STEPHEN LOMAS: Music

• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)

Honestly I feel I wrote very little of this - this is a song that just "happened." The images, events & characters depicted were very real. The conversations are quoted virtually word for word.
When the tightrope wobbles you find that there isn’t much of a safety net.
Thanks to Tom Waits for the lyric “...there ain’t no devil/That’s just God when he’s drunk.”

We’re here on this tightrope
What the hell now, are we thinkin’
Billy steps outside for a smoke
Old Tom says well he quit drinkin’
Things were getting’ desperate he said but I pulled back from the brink
I found my way back to where I was but there’s a few years I had to drink.

There’s addictions there’s afflictions
There’s the whole wide world to blame.
Some don’t care there's some despair
Some say it’s just a shame.
I saw through my reflection that’s when everything fell apart.
Thought I might break down & cry instead I only laughed

(ch) So roll, roll, just clap your hands & go
Slide one foot passed the other then dance away quick quick slow
Keep one hand for the ship now, that’s what the old sailors say
Keep one hand for yourself, don’t wanna throw it all away

Angels walk among us
Movin’ by degrees
Crazy Jane talks to herself all day
But she won’t talk to me
She looks like she belongs on Rodeo with all her charms divine
But by some strange grace or by some mistake she appears to us on Vine

Harvey spends his evenings
On the pavement up on Fairfax
He’ll ask you for a dollar or change
With a voice soft as a prayer.
Big brown eyes in his sweatshirt hood say I’ve done nothing wrong.
Harvey’s holding out his right hand ‘cause his left arm is gone.

(ch) So roll, roll, just clap your hands & go
Slide one foot passed the other then dance away quick quick slow
And sing a song if your ship comes in, say a prayer if a ship gets sunk
Don't worry 'bout the devil Tom Waits’ll tell you, that’s just god when he’s drunk


We’re here on this tightrope
Like it’s all some kind of game.
Neon lights shine like paradise
In the steady evening rain
The rag-mans cart holds all he owns, soaked through, he’s almost done.
He pauses passing by & says “I’m just having too much fun.”

(ch)