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1. |
Mystery Boy
04:04
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And they call me “Mystery Boy”
Night and day, I’m here to play
And they call me down like a dove
And they tell me I’m a tall love
Tell me I’m a river
Tell me I’m the Ace of Cups
We met in a blizzard at the Charing Cross Hotel
I was reading Foreknowledge, you were casting a spell
Then we downed tequila from an oyster shell
And we ride revolving doors inside
To the punch bowls and mini sausage rolls
And the spiritual divide
Me? You wanna wait with me?
The guy said “right, thanks for coming tonight
I’m gonna interview you separately”
William King the clairvoyant and his enchanted darts
J.W. Dunne and his aircraft parts
A Kashmiri palmist who worked with Scotland Yard
And a girl who did the artwork for tarot cards
King was recounting the Battle of Diamond Hill
The Boers stampeded his pal McGill
They crushed his bones like a pepper mill
And we ride revolving doors inside
To the punch bowls and mini sausage rolls
What’s going down tonight?
Me? You wanna ride with me?
The guy said “right, thanks for coming tonight
I’m gonna interview you separately”
He fell asleep in a voodoo café
He dreamed it was kind of a Judgement Day
He was riding on a manta ray
As it rained volcanic ash on Mont Pelée
And they call me “Mystery Boy”
I’m here night and day,
And I’m here to play
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2. |
Arthur Pendragon
02:54
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Arthur Pendragon and a couple of goons
Came into the coastal ranch
They bent some spoons and they bought some booties
While sharpening an olive branch
He had followed your trail across the Glastonbury pastures
And across the Adriatic Sea
He visited a crystal ball handler in a caravan in Italy
Hey Desdemona if it’s fine with you
I’ll join your little travelling band
Never did get to say a merci beacoup
Before the knights stepped on to the land
Lancelot split, he was blown to bits
By the tanks in the Grecian revolt
A woman the spit of Penelope Tree
Got hit by a lightning bolt
Ruthless Zeus and his big long beard
That dragged in the Aegean Sea
I kept you hidden in a coffin of lead
To keep his X-Ray eyes at bay
I put you on a boat back to England later
I never got to kiss you goodbye
But it’s better this way, I’ll meet you there
If I can get off Mirabello Bay
I was en route to the cosmodrome
When the vision of you entered the scene
You were a hot ticket item in your cigarette trousers
Projected from the mezzanine
I don’t know how you found me Des, but
I gotta break it to you I’m employed
As a domestic choresman and occassional lover
To a woman named Schadenfreude
I’m sorry that I never met your escape vessel
But I hope you had an OK stay
It took me an age,
Now I write for the stage
And I wait for the perfect play
If I may be bold
I’d like to write you a role
In one called Mirabello Bay
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3. |
Healy-Rae Country
02:50
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A street of facades, there’s a couple of bars
Lilac mountains and a little graveyard
People of the bog and people of the brush
Drive rusty machines to Cappanacush
Welcome to Healy-Rae country
I hope it’s not the death of you
Blow-ins getting by selling antique chests
There’s an August fair with a shearing contest
Limestone jaws on chiselled faces
Three legged dogs and drag races
Welcome to Healy-Rae country
I hope it’s not the death of you
Welcome to Healy-Rae country
I hope it’s not the death of you
Welcome to Healy-Rae country
What language do you parlez-vous?
You can lie on your back at the brow of the hill
Look up at the planets without light spill
Silver deer and yttrium fish
And goats with human voices that can grant you a wish
Welcome to Healy-Rae country
I hope it’s not the death of you
A church car park and a recycling centre
A kid with a sickle who’s a cat tormentor
A man in a van who brews gin in the hills
His wife had scales and fins and gills
Welcome to Healy-Rae country
Welcome to Healy-Rae country
Welcome to Healy-Rae country
We hope it’s not the death of you
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4. |
Meet You At the Revolt
02:08
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Sweet sleep, I barely dreamed we speak privately too
And as the rust embalmed the bust of a steel replica you
And if I could meet you at the revolt you know I would
But I’m in Tuvalu
And the hula dancers glance me two by two
Having a shadowbox in the hollyhox
A Loch Ness Monster guards Fort Knox
You checked the locks and tore off your frock
Epoxy resin Ultravox
I want to be in your party of friends
I don’t want to be your golden thread
And every time you talk your life around the bend
I want to be your godsend
Sweet sleep, I barely dreamed we speak privately as well
And as the rust embalmed the bust of you
I nearly fell into the third circle of hell
And if I could meet you at the revolt you know I would
But I’m in Tuvalu
And the hula dancers greet me one and two
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5. |
Captain's Log
02:53
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She stepped up with a misty woman and a mystery boy
She had a periscopic hold on a trunk of gold and she said “ahoy”
I never really had the guts to tell you
She was mine in a previous life
She had a Jack of Hearts for a boyfriend
And after the wreck she became his wife
So after a time
While the ship was mine
We sailed into a maelstrom
I sunk beneath, I walked the reef
I chaperoned an Atleantean prom
Now I spend every morning with the hair of the dog
Writing up my captain’s log
He made holes in a long forever
So she settled for second best
He was a sumo wrestler with a pet constrictor
That he kept in a sea chest
It got out when the crew were sleeping
And it suffocated Madame Lang
When we got to shore we cremated her body
And we kept her metallic fangs
And on that night
We all got an invite
To the Enchantment Under The Sea
I said to you, “I think I love you too”
And you revealed your tattoo of me
Now I spend every morning with the hair of the dog
Writing up my captain’s log
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6. |
The Joust
05:20
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In the Hotel Parallax, being fitted for my gown
While the manager’s cigarillos turned the ceiling brown
The trainer kept on saying “what a lovely little town”
The message on the bouquet read “Friend you’re going down”
My forearm was all healed but my sternum hurt a lot
The Page of Cups was taking my horse out for a trot
He tied him to a turnstile and he found a secret spot
And started smoking magic sage he’d mistaken for pot
Everything he looked at was double exposed
And his mouth started feeling like wood
He tried to get the horse to come to him but the horse misunderstood
I was signing the bosom of a part time maid when he entered the foyer
Saying “Christ the horse has gone!” (I nearly broke his nose that day)
But we found the horse chewing grass a yard from the hotel
It’s hooves were glued to the spot and it’s hair was caramel
I walked it with the Page while his eyes oozed styling gel
He asked me about you, I said “I knew her very well”
In the Hotel Parallax, the soaps are very thin
I was watching a pundit roundable when the manager came in
The Rival stepped off the plane to meet a million carboard signs
They beat up the security and met very heavy fines
There you were in a glamourous dress like a courtyard of pressed flowers
He was pushing all your buttons with his persuasive powers
He’d been un-popping your buttons in the first class lounge for hours
I wanted to meet your car out front but the crowd would not allow us
You were trying to arrange a future he said, “leave it all to chance”
When you stepped out of his sidecar, you were carrying his lance
You thought you saw me smiling from the back room at a glance
But it was just an addiction inheritor watering the plants
It’s not jousting etiquette to pass rumour around
Especially to the press who were swarming ‘round the grounds
A man with a polished paunch said “time to place your bets”
“Sceptre” was written on the hotel serviettes
His entourage was eleven strongmen deep and then when he passed
“Do you think you can beat him, son?” some wide eyed reporter asked
I said “honestly, bouts like this go either way
But I think I know his weakness if I can get her to stay”
I heard him serenade you… (No you didn’t not quite yet… But now)
I heard him serenade you with a harp down by the pool
He didn’t even use a harp, he didn’t use a stool
I watched the local township unveil a monument
They lied through their teeth, “we hope you win the tournament”
In the Hotel Parallax, the morning of the match
There was so much in and out, I put my door on the latch
We drove down to the track and they bandaged my hand
And they put on my breastplate and I walked out to the sand
But The Rival had robbed the Page’s satchel
And he’d tried to calm himself pre-bout
He had sweat dripping off him
And his eyes were darting when he stumbled out
He’d smoked the sage that belonged to the Page
That was beyond a doubt
He got on his horse and five second later
He rolled off as a dismount
Things were going cockahoop in the commentators box
The Rival was in desperate need of a snooze and a detox
I looked at the referee he was a handsome silver fox
He said “you’re triumphant by default”, joustings so unorthodox
It was the end of March at the vernal equinox
The Rival flooded your room with tears, you were perching on the rock
I gave you a call I said I’m going for a drink down to Tynemouth Docks
That’s a sensible way to try and reconvene, a jousting match is not
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7. |
Sceptre Boogie
02:16
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(Mostly Instrumental)
When you lose your crew, aint nothing to do sceptre/‘cept to boogie
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8. |
Place In Your Heart
02:18
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Drinking bargains like Mike Baldwin
Testing grounds for psychic fall-ins
I’m a tarpit with loose manners
Sitting ducks in spitting distance
Wheels on the Trans-Atlantic flight
That penetrates the ocean floor
I know that there’s no place for me in your heart
So let me be
Please, don’t let me see
I could rent the space
Mid-winter’s bleak for us pariahs of the neo-chic
Ceremonies in the Shetlands
Kind of micro-managed wetlands
Mine’s the kind of life
You want to hear in a bath tub
Maybe not so close,
Morose as Bambi’s mother dying for our childhood sins
I know there’s no place for me in your heart
But let me know if a spot comes along
If you’ve got a spot and you want to bop, call me
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9. |
Field Agent
02:33
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Who knew life could be a scream without you
I gained an employer in the switcheroo
Now I’m their field agent
And my next commission’s off the books
I don’t volunteer too often
For recon assignments that align with your goings on
Trying your upmost best not to mention you marriage
So you can get off with the Alain Delon
Who doesn’t want a frolic with a prodigal son?
Deep in the jungle, knifing through vines
Varicous vipers and man eating flies
I arrived at a lost acropolis of gold
Like the Mariner’s diary and the sage had foretold
A Conquistador’s ghost with a fed up face
Said not one ounce of gold could leave the place
So I left the dream and went to the bar
The bar tender said “I know who you are,
You’re that field agent
Lost in the jungles of Panama”
My wife used to call me Belshazzar
I couldn’t get the hang of her Spanish guitar
Nor could I cut through the fasteners of her Gallic bra
Took a religious experience in a motorcade car
But now I’m back from the dead and I know where you are
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10. |
Current Wife
03:58
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She was a part taker in our complex kiss
Elaine always stressed the importance of a post-coital piss
In a world between knowledge gaps, the pop singer is king
In a world of assless chaps, you’ve got to watch where you’re sitting
Going to fight in the summer of the call-out sheet
I woke up too late to meet you for a drink
Got way-laid when you were inches from the brink
But I know exactly what you want
Don’t think I don’t know what you want, baby
Christ I hate people saying baby
Some people just can’t read the room
It’s people like that who end baby booms
It’s people like that who like to hang platitudes
All over their walls and their downstairs bathrooms
I didn’t run after you 7 a.m. flight
Yeahg I like you but it’s not love alright
It could have been love if you’d come into my life
A little earlier than my current wife
I don’t believe in the stone reliefs of Moses
I just believe in me
Should you really treat people how you’d like to be treated?
Some people like to be tied up and whipped!
I didn’t run after your 7 a.m. flight
Would have been nice but it’s not love alright
It could have been love if you’d come into my life
A little earlier than my current wife
Is that alright?
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?
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11. |
Disaster At Aberfan
04:04
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They chased the landslide down the hill
Raised the alarm but they were too late
Some foresaw it in a previous dream
And drew pictures of the dark black rain
Falling hard on the playing fields
And the ceiling just split in two
A disaster in Aberfan
The Prince of Thieves and his cut throat guild
Smelt opportunity in the grief
Spilt cups for the parents pale
No tears left to cry anymore
John Collins lost everything
He sang ballads on the odd weekend
Before disaster in Aberfan
Before the disaster in Aberfan
She saw the photo of his ashen face
She said that widower needs a friend
She wrote to him her condolenses
A few years later they were married in the Spring
A silver ring and a second chance
Nothing foretold what that the days would bring
Disaster in Aberfan
Smoke rolls on the Merthyr Vale
Here comes the Duke in his hunting hat
He was thin like a put on smile
You were looking at your dead boys’ clothes
As night fell, did it all sink in
The deep ravines of pain and loss
Can’t be softened by your name in print
Death tolls climbing like the moon
The Prince of Wales said “shake my hand”
With respect, don’t think you understand
Our disaster in Aberfan
The tender stem of a life un-spent
The roof mender and his singing wife
They got old, their house got sold
Love undeclared for the teacher in training
It’s raining hard, trying to sink the past
A boy with a cold lost his whole damn class
In the disaster in Aberfan
Disaster in Aberfan
Disaster in Aberfan
Disaster in Aberfan
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12. |
Lucy
02:17
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She revived some lost penchant for wandering souls
Some lost vision I forgot to test out in the polls
Lucy
Her session guitarist friend needed a place to stay
He only seems to understand attack and decay
Lucy
She says that she needs time to go and get depression-free
Then she goes and leaves just like a deciduous tree
Lucy
I’m just a frame on an expired reel
She’s just the number for the charity appeal
Lucy
I’m just a frame on an expired week
I’m the words of a man unable to speak
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Laurie Shaw Kenmare, Ireland
Laurie Shaw is a Wirral-born songwriter and producer. He now dwells in Ireland where he records from his mountain retreat. He often gigs in Cork, Dublin and the Merseyside area. He has released around 100 albums to date (all of which are available on request). ... more
Laurie Shaw recommends:
I think this record is ace. Absolute chaos but ultimately very beautiful.
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Amazing. Hushed but dark, a cold, bright spark on a moonless night. Both restrained and deeper than it seems at first.
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supported by 5 fans who also own “Sceptre”
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Anthemic emo carried by resounding vocals and samples from iconic movie scenes.
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featured on Bandcamp Radio May 12, 2020
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