Tony Gillam
Tony Gillam
- writer and musician
SONG LYRICS
Listeners of my albums may have noticed that the lyrics to my songs are not printed in the artwork of any of my CDs. I've had a few people ask me for the lyrics to my songs so, over time, I thought I would add a selection on this new page of the website. If there's a particular song of mine you'd like the lyrics to, please contact me using the contact form and I'll try to include it here.
Mercury in Retrograde
Mercury in retrograde, doesn't matter what you do or say,
Doesn't matter what you do or say, 'cause Mercury is in retrograde.
Everything you say or do,
you can be certain it'll go askew.
Everything you do or say,
communication will go astray.
Mercury in retrograde, doesn't matter what you do or say,
Doesn't matter what you do or say, 'cause Mercury is in retrograde.
You found the station but you missed the train,
umbrella’s broken and it looks like rain,
The signs are saying you face long delays
on these broken motorways.
Mercury in retrograde, doesn't matter what you do or say,
Doesn't matter what you do or say, 'cause Mercury is in retrograde.
I'm not sure I really believe in all these cosmic wheels,
But nothing else really accounts for how this feels.
Thomas Hardy, he understood,
you can send a letter but it'll do no good.
It slips through the cracks and gets hidden away
only to be found too late in the day.
Mercury in retrograde, doesn't matter what you do or say,
Doesn't matter what you do or say, 'cause Mercury is in retrograde.
© 2024 Tony Gillam
And Then the Rains Came
(from the album In the Emptiness)
I thought I was high and dry
leaving you alone
you might have been expected to cope
to muddle through on your own
I didn't want to write a difficult song
you couldn't go about playing
no one could right a political wrong
that goes without saying
And then the rains came,
I thought I'd write a letter but the rains came,
I thought I was getting better but the rains came,
and it's all getting wetter by the day...
and then the rains came,
I thought I'd write a letter but the rains came,
I thought you were getting better but the rains came, and it's all getting wetter by the day...
In the emptiness
and in the frozen silence
given form by a breakout at dawn,
by a warm outbreak of violence
I didn't want to write a commentary,
don't ask me to explain
a pile of words in a love song left,
like a paper on a train
And then the rains came,
I thought I'd write a letter but the rains came,
I thought you were getting better but the rains came,
and it's all getting wetter by the day...
and then the rains came,
I thought I'd write a letter but the rains came,
I thought we were getting better but the rains came,
and it's all getting wetter by the day...
© 2023 Tony Gillam
The Dead Translator
(from the album In the Emptiness)
Can't get the taste out of my mouth these days,
I rinse and spit but still the flavour stays.
I'm a detective working on the case
of your unexpected beauty and easy grace.
I saw you talking to the cedar tree,
your weirded elbow and your wounded knee.
I took the night and passion to the sea
but the windswept stations got the better of me.
Sometimes I wonder if I ever should
define the strangeness of a crime so good.
It starts with anger and it ends in tears
and perpetuates the nightmare that your soul reveres.
The creativity that you despise
is like a shower falling from the skies.
The dead translator got it in the neck
and it's you who commissioned it and paid the cheque.
© 2023 Tony Gillam
Shouting at the Dark
(from the album Lazy Oceanography)
The stab of violence in the public park
and all the children frightened of the dark
and nobody seems to offer that much light...
so we left home and the truth hit town,
everybody putting everybody down,
and compassion packed her bags and left by night.
I don't know what we're doing,
seems we're just shouting at the dark.
But perhaps by shouting
we can generate a spark,
and if that spark catches fire
it will illuminate the night
and cancel out the darkness
that can't comprehend the light
– shouting at the dark.
There's people talking and the music’s loud,
they say there's one of them in every crowd
but I never meant to interrupt the night.
But the stab of violence in the public park
and all the children frightened of the dark
and nobody seems to offer that much light...
I don't know what we're doing,
seems we're just shouting at the dark.
But perhaps by shouting,
we can generate a spark,
and if that spark catches fire
it will illuminate the night
and cancel out the darkness
that can't comprehend the light
– shouting at the dark.
© 2018 Tony Gillam