1. |
Patch The Whippet
03:06
|
|||
It’s a dog’s life
If I stare long enough to the door of your heart
I can will it open
It’s a fools walk but I know that I’ve got a
head start
Everybody’s going out
I can smell that sweet perfume
As soon as you leave the room I will have my day
The things that matter to you – they don’t matter
to me
And we will be apart but your thoughts and your
heart will be with me
Everyday at three o’clock I come out to meet
with you
Though I look like a fool, I will have my day.
My way.
It’s a dogs life. Circling the house. Ghosts in
the windows
I found somewhere safe to bury my bone where I
can be my own
And if I were you, I know I’d have done the same
And if you were me you might have your way.
Your day.
|
||||
2. |
Unnatural Light
02:52
|
|
||
Something often eludes me,
calling me faintly out of reach
Something always escapes me
beckoning faintly follow me
Where is the place that I live?
Is it on a map?
Why can’t I get any sleep at night?
The unnatural light wakes me up
It shouldn’t be there
Shouldn’t be there
Something often awaits me
Irritates me
But I always find my way on time
The unnatural light travels by night
It shouldn’t be there
Shouldn’t be there
|
||||
3. |
Blind Freddie
03:43
|
|||
I just heard Blind Freddie Gillespie died
At half past ten on Sunday night, he must’ve
given up the fight
I didn’t know him very well. I can’t say that we
were close
But it’s still gonna be empty around here
and I’m not gonna sleep tonight
People are like washing windows -
each wants to blame the other side
You might say that I’m blind
but I can still see what’s right
You’re just about to break
and the brakes are just about to fail
Well I stayed at your house in the bed you made
The flannel sheets were old and musty
But I couldn’t sleep. The trucks were flying down
the highway
and the rain was leaking through the ceiling
warped and rusty
And those old glass shutters next to one another
they spread the high beams out across the walls
An open loaf of Kelly’s on the bench, the empty
bottles and the cigarette stench
I’m never gonna stay there again. That’s for sure
I met a girl from WA
We’re gonna get married and move away
Buy a house and settle down somewhere
I’ve just gotta get out of this town the memories
are bringin’ me down
So where I wind up I don’t care
Because now I talk to you all the time
When I’ve had too much to drink
You must be the hole in me
Every time my life drips down the sink
Tomorrow I’m gonna give up drinkin’
Yesterday’s got me thinkn’
Today I’m gonna make myself a deal
No more boozin’ all the time or
you wind up bedridden goin’ blind
‘coz I can drink enough for both of us the way
I feel
I’m just about to break
And the brakes are just about to fail
Yes, I’m just about to brake
And the brakes are just about to fail
I just heard, I just heard
|
||||
4. |
Declaration
02:58
|
|||
I sent these words to you tonight
Right now they’re being saved on a strangers
hard drive
on somebody else’s computer
In Holland or France they’re stored
With somebody smoking a cigarette
and replacing motherboards
And tomorrow morning, you’ll click
‘read message’
and the words will be retrieved
And from that moment on
things will never be the same between you and me
I don’t know how you’re gonna take it
I honestly don’t know
But I just have to tell you because I can’t keep it
from you anymore
It says ‘I tried to grow out of this like I
have before.
But that was a year ago and things are the same
I don’t want you to take this the wrong way
You’re everything to me. You’re everything that
feels right
And I know that love isn’t real but I don’t know
what else to feel
I tried to grow out of this like I did before
And that’s how it goes
I cut it off and it grows back like a rose
|
||||
5. |
The Dawn Chorus
04:23
|
|||
I’ve been up all night
lost and tired, lost and tired
And then the dawn chorus
begins to sing, begins to sing
“There’s no fucking way we will be beaten
not while there is still sun
There’s no fucking way we will lay down
not while I can feed my own
We won’t miss the new dawn
It’s dawn now, but not forever
So until tomorrow...
It was never easy for me
It’s never easy for you
And even if my will is gone
There’s no fucking way you will take me
I live apart from you
you can take the world and then it’s on
your shoulders
while I’m still alive
and the sun still rises
There’s no fucking way you will silence us
No fucking way No fucking way
There’s no fucking way you will bring us down
No fucking way
The Earth is mine
The Dawn is mine
The Air is mine
The Morning is mine
The audible space is mine”
|
||||
6. |
Autumn Winds
03:15
|
|||
The autumn winds can carry me away
‘Coz I’m tired of the things I have to face today
The autumn winds can carry me along
lose me in the mountain range so they can say
I’ve gone
I’ll find rest in the mountains blue, far away
from you
where my body lie
becoming part of the ground, forever looking at
the sky
and to finally be still and let passers pass me by
and be on their way
for there’s only one place where I’m gonna
stay today
Undisturbed and finished. I’ll lie throughout
the day
While people eat and drink in town three
kilometres away
They don’t know about me
That this is where I died
all they care about is finishing their cigarette so
they can get back inside
Time didn’t wait for me to make up my mind
It just said to me straight – I’m not supposed to
be kind.
All throughout the winter. It doesn’t
matter anymore
The comfort and the wages and the lust to
take more
For now I’m just like an old dead tree
Cut down and lying mute for no one else to see
Becoming less and less like me
|
||||
7. |
The New England Highway
04:08
|
|||
(Previously released as ‘The Road To Tamworth’)
You’re still two hours north of me
With the kids in the lounge room and a cup of tea
and you’re worried about me I know
A roast is in the oven kept on low
Is the road to Tamworth dangerous on a
Friday night?
With all the trucks and bends and tired eyes with
poor sight
I’ll have to keep singing to stay awake
My mind’s already asleep with you but my heart
can’t take a break
If blue is the colour you see when you look up
It’s better than looking back
Persistence of memory and all that is left for me
And by the time I reach the Dubbo turnoff
I feel a long way from home
Well, everybody’s lonely but no ones alone
And I’m driving up the New England Highway
And I’m listening to Radio National
There’s a man singing a song. I’m not sure what
it’s about
‘It was the world within that saved me from the
world without...
It was the world within that saved me from the
world without...’
What is it that you see if you look out?
Even the road looks good after the rain
How can I walk away from myself as if I’m
someone else?
Blue is the colour you see when you look up
It’s better than looking back
Persistence of memory is all that is left of me
How can I walk away?
You see, you are a part of me
|
||||
8. |
I'm Still Here
03:37
|
|||
There’s a teapot on the table and there’s milk in
the fridge
The sugar, tea and coffee - all in coloured tins
Two chairs in the kitchen, orange cake in
the cupboard
Noises come and go. The house creaks and cars
drive by slow
I left you a very long time ago
I haven’t sat with you for 20 years
But I’m still here. I’m still here.
I’m here in the air, in the carpet. I’m on the tiles,
across the lawn
You’ll find me where the dogs are buried
You won’t get me out of these walls
Everything I ever thought floats on through
the hall
When I was alone at night I cursed and many
names did I call.
Those names ring throughout the water pipes
There’s my photo on your wall but I haven’t
gone at all
Not at all.
And the steps that lead to the garden shed,
Your Father built those before you were born
The clothesline stands at an angle
The wire is bent and worn
The tools are mine. Sawdust I made
The wireless was my only friend
And in my last moments I did love you
though I fought you until the end.
I left you a very long time ago
There’s my photograph upon your wall
I haven’t sat with you for 20 years
But I’m still here. I’m still here.
|
||||
9. |
27 O'dell St.
04:25
|
|||
It was years ago but I remember well
Your invite to dine at 27 O’dell
You cooked soup and dessert
I ate so well
You took along time I could tell
It was cold outside
In the foggy air
We talked in front of the fire under the stair
You poured another red
Thankyou I said
And continued to gaze into the glare
As I was thinking of something to say
You were looking my way
You legs curled up, your head rested in your hands
Why that picture stays with me I don’t understand
Everything inside since the day that I was born
was with me at that time and I felt so warm
I reached out and touched your chin
you took my hand and pulled it in
To rest upon your stomach on knitted wool
I felt that I was home
Beautiful
No matter what happens to me or what I do
I’ll not forget the way you took my hand like you
needed to
And though it only lasted a little while
I was glad to give my hand to one so lovely
and fragile
Everything inside since the day that I was born
Was calling me that night like so many nights before
Everything inside since the day that I was born
was with me at that time and I felt so warm
We fell asleep on the lounge
I didn’t move until the morning came around
When I awoke you’d left already that day
I heard your rooster crow as I drove away
|
||||
10. |
Unrequited Love
03:39
|
|||
Who in the hell wouldn’t love you?
Wouldn’t give himself to you
Who wouldn’t love you at first sight?
Wouldn’t give you his days and his nights?
Only a mad bastard would refuse your hand
Only a masochist would look right past
you woman
You fell in unrequited love?
I seriously doubt it
who was he?
I can’t bear to think about it
That such an idiot could be among us now
on our streets driving a car
Would he even know how?
Open the door first
Then turn the key
He’s a moron
He’ failed miserably
When such a rare and beautiful thing
came blowing his way
‘I don’t think so’
Is that all that he could say?
Who wouldn’t see you and want to weep
because they’ve seen themselves
and the emptiness they keep
Who wouldn’t want to give you
anything at all?
Anything you ask
Any name you care to call
No one
He’s no one.
|
||||
11. |
Name
04:08
|
|||
I wanted to tell you what you mean to me
I wanted to say before I set you free
There’s nothing in a name
my words cannot say
my battle will be fought until my dying day
Monday morning. The car won’t start
The fog is thick and the air is cold
now we are apart
but not everything is set
and nothing is decided
I’ve been running my whole life
but somehow I’m not tired
Your name is written
my name is moving
at a thousand miles a second
Somewhere
I wanted to tell you that you don’t understand
I hold you so close I’ve carved you in my hand
But you don’t see me here
Now I’m everywhere
You don’t hear me singing across the crazy cold
night air
I rise in the east
I set in the west
I see you sleeping but one day you’ll find your rest
|
Chris Gillespie Sydney, Australia
An artist from the Blue Mountains of NSW. His songs are beautiful, bursting with observational yearning. “A fingerpickin’,
harmonica playing troubadour... ‘Sydney’s answer to Bob Dylan'
(Dave Regos - FBi Radio) Gillespie is renowned for his song writing craft.
“I really like this tune (Unnatural Light).. it’s incredibly catchy with a little bit of a Josh Pyke vibe..”
Rosie Beaton - Triple J
... more
Streaming and Download help
If you like Chris Gillespie, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp