Benediction was inspired by my Irish friend Oliver, whose parting shot to me was always: 'May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be in your back'. Wonderful. Verse two borrows word pictures from Isaiah chapter 40

Ball & Chain 



Don’t you know, can’t you see
I’m good to go. I’m tax paid, I’m Duty Free

I can’t wear this ball and chain no more
I got better things to do than listen to this sorry talk

Ring the bell, break the glass
Shout the news - have you heard, the war is past?

I can’t wear this ball and chain no more
I got better things to do than listen to your sorry talk
so Bye bye baby
I can’t wear this ball and chain no more
I got better things to do than listen to this sorry talk

So if I capture every moment,
If I squeeze it til it’s dry
If I chew the best,
if I spit out the rest,
if I shout it to the sky

Rise and shine, shake your head
now’s the time to get a hold of what the message said
so Bye bye baby

I can’t wear this ball and chain no more
I got better things to do than listen to the sorry talk

Bye Bye Baby. I’m moving on. I'm fed up of you bleating like you are a victim, when really you're a victor. I had a lot of fun birthing this using Acid Pro and ProTools software.

Cold City, send me a hope
just want somebody to believe in
Cold City, keep me afloat
need somebody to believe in
you said you'd wait, but now it's so late
think I'll just go and get myself another date

You've made your bed now you must lie in it
maybe you'll cry in it, maybe so will I

Cold City, mix me a hope
need somebody to believe in
Cold City, life is a joke
with nobody to believe in
Now it’s so late, it's pointless to wait
think I'll just go and get myself another date

You've made your bed now you must lie in it
maybe you'll cry in it, maybe so will I
You made a promise now you've broken it
should not have spoken it, you know it was a lie

Cold City, send me a hope
want somebody to believe in
Cold City, keep me afloat
need somebody to believe in
Cold City, mix me a hope
need somebody to believe in
Cold City, keep me afloat
want somebody, want somebody
just want somebody to believe in.

Broken promises come as a package with rock ‘n’ roll - or is it just with life? A song from the Reel Two album that I knew could stand another visit.

Oh my pretty one, who’s gonna hold you tonight?
Oh my pretty one, who’s gonna fight your fight?

I was born I was raised
in them Shanty Town ways
and I knew there were some things
that could not be spoken about,
and some things of which I’ve no doubt
- ‘cos I hear the people shout:
They’re a comin’ - don’t let them in
They’re a comin’ - no not again
They’re a comin’ - don’t let them do what they did to our kin

Shanty Town is a song inspired by the great Curtis Mayfield, first recorded yonks ago with lovely guitar distortion on my B&O  recorder.

She never should have said it
and I wished I’d never read it
and she’s really gonna get it
if she doesn’t make an edit real soon

Can’t you see, it’s such a waste
I wish you’d come and say it to my face

There’s a face at my window
there’s a knock at my door
- it’s Robin singing,
Robin bringing tweets galore
and I don’t know why I feel so shy
guess it’s just because
Hey hey,
Robin’s at home tonight
Robin’s alone tonight
and she’s writing crazy stories on my wall

Who's Robin? - some crazy bird writing stuff about me and Jack Rosa on Facebook. Or maybe we're just paranoid...

And with an air of detachment
a well-to-do accent and all
she wrapped her life into a ball.
And out of her bundle
the laws of the jungle
came wearily tumbling down,
down, down.

She says the world is a hard place
it's built upon heartache and pain
and one of the rules of the game
is don't let nobody up-front
you just take what you want while you can
virtue be damned -
people like that I just can't understand

Post War Baby
haunts me daily
I'm thinking that maybe
Your love can do anything
in the world.
 

And soon a professional rip-off
a tip-off she granted to me
I listened so expectantly
but she said I'm only a cog
in a wheel, in a job
I don't know what I want to be
'cept that I want to be free

A song about a girl who had a somewhat materialistic outlook on things… Live recording begun August 2003, at Luis Miguel's Basement, Chiva, Spain, with Mandy playing tambourine.

Next door but one
where you are what you say you are,
next door but one
there’s a Girl in a Jaguar

a really high class dame
makes all the rest look lame
tells everyone the rain
never falls on the roof of a Jaguar
next door but one
where you are what you say you are

it’s got all the latest gear
- a bedroom in the rear
with rotating Chandeliers!

She says she’s on TV,
- a personality
ah - but she aint fooling me
cos I know that she
works in a coffee bar
six nights a week
when she don’t have her daddy’s car


Next door but one
where you are what you say you are
next door but one
there’s a Girl in a Jaguar

Next door but one
where you are what you say you are

Retro ditty of local gal using the family Jag to insinuate a certain social standing. Nothing leaves you so gob-smacked as the girl from the Council House next door zooming past in a chrome plated blur.

Well Delilah said 'I have no grouse,
and besides I've seen your house
and I like it, it has all my due respect.
But to me you now must come,
and what's to do must now be done
- together, so as to get the best effect.'

Well Samson he said 'Bye', then looked me in the eye
and said 'Friend, I'm in need of counselling.'
And I said 'Oh Sam you must not go',
and he said 'but friend, how do you know?'
and I said 'Ah yes,
I was on the extension, listening in.'

And he said 'Ah yes that is so,
but your advice I must forgo,
for my love she will not wait for evermore.'
and with a parting glance,
he shook hands and said 'Thanks,
God bless you friend', and walked out of the door.


Many months were then to pass
before I was led to ask
off a weary warrior from the South:
'What news of battles won,
of Kings & Queens undone,
what secrets do you keep within your mouth?'

He said 'It is not well, for many gods have fell
and many more are waiting yet to fall.
And the sun will not long set
before Elijah himself has met
that most feared mortal of them all.'

'For the one of whom I speak,
is now prisoner to the weak
as we are all prisoners to fate.
And Queen Delilah has decreed
that she cannot intercede
in matters preferential to the state.'

Well I was sore afraid, for the soldier had portrayed
a vision of my one and only friend.
And so I made all haste, unto the city gates
thereby to put my torment at an end.
 

And once inside the city walls, and in the royal halls,
I gazed upon the scene with disbelief.
For there in that princely castle sat a rogue, and a rascal,
a vagabond, a liar, and a thief.

And I looked at each in turn, and bade them all confirm
that Samson of Judea dwelt within.
And they answered with a laugh, and bid me follow aft
to the Arena, where the show would soon begin.

Well the Arena it was bubbling,
all the senators were juggling
for a seat that would lend pleasure to their view.
Then a mighty horn was sounded,
and all outbound flights were grounded,
as Delilah made her entrance dressed in blue

She cast aside her robes,
and the multitude arose
enraptured by the beauty of her skin.
And they spent themselves a-grinning
'til Delilah, she stopped spinning,
and said 'Let Samson from the dungeon
be brought in!’

And I cried 'Oh Sam, what has gone wrong?
and he said 'Friend, it's a long long story -
and time is of the essence it is true.'
'But to cut the story short, young Delilah is a fraud,
yeh and her parents - they are both unmarried too'.

Then with a fearful cry, he looked blindly to the sky
and bade the Lord one dying wish to grant.
Then he whispered to my ear -
'God speed you quickly far from here,
for the coming of Jehovah is at hand'.


Then the sky was rent in twain,
with great boulders did it rain.
As I watched from off a hill in Galillee...
And with tears in my eye, I bid that life bye-bye
and walked away into eternity...


So friends remember this,
when you're lost inside your bliss,
A true love can be captured but never bought.
So don't count your chickens before they're hatched,
cos if the cock and hen aint matched....
All the pleasures of the roost will come to nought!

Samson and Delilah is a legacy song resurrected with the aid of ProTools software; An allegorical tongue-in-cheek (and true!) story about me being seduced by a record executive.