Get all 31 Richard Gorman releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Welcome to the Holy Land, Fretwork, Stone and Feather, The Weaving Shed, Don't Try This at Home, Man Walks into a Bar, Medication, Zeitgeist, and 23 more.
1. |
Moon Song
03:40
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Moon Song
The moon can hear me singing she stops in the sky
Heaven’s bells start ringing out your blessings upon high
Geese bound south for winter fall silent in the air
Because tonight we make love immortal
You pledge your soul to mine
With a kiss to seal forever
And on the far horizon Orion’s buckle shines
He’s fixing love’s arrow on your heart and mine
The bright gods of this island embrace us in the dark
Because tonight we destroy the darkness
Hold back the hands of time
With a kiss to seal forever
Your dancing in your black dress too high to sing the blues
And wearing out the plastic on your favourite dancing shoes
Drunk on sex and red wine as wasted as the sea
Your stealing guilty pleasures and feeding them to me
The moon can hear me singing she stops in the sky
Heaven’s bells start ringing out your blessings upon high
Geese bound south for winter fall silent in the air
Because tonight we make love immortal
You pledge your soul to mine
With a kiss to seal forever
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2. |
True
03:35
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True
I love you, true, true, true
Your midnight hair, your black mascara
Stocking tears and pistol laughter
Metal nightclubs, weekend hangovers
Drunken fumbles
Take my love and bury it deep between your breasts
Comfort me love, comfort me love
As I fall down at your feet
Pissed in Paris, screwed in Arles
To Sigur Ros and Peter Hammill
Let’s tear up Deptford with your girlfriends
Grab my arse I’ll squeeze your rear end
Place my lust between your lips and lead me to our bed
This heart remembers every word…
You said the future was clear in your head
And we would always be true
But beware of wishes which almost come true
As three becomes two
I love you, true, true, true
You laugh at nothing, you shit your nappies
Plastic dinosaurs to keep you happy
Lego, Batman, Tom and Jerry
Once the little kick in her belly
Say goodnight to her photograph and help me understand
The child becomes the father of the man
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3. |
Gone
06:02
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Gone
The air about me echoes every word you left unsaid
A stubborn sun still sculpts your shadow where your feet no longer tread
And our telephone is swollen with condolences from friends
But I taste impossible kisses
I still taste impossible kisses
Our son still smiles and dances with your mischief in his eye
Clock hands are still advancing, imagining they’re telling you the time
And flowers you would have chosen bow their heads to you and die
I taste impossible kisses
I still taste impossible kisses
There’s no end to the junk mail on which your name still appears
And our smiling family portrait has yet to shed a tear
You know I wrote this song for you to pretend that you're still here
Because I crave impossible kisses
I crave impossible kisses
Nightly, these fingers silhouette your absence in the dark
Nightly, these fingers silhouette your absence in the dark
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4. |
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The Truth of the Turning Wind
On that day
we watched an angry and glorious North Sea.
You, my love, our friend and me.
Hail and salt streamed in sheets.
All Orkney set herself square against the infinite gale.
Faces reddened on the sleeted bite
and no gull left with the strength to weep with the marram wind
along the howling shore.
You smiled on the sea as a sister
as though the brine she poured on you were praise
and we blessed your island for the wreckage of our holiday stroll.
But now I know
the truth of the turning wind.
I have unpicked the song of the ocean
whose wide gleaming you so adored.
On that day
she embraced your shade.
On that day
she guessed your fate.
On that day
she mourned your future.
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5. |
Two Voices
03:51
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Two Voices
Wrote this song of a midsummer night
Choked on whisky and losing the fight
To lay my poor head to rest
To lay my poor head to rest
Got an acre of space in my bed
There’s a pillow where should lie your head
Kept your nightshirt to kiss
Kept your nightshirt to kiss
Free and easy’s no longer my style
Can’t stand anyone who makes me smile
Hate to smile without you
I hate to smile without you
Magnus your baby’s an angel asleep
I pray to his mother his soul for to keep
Two voices cry in the dark
Two voices cry in the dark
Two voices cry in the dark
Two voices cry in the dark
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6. |
Invisible Beauty
05:15
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Invisible Beauty
I was the seed, you are the flower
She was the Earth, the sun and the water
We are the shadow, you are the flame
Dancing before us and lighting the way
Beneath these grey streets secret rivers flow
And they whisper as we sleep
Between pavement cracks you skip and turn
Leading us through the dark and the deep
Fish swim though the air, birds fly through the ocean
You take lightning steps, I go through the motions
I caught a glimpse, she captured the truth
You grasp the future and make something new
I take the weight, I shoulder the cares
She gives you her wings son and you take to the air
From this haunted town, from our hollow hearts
Watch the ghosts and horrors fly
They cannot stand against the life in you
Or the fire in your eyes
How could I be so wrong and think myself so clever?
I’m only yesterday, you’re tomorrow and forever
How can it be son, how can it be
That you make her real son?
How can it be?
Show it to me son, show it to me
Invisible beauty
Show it to me
Show it to me son, show it to me
Her invisible beauty
Show it to me
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7. |
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Family On A See-Saw
Two from four legs
reach the ground
and the world tips up
and the world tips down.
That gull has something of it.
The aimless twist through the vacant blue,
that uncertain causality of motion;
the wing beaten air,
the air beaten wing
and the helpless backward lurch.
Two from four legs
reach the ground
and the world tips up
and the world tips down.
It is in the tang of the ocean.
The sheer limitless scale of the thing.
A vast imbalance,
the salt residue of a thousand stump worn mountains
and the million convoluted species
who left only the scent of their passing.
Two from four legs
reach the ground
and the world tips up
and the world tips down.
Grass is the understanding of it.
The single blade in the numberless sward.
That futile reach and sway
erased in the brush of the wind.
The downtrodden anonymity
and thoughtlessly plucked oblivion.
Two from four legs
reach the ground
and the world tips up
and the world tips down.
With our son’s laughter cradled in my arms
my feet stamp our rise and fall upon the tarmac
and I stare across the playground pendulum
to the empty plastic saddle
which counterweights his levity.
And I can see who isn’t there.
I can see who isn’t there.
I can see who isn’t there.
And I can see who isn’t there.
Two from four legs
reach the ground
and the world tips up
and the world tips down.
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8. |
Persephone
04:48
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Persephone
Smile for me Persephone
Free your lover from his darkness
Spurn the sweet forbidden fruit
And let these lips taste your forgiveness
Stolen out of touch and out of sight
To the kingdom of the endless winter night
Should I agree to plant this seed
Then I will end myself inside you
And you will bring the breath of spring
Blazing the train of life behind you
My hand upon the swelling of your breast
A touch opens your flower from its rest
In my dark recurring dream
Your presence follows me forever
I am the salmon caught upstream
Losing my fight against the river
But you are the dawn
A son is born a son is born
I am the osprey from the south
Who has lost all sense of direction
I pluck salvation from your mouth
To guarantee my resurrection
You are the dawn
A son is born
You are the dawn
Smile for me Persephone
And free your lover from his darkness
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9. |
Stick Around
04:49
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Stick Around
I leant against the counter one of the fixtures at the bar
Your face shone like an angel through the purple smoke and tar
We split into the sodium light, the tarmac and the rain
We wrestled with the darkness and let the hours slip away
You said ‘It’s only drunks and sailors come drifting through this town
But my smile could be your saviour. So why don’t I stick around?’
Why don’t I stick around?
Why don’t I stick around?
Why don’t I stick around?
Now the heat inside the bedroom is bleeding damp into the stone
Of our bombed out Dundee tenement our little shelter from the storm
You’ve put away the Silk Cut and I’m knocking back the brew
I’m losing sleep to make ends meet now that you’re eating for two
So I guess I’ll stick around
Guess I’ll stick around
Guess I’ll stick around
Now like the plastic tube that breathes for you I sit here fastened to your arm
And the hope still beating your sweet heart will not deliver you from harm
Did they think I’d seen the last of you when we laid your ashes in the ground
Our boy still smiles to see your picture so I guess you’ll stick around
I know you’ll stick around
You’ll stick around
I know you’ll stick around
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10. |
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The Bereavement Counsellor
A stiff drink takes the edge off
and I am reassured to know that he will say nothing.
He is there only to listen
and tonight the truth will out.
Drunken dances through Provencal alleys,
sex in the heat shattered garrigue,
her sparkler spirit and Catherine wheel soul,
all the charm of the moon.
Our shared struggle to the diamond dream
snatched from us like this;
the outweeping sweat of her crushed organs,
the delirious swimming of the eyes,
the bruising headlong pitch,
the yawning eruptions,
shitting her rotten green guts all over the shag.
And so...
And so...
We come to the point.
Would a cliff jump be swift enough
or too violent?
Should I resort to the cold cliche of a bridge
or barbituate somnolence?
But, you see, she would just say that,
knowing my luck,
I’d miss the river
and land on a passing boat
or be prodded ashore by a misguided bottle nosed dolphin
and the note would read like some corny limerick or other.
How embarrassing would that be Rickles?
And I guess I would laugh.
Besides my proposal was an oath,
her acceptance the seal on it.
In our world such tragedy is routine.
My small audience has already endured a dozen variations on the theme.
Evening after evening he deals patiently with every collapse.
He listens
and I am reassured to know that he will say nothing.
And so
I kiss him
place him gently in his cot
and tell him that I love him.
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11. |
Mantinades
05:25
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Mantinades
Every night’s the first night and every night’s the last
We roll our pleasures into one
A roller coaster ride which hurtles past
like lightning skewering the sun
We hold like concrete and we twist like snakes
And hiss like static on the rails
We dance like scorpions on roller skates
With sex and thunder in our tails
You can wank and fuck around but there’s nothing like this
The buzz of soul on soul desire
It makes pornography taste like so much bullshit
Just the smoke without the fire
The Cretan sun struck like a golden hammer
And crushed her palaces of stone
She split the rock and tore the Earth asunder
Placing Zeus upon his throne
And here’s the stump by which he raped Europa
Here’s your labyrinth of gold
His mighty seed spilling cornucopia
The stud bull horned god of old
She mounts the Needle above Lasithu plateau
And lays the naked Earth below
Beckons me into her sacred grotto
Where the honeysuckle grows
Her molten gorge pumps like a vein of fire
Bleeding passion from the heart
She opens wide the object of desire
Where we end is where we start
Where we end is where we start
Where we end is where we start
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12. |
The Long Goodbye
03:40
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The Long Goodbye
This song, these words
This is the long goodbye
Our dream ends now
As you close your eyes
And all the blood you spill won’t bring it back
Or all the tears I cry
For the long goodbye
Sun rise, sun fall,
The daylight cannot last
Sun up, sun down
You and I must pass
Immortality seemed just a kiss away
And the cords of love are tied
Until the long goodbye
What survives the tide?
Nobody can know
Your future is a child
You will not see him grow
This song, these words
This is the long goodbye
Our dream ends now
As you close your eyes
And all the blood you spill won’t bring it back
Or all the tears I cry
For the long goodbye
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13. |
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For This One Night
Black vinyl melts.
Held over this air slicking candle
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
to be sacrificed for you.
I create ashen confetti
and make aerial tadpoles of
Szymborska, McDairmud, Hegley, Burns
and every master of my ugly habit.
Marvel three colour classics and lilliputian subbuteo teams
are hauled from the attic to fuel the summons.
My signed Hitchhiker’s Guide and pubescent fantasies
are all for the bonfire and the shredder.
Every self composed and recorded note
is consigned to the deserved oblivion of the flames
to be followed shortly by verse after witless verse and
soon, by these very words.
And yes that’s the timber frame of the house you hear crackling
and there are indeed fretboards
and coiled metal strings
warped among the kindling.
For this one night
when I wake you from the ashes.
Our perfect infant opens his eyes and smiles for you.
That’s the heart of the bargain.
I have been blessed with this one bright hour to tell you
all that you have missed.
To hold, to know and to kiss you once more.
To be free and clear of it all.
Arms about waists,
hands clasped together,
we dance into the void
to share it forever.
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14. |
Kite
06:06
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Kite
Drop your shoulder, pull the strings
Tease me into flight beyond the broken ground
Let some slack out, let me pierce the clouds
Ease me through the zephyrs and then dance me down
Release the tension, turn your hands
Do not let me sink onto the barren stone
I need no wealth or gold to carry me
The Queen of the North Wind says she’ll marry me
Born of winter, born of storms
Risen from the ocean and the laughing waves
Elemental island fire
Breathes life into the embers of this ashen heart
Hang me over the shattered shore
String me along on every silver line you spin
I need no bullshit god to carry me
The Queen of the Ocean says she’ll marry me
Sidelong glances, knowing smiles
You caught my eye and steered me through the cutting gale
Seagulls greet you and praise your name
They come bearing bouquets of frost to welcome you
I need no crystal high to carry me
The Queen of Electric Light says she’ll marry me
The Earth above me, the Sky below
The golden sun isn’t fit to cast your shadow
My spine grows rigid beneath my skin
Arms outstretched I kiss the Queen of Diamonds
Catch my breath now as you reel me in
I am your kite, you are my dream of flying
I am your kite, you are my dream
Without you I am only sticks and paper
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15. |
Father's Day
03:53
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Father’s Day
Where are you?
Where are you now?
Make it all go
Make it go away
It’s Father’s Day
It’s Father’s Day
Close that book
Turn of that LP
I want to play Robin Hood
Just you and me
Because it’s Father’s Day
Father’s Day
And how else will I know that you love me
Like she’d love me
If you won’t let that music go
And put that guitar away?
This card says
I love you
Put it up on the shelf
And put those songs away because
If she was still with us
Dad what would she say
On Father’s Day
On Father’s Day?
I don’t have space
And I don’t have time
To deal with you tears
Son of mine because
Today and tomorrow
And every single day
Is Father’s Day
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16. |
Proposal (Poem)
00:31
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Proposal
So.
Yes it is then,
until this spinning world stops.
Until Hoy’s Old Man tumbles,
and waves do not.
Until Light is darkness,
darkness Light.
Until Hoy crumbles.
Until our Child comes
and rises singing.
Until Love comforts
ashen stars
and death
fails to part us.
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17. |
Once Around the Sun
03:45
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Once Around the Sun
A lifetime ago you awoke
Your arms and legs like fingers
Fiercely alive, night on night
We answer your cries
Infant lips can’t recall
Her kiss or her song
You our joy and our pride
Before and after the fall
We gather in this place for you to celebrate your day
We consecrate this space for you and see her in your face
As ashes scatter
This is how you came to us
This is how you were born my son
A lifetime ago
This is how you came to us
This is how you brought hope to us
A lifetime ago
And once around the sun
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18. |
Thames Rain
01:42
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Thames Rain
A million lost souls fall together
A thousand angels die
Poured into a swollen river
From a broken sky
Let one soul be yours my love
Let one soul be mine
And lost we’ll be
But lost together
On the endless tide
Together we'll slide
From all memory
Into the sea
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19. |
Some Hope (Poem)
01:07
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some hope
for Magnus
a poet putting pen to paper
a brush dripping paint
piano practice
wet clay
the fracturing egg
the first faltering step
an open book
the dawn of reason
nebulae
the great unknown
static harvesting radio telescopes
stars to wish upon
a Valentine rhyme
a lover’s parting glance
dawn’s red kiss
plenty more fish in the sea
approaching desert thunder
budding shrubs on city rooftops
February snowdrops
green
youth
the abandoned rifle
a bonfire of scriptures draped in flags
the uncertainty of principles
the word maybe
the impossibility of never
love’s forgiveness
springs eternal
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20. |
Don't Waste the Sun
03:16
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Don’t Waste The Sun
The blink of an eye
Destroys your whole world
Empty yourself of confusion
Regret nothing at all
From the wrecks of our dreams
We collect all our thoughts
Wisdom is a virtue which cannot be learned
And will not be bought
Don’t waste the sun
It lights up and burns everyone
Don’t dig the earth
On which you stand
Place no faith in God
Her angels or saints
Put behind you the distraction of wealth
Lay yourself bare
For there’s no finer jewel
Than that star in the sky
That shines down as one among millions
In the dispossessed eye
Don’t waste the sun
It lights up and burns everyone
Don’t break the earth
On which you stand
Don’t shoot the breeze
Which carries your last breath away
Don’t cross the river
Which washes your hands
Beauty and grace are not possessions to prize
They are invisible ghosts
Which can only touch you
Friends gone before
Live on only in you
And that sense of loss is the price to be paid
For the right to sing on
You can’t put love behind you
That has already gone
Looking over that chip on your shoulder
Instead of facing the dawn
Don’t waste the sun
It lights up and burns everyone
Don’t break the earth
On which you stand
Don’t shoot the breeze
Which carries your last breath away
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Richard Gorman Dundee, UK
Instructions for use:
1 Acquire Albums 2 Acquire whisky 3 Ensure no interruptions for the next hour 4 Dim Lights 5 Turn it up
Drink and repeat as required.
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