Written in April/May 2015. Inspired by two things. One being the concept of someone who goes away to sea to earn money but finds that by going away he has to travel further away to earn more money to be able to return home… by which point, he has travelled further away, so needs to earn more… and it repeats and repeats until he’s travelled the worlds oceans to be reunited with his family.

The second one being a Norah Jones track. Which shall remain nameless.

One of my collaborators has done a sterling job in putting this to music; once I receive a copy of the mastered track, I’ll attach it.

Come Home Soon

Verse 1/
I could cross an angry sea
And leave my footprints far behind me
Fly over the ocean in skies so blue
I’d go anywhere just to be with you

Verse 2/
I think about you on the rising sea
And I know you’re always with me
While my working life always drags me away
Its only you that brings me home each day

Chorus/
No need to say a prayer tonight before you sleep
I’m not too big to miss you, our love is ocean deep
Keep me in your heart, you know I’ll be home soon
Write my name in the stars, I love you like the sun and the moon

Verse 3/
I will cross a tranquil sea
Counting all the miles between you and me
Got to go all round the world to get back to you
All the money and time cant bring me back too soon

Chorus/

Middle 8/
They can stretch this thing that binds us
But it’ll always bring me back to you
They’ll never break this thing that binds us
It’s the thread that always brings me back to you…

Chorus/solo

V4/
I have crossed the seven seas
Counted every footstep between you and me
Crossed every ocean, flown every sky so blue
Don’t want to be just anywhere
I want to be with you.

(c) Lyrics: Steve McCarthy-Hunt, Music by David J Barnes, 2015

“Back in the cafe in the old street
With your Miss America
But she looks nowhere in a new dress
And coming around yours again…”

“…She’ll be the queen of something or other someday
A beauty in every way but one way….”

© Steven Lindsay, “Miss America” from the album “Satellites“, 1991.

This song came about in June 2014 after having seen a repeat of a British cop show called New Tricks on a satellite channel. An episode titled “Romans Ruined“, to be specific, for those who may have followed it at some point.

What inspired it was a sub-plot device; one of the key characters had a partner who had been sectioned a long time ago and was about to be released back into care in the community… and the character was un-nerved by the whole process, whereas his partner who had been in treatment could see his situation with absolute clarity as to why he was so uncomfortable in having to face up to what was about to happen. And still loved him enough to realise that she had to set him free.

That and a line in the third verse that was adapted from a Fiat 500 car advertisement. Inspiration comes from the strangest places.

This is slated to appear on one of the KOAS project albums.

Dont Talk About It

Verse 1/
You look the same to me
But I know deep inside, you’re not
Time’s made you a changed man,
Still holding on to what you should have forgot

Verse 2/
You feel like you’re coming up for air
And finding everything’s changed
I know just how much you tried
But that sweeping hand of the clock aint gonna lie
Now everything in your life’s rearranged.

Chorus/
Hush, hush, Don’t Talk About It
Shaking another tree to see what falls out of it
Hush, hush, no time to talk around it
Too late to fix what you shouldn’t have started

Verse 3/
Love is the devil in the detail
It’s the flesh on the bones
You’ve gained so much, so much of it with age
And you gave it away to remain on your own

Middle 8/
Stripped of all your dignity
You say you don’t love her anymore
Well it don’t look that way to me
She smiles demurely but talks behind your back of revenge
And under her breath, the means
Will always justify the ends…

Verse 4/
It all seems like a game
Everything’s just fine then its not
It’s a changed plan,
All still holding onto
What we should have forgot.

(c) Steve McCarthy-Hunt 2015

This came about while driving with a very good friend of mine to a concert in December 2014 on a completely clear evening with a low, very full moon. I cant explain why, but something inspired me as we made our way to the gig in Leamington Spa and the spine of the story was fleshed out over the following four days or so.

Its a completely fictional account of someone who sees a figure moving through a field, lit only by the moon but isn’t sure of what he sees, but given that you dont normally see ghostly figures dancing through farmers fields in the moonlight, leads him to try and get to the bottom of the story. Its quite long by normal commercial song standards (about 8 minutes or so). I do have visions for how it may sound, but I am some way away from realising them just yet. As it stands at the moment, it works better as a poem than it does a song, but nonetheless, I havent given up hope on it yet!

Hunters Moon

Pt1.

Verse 1/
Falling twilight, in rural England,
Driving a long flowing road
Rolling hills and farmers fields
A full starless moon is rising
A soft light, bathing and beguiling
And a lone figure in the distance
That I can see and I can feel

Chorus:
What could I see under this Hunters Moon?
Something real or imagined, but gone far too soon
Under a star-less night and the light soft and bright
Don’t know who she is, but I have to find out who…

Verse2/
The Shadow moves through the field
But doesn’t move a single leaf
Her arms open wide, her head gently leans to one side
I watch her sway for a moment and then she’s gone…

Pt2

Verse 3/
Now the local legend sings an old song
And the tale gets taller as the nights they grow long,
Of the wife of a soldier, but no one knows who
His name almost forgotten, along with hers too

Verse 4
Born into a broken family was she
Mother ruined by gin and her father long since lost to the sea
Spent her childhood in fields of green
Carefree, abandoned but with a hope of what could be…

Chorus/hook repeat:

As she danced one night under the Hunters Moon,
Her smile caught his languid gaze not a moment too soon
Such a beautiful sight on this star-less night,
He didn’t know her name but he had to find out who…

Verse 5/
He couldn’t hide the glint in his eye
Felt himself fall for her, but couldn’t work out why
Why here, why her, and why but why tonight?
And she danced in his arms, until the morning birds took flight

(solo)

Pt3.

Wartime

Verse 6/
Days came and went, endless months would fly by
Like so many mothers sons, the war exacts a price
Kept herself beautiful, waiting for him to come home
But still she’d dance in the moonlight on her own
Every night she’d watch the trails cross the night sky
She counted them all out and counted back the ones that could still fly
She longed for the church bells to ring for the end of the war
To be reunited under the moon for evermore

Verse 7/
She couldn’t sleep no matter how she tried
Dreading the knock on the door in the middle of the night
Solemn military man in a black car as the rain poured
Carrying a folded flag and a telegram from King George
Took off his hat as he strode across the floor
The church bells rang a day too soon,
On a day after a Hunters Moon

Pt4

Verse 8/
So many years have hurried on by
Nothing is now left of those long winter nights
Generations moved on and that was true for hers too,
All thats left is a legend for the locals to tell
Of winter nights, star-less fields and the sound of church bells
Where you’ll see in the night, under a light cool and bright,
A young girl dancing alone
Under a Hunters Moon.

(c) Steve McCarthy-Hunt 2014

“I am shipwrecked in the night
I watched a girl with eyes like thin ice
Say “Dive into these pools of blue,”
But I tripped over you

I curse these cool whispering lights
I curse the things that keep me from you
Again my patience makes the climb
Will my tears buy me time?”

© James Grant, Walk The Last Mile from the album “Strange Kind Of Love“, 1988.

This was written in April 2014 and in a similar way to another song, is a story of three women in my life and how they have left their mark on it, in their own way, particularly when they left it. It took less than an hour to write from start to finish and was inspired (in its musical form at least) by an old James Grant/Love & Money composition called Walk The Last Mile.

It has gone on to be the inspiration behind two other written sets of lyrics; one that found its way into a finished song and another that is also listed on here (Doesnt Matter Now).

It is very personal; some have said maybe too much so, that others cannot relate to it because it does detail a specific storyline or narrative that only I know about.

I accept that viewpoint, but it is though, one of those stories that I have to tell, if for no other reason to get the story out of my own mind and into musical and lyrical form. While the verses are very specific, the chorus does contain a number of truisms that are universal to us all:

• That if you do not make your dreams happen, the passage of time will see them stolen from you until there are none left,
• That the passage of time does change your perspective on some songs and you see them through different eyes as they trigger different emotions,
• And that if something is going to happen, there is only so much that you can do to influence an event; there are some things you cant fight, no matter how hard you try.

OK, so the last one is a personal viewpoint, but I think you’ll understand what I’m getting at. This track is almost finished and is proving to be somewhat tricky to complete, but completed it will be.

No Getting Over You.
Verse 1:
Your shoes were left by the door the day you went away
Your car keys on the kitchen table where there’ll only be one plate
And theres dust in the hallway where your coat used to be
Where you’d hang it up each day when you came back home to me

Bridge:
Now that you’re gone I’ve got to get on with living this life for you
But no one here is buying only half the love I could have given you

Pre Chorus:
Now the diamonds from your fingers hang around my neck
And your ashes on a mountainside leave a reminder of regret

Chorus:
Now all our old songs have no meaning
And time has stolen the dreams out of my eyes
You cant fight whats going to happen
And it would be foolish to
…
No I just dont see any getting over you

Verse 2:
I left the warmth of your bed one morning to face the rising sun
You said you wanted me to leave, it wouldnt work
and that we were done
Three times I asked you “are you sure”, and you said you were
And without a backward glance you turned and looked toward the stars

Bridge:
And now you’re gone, I’ve got to get on and live life without you
But no one here is buying only half the love I could have given you

Pre Chorus:
You fixed my broken wings and you set me free
And when later you said you’d made a mistake, I couldnt let it be

Chorus:

And now our old songs have no meaning
And time has stolen the dreams out of my eyes
You cant fight whats going to happen
And it would be foolish to
…
No I just dont see any getting over you.

Middle 8:
No, no more love today, if you please: I’ve got a heart thats been run off its feet
And my emotions are on their knees
Days alone sat in my car trying to pass the hours
Wondering which road to take, whether it was mine or if it was ours?

Verse 4:
This year you sent me a valentine I never thought I’d get from you
And I asked you to try and mend my shattered heart because you could
With nothing but stolen hours to show for it in all our lives
And my foolish heart had a dream that maybe this time could be for life

Bridge:
And now you’re gone, I’ve got to get on and live life without you
But no one here is buying only half the love I could have given you

Pre chorus:
But the wind blows hot and cold deep in the chambers of your soul
And it left me wondering if you’re the one to bring me home

Chorus:
And now our old songs have no meaning
And time has stolen the dreams out of my eyes
And you dont love me like I’ve always loved you
But you could if you wanted to….
No I just dont see any getting over you…

Now I just dont see any getting over you…

© Words & Music Steve McCarthy-Hunt, April 2014.

“Moons and Junes and ferris wheels,
The dizzy dancing way that you feel
As every fairy tale comes real,
I’ve looked at love that way.”

“But now it’s just another show.
You leave ’em laughing when you go
And if you care, don’t let them know,
Don’t give yourself away.”

“I’ve looked at love from both sides now,
from give and take, and still somehow
it’s love’s illusions that I recall.
I really don’t know love at all.”

© Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now from the album Clouds, 1969.

This was written in 2013, whilst I was still finding my lyrical feet. It is one of the more unusual works in that the music came first before the words. The meaning again, given the circumstances at the time, self explanatory. The music came, like a lot of the tracks at that time, from free MIDI piano loops carefully put together to form the basis of the track.

It didnt have any story to it as such; if anything, its probably a sort-of-accidental-Coldplay/R&B-ish kind of love song. I say Coldplay because while it does have structure, it does kind of veer off in its own direction from time to time, as opposed to being conventional.

….With, the obvious dark edges though, because it talks of people in different dimensions to each other and the only place they can be together again is in the stars in the heavens. I think it would suit an R&B/Soulful singer and while there has been a version of this cut with 1980s style synths, it does seem to suit a solo piano and voice better.

Stars

Dont think I believe in heaven
But I know its where you’ll be
But the only place, that you should be now
Is right here next to me

I tried to hold so tightly onto hope
Cos you meant so much to me
Now I know theres so many words I should have spoke
and guilt is in my tears

Even stars need the dark to shine
And the rain always needs to fall
Whisper your wish into the palm of your hand
And set it free before you start to fall

Though you’re thousands of miles away from home
In a different world to me
Our two souls will never be apart…
You stole my heart from me

Even stars need the dark to shine
And the rain always needs to fall
Whisper your wish into the palm of your hand
And set it free before you start to fall

Heaven sends you like the morning sun
But we know we shouldnt be here
Trying so hard to sleep alone at night
Would be easier if you were near

When this distance is keeping us apart
Remember I still hold you deep inside my heart
And when this night together, together cant be ours…

Just close your eyes and meet me in the stars…

© 2013 Words & Music by Steve McCarthy-Hunt

This was written in July 2015 after I had seen the 2009 film “London River”, which is about the search by two parents for their children who go missing in the midst of the 7th July London bombings. The film portrays with great empathy, the emotional turmoil the parents go through along the timeline of events of the day before finding out the truth of what happened to their only children.

Not being a parent, this was not an easy emotion for me to relate to, but the portrayal by Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyate of the two central characters was inspirational. I took lines and events from the film’s dialogue as building blocks and describing what I was watching as the basis for the piece.

The track is named after the fictional daughter (Jane) of Brenda Blethyn’s character (Elisabeth Sommers) in the film.

At the time of writing, one of my closest collaborators is writing a musical interpretation of this track. When it is completed, it will be linked to these lyrics.

Song For Jane

Verse 1/
I just cant get through
I have to know
And find out what happened that day to you
I keep ringing your office
And everyone is there except for you
I know you wouldn’t just walk away, would you?

Please understand, I have to find this out for myself…

Bridge/
I promised I would find you
Even if I had to comb the earth
And I’m not going home empty handed
Its shaking my faith to its core
Now I just don’t know if I can believe any more
Were you caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Verse 2/
Standing in a church as quiet as a grave
Candle in my hand, burning for the soul I’m hoping to save
Making whispered promises that only I can believe in
I made a vow to always keep you from harm
But everything around me is broken and I cant understand the calm

Please understand, I have to find this out for myself.

Chorus/
And I’ll be there when you break and when the pieces start to fall
And I promise I’ll gather you up, leaving nothing behind at all
Because you lived your life by the values of love.

Verse 3/
I have more questions
That can ever be answered by the weary face of a stranger
Who has already said the same thing fifty times today
I don’t know if I can bear to be around all your friends
Lights in the tunnel like candles in a corridor that never ends
And the kindness of people I don’t know going out of their way
Bringing armfuls of flowers to the crime scene every day

Please understand, I had to find this out for myself.

Middle 8:
Now I can only sit alone in your room
Breaking my heart over and over again
Every time I hear your tunes
But theres never any music in the dead of the night…

CODA/outro (spoken)

Its not about you
Its not about you
Give of yourself for those who are lost
And not for yourself
Not for yourself
Not for yourself.

(c) lyrics: Steve McCarthy-Hunt. Music: David J Barnes, 2015

“See the mountains crumble
Feel the fire go cold
Summer will turn to winter
Love will turn to stone…”

“They say his famous final words
Came from the heart of man
I made his bed on love denied
Now I ain’t gonna sleep tonight”

“Too late for the young gun
To lead a simple life
Too late for the young gun…
The sun and the moon…
The wind…. and the rain…..”

(c) Orzabal/Holland, “The Year Of The Knife”, from the album “Sowing The Seeds Of Love”, 1989

This was written more in the form of a poem than a set of lyrics, in April 2015. It has since then (late July 2015 to be exact!) been given a musical life by one of my closest collaborators. At some point in the near future, the finished track will be uploaded to accompany the lyrics.

At its heart is a message of sentiment, loss and isolation and draws on the adage of spirit making its presence known by the unexpected appearance of birds or butterflies. The accompanying picture is of a blanket of stars kept in memory of my late father, which had been prepared before his passing. The narration pretty much explains itself. My only concern at the moment is that it is very short. It could be fleshed out musically (akin to Eight Miles High, or something like that), or I could add extra lyrics… I’m sure that once it starts to take shape during the recording sessions for London Road that it will find its own direction.

Birds And Butterflies

Verse 1/
Now you’re gone, I’ve a story to tell
Of how I remember you and you knew me so well
You met me with your heart open wide and no desire to hide
And all I wanted was to be with you for the rest of my life

Verse 2/
You were the only one left sitting next to me
When the others had all left and gone to bed
And then you gave me something to decide
I said yes and the rest of our story was there to be read

Chorus/
Love is a lesson in life when you’re all grown up
Sometimes wish I’d never grown up at all
Every time I see someone who looks like you
For a few seconds, I feel ten feet tall

Its like its all happened before, the second hand’s sweeping by
No more blood from my heart or bloodshot in my eyes
No matter how hard I look, I cant see any birds or butterflies…

(c) Steve McCarthy-Hunt 2015

“The look of love
It’s on your face
A look that time can’t erase
Be mine tonight
Let this be just the start
Of so many nights like this
Let’s take a lover’s vow
And then seal it with a kiss.”

“I can hardly wait to hold you
Feel my arms around you,
How long I have waited,
Waited just to love you,
Now that I have found you,
Don’t ever go, don’t ever go…..”

(c) Burt Bacharach/Hal David, “The Look Of Love”, 1967

This was written in about half an hour on an afternoon in July 2015 and re-written in about two hours in December 2016, to make it less lyrically dark (yes, I did really say that!)

The original lyrics, at their core, were based on a dream sequence of a couple, meeting an Angel of Death on a street corner in Lower Manhattan (interestingly enough, very close to a favourite guitar shop of mine) on a winter’s evening.  But, I have to admit that looking back on these songs that were at the time, very cathartic no longer serve their purpose because the need I had for catharsis was no longer necessary. So, along with a couple of other tracks that were particularly… opaquely dark, were rewritten/updated very late in 2016. And this was one of them, the other being Let It Go. Primarily because that musically, they were too strong to completely recycle or abandon or chop up and use elsewhere.

It was conceived originally as a song for a crooner, in the style of Matt Munro or similar – and funnily enough, when I say “similar”, the name of the late Karen Carpenter has also come to mind. So, its not so much the range of the voice, but the richness of the tone, the feel, the phrasing and the power behind it, that will be the key to unlocking this song… the idea that I had was for the track to be backed by an orchestral or big band arrangement. Not in any way ambitious then, he added, dryly…

It was one of those rare songs of mine that I’ve had just walk into my imagination in that semi-slumbering gap between sleep and alertness at about 5.30 in the morning, fully formed, vocal melody, arrangement, the whole lot. I know exactly how it should sound and the music has been written so far with that in mind. There are particularly tricky aspects of it, going from the verses into the big crescendos and what the chords linking those parts will be and how they will work.

The descending chord pattern for the Pre-chorus, Chorus and Coda were particularly difficult to work out for a non-theory computer-based writer. Thanks to two particular things – Cubase’s Chord Track (which has saved my bacon on countless occasions, I freely admit it) and the Bacharach & David classic One Less Bell To Answer, that pattern was finally found.

The chords have absolutely not been plagiarized, but are very heavily influenced by this track because it was exactly the feel that I was searching a long time for. The challenge, as is often the case for those who are music-theory lite like me, has been stitching those pieces together.

And, I readily admit that it has been (for a non-reading, non professional arranger/composer like me) at times, fiendishly challenging to breathe life into, it genuinely has; there were many times where I wondered how the hell I was going to get the feel that I wanted, how the hell to get the idea out of my head and on to disk – especially in the chorus/crescendo/Coda parts –  even resorting to borrowing another idea from Mr Bacharach from This Guy’s In Love With You for the big dramatic cliff-hanger just before the end. Afficionados will recognise it as soon as they get to hear it, how this particular idea of using different inversions of the same chord has been used.

The finished track will definitely end up on the KOAS No Expectations album.

The majority of the hard work has already been done and virtually all of the song barring the vocals is on disk already. I think I’ll be very pleased with it once it is all done and finished. I think that one thing I am particularly pleased about with regard to the lyrical rewrite is that theres enough of the original for it to have its emotional meaning to me as the writer, but its now loose enough to be delivered by anyone… Should anyone out there in the industry have a requirement for a 6 minute big band song for a crooner, that is. Somebody must do, surely. *grin*

Manhattan Lullaby

Verse 1/
On the corner of Greene St and Broome,
Walking home on a late winter afternoon,
Pools of vanilla streetlights in the rain
In the hours before a rising moon
Arm in arm as the world walks on by,
Heart to heart and a love thats only yours and mine
The start of the night, but not the end of the line…

Verse 2/
Its getting cold maybe theres snow in the air,
The sound of the city is all around is us everywhere
On the streets of Manhattan, without a single care…

I look at you girl, and your beautiful smile
A sense of wonder in your eyes,  just like a child
These precious moments I’ll hold onto for all of our time

Pre Chorus:/
So why now we’re here do we seem so alone?
In this place where we have made our home
Darling, let us stay here til the end of our time
This time will aways be mine
When I hear her lullaby…

(Solo)

CODA/ (crescendo)

At night this city is the most beautiful in the world
And there’s no better place for me and my girl,
Darling, we’ll be here til the end of our time

(sotto voce & piano/orchestration)

This time will always be mine
When I hear her lullaby…

(c) Words & Music Steve McCarthy-Hunt 2015

This was written in May 2015 and is largely self explanatory. The character thinks he sees his former lover in the form of almost every woman he sees, especially one particular woman in Manhattan where a split-second’s eye contact between two complete strangers ends up being romanticised.

I guess if anything, its a lesson or observation in the desperation that comes from isolation; wanting something to have a slither of truth in it, but knowing deep down, that it doesnt.

Deja Vu

Verse 1/
Every time I see her
Cant help but think she looks like you
No idea of her name or her number
Perfume smells of déjà vu
Her hair’s nothing like yours,
But she moves, she moves, just like you used to do.

Chorus/
I remind myself, its all happened before
Same old girl, same old sound to her voice
I bought a one way ticket to happiness
And caught the same train right back to my door
She’s just like the same old girl, from all those years before…

Verse 2/
I caught a cab to the airport
Saw her oblivious on 5^th Avenue
She still don’t know who I am
Our shadows meet but don’t change their hue
I watched her leave, turning away
Her footsteps stay in my fading view
She’s still no idea who I am
And I’m still no closer to my memory of you.

Middle 8/
Same old pet names come to mind
Smell of wine and candles fills my heart
I see you every day as you walk through the park
And I wonder what you do every night in the dark
Now I’m getting hooked on you
Even though nothing will hold us together beyond a spark….

CODA/
I see that same look in her eyes
Waiting to be swept out by the tide
Any distant shore in a storm
But she’ll never be too hard to find

(c) Steve McCarthy-Hunt 2015