https://youtu.be/xBH9H_ltSiY

Another one from back in the day. My friends were dropping dead – I figured I too was probably living on borrowed time, so … Carnaval in las Palmas – what else? Dancing with Manolo, Carmelo, and falling in love with Rachel. There’s an eight-armed goddess with semaphore flags and she spells out: “Dance with me”.

Revisiting the song after the best part of 4 decades has been interesting in terms of the recording process (the original was recorded on 8 track), and tremendous fun with Phil Stanton alongside. His anarchic, and at times alarming, saxophone has brought joy into the song, which should have been there in the first place, but was lacking.

Close your eyes and make confession
Throw the salt across your shoulder
Who can stop her loving touch in semaphore?

Caught a movement of a muscle, corner of my eye
Saw a figure standing there, silent as the night
Went to make my introduction, she stopped me with her hand
Not a word came from these lips, silence in this land

In semaphore we plan manoeuvres, one step at a time
I lay my cards down on the table, and move on down the line
Like the spirit of redemption that’s deep inside my heart
She chews me up and spits me out, takes my world apart

But you know it’s the best that I can get
I’d lay my life on the ground
Now I know that Semaphore is the best lover in town
And of all of the numbers in her hand
Of all of her different roles
She’ll tease you with her lover’s words but Semaphore controls

Now I know the language, all I need to make the sign
That keeps me warm, I know the loving arms of Semaphore are mine
Cuts me with her silence, rules me like a queen
Orders me from where she stands, more like a machine
But I can see semaphore is a simple word for you
But her body tells me Semaphore isn’t always true

The only word that she cannot say is blind
A bird in the hand is worth a dozen in your mind

But you know it’s the best that I can get
I’d lay my life on the ground
Now I know that Semaphore is the best lover in town
And of all of the numbers in her hand
Of all of her different roles
She’ll tease you with her lover’s words but Semaphore controls

Close your eyes and make confession
Throw the salt across your shoulder
Who can stop her loving touch in semaphore?

https://youtu.be/qnqBJ96s0Gg

New Song (sort of). Well – the lyrics are new, and the music is heavily reworked, although the bones of this were originally part of a theatre project at Dartington back in the early 80s. It’s another ‘rain’ song – an echo of the lush wet environment in which I live in West Wales. I have been working with Phil Stanton, my saxophone-playing friend and neighbour, which has affected more than just instrumental solos, changing my approach to constructing the whole song in very good ways, I think.

I think you saw me as I turned to the light
You were shining like the morning star
You were so bright
I think it must have been you
Could only be
Felt like something touched the truth
Touched the heart of me

Watching the river flow
We were watching the rain come down
Watching the river flow
We were watching the rain come down

And if you asked me the reason why
I couldn’t give an answer
Wouldn’t care to try
For if you ask me, at the end of the day
We’re better for the mystery
Let’s leave it that way

Is it only you and I?
Is it only you and I?

A drop of rain on a leaf on a tree
Falls into the river and is lost to me
The river’s waters
They run fast, they run slow
But in the end there is the sea
And that’s all I know

And the sea becomes the rain
And the sea becomes the rain
And the sea becomes the rain
And the sea becomes the rain

Watching the river flow
We were watching the rain come down

https://youtu.be/R16_lEpItHM

Written and recorded around 1990. I just bought a Yamaha TG55 sound module and was revelling in the opportunities and sounds that that could give me. All the recording was done on a Fostex 8 track, synced to an Amiga computer running Dr. T’s Midi Recording Studio. Those were the days – cables everywhere …

Close your eyes in the silence of the night
Darkness like velvet
I know I don’t need the light
And I know that this time I’ve got it right
For once in my life

All I see, this image in my mind
Fragile like moonlight
I know I need your embrace
And I know that I’ve found some heavenly place
For once in my life

Soft as the breeze on a warm August night
Cool as a breath of the air
Turning at last to that pale morning light
Falling like rain, I am here
For once in my life

I know I don’t need a light
And I know that this time I’ve got it right
I know I need your embrace
And I know that I’ve found some heavenly place
For once in my life
For once in my life
My life

And as the darkness turns to flame
Then the heartbeat
You make your mark, I stake my claim
Cuts the silence like a knife
I never knew, I never knew your name
Then the lips meet
But still I trust you just the same
And what was dead returns to life
For once in my life