Contact Geoffrey

Lyrics · Apr 14, 10:18 PM

Here’s a collection of songs I wrote during the nineteen eighties and nineties, interspersed with a few instrumentals created in 2007. They were composed for friends, public figures, and figments of my imagination, and this is the first time they have been released.

______________________________________________________

Gong LI (NYC ‘91)

The Actress

All moments are components 

A series of reactions

In an opening world
Each with her own moment

Yours is so heavy

It would kill me
Yet mine that I strain with

Light as a feather to you

Would break another’s back
It’s been a long time since I

Desired you

Sometimes the feeling strong 

Sometimes not

Now that the memory of Red Sorghum flows

The blood in our hearts could be as a meeting place
I could reach the east

With a westward flight

I could be coming with a gift on offer

While one hand reaches out

The other sleeps in the dark
Gong Li
This body is paralysed

The mind works overtime

Ocean currents are drunk as they 

Ply between the lands

As singers muse songs 

Struggle with words 

That will not rhyme

I sit alone

And wait for your sun

Snow Country (Tokyo 91)

After Houseman, and Tokyo and New York’s East Village. Later I discovered Kawabata’s novel of the same name, seemed apt.

I’m in Snow Country
A bleak holt
A black and beautiful wind
Climbs the ash and poplar sky
There is danger in the grasp
Fumbling winter’s embrace
But deep within the dells
Of a wind besieged forest
I lie warm
I’m on an island
I’m an islands type of man
Move on if I have to
Stay marooned if I can
There are towns in the south
Bamako or Dakar harbour
There are southern sailors
In the doldrums maybe
Or maybe weather a westerly
Down by Benin Bay
But I’m in Snow Country
White lands cross my eye
I’m on an island

Love In Your Eyes (NYC 84)

It’s a Brooklyn loft, there’s snow
outside and the street is shimmering in a way I’ve never
quite seen before.

I realise
Yeah
Took by surprise
Yeah
You tell me no lies now
You took by surprise now
The love in your eyes
Feel…
Feel…
Oooh I…
I realise
You tell me no lies
The love in your eyes leaves me
Feel foolish yet wise
You touch me with pride and
The love you leave
Feel…
See yeah
Feel….
I believe
Unreal…
Yeah…
I
Just be
I realise
I was took by surprise
The look in your eyes
You took by surprise
I was took by surprise
I was took by surprise

Station Goodbye (Koeln 82)

Ostbahnhof, behind the wall, there’s a girl leaning from
the Warsaw express, waving across the platform.

Later that same year, my friend leaves me at another
station, waving as the train takes her across the bridge.

Station goodbye
Always the same
Station goodbye
Rearrange
Station goodbye
Look down to me
With a simple glance
Set me free
Station goodbye
Always the hardest
Station Goodbye
Always the last
Station Goodbye
She reached down to me
With that subtle touch reserved
Reserved for me

I just want to know if you’re leaving
I just want to know if you’re believing
In me
I just want to know what you’re thinking
I just want to know should I leave it be…

Rode out east
In a muddy carriage
Across a muddy river

Station goodbye
Leave me to die
Station goodbye
Set me free
Station goodbye
You reach to me but the
love you leave is nothing to me
Always teasing
Always creeping
I want love I want love
Tell me goodbye
Reach down to me
With that special touch
Reserved you see

Secret factory beams back at me
Marks the distance and division
Between free and not free
Local track traveling light
You never could shine

Kathleen (NYC 84)

I had a lot of friends then, but someone floated back into
my awareness more than once. After I wrote this song, she
told me her grandmother’s name was Kathleen.

Why can’t I have all the love there is to the world?
Kathleen? Kathleen?
Why can’t I have, all the dreams that we share?
Kathleen? Kathleen?
Telephone bells that ring for hours
The chatter of static the message emphatic
Is this is the world that we should live for?
Is this is the world that we should live?
Kathleen?

Why can’t I have?
All the dreams there are to share in the world?
Since this is the time that we should play with
This is the lie that we are left
With all the love that we can make
Is this a crime, that we should give?
Kathleen
Why can’t I have
All the love to the world?
To the world.

Across The Wall (Mirjam)

A true story.

It was
A beautiful time
In the most beautiful room
I’d never had
Such a beautiful room
I’d sit and dream
When I’d think about you
I’d travel then to see you
Across the wall
I’d go for breakfast then
And I’d remember you
I’d never let you go
It’s clear to see I’m happy
You are free
And I’ll meet you on Alex
You’ve got a feel for life
You’ve got a feel for love
It was such a beautiful spring
Such a beautiful thing
I really believed I could do for you
I’d sit in that room
Play my guitar
Sing the songs that would free you
I could never free you
I could never
So I think of you
Across that wall
A barrier I never let fall
I never let it fall
I won’t forget

I Give To The Years (NYC 91)

I try to understand why the corners of the city still
Reverberate with all the memories
So there is danger on the street, not least that which is in my heart
How I wish I did not start that which I did not finish

And it is your face
Soft in the making
Pale your complexion
Blanched by the stunning of my words
In manifold colours changing
A love I have lost now
Lost to the years
I give to the years

Saturday and Sunday are for agonising on a decision
Monday for denial of love

I was in a cafe, drinking
The glass broke in my face
Then I was dreaming
Talking loudly in a winter wind
I thought you were leaving
I should have known better
Because I give to the years

No letter to send now, only empty space beneath the clouds,
I just need to walk alone
There is evil on the streets, but not least that which is in my heart
How I wish I did not start that which I could not finish

Yes, I was dreaming
Yes, I was leaving
Only the years going by
I give to the years

~~~~~~~~~~~