Author Archives: trevor

The Elusive Metallic Idol

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THE ELUSIVE METALLIC IDOL
 ©Trev Teasdel December 1968 Coventry

There’s a maze of minds
Designing all kinds of cars.
There’s a surfeit of time to kill,
So the people do what they will.
Living in flats, so very high.
Working so hard till they finally die.

Cogwheels are spinning
And people are sinning.
Papa’s won the pools,
Look at all the fools
Smoking and drinking,
No time for thinking.

(Bridge)
I don’t know what to do for the best
I’m counting the hairs on my hairless chest
Times are so hard,
Think I’ll send them a Christmas card.

Money becomes their life,
The object of their strife.
The elusive metallic idol
Can make you suicidal.
So get outta bed,
Screw on your head
It’s full speed ahead.
Grab what you can while you may.
Got no time for pleasure and play!


This is another song called Just before Dawn but in this extended version i covered some of the lyrics to Elusive Metallic Idol in the latter verses.




……..

Probably influenced by early Cat Stevens, or at least that’s how I heard it sung. I saw a TV documentary and that sparked the song. Tony Mojo Morgan, then of the Mick Green Blues band in Coventry 1970, put the song to music, after I gave the band some of my lyrics to try out. Mojo was later of the Coventry Ska band EMF who won the Battle of the Bands 1981 and made a single for RCA. Anti Bellum – here 

The City Fires

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THE CITY FIRES
©Trev Teasdel Coventry July 1970

Amidst the conflagrations
Living substances survive.
Squandering their energies
In the furnaces they do thrive.
Making haste that’ll only guarantee
An early grave.

Chorus.
And the cities burn
And the cities burn
And the cities burn
You’re gonna die
You’re gonna slowly die
You’re gonna slowly die too young
In the city fires
In the city fires
In the city fires.

Preachers scream from the steeple
That we’re heading for hell
But tell me people if this place ain’t worse than hell.
Making waste; it’ll only guarantee an early grave.

Bridge..
The evil witch has cast her jinx
Beelzebub now rules.
Pandemonium’s the song he sings
As he swallows all you fools.
And he’s gonna drink your blood
As your bodies slowly burn.

Chorus 2
As your bodies burn
As your bodies burn
As your bodies burn
You’re gonna die
You’re gonna slowly die
You’re gonna slowly die too young
In the city fires
In the city fires
In the city fires.


……….


I was working at the GEC Telecommunications in Coventry and Pete Waterman, who was the shop steward and worked on the next section, put some music to a lyric I had written – A Lotta Rain is Fallin’ and teamed me up with Billy Campbell, a bass player who also worked at the GEC and was in a band called Coconut Mat
 https://sites.google.com/site/bandsfromcoventry/coventry-bands-a-to-z/coventry-bands-c/coconut-mat


I went to see the band and they were a heavy rock outfit and Billy asked me to write a lyric for the band. at the time Black Sabbath were new on the scene with a top selling first album and Led Zepplin’s Whole Lotta Love was playing everywhere. So I thought I would write something in that vain, hearing Led Zeppelin power chords behind the lyric. However Billy reject the lyric saying ‘You can’t have a pop single with the word ‘Beelzebub’ in it!’. Forever ever after he nicked name me Beez le bub-as he pronounced it!

I hadn’t realised the band were thinking about a single, they never said and I didn’t think they had those kind of connections at that stage. However, I learnt later that Billy was in an early Coventry band called the Eggy with Roger and Nigel Lomas who had played in the hit band The Sorrows, and the Eggy had made a single – here. It hadn’t been a hit but they did have the connections. Nonetheless, I had to laugh 5 years later when Queen hit the No 1 spot with Bohemian Rhapsody – what word was in that song – yes ‘Beelzebub’. I’d loved to have seen Billy face when that came out – but also I’d lost contact with him by then.




Flowers of the Wayside

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FLOWERS OF THE WAYSIDE
©Trev Teasdel November 1970 Coventry.

As I pass the streets lined with tears of unexpressed souls,
Rows of tins of compressed talents chained in their folds
Lines of ‘could’ve been if I tried, but didn’t pursue my goals’
Chains of the ‘same as the day before and day before that’ plastic moulds
Boxes of ‘shun the new, it’ll be our ruin, stick to the beaten path’ holes

Chorus
I just put my face to my hands
My fear for to hide
That I might yet become just another
Flower of the Wayside.

Their bins are full of screwed up dreams from the morning of their youth
And yes they still have their dreams in the straightjacket of their lives.
They follow convention down the steps, in his drunken waltz
To fall into the waters deep, to find they cannot swim, to find they cannot think.
They’re too busy not being busy trying to be themselves,
They’ve been hung up upon society allocated shelves.

They pay homage to the idle with numerals on his face
And as his arms rotate, they start their diurnal chase
Machines, I once thought, were extensions of man’s arms
But men have just become extensions of machines,
Turmoiling in their cogwheel confusion

While I stage my independence – the water bearer’s revolution.

…………


Probably the title Flowers of the Forest by Fairport Convention, influenced title but not the lyric. About growing old and deserting your dreams and following convention to the letter.




This was published as a poem in my first chapbook The Escaped Poet in 1984 and various magazines.

Flowers of the Wayside by Trev Teasdel

Love Song

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LOVE SONG
©Trev Teasdel Middlesbrough 1981

Close your eyes and let them rest now
Dark days they will go past
Close your eyes and let them rest now
Oh the shadows they won’t last.

When you feel the tears swelling
And they’re not the tears of pain
And your lips begin to quiver
And it’s not with fear or strain.

When it’s hearts that speak not tongues
In a language queer to pens
When its souls that think not minds
With a logic that transcends

BRIDGE
It’s love yes its love
It’s love yes it’s love
It’s love and love has got to you..oo (Repeat)

Take my hand and let me hold you
Close as flesh can get
Take my soul and let me show you
That sacred place within

When flesh has done what flesh must do
And our hearts they are at peace
And we lay in sweet contentment
As if the troubled world had ceased.

To coda – as in bridge.


……….
This began as blues riff but became something more melodic with guitarist Steve Gillgallon. An acoustic version here and an attempted synth version but without the vocals. Appeared as a poem in my 2nd poetry chapbook – Poet Reprobate 1985.



Love Song (1981 demo) Trev teasdel from Trev Teasdel on Vimeo.

Screenplay

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SCREENPLAY
©Trev Teasdel  Great.Ayton August 1997

Clearway, Clearday
Riding down the Freeway
Make way, make pay,
You’re driving in the old way.

Times are changing, rearranging
I guess to us it’s such a strange thing.
Changing changing, re-arranging

You can see it in the city streets,
You can sense it in the ones you greet,
You can hear it in the drummer’s beat.
You can feel the spring inside your feet.

Duvet, negligee
See the foreplay in the underlay.
It’s risqué in St Tropez
And there’s horseplay down in Santa Fe.

Make all you do a lotta fun
Cos life’s too short to have none
That’s when the best ideas come.

Oh no, dark dismay,
Let’s paint the world a brighter day.

Seaspray, Seaspray
Create it in a new way.
Each day’s an ideas day
Let’s write the world a screenplay.

Times are changing, rearranging
I guess to us it’s such a strange thing.
Changing changing, re-arranging

You can see it in the mean old streets,
You can sense it in the friends you greet,
You can hear it in the drummer’s beat.
You can feel it down inside your feet.

There’s Rabelais’ in Mandalay
It’s Bizet back in Bombay
It’s a Monet day in Monterey
There’s Hemingways’ in Galloway.

Debussy said ‘Listen to me,
Synchronicity’s the key.’
Your insights are electricity.

Clearday, Clearway
Does your car pollute the skyways.
Treeways are freeways
Give the trees some leeway.

Times are changing, rearranging
I guess to us it’s such a strange thing.
Changing changing, re-arranging

You can see it in the city streets,
You can sense it in the ones you meet,
You can hear the cries in the desert heat.
You can feel the spring inside your feet.

Old ways, cloudy days
Thinking fresh is child’s play.
Seaspray, Screenplay
Deal with problems a new way.

Times are changing, rearranging
I guess to us it’s such a strange thing.
Changing changing, re-arranging

Oh No, don’t you know
We can change the world
if we engage the flow!



………….


This also appeared as a poem in Tinfoil Magicians chapbook in 2010 with Ann Wainwright.

No Limit (To How Far You Can Go)

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NO LIMIT (TO HOW FAR YOU CAN GO)
©Trev Teasdel Feb 1981 Middlesbrough

I met her on the Trans-Atlantic jet from New York
She was playing hostess to business diplomats.
She said “where do you come from?” I said “Mexico”
She said “There’s no limit, to how far you can go,
Absolutely no limit to how far you can go”

I pulled out my credit card, a smile hit her lips
She had a spare folder, the card it did fit.
The plane it took off, flying high in the sky.
She said “There’s no limit, to how high you can fly,
Absolutely no limit to how high you can fly”

BRIDGE (Spoken with an American accent)
And then she walked in, wearing only her body.
She led him down the corridor and into the cock-pit.
Then she opened her folder, his eyes they bulged
And as she slid his card inside, she discovered
His credit limit had been exceeded.

And after we landed, with ground ‘neath out feet
She followed me down the steps and into the street.
I said “Why do you follow?” She said “don’t you know?”
I said “There’s a limit, to how far we can go,
And this is the limit to how far we can go”


……….
Written when we needed some new songs in 1981.I opened the Observer Colour magazine and landed on an advert for American Express Card. There was a photo of a businessman handed his card to the airline hostess with the caption “There’s no limit to how far you can go with American Express”, so the song takes that a bit further and the protagonist gets his comeuppance in the bridge! Two versions here with Steve Gillgallon on guitar and bass.






This version was recorded in 1984 and features Steve Gillgallon bass and lead, Trev Teasdel on guitar, vocals and keyboards.

No Limit to How Far You Can Go from Trev Teasdel on Vimeo.

La La Louise

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LA LA LOUISE
©Trev Teasdel April 1971

La La Louise,
Like a magical breeze,
So free,
in the confines of love.

La La Louise,
so lovely you be.
It’s not new I know but it’s true
And I love you Louise
Love you Louise, love you Louise.

La la Louise,
Lingers on my lips,
Long after we part.
Chandeliers shine in the dark of our hearts
And she’s lovely Louise
Lovely Louise, lovely Louise

Lala la la laaa Louise
Sail the seven seas
like a catamaran
We’re gonna swing through the trees
Like an orangutan – Louise
Lovely lilting Louise
Lovely lilting Louise

La la Louise,
See all evil flees
From our nest in the sky
Love’s ladybirds singing in your eyes
And she’s so lovely Louise
Lovely Louise, lovely Louise

La la Louise,
Rock me if you please.
I really dig you girl, like a human pearl
Dressed in majestic gold robe
Duchess of the globe
My lovely Louise, Love you Louise, Love you Louise.


………………
 In my Tyrannosaurus Rex period I guess. Louise lived on the other side of Coventry at Longlands and I wrote it walking back to Willenhall Wood from her parents house after the buses had stopped one night – about 6 miles. One of the first songs I set to much myself.

Like a Hairpin Bend

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LIKE A HAIRPIN BEND
©Trev Teasdel May 1970 Coventry

Sometimes the road’s so dark and lonely,
Shaded by the overhanging trees.
Sometimes the roads so long and winding
Guided by a violent breeze.
And sometimes my road’s lined with forests
And confusion breathes.
Sometimes the fords are deeper than my motor car.


Bridge
But when I get to thinking
That my seas are raging torrents
The wind it seems to change direction
And blow the other way.
Like a hairpin bend.
Like a hairpin bend
And things start happening
As directions change
Like a hairpin bend
Like a hairpin bend.

Sometimes the paths I wander bear no fruits of life
Sometimes the patterns I encounter 
Are painted by the brush of strife.
And sometimes my mind is lined with sadness
And reason squirms beneath
And sometimes the cauldrons seem more real
Than just figments of my mind.


……..


Wrote this during a union meeting at GEC Stoke works in Coventry. Pete Waterman was my shop steward, odd as it may seem to people outside Coventry and announced that we would be laid off during the summer of 1970 owing to a strike in another department. That suited me, I worked at the Coventry Arts Umbrella Club during that summer, letting in the bands to practice and officiating. During Pete’s meeting I wrote this lyric as he was talking! The Long and Winding Road was being played on a radio nearby and Neil Young. They probably hand an influence on the song.


This is a writing demo done in the 70’s on a cassette so sound quality is a bit rough but gives an idea of the music.



Like the Lake of Serbonia

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LIKE THE LAKE SERBONIA
©Trev Teasdel April 1971 Coventry.

Like the lake of Serbonia
“Where armies whole have sunk”
Myrtle hath withered and died
Now rides the stormy seas and a sateless junk.
Oh my Ruth, lala la laa
Oh my Ruth lala la laa
Oh my Ruth lala la laa la

Turtle dove bewitched by a nova
Verdant pastures doth seek
I, now bewept in a sable cloud
To espy she with her Wassermann coming cleek.
Oh my Ruth, lala la laa
Oh my Ruth lala la laa
Oh my Ruth lala la laa la

Night prowler ploughed the blue ground of your heart
Delighted by the lustre of what he found
Truly chameleon thou art.
Oh my Ruth, lala la laa
Oh my Ruth lala la laa
Oh my Ruth lala la laa la

Deeply dreaming dreams of the Phoenix,
As the pigs fly by.
High lone and betwixt the pits and the snarling sky.
Oh my Ruth, lala la laa
Oh my Ruth lala la laa
Oh my Ruth lala la laa la



….
A song about love in a T Rex style and using an archaic diction, triggered by reading about the Serbonian bog where, according to Milton ““Where armies whole have sunk”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbonian_Bog


Myrtle is symbolic of eternal love, ‘blue ground’


‘Blue Ground’ refers to
“Rough, natural diamonds are often hidden in dark grey or black volcanic rock, named ‘kimberlite’, which is also known as ‘blue ground’. Because the rock is located in an unlimited depth and comes with a great speed towards the earth’s crust, it forms crater pipes. The name ‘kimberlite’ is derived from Kimberley, a town in South Africa, named after Lord Kimberley, at the time, the British Colonial Secretary, where diamond discovery was enormously high. Australia and Russia are also known as prominent sites for diamonds.” https://www.baunat.com/en/faq/blue-ground

Oh Why Did Ya Leave?

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OH WHY DID YA LEAVE
© Trev Teasdel 1966 / 69 Cleobury Mortimer / Coventry.

The stars shine bright above
People below talk about love
But me I’m sittin’ here
Every now and then a tear.

Chorus
Oh why did ya leave?
You were mine I do believe.
Oh why did ya leave?
You were mine I do believe.

No one can tell the way I fell for your arms
There was no way to repel your charms
You came to me when I needed a lift
Now you have flown with the winds so swift.

The night’s so dark, it hides the mark you made.
You shone so bright in the night then began to fade.
The room’s so bare, there’s no one there
I cry out all in vain.
The floor it creaks, my mind it seeks

A rest from all this pain.


………..


One of the first songs I wrote back in 1966,while still at the City of Coventry boarding school in Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire. I only wrote one a month on average from when I was 15 until 1968 when I became more serious and prolific. It was visiting day and the parents had just left and the tears came down. That was what it was originally about but i transformed into a love song in 1968. The feel of it was hearing early Dylan playing on the pirate radio stations- Radio Caroline in particular.


This is a rough cassette try out while setting the lyric to music, rough and unfinished but it gives the idea of the song.