Written, Performed, Recorded and Mixed by Grant Gordon
Co-Lead vocals: Tom Aldwinckle
Produced by Grant Gordon & Tom Aldwinckle
(c) Grant Gordon 2017

Pigeonholes

Written, Performed, Recorded and Mixed by Grant Gordon
Produced by Grant Gordon & Tom Aldwinckle
(c) Grant Gordon 2017

Metronomic

written, performed and mixed by Grant Gordon
produced by Grant Gordon and Tom Aldwinckle
viola: Donna McKevitt
FM DJ: Tom Aldwinckle
word and music (C) Grant Gordon 2017

I lie awake in bed with the covers over my head
I tune in the dial to the AM band
Luxembourg's so very faint
and Caroline's washed up again
There's some Krautrock, Eurpop
A Belgian crooner's heartthrob
I flick the switch to the FM frequency

FM DJ:
"Our Friends Electric or sometimes jazz
But best of all it's Ashes to Ashes
Don't you really want me
or Fade to Grey
and even a slice of Marvin Gaye"

Fm calling through my transistor
But in my circuit there's a resistor
We switch from Long Wave to the VHF call
But we can't seem to go full digital

At first you were so faint, I thought there was no hope
Like the dimmest distant speck
From the Hubble Space Telescope
Then for an hour you were all I could see
Eclipsing my light, bringing darkness over me

FM DJ:
"We danced all night right through the static
And burned the grooves of the New Romantics
Played Bela Lugosi again and again
And cried at Prayers for Rain"

Fm calling through my transistor
But in my circuit there's a resistor
We switch from Long Wave to the VHF call
But we can't seem to go full digital

Written, Performed and Mixed by Grant Gordon
Produced by Grant Gordon and Tom Aldwinckle
words and music (c) Grant Gordon 2017

The sad song of the last man to leave Earth before it explodes...

Burn down the bridgehead now
Keep the cold outside 
The colony ships left Earth today
Leaving me behind

The gates are bolted
The dishes done
The boiler turned off for the winter

I ease back in my tranquility
The hell below has no fear 

I have the power to outrun it all

Final checks, transmission established
Green light says go so I blast away

I'm the guy who turned the lights out

I
Am the one that remained
Now I too departed
As the planet collapses


I 
Am the last one to leave
With the world disintegrating
The wall of China crumbles

A better life awaits us there
For those who climbed aboard
A paradise they promised us
A whole brand new world

Like Orpheus I look back
Which they told me not to do

I ease back in tranquility 
and take the pills they gave

They said I have the power to outrun it all

The trauma of what I alone witness
They said would drive me mad

I'm the guy who turned the lights out

The Guy Who Turned The Lights Out

Grant Gordon Instrumental Showreel

Written, Performed, Produced and Mixed by Grant Gordon
music (c) Grant Gordon 2017

Nanotech

written, performed, produced and mixed by Grant Gordon
piano: Tom Yates
slide guitar: Steve Parker
violin: Ian Harris
spoken voice: Karoki Lewis
words and music (c) Grant Gordon 2018

Gemini

written, performed, produced and mixed by Grant Gordon
words and  music (c) Grant Gordon 2018

I saw a light across the sky that burned my skin and pierced my eye
and struck me down and took my breath
and made me cry at my own death
no machines, no machines

No machines to drag you down
to barbecue your brains around the block until
you become a cog instead of player one
player one, player one...
change the game to respawn you...

Spawn

You wave your piece of paper from a scrunched up litter bin
You think you’re Winston Churchill but you’re Neville Chamberlin
You think this is your Gettysburg, your fight them on the beaches
But this is your Heston aerodrome and you have Munich features

Keep saying the lie and it will be true
If you say it with sincerity then they’ll believe you

You act like an infant whose predisposed to sulk
Indulged and blessed all your life with privileged folk
Told by those around you that you were born to rule
That it’s just a game, a laugh, a jape, a debating club at school

This will happen because I will it
This is true because I say so 

Once upon a time I kissed the Queen of Sheba
Fought all night with Solomon
and packed him off home
I healed Achilles wounds
And flew to Isfahan
I held the world like the Macedon
All looked at me with awe

written and recorded by Grant Gordon (c) 2020

Peace In Our Time

Step 1 you stir up trouble
And distribute contempt 
Step 2 the pace increases 
With open violence
Step 3 you find outsiders
To blame for all that’s wrong
Enforce the law with pliant crooks
Step 4 you burn the books 

Step 5 you get elected    
By threatening broken legs
Step 6 you prorogue Parliament
Then dissolve it, scalping heads
Step 7 you silence the press
And lock up those who dissent
If you don’t think like us, look out for
Step 8, the quick way out 

Isolate this little land
We’re better off alone
If we try hard we can get back
The pink bits of the map
We grew up with the war
With rationing and the bomb tales of triumph at great cost
 A victory laced with loss

Step 9 you propagandise
And declare that which is true
And the few brave voices who criticise
Are elitists spreading fake news
Step 10 you sack the judges
Step 11 retire the Queen
Step 12 congratulations, you’re 
Oswald Mosley’s schoolboy dream

Fly in high to your channel Isle
To your castle made of kitsch
All that money can’t buy taste
But who needs taste when you’re super rich?
You don’t pay any tax
And live in Monaco
And Britain’s a game, a commodity
To be asset stripped and let go

last orders at the bar is called
the final meat raffle complete-d
some stranger in a tramp’s attire
irradiating heat
the drinkers are bewildered
they’ve missed their subway stop
i push him to the wall and hiss
who are you, what meat you got?

written and recorded by Grant Gordon (c) 2020

12 Steps

They’ll be fighting on the beaches
They’ll be fighting on the streets
there’s loose tigers roaming
can you feel the heat
there’s an extinction rebellion camping in the square
can you tell your kids in forty years time that you were there
it’s heating up
this could go off this could explode

keep telling me, keep tweeting it, share the information, that’s the way to beat them
but I scream and I rant til my fingers bleed, got RSI of the brain, 
I'll find someone to blame

there’s the air of 68, of Tiannemen
the young have realised they can’t trust sad old men
who were brought up to rule
an imperial land
which ended a century ago
in Mesopotamian sands
the desert wind is heating up
it’s come to bite us where it hurts


those folk who wanted to leave
to hide behind their wall
won’t like hospital queues, benefit cuts, food shortages
just watch the pound fall
they’ll remember Wat Tyler
they’ll recall the Poll Tax
can you tell your kids in forty years time that you didn’t relax
it’s heating up
someone to blame

written and recorded by Grant Gordon (c) 2020

Someone To Blame

There’s a fissure in this country from the head down to the toes
From Peterloo to Paschendale, Dunkirk to Plymouth Hoe
It’s been chewing us all up
Since the war to end all wars
And now I see it’s coming back for more

He’s sleeping in his black shirt, with a Red Cross painted large
A footsoldier for Mosley, for Enoch or Farage
For many years so tongue tied f or fear of what he’d say
But now he’s told: say it, it’s ok

Hey Mr Englishman, give us a song
Sing of your Jerusalem, a world long gone
Sing for the empire, for
God and for the queen
Sing for Oasis or the Chelsea football team  
It’s stronger to be mean
No-one likes us
And we don’t care

The past’s another country
They do things differently there
The future’s ours to
carve out
And we’re better off alone
We used to rule the seven seas from New York to Hindustan 
But now we feel unwelcome in our home

I’m a cancer that’s been waiting for the right moment to bite 
I’ve been feeding off your hatred and now it’s time to strike
I’ll stick it up your Jacques Delors
And spit out Brussel sprouts
I’ll make it clear so there can be no doubt.

Hey Mr Englishman, give us a song
Sing of your Jerusalem, a world long gone
Sing for the empire, for
God and for the queen
Sing for Oasis or the Chelsea football team
Cry God for Harry, for England and St.George
Let fly the ghosts of Wellington, Bob Clive and Agincourt
Born to rule all nations, bred to make the bucks
We like our toast with butter, we hate that foreign muck 
No-one likes us and we don’t care
No-one likes us and we don’t care

written and recorded by Grant Gordon (c) 2020

No One Likes Us (And We Don't Care)

The Scarlet Oak is Grant Gordon, bassist with And Also The Trees and formerly The Divine Comedy. Tracks from brand new protest-song album 'Enemy of The State' are starting to appear on this stream. Further down check out previous albums 'Astoria' (2018) and 'The Scarlet Oak' (2015). Grant's trio Echoes of Ilion are at https://soundcloud.com/echoes-of-ilion

The Scarlet Oak

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