Lyrics 

In Exeter

Walking back from St David’s station, having said goodbye to you
Seems we spend our whole lives saying goodbye
Long walk up St davids Hill,
Soft rain on my face
You say you love me but I’m alone in this place

And I’ll tell what really stabs me and tears me up inside 
Is that I know where you’ll be going when you get home tonight
you’ll call him and arrange to meet in some quiet darkened bar
Please say it’s not gone too far

And the grey sky smothers me and I’m choking on my fear

And if you love him say you love him and let me go
But if you love me, stop this game and let him know

Because in Exeter you held my hand 
And said that I was all you wanted 
You held me close, so tenderly, but his face was in your mind when you were kissing me

I don’t know why your’e messing with my heart
Can’t you see how I feel?

The rain is getting harder and I’m cold now
And some old general looks down at this fool
Shamed by my pathetic lack of faith
Students pushing on the pavement now
And leaves fall around me
Make your choice now and set the other one free

And I know what you’re thinking, that Im paranoid and crazy
That I should now accept you’re just good friends
Its just that every time you go home he gets your call
And I’m feeling like a fool

And if you love him say you love him let me go
But if you love me stop this game and let him know

Because in Exeter, you held my hand, and said that I was all you wanted
You held me close, so tenderly
But his face was in your mind when you were kissing me

I don’t know why you’re acting so cruel, cant you see how I feel?

What of him, does he know the role he’s playing?
Does he even care, does he love you too?
He’s never liked me, is this his chance for some revenge
Ive told you now, its up to you!

It’s decision time, you can’t hide from this
It’s decision time, you know it is 

You seem to think I’ll hang on, that I’m dutiful and patient
But I want to stress the risks and the many implications
Of this approach you’re taking, are you saying its all ok, to play a game like this and treat me in this way?
And the grey sky still smothers me

Yes, in Exeter, you held my hand, and said that I was all you wanted

James Whiteman Copyright September 2022

In Exeter

The search for a more peaceful existence away from the commotion, corrupt or not, of society.

Let Me Go

℗ © Copyright Ian Stokes. All Rights Reserved
Recorded and mixed using Logic. Mastered in Soundcloud
Guitars played: Morris Nylon String in standard tuning
Photography: Thanks go to Nigel and Libby Hume at Hume Photography.
I thought it was time to start writing and recording some new songs, with a view to putting together a new solo album over the winter. For this song I have returned to my nylon string Morris guitar. Hope you like it!
LYRICS:
Sitting…. In my rocking chair
Rollin…….. with the beat
Pickin …..out a tune
Keeping time… tapping my feet

Maybe I’m getting old 
Maybe I’m getting slow 
Maybe things don’t seem like they used to do
Maybe, maybe not…. I don’t know 

Sitting….. in my rocking chair 
Close my eyes and see
All the places I have been
Just rollin … with the beat

Maybe I’m getting old 
Maybe I’m getting slow 
Maybe things don’t seem like they used to do
Maybe, maybe not…. I don’t know

My Rocking Chair

Dear friends,
Many people in the world are oppressed - in some countries women and girls are oppressed - in some countries opposition politicians are imprisoned or killed - some tyrants see themselves as having the right to invade neighboring countries and kill thousands of people.
I feel that I must purposely continue to write songs about these ills - but the tyrants are probably not listening to my songs!

The people are free
When the people are free from the tyrants 
                 G               D                    C    D                             D
they will walk in the streets day and night
                C                D                      G                                  G
they sing and they laugh and they are clapping their hands
         G                    D                           C                    G          G
and their boys and their husbands can stay at home 
                C                     D                   G          D                     D
and there is no one to call them to the military life
                    G              C                       D           G
they will live in peace
              1/2C 1/2D G          C
they will live in peace
              1/2G 1/2D G

If we look at our world at the present time
           G               D                  C           D                      D
we can see how the tyrants advance
            C                  D              G                                   G
It is hard to understand how their childhood has been
         G                     D                      C                    G      G
They are shooting on innocent people
                 C               D             G   D                              D
There is a limit for the people when they start to react
                 G                   C                           D             G
They want to live in peace   
                   1/2C 1/2D G          C
They want to live in peace                      
                   1/2G 1/2D G

There will come a day when the people
                  G         D                   C     D                         D
can decide the clothes they ware on the streets
           C                                 D                    G              G
and no one will go to prison for their opinions
       G                         D                      C     G                 G
and all invasion forces will go back to where they belong
               C                   D                        G                  D   D
and for the sake of our kids this mission must be kept alive
                    G                 C                        D                     G
We want to live in peace   
                   1/2C 1/2D G          C
We want to live in peace                      
                   1/2G 1/2D G

The People are Free

wrote down a letter
shrouded it in code
gonna mail it off in the first class post
to some unknown address
from long ago

and if ever you do see me down the road
please do not shout out
I will not slow
if I should hear some distant voice
from long ago

you coulda lit my fuse
but it's too early to say
cancel my subscription
down with the masquerade
if you're so honest 
I'm the longest day

you may lay claim 
to banish all my blues away
but it's just conjecture deception and facade
when it was you who put most of them there
anyway 

I'm mailing all of my blues away
I'm mailing all of my blues away

somewhere out in the distant multiverse
my entropy is flowing in reverse
and all my branches are forming
to build a church

where I can go and get some peace
retrieve my letter off of
the holy priest
and slowly build my life back
piece by piece

I'm mailing all of my blues away
I'm mailing all of my blues away

but you know just lately
I have come to doubt
what in the hell it is that 
I'm taking about
maybe you'd be better off without

and in about a billion years or so
I'll figure something out
you don't already know
and mail it to some address
from long ago

recorded at home on my 8 track

thanks a million for stopping by folks, really appreciate it, keep on being cool✌️

From Long Ago

wouldn't you like to know
are we supposed to know
how it ends

wouldn't you like to see
how it's gonna be
when it's all over

we could leave it up to chance
a little bit of romance never hurt
we could let it all just be
call it destiny 
enjoy the ride

if we knew maybe we'd get it right
or would we be resigned
would we make the most of time
living knowing that

wouldn't you like to know
how it's gonna go
will it rain

it may take a little while
to learn to live life
preordained

wouldn't you like to know
are we supposed to know
how it ends

Belle on flute :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svQLctmIze8

preordained

Here's one I wrote last summer, glad I got a little spare time to make a version of it. The title is taken from a favourite book of mine: Heavy Weather by P.G. Wodehouse; though the song doesn't bare any relation to the story.

Heavy Weather 

so please tell me that you will stay
even if you have no intention to
because you know that I always preferred 
the lies from the truth

so please save a seat for me
somewhere right at the west end of the pew
because you know that I always preferred 
the lies from the truth

the wind blows heavy weather my way
the sun up here she burn much brighter too
there's a few crumbs left round my way
just do the best that you can do

the newspaper heiress pleaded guilty
for using Stockholm syndrome as a ruse
but she said her captors they all preferred
the lies from the truth

last summer was spent back and forth blaspheming
I heard the story told from the Catholic boy
to the Jew
but you know it appears that  they both preferred
the lies from the truth

the wind blows heavy weather my way
the sun up here she burn much brighter too
there's a few crumbs left round my way
just do the best that you can do

just do the best that you can do


thanks for listening and inspiring as always much appreciated, take care folks.

recorded at home in my own ramshackle style in-between life.


Heavy Weather

you're wrapped up today, it's 9.10 am and -2 degrees, it's been snowing overnight, some a them's been there since before 6! you walk down familiar streets, almost drag yourself there, feeling empty of emotion and desire, ambivalence consumes your integrity,  running commentary conversations with yourself contain more contradictions and paradoxes than thought itself. Horns tooting as you pick up the pace on Coburg street, nearly there now, must show willing and a pulse of positivity. You see your uncle Derek walking the dog, he's not really your uncle, you're not too sure if that's really a dog, it is a dog though, it's jumping up at you, fuck! it's at eye level, big dog that Derek! You make a bit of small talk about the football, and the dog, there's nothing small about the dog. He doesn't agree with the strike, I should be offended, but I don't give a flying fuck, it's nice to see him, have a bit crak and even getting bulldozed by that beast of a dog didn't seem to bother me. See you then Derek, tell the family I was asking after them. Turns out I would see him on my stroll to the picket line a week later too.

Big turn out today, you're genuinely impressed and start to feel a pang of guilt that you're really not feeling it. Try to fit in, you're more like them than they are themselves, it should be a stroll in the park. You start to make conversations and mooch about a bit, you don't  see anyone that you're desperate to avoid. Gallows humour is gallowing in pride, ready to take a bite out of anyone that doesn't subscribe to their own gallant gallowness. Sharing a thought invigorates your being, you start to reminisce and replay memories of this place and anything within a 2 mile radius. Across the road there was the last place you had a proper conversation with your cousin Pirrie, he wasn't really your cousin, but it was really a conversation; not like in the hospital, that was just the odd grunt here and there, a movement or two. There's Sydney Court, your Aunty Jean lived there since the 60s or 50s?  she wasn't really your Aunty, but it was built, and she was your mams aunty, so that's pretty close. You feel a genuine appreciation for this area and the folk who dwell upon it, you dwell with them, Gateshead town, blood sweat synagogues and thieves. Walking round the picket line, soak it all up, retain it, when you get home wring it out. Group therapy plasters over the cracks, you feel so good that you self diagnose yourself with bi polar. Although time grinded it's heels towards the end, it was worth losing a day's pay, you'd pay more for a therapist, and you'd gotten a good idea for a song.

Sydney Court

my mood is changing like the weather
my spirit rising like the sea
and all the things that I once held and cherished
don't really matter that much to me

as I wander round old Gateshead town
blood sweat synagogues and thieves
I lost my cousin in the Metropole bar
his ankles hanging round his knees

there ain't a single thing
left around here no more
not even a photograph
of Sydney Court

my mind is like a patchwork dreambelt
I'm blowing hot air in then cold
for when did I become the man's 
worst nightmare
never believing what I'm told

and as I'm riding down the Sheriff's Highway
and I watch the old Tyne valley flow
getting lost on the Tuxedo Princes
man it all seemed so long ago

there ain't a single thing left around here no more
not even a photograph of Sydney Court

where did you go
where did you go

recorded at home in my 8 track, thanks for listening, very much appreciated 👍






Sydney Court

TWICE AROUND THE MOON words and music Doug Roossien 3-24-2023
Those moments 
Between Breathing
When you catch your soul
Walking twice around the moon 

The moments 
You stop believing. 
You catch your eyes. 
Saying things, you can’t control …(So many tears)
Life just gets too…  heavy … to hold. 

That moment 
Life stops turning. 
When you realize 
Life’ll  never be the same.

That moment 
All hope is burning. 
You stand and watch a fire. 
You can’t control. 
Life just gets too…  heavy … to hold.
You’d trade all your tomorrows …to save your soul. 

………………………………………………………… ( bridge)
…………………………………………………………………….(music)
Those moments 

Those moments  
Between Breathing 
Where you walk your soul
Twice around the moon.

The moments 
You stop believing. 
You catch your eyes. 
Saying things, they can’t control.  
Life just gets too…  heavy … to hold. 
You’d trade all your tomorrows …to save your soul. 

Those moments  
You stop deceiving. 
and you catch your soul.
Walking twice around the moon 
Twice around the moon, Moments … You walk …Twice around the moon .

TWICE AROUND THE MOON (original)

Waitin‘ Around To Die (by Townes Van Zandt; für's ://about blank)

I sit on your doorstep - waiting for you to come down - i know that you are up there trying to turn your world around - As you put on your make-up you think about our breakup and how its affected you but still you're okay - and I put on my make-up and think about this breakup and i am surely not okay with what it's been doing to me - then you walk out you doorway yeah and I am waiting right there - your agenda is cold shoulder and the night just keeps getting colder and colder - then you you just graze right by me yeah - guess I'm a ghost from your past - what was it that changed you - am i - am i the one who changed you - should i wait for you to come home - no my friends would call me a creep - but I would own that label - if you would just talk to me - wish I could come upstairs made a mix tape of all the songs you love we can listen by the fireplace that's all that's all I've been dreaming of - I guess that I'm just getting old - and all the things that meant so much to us - have vanished in a cloud of dust - woman  woman who can we trust - then you walk out your doorway yeah I am waiting right there your agenda is cold shoulder and the night just keep getting colder and colder - I pass by your doorstep yeah everyday on my way to work and even though you haven't lived there for years i still see your face - was creeping on your Instagram - got a family and I'm still who I am I'm lost without your tenderness oh woman I'm so lost

Doorstep-

Dear friends, I worry more and more about the state of the earth! More and more wars flare up, the climate is worrying with natural disasters as a result! Strong malevolent rulers emerge and succeed in egging the population of the respective countries. History has shown how it goes - I think of such men as Hitler and others! The war causes huge emissions of greenhouse gases! Instead, use the soldiers to plant trees and fight the terrible forest fires!

The Baltic Sea is living dangerously
 right now! Scores of ships in deplorable condition transport oil across the sea. The risks are great for extensive oil disasters! I have made some songs for the Baltic sea just to make people understand the problems.

I have recently published some of my songs on YouTube - search for Bengt Roth.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bengt+roth
I write almost all of my songs, and I sing my songs and play the guitar and the harp - no more. My recording equipment is quite modest with a Furch guitar, Alhambra guitar, Röde microphone, Focusrite and Garageband. My studio is our guest room in our house.
I was young during the 1960s when Dylan became famous. I was a member of a folk song group during that time. I love Dylan´s music!! I was also a big fan of The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Mamas and the Papas and several more singers. I like folk music and the old protest songs. I love the music of Eva Cassidy. I was also a big fan of Björn Afzelius, and I love the music of Tom Petty. I am very inspired of the music of John Denver.
Bengt and certainly several 100 million people are intensively protesting against all evil around the world!
I love to sometimes write songs that are a bit weird and self-ironic!
You know that I am a novice in the "recording business", and sometimes I have to revise the songs.
My whole grown up life was occupied by my profession as a doctor in intensive care and anesthesiology. After that I have got the possibility to be dedicated to music. 
My songs are a matter of extreme happiness and extreme sadness. I write all the music and lyrics except "As tears go by", "House of the Rising Sun", and songs by Evert Taube.
I love to leave some message with my songs!
I have no previous experience of writing fiction. I have, however, some experience in writing non-fiction. I wrote my thesis, and some chapters in a textbook in anesthesiology. I was also member of a group who introduced an education program in pediatric cardio pulmonary resuscitation for laymen in Sweden.
I have created a repost page "Bengt Erik Roth Repost Page".

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Bengt+Roth

The People are Free

Bengt Erik Roth User 188944807