'CROOKED TALES' - Roger D'Arcy
Side A
ALIBI
I've been heading north now
While you've been headed south
I've been hearing lots of rumours
But they're only word of mouth
If you did the things they say you did
Then I'll condemn you too
So if you have an alibi
I need to hear it come from you
If you have an alibi
I need to hear it come from your own lips
If you have an alibi
I need to see it in your eyes
There's a trail of broken people
But the damage hides them well
I have tried to find their story
But no one wants to tell
And the ones with most to say
All disappear without a trace
So if you have an alibi
It's time to tell
If you have an alibi
I need to hear it come from your own lips
If you have an alibi
I need to see it in your eyes
And you said you'd never cheat or take advantage of a friend
Or cut into someone else's hard won dance
But you and I both know the truth
You'd take whatever's going
You'd take it all if given half a chance
Though these tales are all imagined
Some are based on real events
On occasion, it just happens
Similarities, coincidents
I have tried my best to steer well clear
Of the shameful things you've done
So if you have an alibi
The time has come
If you have an alibi
I need to hear it come from your own lips
If you have an alibi
I need to see it in your eyes
If you have an alibi
I need to hear it come from your own lips
If you have an alibi
I need to see it in your eyes
Words and music by Roger D'Arcy
Copyright Longsongs Music Limited 2016
BONAPARTE'S BEDROOM
They say you used to live here
And there's a sign outside my window
So I guess it must be true
Now I'm listening
To the thunder
And imagining the sounds
Of guns and Waterloo
But it all came down
To one hundred days
And the solitude of exile
St Helena was your curse
Ah, that windswept isle
Was the death of you
Did you take the time to wonder
About the road that lay ahead
Did you pause to take the view
Now each evening
As the light fades
I always seem to wind up thinking
Must have looked the same to you
But it all came down
To one hundred days
And the solitude of exile
St Helena was your curse
Ah, that windswept isle
Was the death of you
Just a visitor
Who abandoned hope
They sent a prince to bring you home
A man must make his own way
Does he ever get to choose
We're all prisoners of our age
And our destiny
However extraordinary
Is just a twist of fate
Just so many rolls of dice
And it all came down
To one hundred days
And the solitude of exile
St Helena was your curse
Ah, that windswept isle
Was the death of you
Words and music by Roger D'Arcy
Copyright Longsongs Music Limited
THE BALLAD OF SIR HUDSON LOWE
Around two hundred years ago
They sent a man named Hudson Lowe
His fate to be mis-understood
Crushed by the man out at Longwood
Lowe stood up straight and called him sir
"I will not call you Emperor
We write the rules, I won't give way
You lost, we won and now you'll pay"
"There's a mist hangs over Longwood and I cannot see the sea
There's no hope in hell I'll leave this place
Yet still he has me watched
There's a cruelness in his eyes
And a wicked smile"
No one ever shed a tear for Hudson Lowe
"I see they have not sent their best
I'll deal with him like all the rest
His orders may well be to blame
But history will damn his name"
So Boney locked himself away
"I will not show myself today
I fought a war, I know I lost
This fool shall never know the cost"
"There's a mist hangs over Longwood and I cannot see the sea
There's no hope in hell I'll leave this place
Yet still he has me watched
There's a cruelness in his eyes
And a wicked smile"
No one ever shed a tear for Hudson Lowe
"I've fought and beaten better men
I'll not give in before the end
I've conquered lands, created kings
This fool's concerned with lesser things"
"There's no man I call friend today
They've taken everything away
We're both a long, long way from home
I'll wager he feels more alone"
"There's a mist hangs over Longwood and I cannot see the sea
There's no hope in hell I'll leave this place
Yet still he has me watched
There's a cruelness in his eyes
And a wicked smile"
No one ever shed a tear for Hudson Lowe
END
Discarded verses:
The end came sooner than was planned
No poison passed from any hand
But even dead, they feared his name
And Lowe was there to bear the shame
They buried him deep and far away
Without a name upon his grave
Napoleon was dead and gone
But who was done the greater wrong
Words and music by Roger D'Arcy
Copyright Longsongs Music Limited
TOPOL'S PENCIL (LINES IN THE SAND)
The Sabbath lift goes up and down
Helicopters buzz around
Muslims tunnel underground
Walls cut through a broken land
It's hard at times to understand
Pencil lines lost in the sand
This is such a troubled land
But amazing things have happened here
This is such a troubled land
Lines in the sand
Wine flows from the heights above
The neighbours there don't drink to love
Seven days of push and shove
Shifting lines through history
Lawrence to Montgomery
Bonaparte and Antony
I took a pebble from Masada
There's such a powerful feeling there
I took a pebble from Masada
Lines in the sand
It's a shame that no one could have told them
What Lawrence knew
This sea's the deadest thing I've seen
The deepest down I've ever been
The rain has turned the desert green,
Roman ruins on the beach
Answers so far out of reach
Lessons no one knows to teach
This was such a pretty country
But the damage here runs deep
This was such a pretty country
Lines in the sand
END
Discarded verse:
The waitress works with no disguise
No patch to hide her grandpa's eyes
The generals have all passed by
Words and music by Roger D'Arcy
Copyright Longsongs Music Limited
CASINO
Kings and vagabonds
Faded film stars
Washed up wrecks from rock and roll
Artificial blondes
Ageing porn stars
Pretty faces with no soul
Just be kind to the hookers
And the hard working waitress
They're just trying their best to get by
They will soon overlook us
And they'll start to lose interest
Just take care not to look in their eyes
They will see through
Your disguise will not last
They all know the reasons we wind up down here
They all know that fortune has passed
Thieves and parasites
Politicians
Men with ties and trophy wives
Worthless socialites
Bad magicians
Empty fools with broken lives
In this mirror less room
With no clocks on the wall
And no windows to guess at the time
It is safe to assume
There is no-one at all
Would not gamble away your last dime
They will use you
Their good will never lasts
We all know the reasons we wind up down here
We all know that fortune has passed
END
Words and music by Roger D'Arcy
Copyright Longsongs Music Limited 2016
Side B
HUMBLETON
I promised this song to Barbara Jane
She's my oldest friend in the world
We were four years old just yesterday
Now she has two grown girls
And the willow tree where we once played
Has long since been chopped down
But I always see her smiling face
I can sometimes here the sounds
When every summer's day was sunny
Every Christmas there was snow
But we're a long, long way from Humbleton tonight
There were times you know I lost my way
There were times when life was hard
Fortunes change from day to day
I'm amazed to get this far
We've lived our lives, you've lived yours well
I guess the jury's out on mine
What's left to run, no one can tell
But I know that you'll be fine
When every summer's day was sunny
Every Christmas there was snow
But we're a long, long way from Humbleton tonight
Parkfield Cedars spread diseases
Kissing 'round the back with Bemrose geezers
Rhymes and innocence
And holding hands
And Beatles in the air
You are the sweetheart of my childhood
You're the one consistent thread
That winds its way back through this life
To the dreams that filled our heads
When every summer's day was sunny
Every Christmas there was snow
But we're a long, long way from Humbleton tonight
I promised this song to Barbara Jane
She's my oldest friend in the world....
END
Words and music by Roger D'Arcy
Copyright Longsongs Music Limited 2016
THE DUTCH GIRL
Dedicated to the memory of our young neighbour, Babette
No one heard you cry
No one heard you call
No one saw the light
No one saw you fall
They found you on the stair
They found you on the stone
They found you lying there
They found you all alone
I heard them come today
I heard them down below
I heard them carry you away
I heard the Dutch girl go
No one heard you cry
No one heard you call
No one saw the light
No one saw you fall
END
Words and music by Roger D'Arcy
Copyright Longsongs Music Limited
CHANGES
Measure twice, cut once
I've been changing some things in my life
I've been trying to change the things that I don't like
I've held on to what was best
I could learn to live with less
I've been changing some things in my life
The first thing I gave up was my pride
Quit my job and sold my home and said goodbye
I moved far away from town
There's a place I've found
The first thing I gave up was my pride
Floating on this sea of change
While the current keeps on dragging me down
When I try to let go
I feel like I am going to drown
Hope I wash up on some friendly shore
There's a weariness that doesn't always show
And a side of me you wouldn't want to know
Try to move on quickly now
I just don't remember how
There's a weariness that doesn't always show
Floating on this sea of change
While the current keeps on dragging me down
When I try to let go
I feel like I am going to drown
Hope I wash up on some friendly shore
And not some dark lake of loneliness
Feeding rivers of misery
Flowing down (in)to deep seas
Of hopeless despair
And oceans of emptiness
Seems I've got myself a long, long way to go
I still need to lighten up this heavy load
I've left lots of things behind
Help yourself to what you find
Seems I've got myself a long long way to go
Floating on this sea of change
While the currents keep on dragging me down
When I try to let go
I feel like I am going to drown
Hope I wash up on some friendly shore
I've been changing some things in my life
END
Words and music by Roger D'Arcy
Copyright Longsongs Music Limited 2016
SLOW DOWN
There are kind words in from Louisiana tonight
And they warm my English heart
And it gets cold here
Days are getting shorter
I don't think I'm leaving 'til spring comes around
I'm busy doing nothing
Busy doing nothin at all, trying to learn
Trying to slow down
There are times when words from a stranger mean more
Than a friend can dare to say
It can be harder
Thinking they all know you
Thinking they know better what's best, best for you
I'm just busy doing nothing,
Busy doing nothing at all, trying to learn
Trying to slow down
Now and then
Catch myself just thinking
Thinking how these changes arrived
Time and friends
Always disappearing
Passing through like seasons, bye bye
There are times, I know, expectations run high
And I aim towards some line
But I'm going nowhere
Failing to remember
Forgetting for a while, I've been lost there before
Get back to doing nothing,
Back to doing nothing at all, trying to learn
Trying to slow down
END
Words and music by Roger D'Arcy
Copyright Longsongs Music Limited
CROOKED TALES
I grew up through the 60s in the North of England
Too young to take a proper role or to play my own hand
The Shadows turned to Beatles and The Man shot JFK
We were frightened by the Russians and we worried every day
We watched the war in Vietnam, we won the World Cup
Thunderbirds were always go and they banged the Krays up
The Beatles, they got tired and we landed on the Moon
All the hippies went to Woodstock, they were back so soon
The 70s were slow to start with no direction
Evenings spent with candle light and insurrection
The hippy dream was fading, it was never going to last
We still grew our hair too long but the moment passed
The innocence all drained away and then the punks came
And Thatcher's children stole the ball and played their own game
So we all joined the rat race, there was nowhere else to go
We were never going to win, we were just too slow
The 80s were a struggle and we worked just to survive
The 90's seemed to slip away, we were wasting our lives
When both the Towers came crashing down we'd already lost our souls
And the fire had gone out and the wheel had rolled
And if my story strays, I would hope that you will follow
The answer sometimes lies at the end of crooked tales
If we don't leave toyday, we can always leave tomorrow
We'll work out where we're going when we're further down the trail
END
Words and music by Roger D'Arcy
Copyright Logngsongs Music Limited