“My life is a house
You crawl through the window
Slip across the floor and into the reception room
You enter the place of endless persuasion
Like a knock on the door when there is ten or more things to do…”

© Neil Finn, 1993 from the album “Together Alone”

Second new song added in 24 hours, from the intended Time Demands album. Again, the caveat is that it is a first draft and may change by the time it hits the hard drives for real and the music has yet to be composed too. My initial feelings about the music is that it is likely to be quite proggy, but again… it may decide to go off in a completely different direction. Thats the joy of songwriting, I find.

There have been a lot of the songs that were originally written as part of the 2014-2017 Purple Patch which ended up in a very different place, whether that was Suno-assisted or not. This is no different.

Anyway. Digressing and all that.

The lyrics are a combination of a lot of lines that were written/seized upon during the 2017-2019/2020 period. Some have been used as, I guess the equivalent of mortar to pin other lines together, so there is a bit of wordplay in there, but there is actually a cogent theme running through the song.

And that theme is this: No one elses life is yours to save, only your own. You cannot save people from themselves.

Around that is a series of observations of how I see my life looking back at some of the things that happened and how I reacted; I dont really think I criticise the decisions that I made, just that they happened. It was I guess, more a case of observing the world around me and how mad it was at times, particularly lines like “Everybody always seems to be somewhere else, always chasing a new kind of high” and “spent my youth being forced to decide between prejudice and passion and choosing a side”. Obviously now the wisdom of age tells me that I didnt have to choose a side at all, all I had to do was plot my own path. I didnt have to have a prejudice or a pre-determined point of view about anything, I just had to watch, listen and learn. I’m also quite proud of the “I’ve tried catching lightning in a bottle, it didnt need to be mine” line; the concept of being around people who you figure make you look good, you’re in their reflected glory, you figure that by being in their company, that you get some of that glow to make you feel better about yourself.

Obviously, I learned that was a fallacy in fairly short order, but it still took time to learn and as the old saying goes, the Universe Keeps Sending You The Same Lesson Until You Learn It. Tick. Been there done that, bought the T-shirt.

Most of the lines relate to yes, the same three muses that have been part of my life and shaped it. It also contains a Bridge/Middle 8 that refers to my current partner (“you let in the sunshine and led me out of the night”).

It is, ultimately about life in a snapshot, I guess. Where is the town of False Dreams? Oh it could be a number of places. It could be London. It could be Aylesbury (its most likely to be Aylesbury, in fairness, LOL), it could be a market town in Warwickshire. It could be a number of places. Could even be Peterhead in Scotland, where I spent a lot of my youth.

I am quite comfortable with the direction that it is going in and I’m quietly, reservedly confident that it will turn out good. I’m looking forward to the musical journey that I’m going to go on until its finished.

Oh and why Raindrops And Razorblades? Well, if it is driving, fierce, horizontal rain in real inclement weather, especially in Winter, that rain stings when it hits you in the face. Trust me, I know, LOL. Plus, I’m quite happy with the rhythmic alliteration of it and it almost has a Wayne Hussey-like thing to it, it strikes me as the kind of song title he would have come up with in his time. And given that Mr Huss is an influence of mine (although you have to dig pretty deep these days to find it, LOLZ), I am definitely influenced by him as a musician and a writer.

Raindrops and Razorblades

Raindrops fall like razorblades

Her life wasnt mine to save

Just hold me til my soul melts inside…

In a town of false dreams
Streets of fear that didnt come true
Theres nothing else to find out about me
That you dont already know

I tried catching lightning in a bottle
It didnt even need to be mine
Everybody always seems to be somewhere else
All chasing a new kind of high
None of us know how long the ride will last, not for ever more
When the novelty of beauty finally fades
All of these ambitions will be left at the door…

Its like you walked into the house of my mind
And turned on every one of the lights
You let in all the sunshine and led me out of the night
I didnt know if I would make it out alive
and if I’d make it all right…

We left a little piece of me in everywhere I’ve been
All sixes and sevens and eights and elevens
Trying to tell all of those shivers to subside
Preaching to the wind and trying to hold back the tide

A million flashbulbs of sun on the ocean
And you fell through my fingers like a ring in a sand-dune
Spent my youth being forced to decide
Between prejudice and passion and choosing a side
I could stop and look around me and the consequences roll on
Cant try and turn it around if it all turns out to be wrong…

© Lyrics Steve McCarthy-Hunt 2025