1. |
Born For Showbiz [1]
03:59
|
|||
I don't care what the people say
I just go ahead and do things my own way
I may be on the rocks
I may be heading for a drop
but all I can believe is that I'm heading for the top
coz
This is showbiz yeah this showbiz
this is showbiz this is showbiz
don't care how bad
the people think my act is
all I know is I was born for showbiz
It seems I cause calamity wherever I go
mass devastation in the wake of my tiny one-man-show
but I don't let it get me down I stay chipper and gay
cos I know somehow the Nobel Prize is coming my way
coz...
This is showbiz etc
well I'll admit I haven't been laid in a very long time
and the last time I had to pay for it
down where the red lights shine
but I know it won't be long
before my clover-leaves number four
and a thousand horny groupies
will be breaking down my door coz....
This is showbiz etc
|
||||
2. |
Its A Life [2]
01:58
|
|||
3. |
Cockroach Song [3]
01:23
|
|||
Time don't heed you
it slips away
time don't need you
you waste the days and time,
time don't feel
history in the making
but it don't seem real
things keep breaking down
but clockwork drives the wheel
on and on
but then the wheel starts creaking
so bring the oil can here
you hear a cockroach squeaking
slugs drown in your beer
and all you can remember is your own name
like you're some deserting soldier
trying to reach the desert shore
- walk on.
|
||||
4. |
||||
Why do you always dream of falling?
and why do you wake each time that you hit the ground?
strange as the sound of one hand clapping
cutting the air on the rebound
and where does the wind go when it don't blow?
and why does the ninth wave cause unease?
why should any of this matter?
surrendering your will unto the stormy seas
why? why do you say nothing today
nothing at all
why? why do you turn
turn on your heel and head off down the hall
where does a thought go?
up or below? starboard or aft?
heard the door slam and footsteps fade off
away down the path.
|
||||
5. |
Artificial Light [5]
02:49
|
|||
you may learn to laugh
at all the folly of your past
but if the pain is vast
then it may be a hollow laugh
ride on.. over the stones
trampling the bones
all shattering
watch as they reform again
and clatter about
as they follow you on down
down down down down
some horrible ravine
artificial light
brings daytime to the night
promises of sight
to those whose faith has might
but I've known those
who only believe
in things you can't see
and bones of dust
shunning both friend and foe
believing in a light
that only shines for them
and nobody else
|
||||
6. |
Verbs And Nouns
03:09
|
|||
mind your mind
play your play
find your find
stay your stay
blind your blind
pay your pay
eye your eye
lay your lay
Verbs and Nouns run away
verbs and nouns run away
verbs and nouns hold you down
verbs and nouns hold you down
you would get so confused
which was which
which to choose
you would get
all wound up
spill the wine smash the cup
people make barriers
draw the lines
tie the binds
mind their minds
play their plays
ooh ooh!
|
||||
7. |
Always [6]
01:50
|
|||
In the day
and in the night
in the morning at twilight
in the winter in the spring
always
during work
and during play
during sleep and wide awake
during stillness, during quakes
always
sometimes:
it's like you can't escape
and if you could where would you go?
you'd swim the moat
and thrash around in the undergrowth
you'd span the plains
you'd make the shore
and reaching that place you'll still be...
here
|
||||
8. |
Nocturnal Refrains [7]
02:45
|
|||
One day
you'll be standing at a window
gazing out as the night invades your brain
and somehow
you'll get lost in the reflection
of your own face as it shimmers on the pane
moonlight lights the scene beyond your window
while your own face hovers in between
makes you wonder if you're only a ghost
one who haunts their own shell
as a memory haunts what's been
there is a ringing deep in our hearts
tolling like a bell
hollow on the underneath
and clanging like a railway in hell
yet "night time is the right time"
as we all know very well
waiting till the morning breaks the spell
one day you'll be lying beneath a window
in a deep sleep as the sun rises unseen
and the curtains - block all the light
and keep you blind to the fact
that each day you should be born again.
|
||||
9. |
||||
At the shoreline of an endless ocean
the lapping waves set my mind in motion
back to that first time that she rose from the sea
and like a sea lion or a manatee
she swam straight to the heart of me
and left me stranded in that sweet ecstasy
but you know it never quite worked out that way
her legs were fused at the tail they say
like dry-humping the slimiest eel
splashing caviar from head to heel
and "a heel" is how I should feel
moonstruck, tough luck - what a chump!
many years have passed, the tides have ebbed and flowed
these days she performs by spinning balls on her nose
the crowd applauds - but I've learned to let her be
yet sometimes on a moonlit night I still walk to the sea
and feel the blood rise inside of me
I feel it surging inside; I am still alive
standing at the doorway to an endless ocean
|
||||
10. |
Back Seat [8]
02:31
|
|||
In the back seat long ago
driven forward by those in the front (you know)
inward turning inside your head
lands and sands of time move faster instead
block the dread
cos you have many miles to go
and time seems so far away
it was back when the world was tall
when the small things mattered like they mattered at all
before the fall
pinhead there at the wheel turns round
barking orders
but you're good at blocking the sound
drifting into reveries..
cos you had many miles to go and time seemed so far away
|
||||
11. |
Fight Or Flight
02:42
|
|||
there are contradictions boy
that wreck and rule your life
on the one hand: should you stay?
and battle through the strife
on the other: should you flee?
and start your life afresh...
either way you're all torn up
your inner voice is deaf
holding on
holding on...
|
||||
12. |
Wish
03:25
|
|||
13. |
Hole In The Sky
01:30
|
|||
as the day dawned
as the fawn nibbled upon the lawn
as the dew dried on the grass
as trout and salmon spawned
on a tussock sat a girl
her eyes sad and forlorn
gazing at the hole in the sky
hole in the sky
how it got there no-one knows
it grew like a fungal spore
not there one day there the next
a chasm to deplore
sucking air and sucking hope
some heavenly trap door
there it lies - the hole in the sky
hole in the sky
|
||||
14. |
Rainy Day Song
02:58
|
|||
and when the rain
falls on the town
within this sea of dreams
I should gladly drown
it feels like every time that it rains
belongs with every other
as though olden days have breached today
somehow
cos when it rains
it's like an old guitar
one that plays a song
that knows who you are
|
||||
15. |
A Comforting Thought [9]
02:01
|
|||
When you're in the fire
or drowning in the sea
when you're in the fire
when you're in the mire
you'll be there
with me
when you're stranded on the land
when you're in the sand
when you're on the land
when you're in the quicksand
you'll be there
with me
but that's a rotten lie:
I'll be high and dry
|
||||
16. |
Thirteen [10]
02:47
|
|||
17. |
World [11]
02:02
|
|||
once when the world was good
once when the world was bad
once when the world was beautiful and mad
would you believe a story of greed
of people deceived
of hearts left to bleed
alone on the mud
|
||||
18. |
Blood [12]
01:43
|
|||
When the blood stains your hands
and the sperm stains your sheets
it'll wash away
when the shit hits the fan
and the smell fills the streets
it'll blow away
when the pain fills your head
and runs down to your feet
it'll ebb away
but some things seem to want to stay
they were written in the book
and they'll make you pay
for nothing you did
but for the way life loves to put a challenge in your way
|
||||
19. |
||||
it was years
it was days
then it was seconds
it was now
all closing in too soon
it was here
it was right in the moment
then distant as the moon
and I've tried to freeze time
and preserve it like its wine
in the cellar, locked away
so I can sample the moment again
when the time is right some day
but the wine will spoil
and it was folly
to try to catch a phantom in a jar
yeah it was toil
toil for no reason
though reason never got me very far
|
||||
20. |
Origami Swans [14]
02:59
|
|||
When your dreams are falling to the ground
as origami swans crash all around you
and you retrieve nothing from all the ruins
and you decide to begin the song again
begin again
there was a life it was fine and new
it had an inner strength
it had a fire below
and it burnt strong
and it seemed for sure
that it would truly not snuff out
that it would burn forever more
but a blue flame hid down there in its heart
and when the time came it extinguished the spark
and "you've heard it all before.. oh woe!"
but when it happens to you
then baby you will know
|
||||
21. |
||||
love is like a dog you say
- oh for sure
lapping at your heels all day
- evermore
so loyal
so endearing
so eager to please
so intoxicating
wafting on the breeze
but what kind of dog are you?
I know what kind...
love is like a dog they say
- oh for sure
yapping like a bitch all day
- evermore
so snarling
so demeaning
has you sniffing round trees
screwing in the alley
shitting where you please
but what kind of dog are you?
i know what kind...
|
||||
22. |
||||
23. |
||||
sometime
someplace
somehow
in your
time of grace
some hour
when the clock has slowed
and the seconds hang in suspension
thats when
as the curtain falls
as the waves crash backwards
off the old sea walls
you then recall
a time when ice would crunch
beneath your shoes
in school-day puddles yeah
and how
you went next door
and they had smelly magic marker pens
galore
and you spun that clothesline round once more...
and the wind was strange and queasy
and oh
you had years to go
but you were already warped
by forces below
so slow that second hand down
and go slowly up the chimney
|
||||
24. |
Not About Me [17]
01:49
|
|||
Take me out of the picture
I'll be happier on the cutting room floor
or pinned to a dart-board
taking the pricks for ever more
but what I originally meant to say was:
I'm gonna write a song
about a place where I'm an absentee
absent from the song
which is simply not about me
simply not about me.
|
||||
25. |
Internal Truths [18]
02:32
|
|||
People who are crazy
Must they always stay insane?
Racing on a treadmill
Scrubbing at some stain
Battling to conform to
Shapes they cannot be
Never holding true to
The internal truths they see
(Once I was a rich man
Now I am so poor
Once I was a visitor
Now I’m shown the door
Once I was a seeker
Now I’m all sought out
Once I was a cheater
Now I’ve straightened out)
|
||||
26. |
Mend [19]
03:03
|
|||
27. |
||||
28. |
||||
29. |
||||
30. |
||||
31. |
||||
32. |
Donald McPherson New Zealand
Donald is a home recording artist who is on the one hand an improvising acoustic guitarist, on the other a songwriter.
Streaming and Download help
If you like Donald McPherson, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp