There comes a time in Autumn skies Before the wind or even clouds When birds know They know that soon a storm will break Nothing moves but they know There comes a time in lovers' eyes Before they kiss or even touch When they know They know the other loves them too Nothing's said but they know And still sometimes in the dark He sees her face again From all those years ago And all those years again When she was someone else's wife And he was waiting for the rain And oh when they kissed behind the chapel door It rained rainbows on his head And how the stones still echo every word he said He said I will love you till the day I die I will love you like a hooligan I will smash the windows of your heart And steal your days away from him Do you remember him sitting there In his room in that small hotel Hearing footsteps climb the stair And it could be Marie Pepe or anyone But he knows that it's her And they walk to that small cafe Where she says just speak to me And he says The sun is out yet still it's cold And they know they both know And still sometimes in the dark He sees her face again From all those years ago And all those years again When she was someone else's wife And he was waiting for the rain And oh when they kissed behind the chapel door It rained rainbows on his head And how the stones still echo every word he said He said I will love you till the day I die I will love you like a hooligan I will smash the windows of your heart And steal your days away from him Do you remember him sitting there And my you're looking well They years have been kind Since when your cheek once blushed At the insistence of my kiss Behind the chapel door as outside the rain Began to fall © Philip Jeays 1997

Geoff You are my friend And you will be Till the end But Geoff Sometimes inside I have these thoughts Geoff I have to hide Geoff Geoff Geoff When I think of your house Geoff That lovely country cottage of a house Geoff And I know though it's often been said In jest but one blow to your head And it could be mine Geoff mine All of the time It could be so simple Geoff Oh and life could be fine Ah but killing you Geoff and really what for Two floors and a roof, four walls and a door Isn't our friendship worth so much more Geoff And Geoff You are my friend And you will be, maybe Till the end But Geoff Sometimes I find I have these ideas Geoff Come into my mind Geoff Geoff Geoff When I think of your car Geoff That four litre two seater dream of a car Geoff And I know how quick it could be If you, if you were run over by me Then it could be mine Geoff mine All of the time It could be so simple Geoff Oh and life could be fine Ah but killing you Geoff and really what for A car I would love till the next one I saw Isn't our friendship worth so much more Geoff And Geoff You are my friend And you will be, maybe Till the end But Geoff Sometimes awake in my bed I hear these voices Geoff Inside my head Geoff Geoff Geoff When I think of your wife Geoff That smiling beguiling blonde of a wife Geoff And I think, well we'll all die one day But if I could just show you the way Then she could be mine Geoff mine All of the time It could be so simple Geoff Oh and life could be fine Ah but killing you Geoff and really what for A smile and a kiss from some bleach blonded whore Isn't our friendship worth so much more Geoff Yes killing you Geoff, and really what for I'm round at your house most evenings what's more I've been in your car ten times or more And as for your wife Geoff Well what are friends for Geoff Say nothing more Geoff What are friends for Oh Geoff © Philip Jeays 1997

Along the promenade Their lives are getting shorter Just deckchairs have a future Holding up an old soldier This is the last resort The very last resort That was my home They wander in lines of four Still clinging to the great war Or maybe the one before Does it matter anymore This is the last resort The very last resort That was my home And along the promenade The brass band's playing Elgar Pomp tiddley omp Tiddley om pom pom Pom pom And while the men are bowling The old dears are patrolling Both petting and cajoling Young men who are out strolling This is the last resort The very last resort That was my home Their diamonds hide their years Their earrings drip like tears They stroll along the piers Like walking chandeliers This is the last resort The very last resort That was my home And along the promenade The brass band's playing Wagner Pom tiddley om Tiddley om pom pom Pom pom Their horizons are the ground As they walk without a sound It's winter all year round As they wait to go to ground This is the last resort The very last resort That was my home They still clutch the photograph Of their loving better half Who has this for epitaph He went out without his scarf This is the last resort The very last resort That was my home And along the promenade Their hearts are beating softer Pom tiddley om Tiddley om pom pom Pom pom Pom Pom Pom © Philip Jeays 1985

A cold wind shivers through me Like a cigarette when I was twenty-one Freezing the breath within me Catching the words on the tip of my tongue I gaze on you as a wondering child Gazes on his first rainbow Say you love me love me only Take forever tell me slowly Say you love me and I'll believe you Tell me softly as I leave you Say you love me like a raindrop In the oceans of my dreams And though these tides of reason Have left me cold as the skies up above Yet still with age this reason Can reason not with the ages of love And watching you sometimes I feel I've spent my life just waiting for you Say you love me love me only Take forever tell me slowly Say you love me and I'll believe you Tell me softly as I leave you Say you love me when I am aching Say you love me when I am shaking Say you love me when I am breaking And the dreams in my eyes all crumble away When I'm longing and lost tell me lies but say You love me in ways I've never heard Say you love me tell me dreams too absurd To believe in and I'll believe every word You're saying The say it again Say you love me in ways I've never heard Say you love me tell me dreams too absurd To believe in and I'll believe every word You're saying Say you love me Say you love me You love me © Philip Jeays 1997

Here comes the groom With his youth in full bloom Going over the top And though people see Distant artillery No-one dares say stop And in the vestry Drinking whisky Cupid's feeling odd For love should dress In happiness Not in the ties of God Now Cupid is a drunkard And it doesn't help his aim When it comes to my lovers But I know he's not to blame For is it any wonder When he sees the care men take That Cupid is a drunkard And women have to fake Now here comes the bride All fat and wide Just like the old song says She's armed to the teeth With a ring and a wreath And a bullet that says yes And in the vestry Drinking whisky Cupid feels his age For love should be Wild and free Not wedlocked in a cage Now Cupid is a drunkard And it doesn't help his aim When it comes to my lovers But I know he's not to blame For is it any wonder When he sees how women cheat That Cupid is a drunkard And men kerb crawl the streets Now here comes the vicar Bleating love is forever With a smile ten tablets wide And if he's contented It's because he's invented His own bit on the side And in the vestry Drinking whisky Cupid's feeling sick For lasting love Is hard enough Without religion's stick Now Cupid is a drunkard And it doesn't help his aim When it comes to my lovers But I know he's not to blame For is it any wonder When he sees love certified That Cupid is a drunkard And his arrows so often fly wide. © Philip Jeays 1992

I remember the taste of that silver spoon That fed me and clothed me and kept me from harm The fingers that wrapped me so tender and warm In blankets of kindness lest I should fall My days began in the light of the dawn In the vastness of stillness that hung in the hall When the sun's first rays seeped soft over all To colour the gardens and silence the moon I was only this high and so proud of my years I counted my age in quarters and halves I counted the cares of the world on one hand And counted my own in the tinsel of dreams I was only this high when the tide first came in On the castles I'd built on the edge of the sand When the sea first decayed the walls that I'd made And murmured the truths of days yet unseen And of years in between I lived in a house so white and so high Like a ship that had stopped just short of the sea And I was just a passenger there Waiting impatient for that journey to pass I ran on the Downs with a breeze in my hair And dreamt in the flowers and swam in the grass And splashed in the shouts of the wind through the trees And floated in fields that stared at the sky I was only this high and I wanted to see My oncoming years before they saw me I wanted to have much more than to need To fight like a king and like a soldier to bleed I was only this high and my eyes were so young They looked at the sun and saw rivers of gold They looked at the rain and saw the tears of God And they screwed up and cried when the wind was too cold I was only this high when I first spoke a lie When I played in the woods and watched a summertime die When I learnt how to laugh and was taught not to cry Though I still don't know why And I was only this high when I first saw your face When I first felt my world revolve in the arms Of an eight year old girl when she smiled my name When I knew that my life would never be the same And I was only this high when I first burnt the wings Of my angelic youth on a few simple sins That Jesus forgave every sunday at ten So that by twelve o'clock I could do them again And I was only this high when I first felt the pain Of a love that dissolves like snow in the rain But still that lost love because it was not my own Did not break my heart though it did break my home I was only this high but this high was high enough to see The curtain come down and the years give way To the vagabond life that brings me here today © Philip Jeays 1988

Here we are in gay Paris Harry Marie-Antoinette and me And for the moment I'm her king Just while she waits for the real thing And in the rain Place Pompidou Harry and me we sing our songs To a rampant crowd of one or two When who but who should chance along It's Ed, Ed is at the Ritz With his perfect smile and his chiselled lips Ed, Ed is at the Ritz With his perfect shoulders and their golden chips But we, ah we, we are much too poor We spend our nights Hotel Belfort We spend our days with one guitar Between ourselves, between each bar While in the Cafe des Artistes Ed and Marie-Antoinette Are talking Klimt and Toulouse Lautrec And Monet's Lilies and Rodin's Kiss But we are much too thick for that We just sing ourselves as hoarse as hell Harry sings Roy Orbison And me, well I sing Jacky Brel But Ed is singing songs of love Strumming on his credit card I'd like to sing those songs as well But Dad's fucked off and times are hard But not for Ed, Ed is at the Ritz Drinking champagne and eating caviar Ed, Ed is at the Ritz Drinking beaujolais and eating steak tartare But we, ah we, we are much too poor We spend our nights Hotel Belfort We spend our days with one guitar Between ourselves, between each bar While in the Cafe des Poetes Ed and Marie-Antoinette Are talking Keats and Baudelaire And such elan and quelle finesse But we are much too proud for that We just sing ourselves as hoarse as hell Harry sings his Unconscious Mind And me, well I sing Jacky Brel But Ed is singing songs of love Strumming on his credit card I'd like to sing those songs as well But Dad's fucked off and times are hard But not for Ed, Ed is at the Ritz With it's golden taps and it's marble stairs Ed, Ed is at the Ritz With his mobile phone and his stocks and shares But we, ah we, we are much too poor We spend our nights Hotel Belfort We spend our days with one guitar Between ourselves, between each bar While in the Cafe des Amoureux Ed and Marie-Antoinette Are talking love and holding hands And dreaming nights of untold bliss But we are much too shy for that We just sing ourselves as hoarse as hell Harry sings Cosi Fan Tutti And me, I'm still singing Jacky Brel But Ed is singing songs of love About how much he's getting hard Now Marie-Antoinette has got Her lips stuck round his credit card For we, ah we, we are much too poor We spend our nights Hotel Belfort And times are hard and life's a bitch Now Ed and Marie-Antoinette Are staying at the Ritz © Philip Jeays 1992

Still I don't remember Just what happened there Or how I came to be here Upon this harbour wall Standing in the darkness Waiting for a boat A boat to take me God knows where God knows why I don't care I just know I must go away Far from these aching isles Stay away till catching my breath Comes easy again Remember me to the roses I think they always knew Even then when I gave them What little good they'd do For one in love with another Or this one in love with you I've given all I have to give Now what else can I do Standing by the rail As we pull away Watching the town lights Bobbing in the dark And still I'm longing To see your face again But still your fingers Are stripping The bark Of my heart And I know I must go away Far from these aching isles Stay away till catching my breath Comes easy again Remember me to the roses I think they always knew Even then when I gave them What little good they'd do For one in love with another Or this one in love with you I've given all I have to give Now all I ask of you Remember me to the roses I think they always knew Even then when I gave them What little good they'd do For one in love with another Or this one in love with you For the kisses I stole In the light of your doorway For the kisses I stole In the light of your hallway For the days and the nights For the wrongs and the rights For the burning flame Of my unrepentant love Remember me to the roses I think they always knew Even then when I gave them What little good they'd do For one in love with another Or this one in love with you I've given all I have to give Now what else can I do What else can I do What else can I do © Philip Jeays 1995

They say the finest things in life Are for the rich and well to do But still poor as I am I take one look at Madame And I know it isn't true For all she sees in painting Is the daubs of losers at a loss For her artistic compulsion Stops at two coats of emulsion And the skirting board in gloss And me I do the cleaning Around her priceless art but still When I talk of Picasso She talks of Dulux vinyl But she loves days spent in galleries To recharge her artistic batteries As she brays her mindless flatteries Over Renoirs and Modiglianis And when she says oh how I love the Dutch I say Madame these are not the Dutch as such But more south and west of the continent She says I know that's what I meant They say the finest things in life Are for the rich and well to do But still poor as I am I take one look at Madame And I know it isn't true For all she sees in music Is to be seen where it's at With her gaudy decoration And Gaultier's latest creation She looks like a trifle in a hat And me I do the cooking Italiano pleases her But when I talk of Puccini She talks of Lloyd Webber But she loves nights at the opera It must be good for her insomnia As she snores through Kiri Te Kanawa As she soars through La Cenerentola And when she says oh how I love Verdi I say Madame this is more Rossini Although Verdi was also an Italian gent She says I know that's what I meant They say the finest things in life Are for the rich and well to do But still poor as I am I take one look at Madame And I know it isn't true For all she sees in romance Is a swelling bank account For she has in her possession Photos of an indiscretion Between a Count and his mount And me I do the washing All her fine and lacy things But when I talk of the Romantics She talks of Jackie Collins But she spends hours in contemplation Of the beauty of her reflection But me I've found the explanation Her eyes and brain have no connection And when she says oh how I'm beautiful I say Madame you are more neanderthal Too rich too stupid and too arrogant She says I know that's what I meant © Philip Jeays 1993

Charcoal thin You wipe the wisps of windblown Wishbone blonde from your face Standing here In the careless fearless Crystal fountain of your youth Here where once I ran Gleefooted hill high and down Over sisters side by side The swan in my mouth still shabby and brown Between these flaking hulls Throwing stones and kicking gulls Where first I held and kissed you In the storming paunch of April And I do believe no-one waits for me And I do believe waiting is a sin And I do believe there's no God or king Knows a majesty as pure as this Looking back My heart a box of worms to bait The briefest silver fin of my youth I gaze down Upon these grave cold flintlocked Mussel padlocked seaweed fetlocked rocks And here I will return one day With priested lungs and rusting hands To kick the gulls again A vicious and a bitter man And all the wind-worn day I'll spit my teeth away Singing songs of love about you Telling lies and cursing children And I do believe nothing waits for me And I do believe that love is all And I do believe across this slated sky Giants fold their arms and gaze in awe Stand upon this cliff top This crown of seven kings Throw your heart into the air Upon a child's wings And I do believe you'll see angels fly You'll hear a thousand horses crashing White with rage and cold with dying And I do believe those whose passion died Once in the arms of failure might raise Their eyes and see their wings again With the sun in their hair And the wind on their faces Standing proud in this holy holy holy holy place Where lovers come to die © Philip Jeays 1992