A Bright Cold Day in April

It is a little after midnight, and the whisky has addled my brain a little, but it strikes me that there’s nowhere on the site where you can download ABCDiA as it was recorded. Let me rectify that:

• House of Cards
• It’s Half Past Four and We’re 2-0 Down
• You and Me, Against the Rest of the World
• Hopscotch and Fratricide (on the Scooniehill Road)
• Stuck Inside of Avignon (With the John Stuart Mill’s Tombstone Blues Again)
• 1984
• Song for the Shy
• By The Time I Get to Crail**
• Missing/When I’m Gone*

* Written by Phil Ochs

** Written by Colin Beveridge/Michael Dempster

All other songs written by Colin Beveridge. Engineering etc. by Ross Bambrey. Please download, listen, enjoy and share (with credit) for non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved until I’ve time to look out an appropriate license.

NEW song: Murderers on Mendenhall

An MP3 of Murderers on Mendenhall is available here. It’s demo quality, which means I screwed up the chords (2.49) and couldn’t be bothered to fix it. And since even people from Bozeman have been asking me, Mendenhall is a street. It runs parallel to Main. There’s no reason for it, it just sounds nice, almost as nice as Scooniehill.

Turn the tape back to the beginning,
There’s a line I’d like to hear again
Something about singing when you’re sinning,
Returning to the regular refrain
And the murderers on Mendenhall can’t touch me tonight,
I’m far too fired-up to fight
The only thing I’m thinking of is how I’m going to
Steer my sorry soul back to you

Missing/When I’m Gone

An MP3 of Missing/When I’m Gone is available here. I wrote Missing; When I’m Gone is by Phil Ochs. This is posted for Essbee, by request.

Whatever happened to the boy-scout I used to be?
Full of good deeds and duty to God, Queen and Country
He’d have been useful, what with everything he was taught
But he’s missing, presumed got interested in sport.

Somebody Like You

An MP3 of dubious quality is available here.

Accidentally met in Kinburn Park
At ten to six, it was getting dark
You said you’d had a dreadful day,
It seemed the world was in your way
You said “I could do with somebody like you”

Stuck Inside of Avignon (With The John Stuart Mill’s Tombstone Blues Again)

An MP3 of this song is available here. And yes, I’m aware that the title is silly. Thanks for your concern.

Edit: When I lived in Avignon, from time to time I’d take a walk to the local graveyard to try to find Mill’s grave. My guidebook and the cemetery signs agreed that it was there, but neither ever led me to it.

A thousand miles from home, wherever that may be
My hat’s still in my suitcase and my heart remains with me
She, she could explode for all I care
If I had hot water, I’d wash her right out of my hair

Tangled Up In Bob

An MP3 of Tangled Up In Bob is available here. Lyrics are mine, the tune is (predictably) Bob Dylan’s Tangled Up In Blue.

Early one morning, the sun was shining, I walked into HMV
Wondering if they had anything I needed on CD
I wandered up to the Dylan section, couldn’t believe my eyes
Blood on the Tracks and Blonde on Blonde were both 6.95
Immediately I snapped them up, the friend with me said “But…
“Kensson, you already own them both.” I said “Shut
“Your gob! I’m tangled up in Bob.”

Hopscotch and Fratricide (on the Scooniehill Road)

An MP3 of Hopscotch and Fratricide is available here.

He lists his hobbies as hopscotch and fratricide
She likes Countdown and making dogs from balloons
He’s got a flat at Gatty by the seaside
She rents damp but cosy rooms

She shares with a drunkard and a sabbatical
His flat has an Arsenal/Spurs divide
The Love Machine says they’re 96% compatible
Their horoscopes very neatly coincide

She wears her favourite skirt from all the skirts in her commode
To meet him on the Scooniehill Road.

House of Cards

An MP3 of House of Cards is available here.

My dreams are built like a house of cards
You’re going to blow, you’re going to blow too hard
Be gentle

You climbed up the stairs like the heroine in a horror movie
Maybe you were scared of something waiting there
To make a meal of you

By the Time I Get to Crail

An MP3 of By the Time I Get to Crail is available here.

There’s a force eight blowing on St. Andrews Bay
It’s the first week of October, it’s a dreich Fife autumn day
I’m going to find a boat, make myself a sail
Maybe I’ll have brightened up by the time I get to Crail

Dear FedEx

An MP3 of Dear FedEx is available here.

Dear FedEx, Dear FedEx, I write to complain
Your man left my parcels all out in the rain
Four hundred dollars direct down the drain
My valuable artwork’s now covered in stains