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White Fire

She said
(angry lines encased)
all the while she's screaming
'not the face'.

Trying hard,

complete the work of years in days,

born to love, who cannot?

In reply,

the broken skin

the long bright wire

a million explanations

and no one reason

why.

Don't let it burn
Don't let sting

To feel the white fire

on your skin

and when you touch

don't let it hurt

let it be gentle.

Don't let it burn
Don't let sting

To feel the white fire

on your skin

and when we touch

you'll let me in

and i will be be gentle

She said
(she said)
Angry lines encased,
hard to trust these instincts
not my own.

Trying hard
repeat the work of years in days.

Born to love who cannot in reply.

(this time, this time, not this time)

The broken skin

the long bright wire,

a million explanations,

no one reason why.

(don't want to hear about a thing) 

Don't let it burn
Don't let sting

To feel the white fire

on your skin

and when you touch

don't let it hurt

let it be gentle

Don't let it burn
Don't let sting

To feel the white fire

on your skin

and when you touch

you'll let me in

and i will be be gentle

(c) Barry/Stormcellar 2022

let it be gentle

This chart has been on my mind for a few days as I keep working towards the completion of this album. Ye gods.

A big shout out to Don Hopkins and Marcus Holden who helped me wrestle with a difficult song over the last 2 years.

The biggest influence on this album has been the term 'signposts, not destinations', although I may not be phrasing that in the clearest manner.

Having decided to just draw a line at what I have to hand, I have looped back to the start of the process and found that stuff I had put aside is actually OK.

Work with what you got. This has been balanced against the necessary shaping forces of time, covid and mixing this album (mostly) ourselves.

Our previous process has been: write it, play it live, tweak it, record it, get into the studio and power through it expeditiously 'cos this is costing us some dollars.

Under the current circumstances,we have had longer to work on the post production. The tools have also shaped the music, just as the times have.

It's been good to press, good to pause and it will be grand to finish. There are more songs to follow, and to get to them, I gotta get this stuff out of my brain space.

Rather than fast or slow, this is the time it took, and it's time to deliver. 

Coggers is crook so Sunday's off. Bugger.

What a time right?

Hard upon my journey

I didn’t see the signs

I brought with me a passenger

I thought I’d left behind

The mirror to my innocence

My vanity and pride

Fear foremost the dark companion of my mind

Summoned to the temple,

beneath the tomb of kings,

I walked the empty streets

beside a crystal pyramid

I came upon a messenger

 who begged me for a meal

sanctified in charity

this is what he did reveal

he said son

you’re riding with the devil preacher

your troubles just begun

until you make of this your teacher

Stumbling at the threshold

For deliverance I cried

And fled into the centre of the storm

Where the tracks met the road

I knelt and burned my pleas

There between the iron and the stone

by dawn I made my peace with hell

and I dreamed that I was called before the lord

on a moonlit night

by a bayou bright

I played my songs for him

And in reply, this is what I heard.

he said

and the stage shall be your sanctuary

from without and from within

for those that hide the lie

of endless night

in sweet delight

the lesson there to learn

is to be lived

knowing it is what it is

the cup that has been broken

cannot be refilled

it draws no water from the well

he said

he that would seek to cast the devil out

must first look

inside to see the devil in themselves

for the stage was made your sanctuary

and the truth has set you free

as dark within the light

resides between both day and night

the better to observe the lesson lived

knowing it is what it is

I said son

You’re riding with the devils preacher

You’re riding with the devils teacher

(c) 2020-2022 Barry/Read/Stormcellar

For fans of Mark Twain, that reference ought to come to mind when thinking about writing.

After almost 2.5 years of work on the sucker (feb 2020) I finally got a 2nd verse finished.

Yeah sometimes I am the hold up.

That's not strictly the longest time for a song to emerge from the workings. 'Brave with your heart' took almost 5 years, and if I am not mistaken, 'Serves you right' incorporates a riff Paul has been trying to put into a song since 2010.

By my calcs, we're now hitting 11 song for the album. We're getting closer.