Get all 5 John Parkes releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Virtually Alive EP, Bleeding Edge / Distant Past, Don't be Seventeen EP, Illegal Songs, and Faithlessnessless.
1. |
Brand New Day
03:47
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Brand New Day
We’re here, don’t cry
The birds of evening sing
Stay warm, stay dry
It’s time to fold your wings
Time to try to close your tired, tired eyes
And you can fly in tomorrow’s sky
If we’ve had a good day, we’ll have another soon
If we’ve had a bad day, be gone forever soon
Stay safe, stay bright
And reach up for the sky
This love won’t die
Take us through the night
Time to glide to the land of sleep
Time to slide to the world of dreams
Yes we’ve had a good day, we’ll have another soon
We’ll survive a bad day, all forgotten soon
Time to try to close your tired, tired eyes
And when you wake we’ll have a brand new day
And every day is a brand new day
By John Parkes
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2. |
Don't Be Seventeen
02:54
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Don’t Be Seventeen
Don’t be seventeen again my love
‘cause we couldn’t find our way back then
And the current’s still too strong
Don’t be leaving home again my love
‘cause we couldn’t sail that sea again
With winter coming on
I tried to make it right but I can’t save this situation
It makes no sense to fight against the time and tide and motion
The higher is our kite, the easier to let it go
The brighter is our light, the darker grow the shadows
So don’t be drawing plans on me my love
Echoes twisting, smoke and air
Just whispers in the wind
So yes I could feel that way again
But we let too many pieces drift away
And they’re not coming back
By John Parkes
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3. |
A Strange Affair
03:01
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A Strange Affair
When she stays here, she stays all night
When it rains here, it rains all night
If I fall into a feeling
If I crash to the ceiling
If you close your eyes
The cool softness of summer leaves warms the winter air
A strange affair, I left back there
With all my love and everything
When it snows here, it snows all night
When she leaves here, she leaves no light
If you call out for healing
If you stand up for kneeling
With her flame red hair
The warm wetness of winter clothes cools the summer air
A strange affair, sailed the air
Caught cold by catapult and sling
A strange affair, a trap and snare
Waits on my weakness on the wing
I said I don’t believe it
A strange affair, sailed the air
Caught cold by catapult and sling
A strange affair, I left back there
With all my love and everything
By John Parkes
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4. |
Roses / Bees
03:19
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Roses / Bees
You say no-one loves me more
Trailing roses round my door
You came blindly, you came strange
Drowning pools of joy and pain
You say death is not the end
You say sex is not our friend
You have walked on holy ground
You have whispered in the crowd
You send arrows through my windows
You put ropes around my shadows
You see meaning in my silences
Silences and moods
Pouring scorn like boiling oil
Flowing sadness down my walls
You are the sunshine in the trees
You are the buzzing of the bees
By John Parkes
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5. |
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What to Do (One True Love)
I don’t know what to do with these feelings for you - and they hurt
I worry, I wake and I pine and I wait - but I work
‘cause the sky is not falling
And the wise are not weeping
And the real world slips on by
I know what I feel and these feelings are real and for you
Shallow as words and obscene and absurd - but they’re true
But how longer lasting?
On the rough road where they’ll be landing
Where strangers catch our eyes
Save my one true love for you
Save my one true love for you
But I know this is nonsense
And when desire takes on conscience
Whole worlds fall apart
We’re so, we’re so wise – and real life, real life lies
And the world runs on bad timing
And I only had a lifetime
And my lizard brain won’t die
I do know what to say and I do know how to win and what works
How fickle are feelings against the fates and the flakes and the flirts
And it’s all far too easy
To fall down slick and sleazy
Where endings pose as starts
Save my one true love for you
Save my one true love for you
Save my one true love for you
Save my one true love for you
By J Parkes
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6. |
Lincolnshire
03:00
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Lincolnshire
She stayed in a little town, with Lincolnshire all around
She stayed in this little place, in my head with the market place and green
I thought I’d left her here
Like the pickles on her larder shelf
Just waiting there
I thought I’d left her there
Like wartime gas-tight bottled pears
From some dim remembered country fair
I forgot about cars, supermarkets, bars, satellite TV, the internet and jobs
And changes in the world, gazing at the same stars
Old men on park seats and new people on your streets
All those waves of changes
All those years of changes
It was me who stayed in that little world, and on the bed sheets nostalgia burns
I held you in this little place, in my head with my past mistakes
I don’t think I mean to patronise, I just needed to leave then, no compromise
But all these cities are just little towns, with meaner buses and bigger crowds
I thought I’d left you there
In the past with all my prejudice of small town worlds
I’d like to make it clear, my world is no bigger than Lincolnshire
Or that small town girl
By John Parkes
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7. |
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Cinema Pictures (Loved to Sail)
What would you gain by leaving?
But what could I claim for living?
We all love you in cinema pictures
‘Sailing On’, ‘Times Blue’
You loved to sail
We love to hear your breathing
You loved to sail
You hoped to work with children - some day
Now what do you care for laughing?
Too young, too soon - in cinema pictures
I’ve seen you nude - in spinning home movies
‘Turning Off’, ‘Tiny Sue’
You loved to sail
You hoped to work with children
And we’d die for fame
Will you die for fame now fading - away
You feed the birds from a platform in the atmosphere
Summer burns ‘til the rain falls here
Turning on to the East and Southern hemispheres
Moving on – where a star can shine
You loved to sail
We love to hear you’re breathing
And we’d die for fame
Will you die for fame now fading – away
By John Parkes
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8. |
Sleep With Me
03:29
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Sleep With Me
Please sleep with me, I’d be proud to love and leave you
Lose my lust then leave your life alone
Please sleep with me, while I’m on my best behaviour
One of the things I can’t keep up for too long
Please sleep with me, before you get to know me
Learn my habits and I lose my mystery
Please sleep with me, don’t let’s stop and think this over
Put this one down to irresponsibility
And all you’ll hear as you lie here is you’re beautiful to me
Let’s keep it clear that you’re not here to waste your life with me
Please sleep with me, while we’re neither not quite sober
Pleasure plays before reason gets aroused
Please sleep with me, though not a soul mate nor a saviour
Stay the night and I’ll try to make your day
Please sleep with me, I will love you ever after
Though nothing physical like standing by your side
Please sleep with me, before I disappoint you
Meet your mother and learn to criticise
And all I fear is our lives steer clear of the best things in life they say are free
And if all I feel are your hard high heels it’s a learning curve for me
Unlock the cages that are labelled right and wrong
Let out the monkeys and the cats a while
Re-write the pages that would tell you how it’s done
Though I won’t argue if you run a mile
Please sleep with me, before we even think of going shopping
While my job is to soil not wash your underwear
Please sleep with me - and thank you for not noticing I’m a little older
Give a life a linger longer lay
And all you’ll hear as you lie here is you’re beautiful to me
Let’s keep it clear that you’re not here to waste your life with me
By John Parkes
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9. |
One Who Got Away
03:56
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One Who Got Away
You are slightly cold on summer days
You only have so much faith
You can never quite meet me here
Holding something back
And everyone has got a one who got away
Anyone can get it wrong and run away
Everyone can take summer on and turn it grey
So even though it’s raining stars
Even though the sunlight pours
This little piece of dark is yours
There is only drought in a cloudless sky
Too much sunlight makes you blind
Soft sand burns without some shade
And we can only build on hard ground
And everyone has got a one who got away
Anyone can get it wrong and run away
Everyone can take summer on and turn it grey
But it’s not written in the stars
There’s no fate or God or law
That says this piece of dark is yours
Watch them all carry on with confidence and summer skirts and bicycle bells
A kind of pain that feels the rain, the dark of love
The blood of life that makes it all real
Leaves you free to fall
Everyone has got a one who got away
Anyone can get it wrong and run away
Everyone can take summer on and turn it grey
By John Parkes
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10. |
Cold
03:21
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Cold
Walking from the station here, turn the face I wear round town
To the grey stone war memorial, the closed down shopping mall
An open mic comedian, in a pool of dark and noise
Delusions I enunciate, how I could change the world
To sing in a bar – an insane abroad
To shout at a wall – a man over-bored
The cold throws me home to the northern lights I know
Cold blows me home on a train through rain and snow
An over-bright night take-away I stand out on my own
Voluntary euthanasia takes my hope and soul
So I don’t show those feelings that grow cold
No streets of gold, no white lines on this road
To walk in a park until the mist soaks up the dawn
Or to be taken home by a girl that I don’t know
The cold throws me home to the northern lights I know
Cold blows me home on a train through rain and snow
This is no kiss and tell
This is no kiss and tell
By John Parkes
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11. |
Just For Now (Baby Song)
03:01
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Just for Now (Baby Song)
Don’t know where you came from, where were you before?
But you’ll never be alone as long as I’m here
We don’t have a bedroom, we don’t have a plan
’cept to always do for you, whatever we can
But just for now, I can’t wait to see you
Just for now I can’t wait to touch you
Just for now I hope that you safely are born
And in your mother’s arms
I hope that you’re happy, I hope that you’re strong
And you’ll never knowingly hurt anyone
I hope you climb mountains, I hope you sail seas
And I hope you’ll always find whatever you need
But in the end, we can’t know the future
In the end we can’t live life for you
In the end we can’t build our castles in air
Air...
I hope you’ll have lovers, I hope you’ll sing songs
And I hope we’ll all admit when we are wrong
And I will go with you, as far as I can
And I hope that you will stay forever young
But just for now, I can’t wait to see you
Just for now I can’t wait to touch you
Just for now I hope that you safely are born
And in your mother’s arms
And I will go with you, as far as I can
By John Parkes
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12. |
My Hit Song
03:40
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My Hit Song
My hit song, on the tip of my tongue
It’s been to the moon, words, a tune be here soon to entertain you
But that’s not what I do, an aberration it’s true
Ambition and money and contracts and fools
I’ll give house room
My hit song is for true believers
My hit song, for fantasists and losers
My hit verse, lifting the curse or skirts
Sex, drugs and money in a colour ball burst - hey I can cope now
So stick it up fashion, stick it up fate, sweeter than ever for turning up late
It’s a doozy
My fey fairy way with melody wins business
My old hurtful ways you’ll read in media studies
It’s going to be fun with the beautiful ones
My cynical songs will be soothed with the balm that success brings
But I’m not ready yet, my demands are not met
This song about a song for now’s what you get
Have to do now
Its cynical birth is a seed in the earth
It’s worth every penny you paid
And I’d just like to thank you
My hit song is for true believers
My hit song, for fantasists and losers
My hit song
By John Parkes
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13. |
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Trireme ‘72 (All Rowed Home)
With your Latin temperament and your Dutch cap you’ll go far
In Arctic winters the Gomorrah sinner
With the monocle and duelling scar
We all rowed home in a trireme ’72
We all rowed home somehow
An English rose with Irish eyes and a spoonful of Spanish fly
While Chinese whispers and French letter blisters
They make the Latin lovers cry
We all rode home on Arabian horse and nights
We all rode home somehow
Kicking our heels in the killing fields on a Portuguese man-o-war
With Celtic crosses we cut our losses and followed the Northern Star
In a Viennese whirl in an Indian summer with a skin full of German beer
Three score and ten with God and a friend, we all ended up right here
We all rowed home in a trireme ’72
We all rowed home somehow
By John Parkes
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