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Road to Nowhere (Live 2007)

by Black

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1.
she met him nearing easter with the flowers coming through and the rains start to recede the sky to turning blue she met him as a lover the finder to the spark he met her as the latest lonely question mark and so he wonders how he get here and he wonders what he’ll be he calls it fate, he calls it destiny take any road and it ends the same not strong enough to choose her he is quinn’s old flame he loved her in the abstract each of her body parts he loves her still: at night he draws a mental chart (and) puts the parts together and smiling to himself he draws her to him, he draws her to him he wished he was handsome or at least well read that his name was rock or rocky t-bone or red he calls it what he wants gives it a thousand names a born again loser he’s quinn’s old flame he entertains a dream of putting down some roots in every place of business that he’s passing through he can’t forget what they could have been she liked him as he came quinn’s old flame
2.
You don’t believe me, I can tell it by your eyes There’s a kind of magic, to be had from your lies I used to say that today Is like tomorrow Don’t sell it short for truth I should have known should have known should have known how I should have known I should have known by now You don’t understand it, I can tell it by your smile There’s a kind of freedom, to be had from your lies I always said that today Is like tomorrow Don’t sell it short for truth I should have known should have known should have known now I should have known I should have known by now But everything’s coming up roses, coming up roses, coming up roses But now everything’s coming up roses, coming up roses
3.
Angel with your head down in a storm I know the lonely place you’re running from So have I got to tell you It’s alright to start again Say when and baby come out of the rain You’ve been inside your head for far too long Come live inside your life before it’s gone I know you want to tell me it comes on like a tidal wave Hold tight and baby, come out of the rain I’d pull down the sky for you Try all that I cannot do And I’d steal a line from “angel eyes” as we sit and watch the water rise Counting as you break the ties hold angels to their wings Angel with your heart turned inside out There’s no silent running in reality You’ve got to let your number count And though it’s like to choke you And comes on a like a hurricane Walk straight and Baby, come out of the rain Vearncombe/Gary Clark
4.
I think my heart must be made of clay Cause everyone said it would be broken some day And now I’ve come to that fateful day So I sit on the floor with my head in my hands And don’t tell me how to make it pay I write a new song every day I just wish I was made of wood I might not feel pain even if I should Even if I should The sweetest smile that ever did Melt the pats in the butter dish And if you could have believed in me I swear to God I’d have made damn sure Our hearts were warm, and glad with wine I’d keep the doors locked all the time I just wish I was made of wood You might not seem glad, even if you should Even if you should, if you should I think my heart must be made of clay Cause everyone said it would be broken some day Seems that I have come to that fateful day So I sit on the floor with my head in my hands With my head in my hands Even if I should, if I should
5.
Charlemagne 04:52
Blind barking Bobby he can rage The red mist come down and take centre stage And if he could see he’d knock you down And he may yet if you stick around The sunlight only happens when he dreams The cold light of day is how it’s gonna stay Some thing’s only happen ‘cause it rains It takes another kind for taking up the strain and Be Charlemagne He’s looking out not looking in Don’t have to deal with where you’re looking One more human face to fill your mind And where the shadows fall… You dare not find
6.
You told a few lies and they came back on you So you told a hundred more until she came back to you But she only stayed a while Just long enough to say the kind of things left to be said In the cold light of day And she smelled of Xmas trees, coffee and vanilla Calcutta after snowfall, she’s no-one’s stand in mother But I drifted into her like I could run myself aground And keep her smiling at the sight of the blackness spilling out And I don’t mind if you don’t care about it I’ll get by without her arms around me As long as I can sit on my own In her coat and no knickers I believe it doesn’t matter So don’t look at me that way Like I should notice how you look at me that way That’s just the way you look when you look at me that way and I believe it doesn’t matter At least not much anyway I never dreamed I could be lost in a place I know so well But I was running on the spot in the darkness ‘til I fell And then pulling off my clothes I want to step out of my skin And paint a tattoo on my heart shows an arrow Pointing in
7.
Shirt’s all torn and I’m lame If I try to smile (it) hurts my face All I hear is complaint but who left this mess on my plate? Oh I will fade away on…watch my hair turn grey on Cold chicken skin and dog tail soup Tell me is that all I’m worth to you? Cold chicken skin and dog tail soup Is that all that I bring you? Inside out from cocaine Got a bird on a rush in your brain Wild eyed singing your song Calling out my name like you’re pulling it along Yo yo look on your face What you got in that bag,hair and nails? What’s that splashed on the walls? The top half of a dog And that’s all………! Vearncombe/Topley
8.
Here I go out to sea again The sunshine fills my hair And dreams hang in the air Gulls in the sky and in my blue eyes You know it feels unfair There’s magic everywhere Look at me standing Here on my own again Up straight in the sunshine No need to run and hide It’s a wonderful, wonderful life No need to laugh or cry It’s a wonderful, wonderful life The sun’s in your eyes The heat is in your hair They seem to hate you Because you’re there And I need a friend, oh I need a friend To make me happy Not stand there on my own Look at me standing here on my own again Up straight in the sunshine No need to run and hide It’s a wonderful, wonderful life No need to laugh or cry It’s a wonderful, wonderful life I need a friend, oh I need a friend To make me happy, not so alone Look at me here, here on my own again Up straight in the sunshine No need to run and hide It’s a wonderful, wonderful life No need to laugh or cry It’s a wonderful, wonderful life
9.
Did I sleep? Do I dream of cold, silent water So deep and dark And the wires are singing our song? Our song As we lay back and stared into cloudless skies And the stars up there The wires are singing our song The wires are singing our song Your face, now so plain, once was so lovely A beautiful refrain, dust with stars But your smile now in disguise became a flat line And to never love again like you did before Was all Why go on with it, why go on with it? Why, to let it flow, like water on snow? I know what you want, what you are thinking To drift beyond the pain and out of reach To sit, be safe and warm inside your sorrow And listen to the slow, slow morse tapping of the rain But it says: Why go on with it? Why go on with it? Why to let it flow like water on snow?

about

Thought it was time to share this; the tour was done months ago and I’ve thought a lot about it since. Thousands of miles driven, many uneatable meals eaten, strangely improved designs of hitherto grim hotel chains but with a corresponding downward turn in quality of service (seemingly in inverse proportion to the design)! Standing ovations in crowded backwaters whilst sometimes half empty halls in city centres rang to the lonely applause of die hards only.

I’ve thought a lot about it all. I’d forgotten what it was like and it had been some time since I did a tour of this nature for so long. Sometimes it seemed like way too long; I didn’t HAVE a wife and kids to miss before! Time I could never get back.
I learned a lot.

Best of all I relearned the most important thing of all; the playing of the music is the end in itself.
The road leads nowhere that you can’t predict.
But the faces of the people I met after shows told a different story. They reminded me of why I still go to concerts, the hope of once more exiting the venue feeling 10ft tall and full of life, vitality, inspired. More than I was as I entered. I guess were to I stop feeling that way I would stop playing.

Welcome to the Road To Nowhere

With big thanks to fellow travellers for going as far as you did:

Calum MacColl for his fiery and eloquent guitar playing, and singing and for standing shoulder to shoulder with me all the way

Pete ‘Pepe’ Dale for his rivers of bass and passionate harmonies

Jay Irving for his rhythm and cracking us up the whole time (crash bang wallop what a drummer)

Rick Vearncombe for watching all of our backs, getting us where we were supposed to be (thanks also to Map Bitch) and generally being brother to us ALL. Love you kid.

credits

released December 1, 2007

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Black

Colin Vearncombe, otherwise known as Black, was born in Liverpool on 26 May 1962.

He had three top- ten records across Europe and sold over two million albums before leaving the mainstream and going independent. He released a string of albums as Black and under his own name on his own label; Nero Schwarz.

He died in a motor accident in January 2016. His legacy lives on in the Love, Colin project.
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