Scarf

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

SCARF

That night we were drunk in a downtown bar

And you were careful not to let me go too far

I said I’d take you home and you thought I had a car

Oh I tried so hard just to make you laugh

And you said that you would knit me a scarf.

Outside on the street, walking you home

We confided to each other, ‘tired of being alone’.

I complained that my neck was getting cold

And you put your arms around me in a loving hold

And you tried so hard just to make me laugh

And you cuddled me in your arms like a scarf.

You told me you were training and I said “What for”

“to be a mechanic” – you hoped it would opens some doors.

And you were so surprised when I thought it was good,

Then you tripped me up and rolled me in the mud

And like a scarf you smothered me in love.

Half an hour later, worn out and wet

You told me how of late you had been up set

And invited me in when we got back to your flat

And I tripped over and I swore at your cat

And I made the cocoa and you fixed the stereo

And you tried so hard just to make me laugh

And if you knit me a scarf, then I’ll knit you one back

Featured on my album, Songs From the Coventry Underground, Gnome Label, 2007

Scarf by Trev Teasdel 1981 from Trev Teasdel on Vimeo.

Shortly After Midnight

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT

©Trev Teasdel 1980 /1986 Coventry / Middlesbrough

Quiet in the town

Darkness creeps around

Silence is a menace

Sleep cannot be found.

Tension in the town

Your heart begins to pound

Feet begin to itch

Toss and turn around

Feel you wanna cry

Burning of the eye

Explosion of the soul

Helplessly you lie

Feel the tension rise

Fear is in your eyes

Seems you want to scream

Then the feeling dies

Chorus

Shortly after midnight, shortly after midnight

Stranger in the cold light, standing in the moonlight

There a knocking at the door

A feeling not quite right

That robbed the purse of hope

And left you naked in the night

It crept upon you unawares

Teased and tore you like a cat

‘Til you screamed out inside

“What the hell is that!”

(Chorus)

Shortly after midnight, shortly after midnight

Stranger in the cold light, standing in the moonlight

(Bridge)

Emptiness was floodlit by the moon

As it crept through window into the room

Hand in hand with the darkness in the soul

Ushered in by the sound of a silent drum roll – oll etc.

Quiet in the town

Not a single sound

Moon turned out its light

In the darkest deep of night

The wind it made no sound

Sleep could not be found

Darkness did surround

Midnight in the town

Chorus – Shortly after midnight etc.

Featured on my album, Songs From the Coventry Underground, Gnome Label 2007

Final version of Shortly After Midnight 1986

Shortly After Midnight (86) from Trev Teasdel on Vimeo.

First version of Shortly After Midnight 1985

Shortly After Midnight 85 Trev and the Collective Unconcious from Trev Teasdel on Vimeo.

Phoenix

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

THE PHOENIX

©Trev Teasdel Middlesbrough 1986

After the planes came

With bombs for our city.

After the night-raid’s

Nightmare intensity.

In the wake of the heartbreak-

Life-quakes

Sorrow in the heart-shocked

Fear-shelled

tomorrow.

Chorus

You – must carry on – Rise from the ashes – Soar in the sky

You – mustn’t give in – have faith in your future – pride in your past

You – must carry on – Rise from the ashes – Soar in the sky

You – mustn’t give in – Just like the phoenix – Never say die.

The Sirens sounded

The scramble for shelter.

Survival in crisis

Fear jammed the senses.

The drone of the bombers

Descending like demons

Menacing our skyways,

Our streets are exploding

Sudden cadence of brick-fall

Operation – Moonlight Sonata.

Bridge

This is for those who fell in the moonlight

While the bombers raged and the ….

In the silence

Of heart-stopped

emergence

From shelters

The seeking of loved ones

In rubble hid carnage.

A spirit was rising

Hardened by hammers

That called forth the flames

In the shape of a future.

From the embers of darkness

Featured on my album, Songs From the Coventry Underground, Gnome Label, 2007

The Phoenix by Trev and the Collective Unconscious from Trev Teasdel on Vimeo.

A Teardrop in the Tees

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

A TEAR DROP IN THE TEES

©Trev Teasdel Coventry / Middlesbrough 76 / 78 / 81

Little Cleveland Kathy grew up in the slums

The rain leaked through the roof

and the paint flaked off the walls.

At night, in bed, in winter

her feet grew cold and numb

In a house that wasn’t weather-proof

she’d shiver till morning come.

Kathy’s parents quarreled, all the time they could,

Always short on money

Always flush for tears.

Her mother claimed her father was a lazy ne’re do good

cos he could never find employment

and drank his dole down in the pub.

Chorus.

And Kathy’s voice was lost

like a teardrop in the Tees

Like wood that can’t be seen for trees

A teardrop in the Tees.

Kathy she resided, in a home divided

Like muck that clogs the kitchen sink

she was always in the way.

Never knowing where to turn

to clear confusion from her head.

In the land of ‘do-without’, with tears she wet her bed.

Kathy took a walk down by

where the Tees flows deep and wide.

Feeling quite at home amongst

the rust and the bitter waves.

She saw the beaten path between

the dole and the factory yard.

She felt just like the can she kicked

crushed and beaten on all sides.

Featured on my album Songs from the Coventry Underground, Gnome Label, 2007

First version of A Teardrop in the Tees – solo

A Teardrop in the Tees 1981 by Trev Teasdel from Trev Teasdel on Vimeo.

Second version with Ann Wainwright on flute and backing vocals and Colin Walker on Violin and arrangement.

A Teardrop in the Tees 1982 by Trev Teasdel from Trev Teasdel on Vimeo.

Well I Don’t Know

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

WELL I DON’T KNOW.
1970 By Trev Teasdel (lyrics and music and John Adams (music)

Well I Don’t Know,
I got no stone to throw.
Well I don’t know,
I got no ball to catch.

My friend the sun,
She fled to Australia.
Oh please come back
and dawn on me.

Well I don’t know,
Perhaps I’ll hitch a lift.
Well I don’t know,
My legs are feeling stiff.

Well I don’t know,
My pen has run dry.
Well I don’t know
My fishbowl’s empty now.

Bridge
The road is calling.
But I can’t go on.
This restless feeling
Is calling me on and on.
The lake, she sings to me,
Says I have no fish to give.
The tree he watches me,
With no place to live.

Well I don’t know
Perhaps I’ll go away.
Well I don’t know
Perhaps I’ll lose my way.
But then again,
Got no way to lose.
All I possess,
is the blues.

Well I don’t know
Perhaps I’ll write a song.
Well I don’t know,
It all seems so wrong.

Well I don’t know
I got no place to be.
Well I don’t know,
It don’t worry me.

Bridge
The road is calling.
But I can’t go on.
This restless feeling
Is calling me on and on.
The lake, she sings to me,
Says I have no fish to give.
The tree he watches me,
With no place to live.

addition variations

I don’t know
Perhaps I’ll leave here
Perhaps I’ll go
Far far away ..ay.
I don’t know
My soul’s a star
Trapped in a jar
It all seems so far ..

alt end Oh please come back to me
I am so lonely
Yes, I’m lonely since I lost my way with you.

Featured on my album Songs From the Coventry Undergound, Gnome label, 2007

Well I Don’t Know – Trev and the Collective Unconscious 1986 from Trev Teasdel on Vimeo.

The Isolate

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

THE ISOLATE
©Trev Teasdel (1st verses written Coventry 1979 / rest of lyric and music Middlesbrough 1985)

Under lock and key
In a room where no one goes
He sheds the tears
no one else will see.
In the recess of his mind
where troubles often hide
He feels the sorrow
felt by him alone.

Bridge 1
His eyes do not betray
the hurt that rots his soul
and his lips are sworn to secrecy
(his lips are sworn to secrecy).

Chorus
but he says it’s alright
Daylight follows night
He knows to hold on tight
One day it will come right.

In a folder ‘neath the floor boards
in a room where no one goes
are the words he wrote
to songs he never sings.
In the silence of his solitude
so void and unbenign
we witness how
his dreams are growing wings.

Bridge 2
One day his key will turn
One day his door will open
You’ll see his dreams take shape
in the world outside his mind
And when his heart is sure
When his vision’s clear
You’ll see his dreams take flight
in the room outside his mind…
(To Chorus)

And his dreams are howling wolves
in the hopelessness of night
that beckon to
and herald in the light.
And his sorrow and his searching
are craftsmen of his dreams
chiselled in that ri n shred of life.

Bridge 3
His heart is pure and clear
like a stream that wanders free
He sees things as they ought to be.
And he climbs the stairs of life
with his visions running wild
and guides them as they grow
like a parent would a child.

Featured on my album, Songs From the Coventry Underground, Gnome Label, 2007

The Isolate by Trev Teasdel and The Holy Grail from Trev Teasdel on Vimeo.

Two early demos with vocals and synth

Hello Sam

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

Hello Sam, eyes wide and beaming,
Smile that is gleaming – down.
Like a sun upon high
You are ‘pie from the sky’.
Give a sad little sigh
Sad little Sam – Smile, don’t cry.

Hello Sam – face tender and chubby
Hands wet and grubby – yeah.
And “What’s that mess on the floor?“
And “And mind your hand in the door“
And “What? Oh you want some more?“
Oh Sam, smile don’t snore!

Bridge

With your mother so lovin’ and all

You stand tall although you’re so small
Hey Sam – chin up and smile –
Each day is a new toy to be explored
And Oh Growing up it takes such a while.
Oh Sam – Please don’t look so bored.

Hello Sam – You’re Daddy works hard
Hold you in high regard.
And “Oh don’t you pull my hair!“
And “Oh, the world is so unfair“
but let’s give a little sigh
And Sam – smile don’t swear.
Back to the bridge..and finish.

A Cottage in the Country

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

A COTTAGE IN THE COUNTRY

©Trev Teasdel – Norwich, August 1974

I see you as an old lady
Sat serenely in your chair
The knitting is in your hand.
In the cradle rocks the bairn.

Though you are still touched by youth
All about you is so slow.
Just as if an old lady
And a rustic. Quaint!

Chorus
And oh so slow the river flows
So (oh) slow – Oh………..

Your husband too, like a country gent
With his waist coat, pipe and stick.
His head bowed down in a book
As a lazy clock does tick.

He with his old mandolin
and Stradivarius violin

Harmonising with the breeze
Like a slow motion sneeze.

Chorus
And oh so slow the river flows
So (oh) slow oh….

“Scrub a dub dub” in an old wooden tub
Chop up the tree for fire wood.
Chop up the tree for me,
Chop up the tree for warmth and love.

Your hand tills the land
For food and for sale.
There’s a goat in your garden
That gives milk in a pail.
An old wishing well and a chemical loo.
A little way out cottage, just suits you.

Brown rice and veg and unleavened bread
You believe ‘you are what you are fed’.
Always on the sill, lie apple pies
Away with the ring, the Jackdaw flies.

A few miles away in a smoky old town
Hard to recall how time merry-goes-round
Outside in the lane, wrapped up in your shawl
Fruit and veg on sale on your stall.

Chorus
And oh so slow that river flows
So oh slow oh

It’s strange when you think, that not long away
The bairn at your bosom will be making his way
Soon to be at the stage we are now
and we – the older generation.

Chorus
And oh so slow that river flows
So oh slow oh

Don’t Despair (Kick back to Win)

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

DON’T SINK INTO DESPAIR

I know that you feel like crying,

Feel like dying, can’t stop sighing

I see that you’re frowning,

Feel you’re drowning,
A fool – just clowning around.

I know that you’ve got a problem

And it’s got you licked
And your affairs are so cross woven,

They’re hard to unpick

But don’t sink into despair

Cos, there ain’t no answer there.
Once it gets you in it’s snare
You’re gonna be hard to repair.

Bridge 1
Don’t be defeated
Don’t let yourself

Get mistreated
Show some courage –

Some character
Kick back to win,

Don’t just give in
Say to hardship

“You’ll have a hard time with me“.

I know you gotta problem

And it seems too deep, difficult

And involved

And you’ve given up thinking

That it can ever be solved
It’s been a problem for too long,

It’s second nature.

Bridge 2
But get up
Umm! Get out,
Shake your will-power,

Shake it all about

Turn the tables,

Switch the labels
Turn your problems inside out.

I know that feel like crying, feel like dying,

can’t stop sighing.
I see that you’re frowning,

feel you’re drowning,

a fool just clowning around.

Don’t Despair (Kick back to Win) by Trev Teasdel.

Divorce is Hard

Posted on 5 October 2016 by trevor

DIVORCE IS HARD
©Trev Teasdel – Coventry 1978

The rain on the window taps out a tune
Night time and sleep cannot come too soon
Nothing means anything, when there’s nobody there.

No one to care….

Wasting my time in my lonely armchair
There’s nobody there, no one to care.

Out in the morning to the factory gate
They can sack me if they like,
I don’t care if I’m late.
There’s plenty to do but I can’t concentrate
I can’t concentrate, I can’t concentrate.
Never bothered to wash, my clothes in a state,
My clothes in a state, my mind’s in a state..

Chorus
And all that I know, all that I know, all that I know,
Is, going through divorce is so hard,
so hard.

I’m so cold and all alone
No one to ring me on the telephone..

I sit by the fire, feeling unsure. I’m feeling unsure.

No one to love, take the trouble for.

Nobody there, there’s nobody there.

Clutching a photo in the courts of despair,

There’s nobody there, no one to care.

You think of the kids that maybe you miss
Or the face and lips that once you did kiss
Life had a purpose, a plan and an aim
Now all those plans have gotten way laid
They’ve gotten way laid, they’ve gotten way laid.

Bridge

Come back, come back you cry with your heart
But you know that love, has been lost in the dark

Tears warm your cheeks like love’s lost caress
And you know you’ve got to pick yourself

Up out of this mess,

The lies and the anger linger like pain.

Linger like pain.

It’s hard to believe those lips

Could have caused you such pain.
It all seems insane; and it’s all just a game.

As you sit there in bits, thinking ‘life is the shits’
Is there a God up there?, there’s nobody there!
Nobody cares.
Clutching a photo in the courts of despair,

There’s nobody there, there’s nobody there.

Divorce is Hard by Trev Teasdel

Divorce is Hard (Going through Divorce) on Soundclick

https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14598539