you down the street
Electric Piano you are black and white devine
Your sound is forever it’s the girl in the back of my mind

Song of first strike is ‘Tell me what you See’
While I yearn for the girls who are awaking a dream
Sometimes the song is then a soundtrack to pain
When desire returns it’s a permanent state

Electric Piano . . . back of my mind

I hear she’s quit Uni left a ghost in her room
Now I bury my soul in Your Gold Teeth part 2

Now she has an aura in 1975
This is my soul being eaten alive
Her face a portrail of a red Cilla Black
Electric Piano you do leave me so bad

Electric Piano . . . back of my mind

ELECTRIC PIANO (you are black and white devine)

Modern Artists like Leon Bridges and Son Little marry hip hop or RnB rhythms often to acoustic based songs. Its an opportunity to blend elements that you love from 2 generations of music into one song - some lyrical bite, sweetened by 60s vocal harmonies.


FAKING IRONY

I see your troubles start from within
And she is prickling cause you’re so wooden
Look at her sparkle like the lemon
Floating on her pour of bubbly gin

Life is serious but only at certain times of day
Where’s the gazelle leap to release your mind to play

It’s a hard road when you take everything literally
If only you could take a course in faking irony
But here you are your face is pinched and spidery
If only you could take a course in faking irony

For you gravity and time operate differently
You’re drowning in the history of epiphany
Will you ever get to feel for the other side
Letting go that crippling brainy ultra-pride

She needs a belly laugh that drops her to the ground
Nothing sexy ‘bout your analysing head up in the clouds

It’s a hard road . . . faking irony

Your birth blueprint and childhood pricked you like a thorn
But your conscience can’t be faulted and you’re always doing good
You probably can’t be changed and that’s an awful thought
Cause things I’m advocating - they probably can’t be taught

She needs a belly laugh that drops her to the ground
Nothing sexy ‘bout your analysing head up in the clouds

It’s a hard road . . . faking irony

FAKING IRONY

Kind of musical irony in a way with a horror theme immersed in a jaunty beat: an unintentional result where so often a song writes itself and you decide not to change it.

Caught up in a War

Hear the words why me
See fiery horizons
Eating up ground are black caterpillars
We’re shrinking near the door
They hardly gave a reason
Sleeping is acid raw
Forever is the ceiling

Cause everything we made 
Will be shattered by the day of reckoning
All the icons of love 
Will be broken on the grass just weathering 
We’re caught up in a war

Thinkin’ bout religion
The randomness of Gods
What’s it about us that’s undeserving?
We’re watching on the news
The march of our dementors
We’re lying close and squeezing
Neath fragility of walls

And everything we made 
Will be shattered by the day of reckoning
All the icons of love 
Will be broken on the grass just weathering
We’re caught up in a war

If we could turn back time to days of peace and laughter

CAUGHT UP IN A WAR

3rd recording of this song which an African American producer contracted off Broadjam for a year but nothing was delivered. In the last few years I changed the structure of it to suit playing live - with the 2 chords in the chorus on repeat we can drag the ending out in an extended jam - easy money! So this is that version recorded as a studio track this week


Dream Destination 3

Dudes are asking where to go                           
If you gotta choice to go                                   
Where to go where to go                                   
Somewhere funky with ya beau                        

Hey wait up doll n tell me honey 
What is your dream destination?                       
Where in the world you wanna go?                   
We’ll I’ll tell you babe just what I know           
My dream destination it’s you right here           
My dream destination it’s you – anywhere        

Some are junkies for the city
London Paris they’re not picky
I say nah I’m gonna park it
In a wasteland like the arctic

Chorus

Mate he say oh come on please                        
It’s Amsterdam and find the sleaze
Not for him that lovin armpit                            
He wanna have a lovin junket 

Me I wanna go dig deep
Find your soul and feel the heat
Be taken on a dreamy ride           
I don’t care where we reside

DREAM DESTINATION 3

When that title slipped into my mind it was all go and the early verse work felt bluesy with certainly blue notes to sing. The chorus wrote itself around the title with jazz chords. Changing key to the variation was natural enough but quite a long journey back to the verse again.

Art in her Bones

Out on the left - she’s made it her home
Some think she’s weird – and likely getting’ stoned alone
But I’m on the hook - just reel me in
It’s the art in her bones - that makes her what she seems to be
The art in her bones - makes a thrill inside of me 

Sometimes at night- she wakes from a dream
She runs to her paint – got to liberate that scene
Then after an hour - she’s layin’ back down
It’s the art in her bones . . .

She don’t deal with accounts and rates and supermarkets
She’s driftin’ through hazy lanes and blocks of colour
And something someone said three nights ago
She put that friend in embargo
Gotta work it through on canvas - then they’ll thaw in a tryst

They’ll work it out – those ladies of rhyme
They just need the moon – to tell them when the time is right
And me I can wait – for that special night

When she gives she’s layin over us 
Starlight curves across her body real – we’re playin’ seals
Lazy floppy as the sunlight grows
We talk of us as forever – and after that still together
Neath the door’s a gentle zephyr

Hey let us rise – it’s quarter to one
In the café - love our whacky talkie fun
The way she sees things – my soul it just sings

ART IN HER BONES

Taking only about 30 min to write this seemed a bit of a throw away but had 'live' potential and so it proved. Looking back through life there's moments you would change if you could . . . 

See Yourself as Yourself

Look back - go back - look in the rear view mirror
And see yourself as yourself and shudder 
‘Bout decisions and actions

Thinking ‘bout her, flood the mind 
And hormone’s, long slow torture
Shock of her face, hair in a state 
Can I just go, walk with her

No no no – verboten – society thick in the air – claustrophobia

Look back - go back - look in the rear view mirror
And see yourself as yourself and shudder 
‘Bout decisions and actions

Seeing that, ‘out for myself’ thing 
Yeah, that gotta go, grab that pleasure 
Could’ve done that man, some real good 
But instead, closed up shop early
       
Grim effort – rode a wave – he’ll be back tomorrow – ok!

Get back look back, look in the rear view mirror
And see yourself as yourself and shudder 
‘Bout decisions and actions

Yeah yeah yeah. Wo ho a couple of memories
There’s so many more
Yeah yeah yeah, so many more, try to bury them yeah

SEE YOURSELF AS YOURSELF

Aside from musical satisfaction and $$$ - the motivations for artists to keeping going can be an addiction to the love from the audience.

SCREAMING AND THROWING UNDIES

Take my time with plug-ins
Connection satisfaction
Waving arms like a summons
Pointy introductions
And soon I’m ridin’ minor sevenths
Endorphins in my canal
I’m like a godly presence
As music funks it’s way around

But the pessimist inside – says shoot me your lovin’ arrows
Cause the deficit is – oh - the needing of something so shallow
Gimme screaming and throwing undies (love me love me love me)
Gimme screaming and throwing undies

Career or labour of love
Try and define it
Eyeing up those at the front
Is anyone buyin’ it
I’m phrasing out the words I wrote
Looking for misty eyes 
Reaching for a soulful note
Into clover wrap me tight 

Nature’s opium ride
Musicality
Bathing up here in spotlight
Dopamine alchemy                             Yeah I’m riding . . .

SCREAMING and THROWING UNDIES

I saw this headline in The Guardian and thought 'song title'. It gives us humans something else bizarre to wrestle with. 

AI FAKE NUDES ARE BOOMING THIS YEAR

She comes up from harborside.   
Anchor orange and rusty grind
Flanks of friends - jaded eyes
Curve and laugh make me decide

She spins a deft Utopia              
Now I’m starving Ethiopia.        

But AI fake nudes are booming this year.    
Look em in the eye there’s a smiling stare
AI fake nudes are booming this year
Say what you like and they won’t care

Summer winds they soon abate
While the hooks are steel and barbed
Now the quips ingratiate
And the bedroom falls apart

She spins a deft Utopia              
Now I’m starving Ethiopia.        

But AI fake nudes are booming this year. . . 

Wallowing into internet
Chained by fingers’ rings
How something grew from nothing
And finished less than that
She spins a deft Utopia . . .             
AI fake nudes are booming this year. . .

AI Fake Nudes are Booming this Year

Marc and I worked together off and on over the years. This photo is from 2005. Tragically Marc was taken from us way too early. Earlier this year Susa managed to get files extracted from his recording system and I've managed to find 3 completed recordings. This one I think is the last one he completed (Blue Sky Paradise) which possibly alludes to where we live (Whakatu-Nelson Aotearoa-NZ). Sure is a graceful beautiful song. Marc wrote recorded and performed everything here.
Hear another song of Marcs WATER ON STONE via URL below
https://soundcloud.com/stevelowsongs/water-on-stone

Tasman Heights

Blue Sky Paradise - Marc Steyn

There's a fantastic 70s leaning pop-rock album  Ticket to Shangri-La  released in 2023 (Young Gun Silver Fox) with a song called Starting Wars. I miss heard and mis-read the title as Starling Wars which seemed a great metaphor for something. It could have applied to a relationship - but the 2 wars going on became the theme

Starling Wars

You fly in to foul my nest 
Seeing red I puff out my chest
Aiming at your catacombs
Dropping all my guano bombs
Flit across and I peck at you
Cause my beliefs are the only truth
Starling wars it’s about pecking order 
Starling wars gonna bomb your son and daughter

I ruffle your feathers
You think that you’re better
Ethnically superior
The plumage of an emperor
Gonna peck my eye’s right out
Squawk about it loud and proud
Starling wars it’s about pecking order 
Starling wars gonna bomb your son and daughter

Em7 Dma7 Ami7 G Bb/C F F#m7 B

Underneath there’s the dove of peace
Peeking out at the busy streets
I Wrap your eggs neath protective wings
Drop a flower confess my sins
Fleeting thought it just flies away
Revenge is sweet gonna make you pay
Starling wars it’s about pecking order 
Starling wars gonna bomb your son and daughter

STARLING WARS

WHEN YOU FINALLY L:EAVE

Future sunset Omarama
Knowing only you will see
It’s a low brow shrinking ceiling

A contract without words
It’s the thick of family
Harbinger of lonely hearts
The fate of you and me

And when you finally leave
We gotta face it courageously
When you finally leave
We gonna have to suck it up – it’s the right thing to do
We gonna have to draw down on memory 

Fate is born by trajectory
Attraction mangles fences
Leaving snow grass blowing free

And how the years were kind to us
Yearning for the workplace
The weekends oh so bleak

And when you finally leave . . .
Instrumental
You got a date stamp – a black hole in the sky - And I got to make way

You and your Omarama – we’ll both be conscience free
But how will we feel? . . . 

Cause when you finally . .

When You Finally Leave

Thunder Pants

Too bad I was your Rembrandt in waiting
Though you sensed you were Ms Convenience
So many days in a chamber debating
Instead of between sheets of Salinas

There you go again 
Mount Vesuvius – in your hands
Manufacturing pain
Emphatically – Thunder Pants
(your cross you bear is burning dangerously near)
(Here seeking comfort from anxiety wizened)

So soon the ejector seat after the thrill
Brings the acid to the back of your teeth
You can’t let it go like a Janice girl
So it’s almost time to lay a wreath

A rational man would cut you dead
But testosterone makes fools of the best

Sometimes it seems that you’re talking nice
But I know it’s the crack end of the bench
It’s a midday roast and my tongue is dry
Anticipating that rapier sledge

Thunder Pants

Harmony laden lyrical acoustic rhythmic soul

Between Abstraction and Representation

You don’t know which way to stand
Is the light favorable?
Or is black now passe
I guess it’s all debatable

I’m trailing in your scent
You’re LA then New York
Ghosting like the Zephyr Train
Making sure you walk the walk
You’re caught there in between abstraction and representation
They watch you in between abstraction and representation

Though you deny you seek to impress
It’s other women for whom you get dressed
In and out of the closet you float
Strapping and weave – girdle and hose

Delaunay or Cassatt?
Hey honey bring it all back
Home . . . 

I could be jealously mad
Seeing all that attention you grab
But bedroom’s night is painting your curves
And only I will get to observe

Between Abstraction and Representation

Steamy

In this car in the dark anonymous 
We like to think we are
It’s all talk and philosophies 
Or is it about beating hearts?
It’s a black and white movie 
Facing each other across the seat divide
In a moment coming up - we could make the move 
When the signs align

And darling don’t drop the windows will you no
Let it get steamy – let it get steamy
Don’t drop the windows will you no
Let it get steamy – let it get steamy

We’re just sitting here in limbo
Ah platonic friends
But this eating up attraction
So bohemian
But hey this car seat will drop you know
I can lie with you and kiss n talk the night away
And inside it’s getting very hot and foggy
Window’s steaming up because of love ablaze

And I’ll see you right up close
And what matters here the most
Is fulfilling what we’re dreaming
From ruminating on life
We live a moment the most
With windows dark and steaming

STEAMY

Kids on Bikes

Hey you don’t live you agonise
Sifting the flour looking for lies
I know in the high jump I’ll hit the bar
Trying too hard not to do you harm (do you harm)
You don’t love you analyse
I wanna see trust in your eyes

Look out the window and see the fun in the park
The twisting and turning of kids flying past
Let go the blame in the stories you write
Let’s love with the freedom of kids on bikes 

Don’t you remember those care free days
Kids seeking out the latest speed craze
But you’re on the sideline your mind in a funk
Questioning me ‘bout the warmth in my blood
You don’t love you analyse
I Wanna see trust in your eyes

Look out the window and see the fun in the park
The twisting and turning of kids flying past
Girl let go the blame in the stories you write
Let’s love with the freedom of kids on bikes

Life is for living 
Love is for breathing
There’s beauty inside you
Send it revealing

KIDS ON BIKES

Playing live and writing & recording in Nelson New Zealand - began recording in 2004 once technology was available to make CDs using industry standard equipment at home. Radio airplay on Fresh FM and the TLC network from 2005. The track IS THIS WHO I THINK IT IS was a finalist in the 2009 NZ MLT songwriting contest.  In Dec 2012  DUNEDIN SOUND reached  no. 26 on NZ on Air "The Audience" chart. In December 2015, RIP OFF THE SCAB and DREAM DESTINATION were selected by a US A&R agent for promotion to artists, In July 2017 - HIGHEST ROOM also picked up by a US agent for promotion. July 2018 DON'T YOU TURN AWAY selected by NY agent to promote to a London soul singer. August 2018 LOVE MY LIFE assigned to BuyNZ audiovisual advertising. December 2018 WHERE CIGARETTES FALL forwarded by Taxi.com to US TV music director. Latest album SLEEPS ON FIRE seeks to marry Leonard Cohen Imagery with Steely Dan musical movement. Daytime job is in anaesthesiology and healthcare leadership.
2024 FLOATING INTO WONDER on a New Foundland radio station.

Steve Low

Pinned to spotlight

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