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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

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