Song Book

[Verse]
I used to think I had it figured
Used to think I knew it all
Talked more than I listened

IVerse 1
The bus pulls out at half past nine,
You wave goodbye and I try not to cry,
Three months apart is a mighty long time,

[Verse]
They call him the quiet man
Always on time, always so kind
Doin' everything right

[Verse]
She walked into the room
Like the sun walked in with her
She walked into the room

[Verse]
What is to be?
What is to be?
Time keeps slippin', slippin' away from me

[Verse]
Used to dread the shortening light
Used to fight the coming night
Summer's gold would fade to grey

[Verse]
Just a boy with a piece of string
Autumn brought the best of things
Sixty-six, the leaves turned gold

[Verse]
Woke up this mornin', ashes cold in the tray
Walked past that café, same old corner booth, same
Woke up this mornin', ashes cold in the tray

Verse 1 (Lead vocal)
I heard you laughin' with him last night,
(Harmony: last night…)
Standin' in the shadows, out of the light,

Verse 1
I saw her at the diner in the pale porch light,
Jukebox playin' soft and slow that night,
She looked at me and, oh, my heart stood still,

Verse 1
Well I saw her at the diner in her polka-dot dress,
She said "hiya daddy-o" and I gotta confess,
My heart went bip-bam, rickety-boom,

Verse 1
Every night at half past seven
Rose would put the kettle on
Arthur heard the cupboard closing

Verse 1
I came here with a handful
Of words I couldn't place
A memory from somewhere

Verse 1
I still leave your coffee cup
Sitting by my own
I still leave the hallway light

Verse 1
Every night at half past nine
I'd walk that same old street
A little light behind the blind

[Verse 1]
Suitcase waiting
Morning train
One last smile

[ Verse 1 ]
When I'm lonely
When it's late
When old memories

[ Verse 1 ]
Yesterday
Felt so long
Couldn't find

Verse 1
Fancy stories, fancy clothes
Everybody thinks they know
Truth walks slower than they say

[Verse 1]
Grey old hands
Side by side
Nothing left

[Verse 1]
[Melodic Singing]
Didn't mean to lose control
One small smile stole my soul

Verse 1
Johnny laughed
Like summer rain
Every doorway

Verse 1
There you are this morning
Walking through the crowd
I try to look away from you

Verse 1
A telephone at one-thirty
Cut through the Denver night
A hospital in Philly

Verse 1
You walked into the room
And everything stood still
I tried to hide the way I felt

Verse 1
We did everything together,
Every day, every night.
Thought we had forever,

Verse 1
I saw you park outside
Just across the road
Your headlights found my window

Generals – Song Description "The bravest hearts are seldom loud. They simply do their best." The people this song is actually praising, in the end, are never named, in much the same way the people…

Mrs. Parker's Front Step – Song Description "No statue stands to mark her name." The children in this song grow up and mostly forget to thank her properly before she's gone, and for a while…

Oliver Payne – Song Description "Maybe the picture was already there." The block in this song doesn't get solved through sheer effort, through gritting his teeth and forcing something onto the blank canvas by will…

Walking to School – Song Description "Just the ordinary days that quietly became forever." This is the third piece in that same small cluster of childhood songs, built entirely around the completely unremarkable ritual of…

If You're There – Song Description "I've never asked for miracles, or proof beyond all doubt." This song asks for almost nothing, and I think that's exactly what makes the asking feel so exposed. A…

I Remember – Song Description "Not the lessons, not the rules, just the little things." Written deliberately in short, broken lines rather than full, tidy sentences, because I don't think memory ever really arrives the…

You'll Always Be My Girl – Song Description "No matter where life takes you, you'll always be my girl." The promise at the centre of this song works, I think, precisely because it attaches no…

Betty's Knife – Song Description "I see my mother by the stove, and I remember everything." Written for my mother, and for a well-worn kitchen knife that quietly carried a whole lifetime of family meals…

Remembering June – Song Description "I never asked you to return. I knew you'd come looking one day." Giving the season itself a voice, rather than the child growing up inside it, changes what this…

Malachy – One Last Song – Song Description "I only wrote the ones that whispered, 'I saw you.'" This single line quietly overturns how most people, myself included at various points, would instinctively rank a…

Verse 1
I held you in my arms that day
Your tiny hand held mine
Your mother smiled through happy tears

3:17 A.M. – Song Description "We're all just fellow travellers, watching time go by." The comfort in this song, such as it is, doesn't come from company finally arriving to relieve someone's loneliness. It comes…

The Long Way Home – Song Description "For love leaves little footprints upon the days we share." What tends to undo people after a loss usually isn't the large, expected moments — the funeral, the…

The Warmth Was Real – Song Description "They never knew your name. They never saw your hands." If I had to choose one song out of this entire collection that says most plainly and most…

At the Coalface – Song Description "But many lives were built upon the miners' strength and name." The word "name" in that closing line is doing more work than it first appears to, and I…