Lion Taming
*Downloads are in high quality FLAC and 320kbps MP3 files*
In December last year I closed the door to my flat in Berlin, fully expecting to be back in a few weeks. I visited London en route to Scotland to spend Christmas with my folks, as soon as I got back in the smoke I realised that it was home sweet home after all, speaking the language makes a big difference. I went back to the South Bank and made the decision to return. You've got to go away to come back as they say. So just before the new year I hired a van and made the trip back to get my stuff. Three days, two ferries and 1,600 miles later I was back in the madness. I moved into a cool flat in Hackney in April which had a little attic room, after a bit of head scratching and numerous trips to Homebase, Shabby Road was reborn and I started working on some ideas.
A friend asked if I could write a song about how he met his then girlfriend, I said I'll give it a go! He sent me an email telling me the whole story, I got busy and Pink Roses was the result. The unsung hero of this album is the wee ipod shuffle I got in Chapel Market in Angel, again many hours of walking and listening to get the words right. My parents celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary a few weeks back, they had a big party in Scotland and asked if I'd play some songs so I wrote them Fifty Year Moment as a surprise. As predicted, my Mum was in tears and my Dad said 'Aye, no bad'. Result! The other songs evolved from those original ideas. I discovered this amazing instrument called the Pocket Saxophone at the start of the year, it's like a recorder with a reed. I thought I'll have a go at that. Not as easy as it looks! But I was determined to get it on the album so I went a bit Alchemy Live with it at the end of Everything's Easy. This album was a real joy to make, I hope you get something from the songs!
Scott McMahon 7/11/2017
Lyrics
A Case of Time
No sun to help you see, no moon to help you be
You won't need them now, you won't need them now, you won't need them
No signs to guide your way, no ruse to make you stay
Can you feel it now, can you feel it now, can you feel it
Close your eyes and see me by your side
If you make it in your mind, it's just a case of time
No wind to fan your flame, no ground to keep you sane
You don't need them now, you don't need them now, you don't need them
Close your eyes and see me by your side
If you make it in your head, the future can be led
So picture what you seek and lose yourself in dreams
They'll compete for you, they'll complete for you, they're completing
Close your eyes and see me by your side
You just make it in your head and magic does the rest
Take my hand, I'll help you understand
If you make it in your mind, it's just a case of time
One Trick Pony
Picking through the bones of a reputation
Trying to make the best of a situation
Leaning on a lie and chasing the high
Farewell my love
Holding back the waves with your smoke and your mirror
Stepping on the crack to run with the scissors
Knowing what I know, it's better to go you know
Farewell my love
Farewell my love, farewell my love, farewell my love
One trick pony, one track mind
Saddle up sonny or get left behind
Shooting for the sun it's yourself that you're pleasing
Slipping on the snow, whatever the season
A holiday on ice, taking your own advice
Farewell my love
Clinging to the floor with the past getting nearer
The ringing of the bell couldn't be any clearer
A snake without a charm, snoozing the false alarms
Farewell my love
One trick pony, one track mind
Saddle up sonny or get left behind
The Queen hailed all the heroes, and the King he got nothing at all
She cried, she lied, he lived and he died, bagging up the coppers in the candlelight
Farewell my love, farewell my love, farewell my love
One trick pony, one track mind
Saddle up sonny or get left behind
Lion Taming
I took up lion taming to ease this old mind,
cos I heard that a hobby could help you unwind
It tracks down the symptoms and it beats them with ease,
but it doesn't quite kick the disease
So I took on the tiger that no-one would dare
and I barely escaped missing clumps of my hair
I knew that the danger was part of the deal,
but I couldn't resist, cos I'll do anything just to feel
Just to feel, just to feel, just to feel, just to feel
All logic's a lie as she circles the truth
Her words are like claws digging deep into you
Projecting delusions of keeping it real but she'd do anything just to feel
Just to feel, just to feel, just to feel, just to feel
Apart from the rivers of red in the whites of her eyes,
there's barely a crack in the shell of her perfect disguise
I took up lion taming to ease this old mind,
now I lean in the corner just counting the time
The gallery cheered as she lost her appeal,
but they'd do anything just to feel
Just to feel, just to feel, just to feel, just to feel
Pink Roses
I've been sitting here for hours, staring at my laptop screen
Talking to the girl that could change my world and we're cooking up plans for one big dream
Any time you see pink roses, you know they're gonna take you back in time. Girl I think I know you could take my soul where everything turns out fine
So tell me what makes you happy, and tell me what makes you blue
I'm gonna make a list so the bad gets missed, and everything good I can bring to you
Any time you see pink roses, you know they're gonna take you back in time. Girl I think I know you could take my soul where everything turns out fine, where everything turns out fine
Every minute takes an hour, and every hour drips away
You know I've seen it in my mind a thousand times and this is gonna be our day
I've been standing here for hours, staring at the airport screen
The sea goes calm in my open arms and we're pointing our ship to the sunset scene
Any time you see pink roses, you know they're gonna take you back in time. Girl I think I know you could take my soul where everything turns out fine
Fifty Year Moment
Everyone's here at the the party
The faces we know them so well
We've known them so long, some since they were born
We'd still catch them if ever they fell
Everyone came for one reason
There's others that couldn't be here
But you know they'll be watching from somewhere up high
And all raising their glasses in cheers
To you and to me, my darling
Together we wrote every line
So stay at my side and the stars will all shine
For a fifty year moment in time
If anyone asks, what's the secret?
We take every day as a team
With always a smile, and always in style
A lifetime of living the dream
To you and to me, my darling
Together we wrote every line
So stay at my side and the stars will all shine
For a fifty year moment in time
To you and to me, my darling
Together we wrote every line
So stay at my side and the stars will all shine
For a fifty year moment in time
The Waiting Game
We take our places in the waiting game
With no-one to tell us that nothing will change
I'm moving forward at the speed of my heart
If it went any slower I'd still be at the start
Begging believers in the waiting game
We all have the answers, it's the questions we crave
Feels like I'm moving at the speed of the light
Got so used to the shadows and the permanent fights
One feeling would blow it apart
One feeling that covers you from head to heart
One feeling I'd be over the edge
And when I find that feeling you'll never see my face again
We sit in silence in the waiting game
There's no-one to teach you, there's nothing to say
I'm moving forward at the speed of my heart
If it went any slower I'd be back at the start
One feeling would blow it apart
One feeling that covers you from head to heart
One feeling I'd be over the edge
And when I find that feeling you'll never see my face again
You'll never see my face again
Joan of Arc
Here she comes, revoluting like the world is in her way
She's talking loud for her own protection, her fingers plugging up her ears
Day and night, just in case a stray opinion sneaks inside
We're going down down down, in the droning we drown
But our souls she ain't saving, she thinks that we're waving, yeah
Joan of Arc, telling us just where we are
I wonder how we made it through one night without you
Cos you're the star that we should follow in the dark
And everybody does til they know you baby
You'd think that you were Joan of Arc
You'd think that you were Joan of Arc
Wronged again, shooting with a mouse-click and picking off her friends
Tell us more, tell us more, though we've heard it before
She's a crocodile clown in a nervous breakdown
Joan of Arc, telling us just where we are
I wonder how we made it through one night without you
Cos you're the star that we should follow in the dark
And everybody does til they know you baby
You'd think that you were Joan of Arc
You'd think that you were Joan of Arc
Where you going now girl, where you going now, you're shrinking
You've gotta stick around now and tell us what we should be thinking
Where you going now girl, where you going now, you're shrinking
You've gotta stick around now and tell us what we should be thinking
Sailboat Song
Setting my course for wherever, I trust in the wind and the breeze
Scratching old scars in the basements and bars til I find myself weak at the knees
When it blows over I'll write it all down
Start from the point when you smile when there's no-one around
Til the dreams buried deep in the ground
In with the feelings and out with the song, the rusty old sailboat just drifting along
In with the lover and out with the friend, then do it all over again
Cos we all get it right in the end
It might be a lonely endeavour, and I bow to the silent applause
Year after year hoping someone will hear and give me a reason instead of a cause
If you don't mind the water that's choppy at times
And won't slip on the deck when the storm washes over my mind
Come straight to the front of the line
In with the feelings and out with the song, the rusty old sailboat just drifting along
In with the lover and out with the friend, then do it all over again
In with the feelings and out with the song, the rusty old sailboat just drifting along
In with the lover and out with the friend, then do it all over again
By the time you decide that you're here for the ride I'll be gone
Cos there's always that song in the distance
That gets louder
Til it's all I can hear in my head, in my head
In with the feelings and out with the song, the rusty old sailboat just drifting along
In with the lover and out with the friend, then do it all over again
Do it all over again
Do it all over again
Cos we all get it right in the end
Round & Round
Cupid got me with a shot on the run, chasing me down with a machine gun
Zig-zag, double-back, checking the time, when I always thought that love was blind
Well now my heart's hangin heavy with my head in my hands, a smile would be fine if I could find one
But from the glint and the glimmer to the sting in the tale, alarm bells rang as the siren wailed
A pretty lady, a pet shop smile, and only eyes for me
Guardian angels, a little direction please
Stuck in the middle with a cat on the fiddle, a ship-shape company
We went straight down the tunnel of love
And we went round and around til the boat went down
Paddling alone while she sat on the phone
A bleeding old heart never beat so blue...yeah, but what do you do?
So we spun til the summer with a stone in her shoe, the stars in her eyes were all to guide us
With nothing left to follow but the click of her heels,
It was blind man's buff in a 'mine mine' field
She saw a carrot, her head went wild with opportunities
Guardian angels a little direction please
Then with the arc of a pitcher, the blunt scissor sister just tossed me out to sea
And started swinging at the stake in my heart
We went round and around til the boat went down
I was paddling alone while she sat on the phone
A bleeding old heart never beat so blue...yeah, but what do you do?
When the boat keeps springing a hole?
Round and around til the boat went down
I was paddling alone while she sat on the phone
A bleeding old heart never beat so blue...hey, but what do you do?
Everything's Easy
You cut me open with the point of your smile
Some things you don't need words to say
You got what you wanted now you're changing your mind
You're gonna rip up your confession and throw it away
Everything's easy now, everything's easy
You think you've made a big mistake
Everything's easy now, everything's easy
When you don't have a heart to break
Just take a minute to retrace that line
This ain't the future that you had in mind
Oh the dust got settled on your great escape
I guess forever just couldn't wait
So far ahead of everyone, until you fell asleep behind the wheel
Well it only took one footstep to turn on your heel
Everything's easy now, everything's easy
You think you've made a big mistake
Everything's easy now, everything's easy
When you don't have a heart to break
All forgiven, that's not living, waiting for the sword to fall
All forgiven, that's not living, waiting for the sword to fall
Everything's easy now, everything's easy
You think you've made a big mistake
Everything's easy now, everything's easy
When you don't have a heart to break