Lyrics and Art

On The First Day Of The Cheltenham Festival In East Kilbride

Grey stone
Cold beer
Discarded trays of chips and curry
Pregnant teens
Puffing on fags
Fly-tipped broken household appliances
Overcast
Cheap cigarettes
Dismal outlook
No regrets
Boarded-up shops
Biting wind
Vandalised signs
Now point the wrong way
Ladbrokes thriving
William Hill bustling
Hangover burning
Brain is misfiring
Soldier on
Or try another day

Words and music by Jon Hunt 2012

The Sky Is Breaking

I ignite this landscape
With just one little thought
You can come along with me
But don't say nothin' at all

I gave you a secret
I gave you a piece of my mind
You can take it or leave it
'Depends what you wanna find...

The sky is breaking, and replacing all my years
Fills me with diamonds, laughter, aces, smiles and tears

I hear the earth crackle
With just a flick of your hair in the light
Pure anticipation
Of the edge and everything out of sight

So I ignite this landscape
With just one little dream
And you can come along with me
Cos no-one's ever gonna believe what we've seen...

The sky is breaking, and replacing all my years
Fills me with diamonds, laughter, aces, smiles and tears

Words and music by Jon Hunt 2012

Wartime Spirit

Something's gone wrong, and the longer it goes on for
The more we open up to our fellow man
A wartime spirit, a bonding so sincere
Like a holiday romance, we know it's a flash in the pan

But it was great while it lasted, I'll remember those days forever
New, fresh and exciting, and though things were worse, it was better

There were suicide bombers, there was a national food shortage
It was a holiday on an island, and it was getting deported
We saw cars being washed down the street
There were fatal toxins in our meat
Scared, we could've melted like butter, but instead our backbones grew

And it was great while it lasted, I'll remember those days forever
New, fresh and exciting
And though things were worse, it was better
And as the H.S. Missiles flew, the bond between us grew...

I felt love for the first time hiding in an old tin barn
I felt camaraderie using a gun on a farm
I felt like I was wanted when the weaker looked up to me
While I cherished the leader's calmness and advice

Consumed by boredom, 50 hours at a sterile airport
But something's been evolving in the air
A wartime spirit, and a smile so genuine
From the woman who'd've sold you tomorrow to pay for her fare

But it was great while it lasted, I'll remember those days forever
New, fresh and exciting, and though things were worse, it was better
And as the H.S. Missiles flew, the bond between us grew...

Words and music by Jon Hunt 2008-2009

So Much Promise

So much promise
So much alcoholic confidence
So much alcoholic nonchalance
Such loud outspoken waifs and strays
From corners that I'll never see
Raise a glass up to my eye-line
I talk to her, she talks to me

***

The outcome is never as good as my dreams
The adventure is never as good as my dreams
The party is never as good as my dreams
The music is never as good as it seems
The hormones always play their tricks with me
The alcohol content relaxes, relapses, repulses and straight-up tricks me
Turns weather and art into nonentities
Lets verbal and musical bilge seep into my life
Shoots up lies into the arm of my truth once the truth's suffocated my lies
Enhance the good but excuse the bad
Give me the things that I wish that I had
Show me the things that I wish I didn't have

***

(I'm sure I've been here before...)

***

We don't have anything in common in the morning
The sky is overcast
Commuters' feet are pounding through my head
Try to find an objective, try and find a thread
Or rejoin the road to oblivion
Seems so much easier somehow

So much promise

So many promises

Words and music by Jon Hunt 2012-2013

*Your friends at jhmusicuk.com remind you to drink responsibly*

Friendship of Convenience

A friendship of convenience
We'd saddle up and jump the fence
Turn around and one of us was gone
A friendship of convenience
Always nervous, always tense
Now nothing's right, cos nothing's really wrong

Sacrificial attention
For the greater short-term good
Dull glorification
Cos it feels like we should
What seems fake
Well, it always turns to real
I'm gonna write a strong, strong letter and appeal

My head's exploding and turning into stars

A friendship of convenience
The colours never made much sense
Simple little things would fall apart
Deny when we fail to connect
And fill the gaps with weak cement
We'll chip away 'til we're back at the start

Sacrificial attention...

My head's exploding and turning into stars

Words and music by Jon Hunt 2011

I'll see you Tomorrow in a Different Light

I'll see you tomorrow in a different light
I've searched some hopeless places, undone some of my life
All the things I knew for sure they turned out as lies

The light bounces off buildings and turns into smiles
Paths are skewed at wrong angles
Dissolving into shimmering water
I'm back in an 'Eighties seaside amusement hall
Cigarettes, bleeps, sand and explosions
Take another drink and you'll stand tall

Days and weeks spent scrabbling around
In rented rooms with the same old books
Same old music, and same old troubles
Takeaways, booze and cheap encounters
Sunday walks round a deserted town
The focal points increasingly banal
Increase the sense of isolation
Why don't I take a train out of town?...

I'll see you tomorrow in a different light
I've searched some hopeless places, ruined some of my life
All the things I knew for sure they turned out as lies

A weekend visiting friends in an unknown city
Evening anticipation
We're introduced to some brand new people
Random pieces of the evening to come
An anchor to hold down a story
Nothing that matters when said and done

The girl behind the counter, she sparkles and grins
She's mine if I want her, the feeling sets in
I'll borrow any costume to cause an upset
Take her to my bedroom, and then lose the bet
A shimmering Friday feeling comes round
The warm summer wind lifts our souls from the ground
And when it starts a-rocking the branches
I'm momentarily born again...

I'll see you tomorrow in a different light
I've searched some messed-up places, ruined some of my life
All the things I knew for sure they turned out as lies

Such a diabolical liberty
The way you touch the heart of me

I punished myself, got took for a ride (poor boy)
Human nature deserted my side (boo-hoo)
See the marks and the scores on the wall (so sad)
Realise that I know nothing at all (why don't you man-up?)
Stretch me out, take me down, rip me up (poor you, poor you)
Buy me wine, then complain that I'm drunk (give it a rest)
All opinions are built on fine sand (you're just so miserable)
I wish I could make friends with all mine...

I'll see you tomorrow in a different light
I've searched some hopeless places, undone some of my life
All the things I knew for sure they turned out as lies

And the waves of love wash over me
While you don't feel them
And the grains of sand fall finally to the floor

And all the books I cherish, I can't make you read them
But still I take your hand and lead you through the door

It's nothing special, it's just steady away

Tolerance with a smile on your face

It's nothing special, only steady away

Resignation with a smile on your face

Words and music by Jon Hunt 2011-2013

Groupie

I'll glare at you as you approach the front of the queue
You'll never know the band or understand the songs just like I do
I'm just back from the German leg, I should've been inside by now
But Bex couldn't get her usual 'plus two'

An old song on a set list feels like a returning missing son
I spend all day posturing on the official online forum
Surround myself with sycophants, because we've all got OCD
The only cure's false camaraderie

La na na na na na na...

Well I'm a guru, I get the setlists, I give the roadies my fags
My girlfriend's crazy, she tolerates me, if not she'd have to pack her bags
I know the promoters, got all the t-shirts, you wanna know? - I'll tell ya
I'm many things - just don't call me a groupie

Arrived at three, saw the singer drinking tea
I ignored the look of sheer exasperation that she shot at me
She vaguely humoured me, just like she tends to every time
I wonder if she knows she could be mine?

I dunno who these newbies are who have turned up on this tour
No-one of my pedigree seems to have seen them before
The music's incidental, although I know it off by heart
Oh come on, the support's about to start

La na na na na na na...

Well I'm a guru, I get the setlists, I give the roadies my fags
My girlfriend's crazy, she tolerates me, if not she'd have to pack her bags
I know the promoters, got all the t-shirts, you wanna know? - I'll tell ya
I'm many things - just don't call me a groupie

Words and music by Jon Hunt 2012

The End

The end of something heralds something new
So I just had to write this song for you
The upper hand it always ruins me
But now you've got it, all my words are free

I look at photos and they don't seem real
And I don't understand the way I feel
I only wish that I could purge my mind
Of all the broken shards
That start to pierce on through when things are fine
Turn fresh water in to bitter wine
Speeding up and slowing down the time

I walk alone beneath the pouring rain
It washes all the bullshit from my brain
There's something in your eyes, I know it too
Thoughts and things that I could never do

But I'm still grateful for the love we had
And I will love you even when you're filled with love for someone else
When I am just a shadow in your memory
I'll still smile because nothing
Will have the same effect as what you've done
So even while I'm out here on the run
I'll think of you and always see the sun

Obsessed with time and burning down the years
Now I sit here amongst the smiles and tears
I wanna feel some love without regret
A hidden window I ain't opened yet

There's something in your eyes, you know it too
Thoughts and things that I can never do
And looking back I will return one day
To that green plateau where
The pink and purple melt into the ground
Your soul gives off the most beautiful sound
I never really realised what I'd found...

Words and music by Jon Hunt 2013