White Fire
She said
(angry lines encased)
all the while she's screaming
'not the face'.
Trying hard,
complete the work of years in days,
born to love, who cannot?
In reply,
the broken skin
the long bright wire
a million explanations
and no one reason
why.
Don't let it burn
Don't let sting
To feel the white fire
on your skin
and when you touch
don't let it hurt
let it be gentle.
Don't let it burn
Don't let sting
To feel the white fire
on your skin
and when we touch
you'll let me in
and i will be be gentle
She said
(she said)
Angry lines encased,
hard to trust these instincts
not my own.
Trying hard
repeat the work of years in days.
Born to love who cannot in reply.
(this time, this time, not this time)
The broken skin
the long bright wire,
a million explanations,
no one reason why.
(don't want to hear about a thing)
Don't let it burn
Don't let sting
To feel the white fire
on your skin
and when you touch
don't let it hurt
let it be gentle
Don't let it burn
Don't let sting
To feel the white fire
on your skin
and when you touch
you'll let me in
and i will be be gentle
(c) Barry/Stormcellar 2022
let it be gentle
This chart has been on my mind for a few days as I keep working towards the completion of this album. Ye gods.
A big shout out to Don Hopkins and Marcus Holden who helped me wrestle with a difficult song over the last 2 years.
The biggest influence on this album has been the term 'signposts, not destinations', although I may not be phrasing that in the clearest manner.
Having decided to just draw a line at what I have to hand, I have looped back to the start of the process and found that stuff I had put aside is actually OK.
Work with what you got. This has been balanced against the necessary shaping forces of time, covid and mixing this album (mostly) ourselves.
Our previous process has been: write it, play it live, tweak it, record it, get into the studio and power through it expeditiously 'cos this is costing us some dollars.
Under the current circumstances,we have had longer to work on the post production. The tools have also shaped the music, just as the times have.
It's been good to press, good to pause and it will be grand to finish. There are more songs to follow, and to get to them, I gotta get this stuff out of my brain space.
Rather than fast or slow, this is the time it took, and it's time to deliver.
Coggers is crook so Sunday's off. Bugger.
What a time right?
Hard upon my journey
I didn’t see the signs
I brought with me a passenger
I thought I’d left behind
The mirror to my innocence
My vanity and pride
Fear foremost the dark companion of my mind
Summoned to the temple,
beneath the tomb of kings,
I walked the empty streets
beside a crystal pyramid
I came upon a messenger
who begged me for a meal
sanctified in charity
this is what he did reveal
he said son
you’re riding with the devil preacher
your troubles just begun
until you make of this your teacher
Stumbling at the threshold
For deliverance I cried
And fled into the centre of the storm
Where the tracks met the road
I knelt and burned my pleas
There between the iron and the stone
by dawn I made my peace with hell
and I dreamed that I was called before the lord
on a moonlit night
by a bayou bright
I played my songs for him
And in reply, this is what I heard.
he said
and the stage shall be your sanctuary
from without and from within
for those that hide the lie
of endless night
in sweet delight
the lesson there to learn
is to be lived
knowing it is what it is
the cup that has been broken
cannot be refilled
it draws no water from the well
he said
he that would seek to cast the devil out
must first look
inside to see the devil in themselves
for the stage was made your sanctuary
and the truth has set you free
as dark within the light
resides between both day and night
the better to observe the lesson lived
knowing it is what it is
I said son
You’re riding with the devils preacher
You’re riding with the devils teacher
(c) 2020-2022 Barry/Read/Stormcellar
For fans of Mark Twain, that reference ought to come to mind when thinking about writing.
After almost 2.5 years of work on the sucker (feb 2020) I finally got a 2nd verse finished.
Yeah sometimes I am the hold up.
That's not strictly the longest time for a song to emerge from the workings. 'Brave with your heart' took almost 5 years, and if I am not mistaken, 'Serves you right' incorporates a riff Paul has been trying to put into a song since 2010.
By my calcs, we're now hitting 11 song for the album. We're getting closer.