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The Widest Walk Volume 1

by Philip Jeays

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1.
October 04:54
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? And my you’re looking well The 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
2.
It was a great war, the Great War The greatest war there’s ever been It was a war to end all wars It didn’t but that's how it seemed It was a great war, the Great War With the bodies and the blood The shell holes, the hell holes The trenches and the mud It was a great war, the Great War The last war where no-one dared To question the orders No-one knew or no-one cared And you stand there with your poppies As a tribute to the ones Who gave their lives for nothing For the fathers and the sons Then next day you go out And buy your kids toy guns Well go on and why not? You've got to teach them while they’re young It was a great war, the Great War The greatest war we’ve ever seen We killed their side we killed our side We killed anybody in between It was a great war, the Great War Better still than Waterloo Better yet than Agincourt Better still than World War Two It was a great war the Great War The greatest chance we ever got To die for our country Or if not then to be shot And you stand there in your silence Just like we used to do Like you were waiting for their whistle For their orders to come through Oh can’t you see you’re still doing Just what they tell you to Remember what they did to us They could do to you In a great war, like the Great War The greatest war we’ve ever known We took simple fields made them hell on earth Turned a million men to stone But it was a great war, the Great War It was not our duty to survive We weren’t idiots we were patriots Come on boys keep the myth alive It was a great war, the Great War But you lead us up the garden path And still you lead us every year Up to the Cenotaph And you stand there politicians Wiping tears from your eyes With the hands that shake the hands Of the dictators you supply Well I cannot see the honour Nor the glory nor the pride And I will not wear your poppy And I will not stand silent by
3.
Geoff 04:04
Geoff You are my friend And you will be Till the end But Geoff, Geoff, Geoff, Geoff Sometimes, 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, Geoff, Geoff, Geoff Sometimes, 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, Geoff, Geoff, Geoff Sometimes, 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
4.
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
5.
Catherine 04:03
When the frost is in my hair And the baying hounds of verse abate When the swallows of my songs Fly away on careless wings To the lands of better pay When my brain is nought but clay The seams of dreams abandoned in the pit When my final breath is spilt When I am cold and blind as salt And the worming wheels are still Carry me home carry me back Through hawthorn winds and cuckoo spit To where the cliffs chalk the seas With seagull songs and jackdaw dreams Carry me home carry me high Bury my face into the sky And tell them all I just called by For you Catherine When the scar of life is healed The gape of flesh closed against the day When I am nought that I have known When I am thin as watered wine And lost to time again Carry me home carry me down These run-rolled hills, this giant’s frown The bramble blood, the earth cut vein When I am gone take me back again Carry me home carry me high Bury my face into the sky And tell them all I just called by For you Catherine Carry me home carry me high Bury my face into the sky And tell them all I just called by For you Catherine Catherine Carry me home carry me high Bury my face into the sky And tell them all I just called by For you Catherine Catherine Tell them all I just called by For you Catherine Catherine
6.
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 its golden taps and its 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
7.
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 Then 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
8.
London 03:36
Ripping the hours from the mean of Greenwich Running the ripples from shore to shore Stealing the dreams from the eyes of the rich Picking the love from the teeth of the poor Forging the ranks of the cankered noblesse Scratching the hands from the face of Big Ben Kissing the walls with a tattooed caress Touching St Paul’s with a fractured amen Making a wish that you already know Catching my breath watching as you go From Heathrow Pushing the bridges through bridges of rain Bridging the bridges with bridges of grey Sewing the new to the strings of champagne Weaving the old with the threads of decay Holding the clouds on the brink of their death Holding the Palace the hands of St James Holding the wind, holding my breath Holding you close in my arms again Walking in dreams through Hyde Park in the snow Holding your hand laughing as we go Down Rotten Row Holding the days that the years postpone Holding the leaves that the winters dethrone Holding the lives that the gutters disown Holding my heart London my own
9.
Madame 03:17
They say the finer 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 Yes and me, well, 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 finer 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 Yes and me, well, 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 finer 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 Yes and me, well, 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 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’
10.
Beachy Head 05:05
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 Glee-footed 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 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

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released June 1, 2015

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Philip Jeays Bognor Regis, UK

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