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Watchglass Tracks

Standing Happy: 15 Smiling new and old songs from the SoundCloud community

Mixed for Paploviante

john songs, johnny

The Grand Narrative

No More Surprises

From the Album: "Friends, They're Gonna Get Your Story Wrong" (2021)
Lyrics:
You could tell my heart just wasn't in it
When I walked through the door
You could tell my heart just wasn't in it
When I washed up on your shore
On the surface
It seems calm
But underneath
There's a raging sea
Pulling me
Down
Let me swim out to the breakwater, I'll be fine
Every ounce of energy that I conserve
I just flail and I give it away
I just flail
And give it away

I've never met a woman like you before
I'm swimming for my life
(and you know it)
I just keep on writing these sad, sad songs
There just C and D and E
They're like taking buried treasure from the sea
Let me swim out to the breakwater
I'll be fine
Every ounce of energy that  I conserve
I just flail and I give it away

My heart just wasn't in it
As you could see
When I washed up from the sea
Swim out to the breakwater
I'll be fine
I've never met a woman like you before
I'm swimming for my life
And you know it
Let me swim out out the breakwater
Breakwater
I'll be fine
Let me swim out to the breakwater of my heart

The Breakwater

Limitless vistas of miserable failure

Hey John

Hey John - 2020

Our first new song as Watchglass reunited. This started as a single idea that came to me through pondering another duo, Moon and Aries, who make music, separated by half a planet and yet not separate at all in their vision and shared passion. We hope you enjoy!  
PS Mark made a YouTube video for this one and we would love for you to stop by and let him know what you think. He's a quiet achiever but he's really proud of this and ought to be so.
https://youtu.be/sm6s5wXZqbw

It's not every day
It's not every lifetime
Something like this comes along
Hold it close
Feel it breathe
You have each other now.
She's come back to you.
There could be worse things
And better still to come.

Copyright Gina Graham 2022

If you love me keep me

Eons Romance

Watch the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOu9DRYm4rE

Music, Vocals & Art by Cosmic Keanu

Produced and mastered by Hobocop @metrocityrecords

Lyrics:

We’ll all drive flying cars
And take trips to Mars
on a cock shaped rocket

The future looks bright, my friend
you can tell it is real
‘cause it looks so fake

And there will be no war at all,
When we’re all Borgs in the cloud

The future look bright, my friend
get what you want and then
AutoFac delivers

We can smoke all the meats
smother it in the sweet
Baby Rays, yeah

There will be no problems at all,
All the quantum models are solved

The future look bright, my friend
wear the goggles, then
enter the meta

And I was, am human
referring to myself
in the past

Just relax and float downstream,
We’ll take care of everything!

We promise!
See here!
Come join our

La-la-la-la-la-la-la-land!
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-land!
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-land!

The Future Looks Bright, My Friend! (OfficerMurphy Mix) VIDEO AVAILABLE

This song came about because I thought I'd try my hand at making my very own real-instrument percussion track, just for fun and to see if Mark could flesh it out... I think he may have had a go, bless him, but, even if my tapping and shaking didn't make the cut, we got this reggae-style thing as the end result.

I'm just trying you must see
To fit the pattern
Your routines
I'm just trying as I ever do
To fall into step
Inside out you oh oh oh

Watching stitches
Shades of green
Making time move rhythmically
It's been two hours 
An inch apiece
And thank god good love
Coming back to me

This is the roar of the roller coaster
Living breathing
I'd rather be riding than us flat-lining
This is the heady
Fall arrested
Sooner or later 
You come to the rescue
You're the rescue

Make with mind 
As with my hands 
The coffee scene
The waterfront
Walks along while dreaming of
Comfort days with you

Copyright Gina Graham 2022

Every Conversation in June

The Rollercoaster

Buy me if you love me

The Rescue

Walkabout Wednesday

Weirdo Sun Ripper

With an old melody of mine, which I used to play on the piano much faster, and a pad with the name of a star from the constellation Cygnus, and a chorus. The only thing missing was the photo of the swan taken in the El Rosarito reservoir.

CYGNUS

I fell in love with this song when I first heard it sung by the beautiful Christine Anu. I taught it to my primary school class when we did indigenous studies. It is an ode to a different kind of Australian dream. This version has a very different feel to the Warumpi Band’s original and Anu's take on it. But I think we captured the yearning in the song. Hope you enjoy!

Six years I've been in this desert
And every night I dream of the sea
They say home is where you find it
But will this place ever satisfy me

For I come from the saltwater people
We always live by the sea
Now I'm out here west of Alice Springs
With a wife and a family

My island home
My island home
My island home is waiting for me

In the evening the dry wind blows
From the hills and across the plain
I close my eyes and I'm standing
In a boat, on the sea again
And I'm holding that long turtle spear
And I feel I'm close now to where it must be

And my island home is waiting for me
My island home
My island home
My island home
My island home
My island home
My island home
My island home
My island home
My island home

My Island Home

My Island Home (Watchglass cover) The Warumpi Band, Christine Anu

This song is actually one long outro.... at least that's how it began.

So I said
Give me your sorrow
It is a beauty
That I want
And though it makes you fail
And asks for everything
I'll only tend it lovingly

oooh oooh ooooh 
oooh oooh ooooh

And with your smile
A tender twilight dawn
Step in the past
With hands to make
As we're returning
Give me your sorrow
There is a beuuty I will make

oooh oooh oooh 
oooh oooh oooh

So I said Give me your sorrow
I'll only tend it lovingly
As we're returning
Give me your sorrow
There is a beauty I will make.

Give Me Your Sorrow

From our 2017 debut album which will be released properly one day soon. This song is the story of making a rough time all better again, but then there is the matter of John, and who is he in the song? I thought it was most obvious when I wrote it and that everyone would get the reference, but so far no-one has mentioned the connection or had an "aha!" moment. Perhaps one of you will. ;-) 

Pictured is Yoshi who was our first and amazing cajon player whom we greatly missed when she left for Japan. 

Does all this silence give you space
To turn things over
I hope you get it bright side up
It was never meant to fall apart like this
O babe we were never really s'posed to

You know I feel with you
You make me laugh 
I make you smile
And there's no need for goodbye
I dig you out you lift me high
Oh high

Can I keep on running with you
Close by me
I never meant to say goodbye
I want you with me
Through all of this
Oh babe
We were never really s'posed to

You know I feel with you
You make me laugh
I make you smile
And there's no need for goodbye
I dig you out 
You left me high
Oh high

He told her in the beginning she was a gem.
They had a good thing going
Don't ruin it
But they gave a little more and more and more
Hey John is yes always the answer?
Look at this mess.
They said no first
And then yes yes yes.

Watchglass

Dont Blame John

Wheelwright: voice https://soundcloud.com/wheelwright
Beckenstein: music, lyrics, vocal melody, instruments

Fictive Sisters is a Trans-Atlantic online collaboration between Wheelwright and Jonathan Beckenstein.
________________________________________________________________

hibernating
the days grow dark
suffocating
so pull your boots on
walk out the door

frozen ridge line
and silver moon
distant tree line
the sleeping forest
is under snow

crystal flakes will crunch underfoot
icicles agleam
father winter will tread by your side
to the frosted stream

calculating
the solstice tide
enervating
procrastinating
walk out the door

frigid meadow
in moonlight glaze
dormant willow
is waiting naked
for your embrace

crystal flakes will crunch underfoot
icicles agleam
father winter will tread by your side
to the frosted stream
________________________________________________________________

Michael and I will be introducing two new songs in roughly a month, and at that time the Fictive Sisters album "Immaculate Distraction" will be available on Bandcamp. We will let you know when and provide a link. Thanks always for your listening!

image from Wikipedia

Father Winter (with Wheelwright)(Fictive Sisters)

Happy Smiling

Music: Jan Schonander
Crows from Pixabay
Image generated with OpenAI with a prompt

The anticipation - the standoff - the requiem 

A favorite movie of mine from my younger days is "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" famously ending in a Mexican Standoff between Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef. Directed by Sergio Leone with music by Ennio Morricone I recommend this spaghetti western to anybody who hasn't seen it.  On a whim I thought I would perform a musical reenactment, although in my version there are no survivors.

The experimental part of this has to do with the reverb on the drums in the "shootout" to simulate gunshots.

A Mexican standoff is a confrontation where no strategy exists that allows any party to achieve victory. Any party initiating aggression might trigger everyone's demise. At the same time, the parties are unable to extract themselves from the situation without suffering a loss. [Wikipedia]

Mexican Standoff

(Written by Terry Reeves)

Terry Reeves: Vocals
Gary Reeves: Drums
Hans-Michael Albers: All other instruments, arrangement & production

Illustration: 'Floating Man' by Enrique Mendez

I don’t believe in luck but I do feel very privileged to have two angels looking after me. My wife Jo and my daughter Charlotte have saved my life on three occasions keeping me alive until the ambulance arrived. I have been told that without their interventions I would not have survived.

Both have chosen not to believe in any God or indeed any outside power that can change our lives.  There may be many of you who disagree but these are the choices we make - each of us believes what we feel is best for us.  If a belief in a higher being helps give anyone’s life more meaning and guides them through each day, we have no argument with that at all.   

I think of Jo and Charlotte as my Atheist Angels.  The care they have given me during these close-to-death experiences shows what beautiful souls they are, always there for me at the time of greatest need.   

On every occasion, there were times when I truly thought that I was drawing my last breath, my existence disappearing as they fought to save me and all I could think of at the time was that, barring my brother Gal, all of my closest male antecedents died when they were just 63.  I was the same age during these episodes and I really didn’t want my name added to the sequence.  My Atheist Angels made sure that it wasn't.

Now I am 67, a proud grandfather, still around to enjoy the experience of watching my family thrive and grow.  There is another grandchild on the way later on this year and the more time I can spend with the love of my life Jo, the better and although my illness is not exactly how I planned things, I still try to enjoy every extra moment.

The continuation of ‘Cripple Club’ with Gal and Hans has been another unexpected bonus and we plan to keep going as long as we can. Here’s to the next song - I do hope you enjoy this one.   (Terry Reeves)

The whisper of a distance voice
Two angels arriving single choice
Keep breathing slow not too much
Your not leaving just stay in touch 

I’m floating yes I’m floating yes I’m floating floating away

A feeling of desperate final breath
Lonely moment no time to caress 
Fighting every 63rd dying thought
Surviving each gulp of air caught 

I’m floating yes I’m floating yes I’m floating floating away

Has time arrived to lay down still
Not accepted by two who really feel
More than one chance to live again
The Angels alongside helping pain

I’m floating yes I’m floating yes l’m floating floating away

Fight to avoid final thought of death
A fading light continues to suggest
Only time decides what, when and how
My Atheist Angels this time will not allow

I’m floating, yes I’m floating, yes I’m floating, I’m floating
I’m floating, yes I’m floating, yes I’m floating, I’m floating 
I’m floating, yes I’m floating, yes I’m floating,
Floating to stay……………………..cont

MY ATHEIST ANGELS - CRIPPLE CLUB

Johnny Can't Read

The first record I ever bought for myself was The Rolling Stones' 45 with "As Tears Go By" by Mick Jagger ("Gotta Get Away" was the "A" side I believe). Simple but it always impressed me with the strings and melancholy sound. Marianne Faithful did a terrific version of it as have others. No need to rehash the original version which was done so well back in the 60's so I came up with this up tempo, slightly "bluegrassy" interpretation that some Stones fans will find annoying but hopefully others will enjoy.

As Tears Go By (cover)

Extra points if you get the reference.*

*Points have no monetary value

2020 - Quincy Street
Written/Performed - Nick DaSilva

Alone Together Or

“Gina, the new album is amazing. You are such a wonderful, wonderful artist. You and Mark really compliment each other - it sounds like you just lie down in his soundscapes. Your lyrics are fantastic. Wow!” - Ben Fogarty (fan)

Hello, thankyou for stopping by! If you had a listen and liked what you heard, the best way to help us forward in the great sea of music would be to follow us on Bandcamp if you possibly can.... really depends on whether you have a Bandcamp account. If you can't then we still very much appreciate a show of love here in the form of likes, comments and re-posts... thank you very much for these :) <3 
Watchglass are a duo who like exploring 
musical directions and having fun making songs and albums. We have been working as a partnership since 2017, or most of the time since then. Gina is the singer and lyricist. Mark is the guitarist and everything else and makes the songs and is the one who Gina will forever hold responsible for showing her she could not only sing well enough to front a band but also write passable, and sometimes even excellent songs.... Happily we found each other again after a longish split. 

Our 4 albums since reuniting in June 2022 are:

Every Conversation in June 
“The album plays out like one long, slightly spooky fairy tale…A magic spell drifting in from lands unknown, Every Conversation in June is a quiet marvel.” - JE Keyes, Chief Editor Bandcamp Daily

Only Watching Clouds. 

Beautiful Dust-
“delightfully enigmatic pop songs built from enchanting melodies and eternal optimism.” - Ben Salmon (Bandcamp Daily)
“as hushed and evocative as a ghost story whispered around a campfire.”- JE Keyes, Chief Editor Bandcamp Daily

Raw Colours 
“It’s another irresistible album from a band that gets better with each go-round.”- JE Keyes, Chief Editor Bandcamp Daily

All available on Bandcamp.