Track listing:1. (What Is) The Light
2. Chemical Reaction
3. Crosses and Bibles
4. Joshua
5. Singer-Songwriter Anthem
6. Cresent Park
7. We Lost Our Way
8. Are You Only In My Head?
9. The Actuary's Lament
10. Scarborough Sky
Credits:
All songs written and performed by Tyrone Warner, featuring additional voice by D. Paas and piano by Ian Cusson. Recording took place from January to June, two thousand and eight, in the Warner bedroom. Thank you to my wife, family and friends for continued inspiration and love; you are each a fragment of this record. thank you for listening.
Lyrics:
(all words and music owned by Tyrone Warner in 2008 copyright)
1. What is the light?
The drunks at the pink flamingo line up at 11 am,
Got change inside their pockets from begging on the street since 10.
Domestic in a glass for 2.50, native cigarettes an even five.
Police show up once in a fortnight, and no one else knows they’re alive.
What is the light?
A power failure darkened the Danforth’s neon signs,
Restaurants filled with silence, round tables all were blind.
And up the avenue at Donlands, the Muslims still rejoiced,
Filled their sidewalks with their singing, but no one heard their voice.
What is the light?
There’s a bible on my bedside, a book I have hardly read,
Still I put my faith in Jesus, for no greater man has ever lived.
Sunday morning I am in church, bible study on a Tuesday night,
I’ll never claim to be perfect, but I hope someday I am right.
What is the light?
(What is the light? What is the light?)
2. Chemical Reaction
I got a mark upon my head, I thank God nothing happened yet
But a curse pulses through my fingers and my bones.
I love the smell of clove and spice, and the silence of the night,
But every gentle hour that passes is less sweet.
I am a chemical reaction, I am elements combined,
I have a simple form of software, sending signals down the line
Cleaning me of impurities; sending blood all through my heart
Dividing cells I look like hell you know this is the hardest part.
When I escaped from my hometown, a command the boss laid down,
I realized he never told me what comes next.
The sights have changed, but the grind remains.
3. Crosses and Bibles
Crosses and bibles don’t make a church, nor allegory and metaphor a sermon require.
Scripture need not only warning and doom, prayer lives freest in the most private of rooms.
Are you the operator that calls? I did not recognize you without your mask and gloves.
Where are your instruments that cut? I’ll show you where it hurts if you give me your (???).
A song requires more than vibration and waves, and a musician electricity and charts.
Romance ain’t made by two hearts set adrift, love is a film that scratches and fades.
4. Joshua
There were lilacs on the ground, there were lilacs in our sound,
Your twisted hair in my fingertips, you laugh, it’s all a dream till I snap awake.
Josh I always loved your smile, I wish I had your sense of style,
But you gave up and moved to Fredericton, no escape you left you left you left you left.
There are wrinkles in my clothes, as my insight slowly erodes,
I wish I could hear your laugh in my ear, one mistake is all it takes for us to break.
I saw you on the train at Yonge and Bloor, you walked in as I walked out the door.
There are no lilacs in my phone, as I head eastbound all alone.
5. Singer Songwriter Anthem
I am a singer-songwriter, I strum my guitar and I play,
Got a handful of chords and a couple of words,
Put together make me feel like I’m complete.
And if I’d show you my heart, it’s all ragged and worn,
Loved so hard and so strong and so deep,
That’s why I hide it away, I’m afraid of the pain,
And what you’d see if I’d stand in the light.
I am a jaded old news man, seen all the worst that mankind can do,
Every single day it’s just more words on the page,
A headline, a lede and some truth.
I am a traveling showman, I live and I die up on stage,
Got a bag full of tricks that I’ll use if I wish,
To make you feel entertained and alive.
6. Cresent Park
My mind has become still, and has seen a night most dark,
When I loved the most beautiful girl, in all of Cresent park.
The heavy humid air was thick on a warm summer day,
The sky was about to break and drown us in its rain.
And we kissed in the grass, in the shadow of Victoria trains,
They passed with screaming sounds, as I feel the strangest thing...
My body had split in half, and I felt a pain so strong,
Took a second to close my eyes and that beautiful girl was gone.
How do I get back in your heart?
How do I get back in your heart?
How do I get back in your heart?
How do I get back in your heart?
7. We Lost Our Way
When I was a little child, I didn’t hear what anyone said,
Didn’t know or care what day the calendar read.
Had no fear and wore the biggest smile,
Didn’t know how short life was, didn’t know what laid ahead.
Somehow I lost, I lost my way.
When we first met, it was flowers everyday,
But as the months rolled past I let you slip away.
I’m not really sure what happened but something in me changed,
I wish I was the man you loved, but I wish you’d stay.
Somehow we lost, we lost our way.
When I heard his voice cry for the very first time,
I couldn’t believe that this little child was mine,
In his eyes I see my father, in his eyes I see myself,
I wonder where he’ll go, I wonder what he’ll find.
Somehow we lost, we lost our way.
8. Are you only in my head?
There is silence in the dark, in the valley where we fall apart.
I kissed your mouth in a strangers room, no there’s nothing left of you.
I ran so fast to find my truck, left your duplex in the dust,
I remember your drunken plea, it has stolen a part of me.
Are you only in my head?
Do you hear me when I pray? Do you hear every word I say?
If you wait you’ll see me break, I don’t give I only take.
The church taught me to deceive, but the spirit taught me to believe,
There’s a man with a counterweight, and he’s somewhere off in space.
Are you only in my head?
Fingers between the frets, strings tied at the head,
Your arm waves back and forth – played for all it’s worth.
9. The Actuary’s Lament
Stephen obsessed over math and stats, chased numbers in his sleep,
Making the random common place with charts and rules and faith.
The ancient trade had drawn him in with the promise of hidden fame,
A secret band that rocks and rolls, watching things that never change.
So get your exercise and get your rest,
Pay off your credit card and reduce your debt,
Surprises come when you least expect,
That’s why the actuary laments, that’s why the actuary laments.
If the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star stop printing their daily rags,
Would anyone miss the ink they spilled, or would the news just go away?
If mankind is doomed to repeat itself, is there any such thing as change?
Progress is a myth that we believe to hide the evil growing day to day.
10. Scarborough Sky
One day our skin will turn grey as grey as the Scarborough sky,
But our love, which rises like the bluffs, surely our love will never die.
Climb those concrete stairs in that station made of glass,
Clutch that paper transfer in your hand.
But when you get back home, I’ll be long gone, yeah life is sometimes never what we planned.
Our skyline rises from the shore like a mountain made of streetlights and stars,
But this beacon is worthless without your heart, and I can’t see exactly where we are.
Down where Broadview intersects with Queen Street, rides the Dark Horse with flowers in her teeth.
And pretty girls stare out from poster laid on brick, it’s nothing but a pain he can’t resist.