Lyrics and Art
Bait & Switch
Give me a focal point
Then take it away
The scenery moves so fast these days
I never got told where the land lies
The Autumn winds try to blow me away
It wasn't what I thought it was
Oh, what a surprise(!)
You'll see that ambivalent look in my eyes
I'm stranded on some island near the centre
I extend my arms, and I sing to the skies
I wasn't conned, my expectations were simply too high
The resonance, the outskirts and the fringes
Could somehow be construed as a lie...
Give me a focal point
Give me a focal point
Slam into reverse
The oldest trick in the book once more
Bait and switch
You promised so, so much
Yet now you're barking at me to keep off the floor
I wasn't conned, my expectations were simply too high
The resonance, the outskirts and the fringes
Could somehow be construed as a lie...
Rhododendrons by the railway
Smells of sun and brake dust by the signal-box
Call me back, there's always some kind of resonance
Rhododendrons by the railway
Smell of sun, and brake dust on the signal-box
Call me back, there's always some kind of resonance
I got caught on the wires in the sky
Keep on overlooking my country
Keep on getting delayed
An explosion of NOTHING
A random banal focal point
Create anticipation as a whole
With every sense imagined
We're waiting for the punchline
While all the wasted years they take their toll
Give me a focal point
Words and music by Jon Hunt 2015
top Conjure Something
My eyeline's on the roof of the subway, but the bottom of the roundabout
It all seems so symmetrical and half-way
Graffiti - it confuses, the chipped tiles offer me out
Well, drinks taste better when you don't choose them
Your friends last longer when you don't abuse them
The food on your mother’s plate looked better
The grass past your neighbour's gate looked better
Concrete and grey, there's NOTHING much left to say
Register it all and file it away
Concrete and grey, the traffic and the decay…
Mothers with prams, and lazy vacant wasters
Girls with fake tans, annihilate their haters
Could say hope and magic can reign down from above
Seems so strange how you can only cut the air with love
So conjure something up from the gutter
Conjure something down from the sun
You fool yourselves that here's a small country
Through a let-down life that's so vitriolic
Why don't you just turn around and run?
Ice cream tunes used to turn the air purple
So conjure something up from the gutter
Conjure something downfrom the sun
You try and pull apart all the layers
‘Til there's just the sound of you and your prayers
Why don't you just turn around and...
Lift my arms like they're wings and I'm an overlord
Warm wind starts to lift the litter
And there's that jarring chord I thought I heard before
I never got to the heart of that subway
Words and music by Jon Hunt 2016
top Resonance
Smiles of joy and simple pleasures
Youngsters at their leisure
Days so long you wonder where they'll go
Ticker tape and tissue paper
Takeaways - we're headline makers
Watch them laugh and love and hate and grow
Sun on wood, sun on steel, sun on the half-trashed playground
The resonance, it might show up in thirty years or so
Sun on wood, sun on steel, sun on the half-formed dreamers
I fly around and wonder where they'll go
Take out all the bits that you don't wanna see
Make the most of really being free
First we thought the money would buy us what we wanted
Then we watched the sides all fall away
Cos all the games got sussed and the optimists defaulted
Oh, spare me all this nonsense for one day
Sun on wood, sun on steel, sun on the half-trashed playground
The resonance, it might show up in thirty years or so
Sun on wood, sun on steel, sun on the half-formed dreamers
I fly around and wonder where they'll go
Take out all the bits that you don't wanna see
Make the most of really being free
Words and music by Jon Hunt 2017
top Lift To The Ritual
Geoff Carr introduces me - Valerie Hale adores me!
Back of the van, instantly - there's somewhere else to be
Mathematicians work this out - useless - no binary states here
A door to the gutter is a door to aristocracy
Sam and his wide face and friendly eyes - so enthusiastic
Touching on stuff that I think might get me through the ride
There's an earthbound grin and a child-like laugh
"There's cakes in the front" we hear Valerie bark
Comstock and his London Pleasures -
He bigs it up when drunk
Reminds me of this sad old fellow
Who they all call 'The Monk'
There's windows in the back of the truck
The track that runs beside is full of luck
Looks slightly different - and I can't remember why
I caught the old freight terminal in the corner of my eye
The colours get more vivid and the real begins to die
Never do mediocre albums ever sound as good
As when you're on the road with strangers nowhere near your neighbourhood
A half-way stop and now time is just crawling
Over a stile and two fields
There's ten of us now, and the banter's appalling
Spin me your thunderous traveller’s yields
Words and music by Jon Hunt 2017
top Dionysus Appears Close To The A36
Can't tell you 'bout the next bit - cos it just does not make sense
But hours and miles have passed now, and the darkness envelopes
Tired of being honest, and sick of feeling so intense
The wanderlust is smouldering - there's still something going on
The Siren of the level crossing barriers
Assaults us with its urgency
Anticipating what might be
Won't you all cross palms with me?
Approaching in the darkness - a song, a tale, a train
Sing out through the decades, like steam from summer rain
Among the ferns and branches, and the blackness of the forest
The world still feels so wide
But with each stride the sound's dead inside
- Let the silence entertain…
Denise wrote me poetry in her beaten-up notebook
Open the briefcase and take another look
I read all the words like they're wrote (sic) in my blood
So when you think I'm with you
Please know that I am not
The hour is so much later now
The land that time forgot
There's NOTHING in these trees
And there's NOTHING on those tracks
You've heard it all before:
I cannot take it back
There's NOTHING in the air
And there's NOTHING on these tracks
You've heard it all before:
Slapping Dionysus on the back
Words and music by Jon Hunt 2017
top Engaged/Living Life In Acres
Engaged:
Instrumental
Living Life In Acres:
Mantra:
Did I tell you that I love you?/I hope you know it's true
Everything that I do/Is something to do with you
EVERY DAY WE IGNORE THE COLLAPSE
WE IGNORE THE HIDEOUS BUTCHERY
ANY WAY WE JUST CANNOT RELAX
SENDS US ONE MORE FATHOM INTO THE DEEP
Words and music by Jon Hunt 2017
top So Much Mouth, So Little To Say
Wrecked at the after-work do
So many years I've known people like you
Nauseating, banal, your job is your life
And the only place that you're ever gonna fit
So much mouth, so little to say
Dressed like a rainbow, but your words come out grey
I found some redemption – yeah, I found it for free
I’m dreadfully sorry, but you’re NOTHING to me
So much mouth, so little to say
Why am I here? - Please take me away
Took a wrong turn, I played the wrong game
Run out of sand to shore up my name
A single pair of brackets, a cached point of view
Like a football supporter, the dull catch-all defines you
Look of derision at a story from outside the wall
Bemused condescension - cos that's when your parameters fall
Self-obsessed, your hubris overflowing
Malignant narcissists always give one hell of a showing
Can't hide your demons whatever you say
All of your innocence rusting away
So much mouth, so little to say
Why am I here? - Please take me away
Took a wrong turn, I played the wrong game
Run out of sand to shore up my name
Miss the road like I'd miss my veins
Pull on the cord, and I'll take up the reins
Oh the drama
Words and music by Jon Hunt 2017
top Strawberries & Milk (Engaged II)
San Francisco Airport Bayfront
Boka Hotel Earl's Court
Post House Junction 7 Birmingham
There was magic in absolutely all of them
Bristol Temple Meads 03:20
Ham Street Sunday Morning
BTP from Nottingham surround
They dragged me out the box in lost and found
Torrential rain in Magdeburg
Likewise on the Washington Beltway
The sun breaks through the clouds atAchmelvich
And suddenly my kingdom gets so rich
Did I tell you I love you? Yes, I know you know it's true.
Everything that I do is something to do with you
Words and music by Jon Hunt 2018
top Penultimate
The morning came, I raised my head, it's cherry red and choral music played
Too much the same - I took a deep, deep breath and everything turned gold
I called the lift - it moved along the side, not up
I never realised that this wasn't what it was supposed to be...
She walked towards me down the hotel corridor and flashed her eyes at me
Such slow, slow motion and her grin it told me all I had to know
Fell through a trapdoor and the sign said 'OH DEAR'
I never realised that this wasn't what it was supposed to be...
So when you think I'm with you - please know that I am not
And when I hold my head up - just smack me in the face cos I'm pretending
It's all my own work, mate - it's all my own work
It's all my own work
You asked me what that weather vane was, I replied: 'It's just an old symbol'
While on the beach I dreamed of phone books and their ripped-up yellow books
The shore, the waves - they cover me like in the womb
I never realised that this wasn't what it was supposed to be
So when you think I'm with you - please know that I am not
And when I hold my head up - just smack me in the face cos I'm pretending
I'm the one before the last one, the one before the last
I'm the one before the last
Words and music by Jon Hunt 2015
top Wonderful Life
Got on the train, I didn't know where it was going
Heater's on, outside it was snowing
Showing me magic, treating me just like a child
Transporting me, and making sure I'm still wide-eyed and wild
Got off eventually and found a pub close on the map Couple of pints of real ale, I met a local and we talked some crap He was boring, the fire was roaring, I threw on some more wood You can't get down when you are miles from home and it's all good
It's a wonderful life...
Tell me that you know what I mean
Stand up when you haven't been seen
Throw all of that debris over your shoulder
Show me that you want something more
NOTHING that's the same as before
Cos we got tales that we have to leave behind sometimes
"Save yourself for one more year" I used to say
But you make your plans and god laughs at you, the ink just fades away
It's just the little things that make us happy, make us smile
So free your mind and leave behind the jetsam you revile
It's a wonderful life...
Tell me that you know what I mean
Stand up when you haven't been seen
Throw all of that debris over your shoulder
Show me that you want something more
NOTHING that's the same as before
Cos we got tales that we have to leave behind sometimes
Kick your past to the corner of the room
It's a wonderful life...
Words and music by Jon Hunt 2015
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