GENTLY JOHNNY
Trad., arr. Lavelle 

He put his hand all in her hair and she said 'I like it there' He put his hand all on her lips and she said 'please tell me this: Gently gently gently johnny, gently johnny my jingalo, gently gently gently Johnny, gently Johnny my dear.' He put his hand all on her knee and she said 'do you want to see' He put his hand all on her breast and she said 'do you want a kiss? Gently Johnny... He put his hand all on her thigh and she said 'do you want to try?' He put his hand all on her belly and she said 'do you want to fill me? Gently Johnny...

SO UNCOOL
Words & Music: Lavelle

I'm so uncool that my fingers almost burn. They've been known to strip the skin like the sun. Come & touch me brave heart with your velvet skin; you're playing games with me you'll never win. You spill tempting lies, silver, like fishes on the sand, and tell me that heaven lies in the smallest touch of your hand, and I'm almost believing you; you're playing games with me and you will lose. You drape mystery lightly, like gauze around your head, and capture the midday sun in your eyes; the sweetness in your face it lies so easily - if I believed in you I'd lose me. I'll eat you alive, oh & you can hardly wait, but I know that your fate holds you with a surer touch than I ever could, or ever wanted to; believe me we're on our own. And it's just you.

INNOCENCE SLEEPING
Words: Brian Patten, Music: Lavelle

Sleeping beside you I dreamt I woke beside you; waking beside you I thought I was dreaming. The motion of landscapes, of oceans is inside him. He is so innocent sleeping, no protection is needed. At such times the heart opens, contains all there is, there being no more than him. Have you ever slept beside the ocean? It is just like this, I can sleep well beside him. At such times, the heart opens, contains all there is, there being no more than him. Waking beside him I am dreaming. Dreaming of such wakings I am to all senses woken. Taken from the poem 'The innocence of any flesh sleeping' by Brian Patten

BANKS OF THE NILE
Trad., arr. Lavelle 

Oh hark, the drums do beat my love, I can no longer stay. The bugle horns are sounding clear, and I must march away. We are ordered down to Portsmouth, and it's many's the weary mile, to join the British army, along the banks of the Nile. Oh Willie dearest Willie, don't leave me here to mourn. Don't make me curse and rue the day that ever I was born; for the parting of our love would be like parting with my life - so stay at home my dearest love, and I will be your wife. Oh Nancy darling Nancy, sure that would never do. The government has ordered and we are bound to go; the government has ordered and the queen she gives command, and I am bound on oath my love to serve in a foreign land. Oh then I'll cut off my long hair, and I'll go along with you. I'll dress myself in uniform & I'll see Egypt too; I'll march beneath your banner while fortune she do smile and we'll comfort one another along the banks of the Nile. But your waist it is too slender, your fingers they're too small; the cruel sun of Egypt your rosy cheeks would spoil. Well the cannons they do rattle and the bullets they do fly, and the silver trumpets sound so loud to hide the dismal cries. Oh then cursed be those cruel wars since ever they began, for they have robbed our country of many's the handsome man. They have robbed us of our sweethearts, while their bodies they feed the lions on the dry & sandy deserts, which are the banks of the Nile

SYMPLE LYRIC
Words: Brian Patten, Music: Lavelle

The space his leaving creates, I have tried to fill with bodies that numbed my skin. In them I had expected to find his opposites; I found only forgeries. He's away and I cannot breathe him in. When I think of his sparkling face, and of his body that rocked me this way and that; when I think of his laughter, his jubilance that filled me, it's a wonder I'm not gone mad. He's away and I cannot breathe him in. He is a fiction I've made, yet I cannot stop longing for him. Craving sensation new flesh cannot wholly calm; perhaps it's for more than him. He's away and I cannot breathe him in.

NO MORE WORDS
Words & Music: Lavelle

I give you no more words; you take them hostage & bring them back in negative - in Stockholm they're convinced by their captors in the opposite of reason, so twisted, they smile at me with logic saying, look, get outta that. You take my simple words far beyond logic, and lose their truest meaning, infuse them with your pain. You pull them to yourself like a miser with his money, and serve them up so pretty, eating cold revenge again. The words they coil around like so many snakes, you let your guard fall down - I see Oz behind the drapes - with one great bound I am free & I am running. No longer can you say to me, haha get outta that!

TOO LATE
Words & Music: Lavelle

I knew you could not forget me, couldn't if you tried. You'd spoken truth on Upper Street: I was your soul & you were mine. But the fire was too hot for you & you took your burned hand away & gave it to an ordinary love to soothe it every day: And now you come to me too late too late, and now you come to me too late. Where there were no barriers you've grown up ghosts between us now; their cold fingers pull me back - they hunt my courage down. And now you come to me too late. You sold your lovely soul while I never found the one who had the currency for mine. And now you come to me too late.

THE TREES THEY DO GROW HIGH
Trad., arr. Lavelle 

The trees they do grow high & the trees they do grow green, but the days have gone & passed my love that thou & I were seen. It's a cold winter's night my love, it's now that I must lie alone: my bonny boy you were young, but a-growing. Oh father dearest father I fear you've done me harm, for you've married me to a bonny boy but you know he is too young. Oh daughter dearest daughter if you will stay at home with me a lady you shall be while he's growing. We'll send him to the college for one year or two & then perhaps in time my love, a man he'll make for you. I'll buy you white ribbons to tie around his bonny waist to let the ladies know that he's married. At the age of sixteen he was a married man, at the age of seventeen he was the father of a son; at the age of eighteen my love, his grave it was a-growing green and death had put an end to his growing. I made my love a shroud of the holland o-so fine, and every stitch I put in it the tears they did run down; oh once I had a sweetheart but now he's lying in the ground, but I'll nurse his bonny boy while he's growing. O now my love is dead and in his grave doth lie, the green grass that covers him, it groweth up so high; o once a had a sweetheart but now I have got ne'er a one; so fare thee well my own true love for ever.

GREENWOOD LADDIE
Trad., arr. Lavelle 

Ye muses assist me, there is none can resist me save only that fair one whom I do adore. And the more that they tease me the more he would please me, he'll be my my greenwood laddie til time is no more. Have you seen my dearest whose eyes shine the clearest, whose lips like the red blood new dropped in the snow; he is neat tall and handsome, his arms warm and gentle, he'll be my greenwood laddie til time is no more. My parents my darling, they slight you with scorn because you have no riches wrapped up in a store. But the more that they slight you the more I'll entice you to be my greenwood laddie til time is no more. Twas down in yonder bower I spent many hours, a-plucking wild flowers on yon winding shore; twas his stolen kisses caused my fondest wishes. He'll be my greenwood laddie whom I'd always adore. If I had the riches of the east or west indies, or if I had the gold of the African shore, or if I could gain thousands I would lie in your sweet arms and you'd be my greenwood laddie til time is no more.

TIMELESS
Words & Music: Lavelle

Young love is honed so sharp that the blade can snap embedded in your heart, and when you move you feel the ache, though the face that caused it fades. But old love grows so long that the part above the ground has less effect, and time can wither tender shoots, but leaves those roots secure and strong. But the best love has no time; no forwards, backwards but only now. It's strong arms hold you when you walk and if you fall you're always caught. Though I know this to be true, yet I still believe I love you the best; the way that you turn your head, it twists my heart so tight it hurts.

HANDFUL OF ASHES
Words: Siamanto, Music: Lavelle

Alas, you were like a grand and magnificent mansion. And I, from the white summit of your roof, in the light of the star-studded night, listened to the fearsome flow of the Euphrates below. I heard with tears, with tears, that on a day of horror massacre and blood, your broad walls were shattered stone by stone, and thrown on the gardena around you. Did the blue room also turn to ashes, where, within it's walls and carpets, my happy childhood rejoiced, my life grew and my soul took flight? My fathers' home! Be assured that when I die, my soul will come to you as an exiled turtledove to sing in tears it's song of sorrow over your black ruins. But tell me. Who will bring to me a handful of your sacred ashes the day I die, to put in my grave and mix with my ashes, a singer of the homeland? A handful of ashes with my own, ancestral home. Who will bring a handful of ashes from your ashes? Of your memories, your suffering and your past. A handful of ashes to scatter over my heart.

Translated from the Armenian by Garbis Yessayan.

BUSHES & BRIARS
Trad., arr. Lavelle 

Through bushes & through briars I lately took my way, all for to hear the small birds sing, one evening in May. I overheard my own true love; her voice it was so clear 'long time I have been waiting for the coming of my dear'.

KARMA
Words & Music: Lavelle

I am a Russian doll Layers beneath the skin I have no interest to see how I keep all that stuff in Cause now I've found you faithless same as me It waits just like an animal patient like an animal eyes in the trees looking for me all of Dali's children wait and see And all the times I did this same thing All the times i Karma karma karma... Then I had no reflection now I live in a glass along with all those sweet eyes I made so red in the past Now they're smiling while they're dragging me down. It leans on me til I can't breathe among the free I suffocate and all the times I did this same thing all the times i Karma karma karma

ANIMA RISING
Words & Music: Lavelle

On the edges time is still forever waiting for your sign choosing like a child Brilliant midnight selfish in pleasures knowing when to know to turn or go alone On the water you hold a face reflected paler than the hands measuring the sands. Silver water bright as a thief easy of belief a stillness in release

FIREFLY NIGHT
Words: Lavelle, Music: Lavelle/Kenny

I was drawn to the light just a little curious then I grew to needing it bright I began to speak of us by the time you realise you're on the losing side it's too late for regrets too late for regrets I was caught by the light of a firefly night of a firefly night. It was the girl on the cover not the living breathing me and for once I can take no pleasure in my getting it right finally by the time you realise you're on the losing side it's too late for regrets too late for regrets I was caught by the light of a firefly night on a firefly night Like a magic trick once explained when you hold the secret in your hand the magic's tamed There are no lights in my eyes now and I sit for hours in a daze cos I've lost the sweetest madness that could baffle and amaze by the time you realise you're on the losing side it's too late for regrets too late for regrets I was caught by the light of a firefly night on a firefly night

THE FALL
Words & Music: Lavelle

I found the fall beguiling my body hanging in the rushing air but when my daylight had shrunk I wished to all life that I wasn't there And speaking in the darkness I tried to make a joke And to my shame was answered by a hundred ragged voices who spoke; you get used to it, we did you get used to it, we did And sure enough my sight returned so many crowded the walls some even getting near the top and fighting for a new foothold there was no way up that I could see no light and no ladders, but I believed in the dice and snakes cos I was at the bottom sadder You get used to it, they did you get used to it, they did And down would come the gentlemen to do their good each day and talk to me with softened voices protected by their suits of grey and they would give me presents if I wanted them or no so I could make more sense of all the stupid things that I'd let show You get used to it, they did You get used to it, they did

ANXIETY
Words & Music: Lavelle

I let him in he won't stay out; the wrong one he loves me unshakable doubt. He waits for me, to wake me up til he wrings me out every drop Under sun while I race he waits patient in my bed a smile on his face til he wrings me out every drop I dreamed last night that he let go he was falling in circles I laughed as he froze but there he'll be revenged on me til he wrings me out every drop yeah every drop.

FARTHER THAN THE SUN
Words & Music: lavelle

Strung in the wind I called you, but you did not hear; you're a plant that needs poor soil and I have treated you too well to give up flowers Oh I have been too rich for you. Farther than the sun from me, farther than I'd have you be, And I go north, I get so cold My heart is lava under stone; You are not worthy, you are not worthy. With your calculating eyes spinning figures You cannot see me, And if I tell myself enough I'll believe it you are not worthy. The sea it freezes over to trap the light, And I'm in love with being in love and you were never quite the one; in Gerda's eyes, fragments of what you've become. And all the moths that fly at night believe electric light is bright you are not worthy, you are not worthy With your calculating eyes spinning figures you cannot see me and if I tell myself enough I'll believe it

SHE SAID
Words & Music: lavelle

When I heard that golden voice in my head she said come away from windows of glass; if you don't wanna follow then leave them there and you'll find that the feeling will pass, she said you don't know me yet, but you will find I've been with you all the days of your life, when I took on the job I didn't realise you were such a difficult type and she said I'm so tired of fighting your wildest of ways and she said I'm so sorry taking your longest of days Then she took me by the hand and showed me 'do you see those lights up ahead, can you feel all the voices pulling you; I can't save you from what you dread ' and she said I'm so tired of fighting you, it's why you're here now and she said how I'm fading fast, you must say goodbye now I feel this is the place I leave you you'll find that your road is down there if you're feeling too warm take your clothes off I assure you that there's no-one will care and she said I'm so tired of fighting your wildest of ways and she said I'm so sorry taking your longest of days you don't know me yet but I've been with you all the days of your life when I took on the job didn't realise you were such a difficult type

LE POURQUOI
Words: Marc de Larreguy de Civrieux; music Lavelle

Depuis les jours de Charleroi
Et la retraite de la Marne,
J'ai promene partout ma 'carne'
Sans en comprendre le pourquoi...
Quand je demande autour de moi
Quel est le but de ces tueries,
On me repond le mot:'Patrie!'
Sans en comprendre le pourquoi...
Mieux me vaudrait de rester coi,
Et quand viendrait mon agonie,
De m'en aller de cette vie
Sans en comprendre le pourquoi...

February 1916 at the front

ALL I HAVE
Words & Music: Lavelle / Eleanor McEvoy

There was a time I gave too much away And many times I craved a touch too deeply Now I stand on my own alone There was a time, but that has gone for me cause all I have is me and all I need you can see So if you choose to lose yourself to me Keep in mind to save your mystery and my soul stays mine stays mine and you can grow entwined yet still be free Cause all I have is me And all i need you can see

MANGOES
Words & Music: Lavelle

And maybe this time I should And maybe this time it would and maybe I'll forget what history persuades it wants of me You taste of mangoes in the darkness spinning time in chaos the flooding hours like a minute's essence so pure and sweet My voice is dark and broken so much I leave unspoken There must be a right time to give in; In losing, how might I win how might I win.

HOME OF THE WHALE
Words & Music: Owen Hand

Oh my love he works upon the sea
On the waves that blow wild and free
He splices the ropes and he sets the sail
While southwards he roams to the home of the whale

And he ne'er thinks of me far behind
Or the torments that rage in my mind
He is mine for only part of the year
Then I'm left all alone with only my tears

All ye ladies that smell of wild rose
Think you for your perfume of where a man goes
Think you of the wives and the babies that yearn
For the man ne'er returns sleeping without a stone

Oh my love he works upon the sea
On the waves that blow wild and free
He splices the ropes and he sets the sail
While southwards he roams to the home of the whale

UNIVERSAL
Words & Music: Lavelle

There's beauty in the dance of the cloud that is me and the cloud that is you in the rhythm of stars and the shining wet grass in the morning and we're all born of a wish, an unlikely form of coincidences each one a bridge between stars. So small, universal each grain of sand a person I could fall in love with so small universal and every time I look up know I'll be coming home Endless re-arrangement a tearing apart the gift of a spark; the clash in the cloud that spawned your heart out of turmoil a bright flash in the sky: a quadrantid as I thought of you the same stuff you and I. So small universal each grain of sand a person I could fall in love with so small universal and every time I look up, know I'll be coming home.

TURNING GROUND
Words & Music: Lavelle

I see the first ones lately much more clearly
Spilling blood along the turning ground
Diving in your eyes...

Will you feel the softly spoken lies?
Will you find what lives behind my eyes?

MOORLOUGH SHORE
Trad., arr. Lavelle

I have waited long for you to come back home
to hear you call my name again
in my heart's deep soul you've not changed at all
and the years have passed you by
your sweet lips that lingered on my skin
i can feel their heat again
and your eyes that thrilled with passion's fire
they watch my every whim

some say my love, sweet love was lost
while crossing the raging main
or perhaps he has gone with some other girl
I might never see his face again
but if my irish love is lost he's the one I do adore
and for seven long years i'll wait for him
on the banks of the moorlough shore

he said farewell to castles grand
farewell to the foggy hills
where the linen waves like bleaching silk
and the falling stream runs still
near there we spent our joyful days but alas they are all gone
for cruelty has banished him
far away from the moorlough shore

DREAM OF PICASSO
Words & Music: Lavelle

tonight I shall sleep with the ghost of Picasso
and I'll draw the arms of the city close around us
'that one he died' I'll tell him, and he'll say
'so did I it's no big thing'
and he'll paint a blue halo round my head
and then he'll slip cool and calm beside me in my bed
and he'll say, come on, come on

tonight I shall sleep with the knowledge and freedom
that the one who comes will be wanting only me
and when he does, that river, will flow across the moon
a silent stream
and he'll tell me that he loves me just the same
and that he's dreamt about me dancing in the falling rain
and he'll say, he'll say come on, come on

FORGET THE FEW
Words & Music: Lavelle

The whole world holds its breath
at the place where your fingertips touch my hair
and my heart turns over the first time
i dare hold your eyes with mine:
forget the few, be one, just once tonight.

you speak with no words
a depth of intensity I've never heard
and because i know that it can't last
i cherish this time with you
forget the few, be one, just once tonight.

LAGAN LOVE
Trad., arr. Lavelle

Where Lagan streams
Sing lullabies through clouds of lilies fair
The half-light gleam is in his eyes
The night is on his hair
Like a love-sick lenashee
He has my heart to call
No life have I
No liberty
For his love is lord of all

And often when the late birdsong
Has lulled all the world to sleep
I will steal into my lover's arms
Our secrets there to keep
And on the cricket's singing stone
He'll make a drywood fire
And tell me then
Sweet undertones
The song of my heart's desire

WAITING FOR RAIN
Words & Music: Lavelle

when the ground drives like sand
and you're losing it from both hands
when you're flowering is denied, you're
waiting for rain, waiting for rain

when your staging has had its day
just indulging in shadow play
and your players need time to grow, you're
waiting for rain, waiting for rain

when the sun finds your hiding place
and the heat of it smacks your face
when you're losing your weather eye, you're
waiting for rain, waiting for rain

if your surroundings are watertight
got too blase to excite
it's no real use to be
waiting for rain

DESIRE
Words & Music: Lavelle

Desire brings on madness and that madness is directed at you
The touch of you unwinds me and entwines me in a vision of you
I'm drowning in sweet desire
The scent of you attracts me and entraps me an invisible snare
The thought of your lips on my skin bringing you back again
Loving you the feeling
Loving you I'm reeling
The darkness doesn't calm me it alarms me
In the night with no sleep
The daylight brings no healing just the feeling
That you've cut in too deep
I'm drowning in sweet desire
Alone now you are with me I could give you
Everything that you need
Mine is the bread that you break
Mine is the wine that you taste
Loving you the feeling
Loving you I'm reeling
Loving you I never knew
Loving you would leave me blue

THE ISLAND
Words & Music: Lavelle

Tomorrow night I will go down to the island
And look for footprints of yours in the foam
I can wait til the sea gives up her lovers
Til I find you asleep on a stone
I'll wait
Where are you?
I'll wait
I'll find you

Now the summer is over light is dying
Earth is giving up life with a sigh
Then the grass was so green where we were lying
Cracking underfoot now, tinder dry
I'll wait
Where are you?

SLEEP NOW
Words: Brian Patten, Music: Lavelle

sleep now, your blood moving in the quiet wind
no longer afraid for the others
hurrying through the tall grass
or the faces laughing on the beach, sleep now
you do not hear the dry wind pray
or the children play a game called soldiers

sleep now, alone in the sleeves of grief
listening to clothes falling
and your flesh touching god
to the chatter and backslapping of christ meeting the heroes of war
sleep now, you do not hear the dry wind pray
or the children play a game called soldiers

sleep now, your words have passed the lights shining from the east
and the sound of flak raping graves and emptying the seasons
sleep now, sleep now
you do not hear the dry wind pray
or the children play a game called soldiers

SHEHERAZADE
Words & Music: Lavelle

i'll be your sheherazade
tell it new each night
i'll be your sheherazade
keep my life each night
like the air like the sea like the earth more than life
let the rain come down on me
i will turn it into pearls
and wind them on your arms
like the air like the sea like the earth more than life
in the silence of the night
i will feel you call my name
and shriven by the flame
you will rise again
like the air like the sea like the earth more than life

COME TO ME
Words: Lavelle, Music: Vangelis

come to me
while I'm sleeping
so their wagging tongues
may not find you, my love
all the while
they lie dull,
our lighter souls will fuse
and fly and dive my love

so stamp this night so strong
that I will remember
and have it ever after

come to me
in my dreaming
so their wagging tongues
may not find you my love

round the corner
back of hands
they'll still be talking
whether or not we'd ever...
whether we'd ever yet...

from the Vangelis album "Voices"

THE GREAT ESCAPE
Words: Lavelle, Music: Lavelle / BT

You talk to me
With the language of the sea
Of sand hot in the sun

With the cries of night creatures
I dimly understand...
In your great escape
In your great escape
It's your chance to take
Make your great escape

Your binary words
Glow in my darkness
Your 'darling', it hangs in the air
You make chemicals run
in my blood just by looking
and take my free will and throw it away

And I feel your warmth
As the sparks fly upwards
From the burning of all of your bridges

In your great escape
In your great escape
It's your chance to take
Make your great escape

from the BT album "Emotional Technology" 

THE FREEZE
Words & Music: Lavelle / Zazou

I'll meet you
where the path meets the beach
where the tree leans out over the water
slender and tender
olive green
how can it survive the freeze?

you smell of the trees
you're the one of the forest

the light died beyond the window
and the perfume was all dying leaves
of rain in the dirt
and turned fields
will we survive the freeze?

the salt has dried at the corner of your lips
and you laugh at me
before you come to my bed
heavy and hot
will you survive the freeze?

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