Lyrics to ‘Halloween’ Album
Words and Music by Gus MacGregor
Printed by kind permission of Sputnik Publishing, Bern
1. The Only Game in Town
This is not the buckle of the Bible Belt
This is not the world I used to know so well
I can taste it on the wind
I can feel it on my skin
I thought I'd know by now how to take a punch
How to throw in the towel when it gets too much
But I work my bones on this barren land
Push a broken plough with my calloused hands
This is not the future I was mapping out
This is not the novel I was told about
That was painted on the sky
With the brushes of my mind
I thought I'd know by now how to shake this off
How to throw up my hands when it all kicks off
But I turn and spit into the wind
I dig a little bit deeper in this hole I’m in
Sometimes the struggle sends shivers down my spine
Surging like an opiate around my ‘what if’ mind
And it will not be the first time I have stumbled in your spell
Or have broken my resolve that I would catch myself
Long before I fell - Long before I fell
This is not the fairytale of falling snow
This is not the stitching of the king’s new clothes
I can hear it in your sighs
And it burns me through the night
We sat for four straight hours
Played some Jackson Browne
Turned our phones right off
Turned our lives around
Love’s a hopeless place for a man to drown
But it’s still the only game in town
Sometimes the struggle sends shivers down my spine
Surging like an opiate around my ‘what if’ mind
And it will not be the first time I have stumbled in your spell
Or have broken my resolve that I would catch myself
Long before I fell - Long before I fell
2. Now’s a Good Time for a Change
This house is falling down
The kids have all grown and gone
We taught them that freedom was
Something worth hanging on
And now it’s just us two here
We get along some days
But mostly we fight
Now’s a good time for a change
The money we used to have
Helped us to get this far
But it’s stranded our creaking boat
And totalled our rusty car
Too old to learn new trades
This music has never paid
I have to face facts
Now’s a good time for a change
It’s a good time for a change
If I can get myself up
Get running on four
Find the gears to this worn out clutch
If I can just haul my sail
Way up above this rain
If I find it in me
Now’s a good time for a change
This song’s been sung before
Years ago way back when
In the corner of every bar
We sang to the same refrain
Now it’s just us two here
We get along some days
But mostly we fight
Now’s a good time for a change
It’s a good time for a change
If I can get myself up
Get running on four
Find the gears to this worn out clutch
If I can just haul my sail
Way up above this rain
If I find it in me
Now’s a good time for a change
3. The Things I Hate About You
I’m sitting still and you’re still moving
I’m trying to prove I’m still improving
After all this time I still don’t always know what I should do
Funny how I’ve even come to love the things I hate about you
You drive me mad - your backseat driving
I’m running late - it’s just bad timing
When we started dating I think I thought I’d change you somehow
Funny how I’ve even come to love the things I hate about you now
You can’t sleep - I can’t wake
Why can’t you be more like me for goodness sake
I always pictured us in portrait
No escaping from this landscape
You’d think we’d have more fights
When you consider just how stubborn we can be
I guess you must have even come to love the things you hate about me
You can’t sleep I can’t wake
Why can’t you be more like me for goodness sake
Growing old is growing on me
Wheels are turning, turning fifty
Ambitions I’ve forgotten
Some that mattered, some that never could have been
Funny how I’ve even come to love the things I hate about me
Funny how I’ve even come to love the things I hate about me
4. Elsie-Jean
I'd been driving the I-75
Fifteen hours when I stopped to find
Italian coffee and French fries for a hungry English man
When up comes Elsie
Pad and pen in hand
I said - “Do me a favour,
Don't say something nice.
I’m in no mood to be looking at you twice.
And Don't be asking where I'm going or asking what's my name.
Or maybe Elsie, there'll be hell to pay.”
“I Don't wanna hear your robbing bank ideas.
I don't want gunshots ringing in my ears.
Keep your stockings on your pretty-legs and off your face.
Go ahead make a coffee, not my day.”
“Keep your Guns & Roses tattoo chest
Off my radar - I need some rest.
And don't be humming in that southern tone like Emmylou.
Or maybe Elsie - I will fall for you.”
“Don't you flash those make-up eyes at me
Just Refill my cup and let me be.
And don't pretend you've not done this before
I saw a couple of dead cowboys on the porch.”
“Take your pink striped apron and Winston Lites
Off my road tired mind tonight.
And keep your number to yourself and off my bill
Or maybe Elsie you'll wake up in Jacksonville.”
That's when Elsie put her hands on hips
And she puckered up her sweet red lips
Dug her heel in my toe then she whispered this:
"Get your own goddam coffee, you son of a bitch."
Six kids later on the 75
A broken foot but a beautiful wife
I make her coffee, rub her shoulders, clean the carpet, change the bed and cook her food
That's what loving Elsie-Jean will do.
Yeah that’s what loving Elsie-Jean will do.
5. Check Shirt
Well this old check shirt that I’m wearing is past its best
Splitting at the shoulders and the chest
I see you putting it on on the edge of my bed
Your hair a mess
Your hair a mess
You said “I’ll never try to change you”
And I took that to mean that you’d noticed all the failings and the selfishness in me
It wasn’t funny but I’ve never laughed so hard
And here we are
Here we are
Well this old tightrope that I’m walking doesn’t break
But it doesn’t take a hurricane to shake
And though I try my best to keep from looking down
I fear the ground
I fear the ground
You said “Joe and Jane are breaking up”
And I took that to mean ‘no one ever goes the distance here except for you and me’
It wasn’t funny but I’ve never laughed so hard
And here we are
Here we are
Through this awkward life of mine
I’ve been right barely half of the time
I bet my whole damn life on you and I
And this wild, wild ride
It’s a wild, wild ride
When all our skin and breathing lie as one
And the stresses of surviving are mostly gone
It’s a place that we both need to get to more
To just let go
To just let go
You said “I’m in this for the long haul”
And I took that to mean that you’d noticed I was waiting for the day that you would leave
It wasn’t funny but I’ve never laughed so hard
And here we are
here we are
Through this awkward life of mine
I’ve been right barely half of the time
I bet my whole damn life on you and I
And this wild, wild ride
This wild, wild ride
And you threw your head right back
And you laughed your famous laugh
I’d started loving you a while before that
And there’s no going back
There’s no going back now.
6. Turn it Off
On my happiest of days I'm not thinking of your face but most the time
It's all that I can picture in my mind
I see the storm close in
Lashing rain against my skin
Rain against my skin and in my eyes
When I replay our scenes it is clear to me the whole thing was my fault
I was spoilt and I was mean
Any drunken fool could’ve seen what I had got
See me humbled now
Trying to live with my mistakes
I live with my mistakes and all the guilt
And I pray you don’t see me picking up cigarette ends
And while I’m on my knees I pray that you will take me in again
What goods a prayer when my faith isn’t there
And the bottle’s hanging off me like a cross
I’ve just learnt to turn it off
I’ve learnt to turn it off.
Walking every hour god sends
But I don't want this day to end because I won't sleep
There's weed and there's whisky but I won't sleep
I’ve split my life in two:
Into everything before
And everything that’s followed after you
And I pray you don’t see me picking up cigarette ends
And while I’m on my knees I pray that you will take me in again
What goods a prayer when my faith isn’t there
And the bottle’s hanging off me like a cross
I’ve just learnt to turn it off
I’ve learnt to turn it off.
So put some money in my hand
But don't pretend you understand - it's just a twist
In all the normal madness, and the self indulgent sadness losing brings
See me shake my head
Looking 'round in disbelief
'round in disbelief at all of this
And I pray you don’t see me picking up cigarette ends
And while I’m on my knees I pray that you will take me in again
What goods a prayer when my faith isn’t there
And the bottle’s hanging off me like a cross
I’ve just learnt to turn it off
I’ve learnt to turn it off.
7. Strong as an Oak
Trying to work out which of these is the forest
And which the trees
Which the desert, which the sky
Which is just inside my mind
When I see your door is open wide
And it looks like nothing from the outside
There’s no song and there’s no dance
But it represents a second chance
And I’m filled with hope
As strong as an oak
The lines ‘round here have been getting blurred
With an overdose of well-meant words
I drop my paddle in the creek
It’s floating there just out of reach
When I see your door is open wide
And it looks like nothing from the outside
There’s no song and there’s no dance
But it represents a second chance
And I’m filled with hope
As strong as an oak
And when the craving hits there’s an intensity
I see the dogs as coming after me
And when I finally get what I most desire
There’s another craving hits on my mind… on my mind
There are some days despite it all
When I hit the floor and climb the walls
I couldn’t hit, as they say, a cow’s behind with my best spade
When I see your door is open wide
And it looks like nothing from the outside
There’s no song and there’s no dance
But it represents a second chance
And I see your door is open wide
And it looks like nothing from the outside
There’s no song and there’s no dance
But it represents a second chance
And I’m filled with hope
As strong as an oak
As strong as an oak
8. I Don’t Love You, Daddy
I don't love you, daddy, now I'm nearly four
You never give me the things that I ask for any more
Always working or making me follow some old fashioned rules
What in this world is a big boy like me expected to do
I don't love you daddy
I heard you say
You know raising a child isn't easy these 'I deserve everything' days
Part of me wants to give you all the things money can buy
But I swore not to spoil you, sweet angel of mine
Arthur my sweet, I don't need you to love me
I love you enough for the both of us, one day you'll see
I'm a far from perfect father
Oh I know too well that is true
But I'll always do my very best for your brother and you
I don't love you daddy
I heard you say
You know raising a child isn't easy these 'I deserve everything' days
Part of me wants to give you all the things money can buy
But I swore not to spoil you, sweet angel of mine
Let's make a promise: twenty five years from today
We'll sit on these very same steps and watch your children play
And you might thanks me for not spoiling you rotten
Like it's all so easy to do
And not bringing you up as a petulant brat or a self-centred fool
I don't love you daddy
I heard you say
You know raising a child isn't easy these 'I deserve everything' days
Part of me wants to give you all the things money can buy
But I swore not to spoil you, sweet angel of mine
I don’t love you, daddy.
9. Just Because That Never Happened (Doesn’t Mean it isn’t True)
We fell together in 1993
Me a soldier and you a refugee
I killed a hundred men all in the name of peace
We moved to Memphis the week I was released
You died in 2009
Broke my steely veteran heart, nearly lost my tiny mind
I cried a million tears at the tragedy of us
I fell on my knees in the Mississippi mud
Just because that never happened doesn’t mean it isn’t true
I’ve lived it in my mind listening to John Prine with you
All you’ll ever need to know about this world can be found inside his songs
Who will tell me that I’m wrong?
Who will tell me that I’m wrong?
You wouldn’t like it
I let the dog sit on your chair
The radio in the kitchen is never off
Even when I’m not in there
I like to hear the voices through the floor when I wake up in the night
I’ve started smoking again
I keep an ashtray by the nightlight
Just because that never happened doesn’t mean it isn’t true
I’ve lived it in my mind listening to John Prine with you
All you’ll ever need to know about this world can be found inside his songs
Who will tell me that I’m wrong?
Who will tell me that I’m wrong?
Who will tell me that I’m wrong?
Who will tell me that I’m wrong?
10. Our Time Will Come
The morning sun is beating heavy like a fire in this place
By ten the winds will build and lift the dust up to my face
The mountains in the distance shimmer in the haze
They say it hasn’t rained here in a thousand days
The work is good while I can get it and god knows the money helps
Football boots and trampolines have never bought themselves
In my pocket there’s a picture of a younger you and me
Before we knew how hard things sometimes come to be
And our time will come
When all this madness is done
I can feel it now
Pretty soon our time will come
Pretty soon our time will come
I just old fashioned miss you like a good old fashioned cowboy would
Living on the range like an old fashioned cowboy does
I ride out on the prairie - I sleep beneath the moon
I can’t wait to just be good old fashioned home with you
And our time will come
When all this madness is done
I can feel it now
Pretty soon our time will come
Pretty soon our time will come
Across the plain a big red sun is sinking quickly on its way
They’re calling time to camp and rest the horses for the day
A giant moon is climbing - the lantern of the gods
And in the silence my old hopeful heart is beating-on
And our time will come
When all this madness is done
I can feel it now
Pretty soon our time will come
Pretty soon our time will come
11. Halloween
Oh the nights draw in and the skies are clear
I saw my breath this morning for the first time in a year
And the season change - it reminds me that
We don't get very long here that's a matter of a fact
And I wish like hell you'd come by
We could open up a bottle, put this sorry world to rights
Let the ghosts of where we've been fly on halloween
Oh my heart still hurts despite the years
I've quit the drink except for whisky, wine and beer
And I don't much go out like we used to do
Things sure have changed here since the days of you
And I wish like hell you'd come round
There's a monster disco going on down at the rose and crown
Let the ghosts of where we've been fly on halloween
I'll wear devil horns and you'll where ruby shoes
It's hard not to smile when you dance to eighties tunes
Could you forgive the things I am
And the times I didn't;t stand up and take it like a man
Oh the nights draw in and the skies are clear
I saw my breath this morning for the first time in a year
And the season change reminds me that
I need you more than ever, that's a matter of a fact
And I wish like hell you'd come here
With Christmas round the corner we could do it right this year
Let the ghosts of where we've been fly on halloween
Let the ghosts of where we've been fly on halloween
12. I’m Not Giving Up Yet
Stop Trying to join the dots upon the map
Looking for a shape it doesn’t have
Meaningless is not a thing I fear
I’m just living here
One random moment followed by the next
What’s to come is anybody’s guess
Let’s spin out every pleasure to the end
Because I’m not giving up yet
What to do with what time we have left
Is the luxury of living in the west
Happy and alive and still In love
Should be enough
Some days I can tie myself in knots
Only see the things I haven’t got
And all the in-jokes I could never get
But I’m not giving up yet
I’ve never held you closer than tonight
The universe has never burned so bright
In the sober morning I can feel the glow
Of the letting go
Some days when the rhythms are just right
The doubts inside my soul give up the fight
I get close to being my very best
And I’m not giving up yet
No I’m not giving up yet
I’m not giving up yet
I’m not giving up yet
13. No Spring Chicken
I’m no spring chicken
I suppose you noticed
Is it the bags beneath my eyes?
I’m less ‘Newcomer’ and more the ‘Lifetime Achievement Prize’
Oh but I’m here and at least for now I’m still alive
I’m no spring chicken but will you still me mine?
Disappointments: I take them on the chin, that’s right
I don’t sit around and wallow
Because I’m running out of time
I take the rough with the smooth
There’s probably lots I should
But I don’t want to prove
I’m no spring chicken
I suppose you noticed
Is it the bags beneath my eyes?
I’m less ‘Newcomer’ and more the ‘Lifetime Achievement Prize’
Oh but I’m here and at least for now I’m still alive
I’m no spring chicken but will you still me mine?
Aches and pains: I get them all the time, you bet
My knees crack like Roman candles
But there’s life in this dog yet
Only as old as I feel in my head
If I don’t check the mirror when I first get out of bed
I’m no spring chicken
I suppose you noticed
Is it the greying of my hair?
I’m less the ‘Toy-Boy’ and more the ‘Old faithful Teddy bear’
But I’m here and at least for now I’m still alive
I’m no spring chicken but will you still me mine?
Well my eyesight’s getting hazier everyday
I feel blessed
Because I see you in soft focus, always looking at your best
I pray that you are hyperopic too
Why do you think I like to sit so damn close to you
I’m no spring chicken
I suppose you noticed
Is it the bags beneath my eyes?
I’m less ‘Newcomer’ and more the ‘Lifetime Achievement Prize’
Oh but I’m here and at least for now I’m still alive
I’m no spring chicken but will you still me mine?
14. English Breakfast
I'm gonna have an English breakfast washed down with builders’ tea
It's full of all the wrong fats but it tastes pretty good to me
It's my dirty little secret when I'm traveling alone
If I run three 10Ks by Wednesday night no one will ever know
Well it feels a bit like cheating this culinary deceit
I should be eating muesli and orange freshly squeezed
My mistress don't wear leather or heavy make-up eyes
She wears a round of deep fried bread and chips
With ketchup on the side
This morning there's a murmur down at the greasy spoon
From the doctors, lawyers, truckers, that the new man in the room
Is a cardio, thoracic, chest, and coronary nurse
And he’s not here for the scrambled eggs
He’s here to find some work
I promise from tomorrow it's kale and fruit for me
Mashed up with avocado in a green algae smoothie
I'll make it through the morning with a flat-white or latte (soya!)
But I need the full, full monty now
For one last time today’
Yeeehooo!
I'm gonna have an English breakfast washed down with builders’ tea
It's full of all the wrong fats but it tastes pretty good to me
It's my dirty little secret when I'm traveling alone
If I run three 10Ks by Wednesday night no one will ever know
If I run three 10Ks by Wednesday night no one will ever know
15. Greasy Pig
When I meet a Swiss I'm ready for a kiss
Three or is it four times on the cheek?
I try not to get it wrong - I’m not using any tongue
Except when I’m in Neuchatel maybe
Where I come from a simple nod of the head will suffice
Any girl knows a boy's coming on if he's looking at her twice
I used to hammer square pegs in triangle holes
Now I'm slipping through the world on easy toes
I'm running like a greasy pig down a mountain road
I leave shoulds and shouldn’ts in my wake
I'm going with the flow - make no mistake
I'm happy as a redneck clown at a rodeo
A thousand rounds release when my Catalana speaks
It takes her up to half a year to smile
Oh but I don’t get upset if she isn’t laughing yet
I'm happy just to watch her for a while
Where I come from you take the Mick or you're not worth getting to know
You're as good as undressing any Blackpool girl if she's laughing at your jokes
I used to hammer square pegs in triangle holes
Now I'm slipping through the world on easy toes
I'm running like a greasy pig down a mountain road
I leave shoulds and shouldn’ts in my wake
I'm going with the flow - make no mistake
I'm happy as a redneck clown at a rodeo
Choirboy looks will fade like a rusty pier arcade
They always promised more than they'd provide
My genius brain will turn to sludge, my Adonis frame will soften up
Glasses like Hotpoint© doors will hide my eyes
Where I come from you shovel shit with a spade you call a spade
Any girl knows her man’s half dead, and she’ll help him dig his grave
I used to hammer square pegs in triangle holes
Now I'm slipping through the world on easy toes
I'm running like a greasy pig down a mountain road
I leave shoulds and shouldn’ts in my wake
I'm going with the flow - make no mistake
I'm happy as a redneck clown at a rodeo
I'm happy as a redneck clown at a rodeo