The Chelsea Sessions 1967

Lover Man
by Mike Heron

Baby come tell me 'bout your tree-house
And your candy-strped pet mouse
And your car that has feet
Hey come tell me 'bout your eyebrows that meet
And my baby won't you tell me 'bout your chilblains
And your right eyeball's growing pains
And your purple tractor that sings
Hey come tell me all of those things

But if you want to tell me some more
Think you can
Oh babe tell me 'bout your lover man

You know I'm talking 'bout him
He's one that's strutting around
Each time I get out of town
You know the one that I mean
He's one that's stealing my scene away
Baby I'm talking 'bout him

Oh baby won't you tell me 'bout your black rose
And the garden where your love grows
Among the cabbages and beans
Hey come tell me why your primroses are green

But if you want to tell me some more
Think you can
Oh babe tell me 'bout your lover man

You know I'm talking 'bout him
He's one that's strutting around
Each time I get out of town
You know the one that I mean
He's one that's stealing my scene away
Baby I'm talking 'bout him
He's one that's stealing my cream away
Baby I'm talking 'bout him
Talking 'bout your lover man
Talking 'bout him


Born In Your Town
by Robin Williamson

Born in your town on this young morning
oh certainly I have good luck coming
sadly sadly have I mourned making heavy my burden
such toils to entwine me
no more to endure them

A lover is to me she is my companion
six strings at my hand to the morning I tuned them
oh warm room I have and a warm place for sleeping
black coffee to waken me
no more to be dreaming

The wings of the albatross long since I saw him
the hair of the goats as they walk to the island
in the hands of the watchers a page is turned over
and the echoes flow on rippling on
on the face of the river

What would I wish for if wishing were having
in the streets of your town I see nothing worth stealing
for autumn speaks leaves to the lost deeps forever
and the clouds echo on echoing on
on the face of the river


First Girl I Loved
by Robin Williamson

First girl I loved
time has come I will sing you this sad goodbye song
when I was seventeen
I used to know you
I haven't seen you now since many is the short year
and the last time I seen you you said you'd joined
the church of Jesus
but me I remember your long red hair
falling in our faces as I kissed you

I want you to know I just had to go
I want you to know we just had to grow

and you're probably married now
house and car and all
and you turned into a grownup female stranger
and if I was lying near you now
I wouldn't be here at all

We parted so hard
me rushing ‘round Britain with a guitar
and making love to people I didn't even like to see
I would think of you
and I mean in the sick sad morning
and in the lonely midnight
try to hold your face before me

I want you to know I just had to go
I want you to know we just had to grow

and you're probably married now
kids and all
you turned into a grownup female stranger
and if I was lying near you now
I'd just have to fall

Well I never slept with you
though we must have made love a thousand times
for we were just young
didn't have no place to go
but in the wide hills
and beside many a long water
you have gathered flowers
and they do not smell for me

I want you to know I just had to go
I want you to know we just had to grow

So it's goodbye first love and I hope you're fine
and I hope you’re fine
I have a sweet woman
maybe some day to bear babies by me
she's pretty, she’s a true friend of mine.


Gently Tender
by Mike Heron

Gently tender fails the rain
Washing clean the slate again
But leave me please behind my brain
The slightest shadow on her

Shadows dancing through the pink milk blankets
Where my mind lay dreaming gently
Of my loving you

Sometimes I think I was true
But then I loved the stone beneath my feet as much-usually

Gently tender snowdrop grows
See the past tense quietly go
Kill the chord but let me know
The slightest shadow on her

Shadows dancing through the green bush trees
Where my toes crept breathing lightly
Of my loving you

Sometimes I think I was true
But then I loved the stone beneath my feet as much-usually

Slowly spitting crawls the snake
See the grasses bend and break
Venom that might easily shake
The slightest shadow on her

Good good loving, she gave me good loving
Good good loving, she gave me good loving
Good good loving, she gave me good...

And now all my wine is water
To her all my wine is water
All water
And my pearls are clay

Good good loving, she gave me good
Good good loving, she gave me good
Good good loving, she gave me good...

And now all my wine is water
To her all my wine is water
All water
And my pearls are clay

She gave to me good loving
She gave to me good loving
She gave to me good loving

Oh good loving...


Little Cloud
by Mike Heron

How sweet to be a cloud
Floating in the blue...

Lying awake late the other night
Heard above me a trembling
I looked up, it was a little cloud
>From which a gold string was dangling
You know I gave the string a little pull
Just to see what was on the other end
Just then a voice come down to me
Says, Hey now, don't you want to be my friend

And float with me to distant lands
Wondrous and fair
Float with me to distant lands
Wondrous and fair
Yatatatatata tatatata tatatata towwow
Yatatatatata tatatata tatatata towwow

You see I'm just a happy little cloud
I laugh and I float and I sing my song
But the other clouds don't like me none
They say I am behaving so very wrong
You see a cloud's supposed to be sad
To cry and weep and tear its hair and all
It don't matter how hard I try
I can't get the first little tear to fall

Oh float with me ... etc

I said, Hey I like you little cloud
You are a nice little fellow, yes
You making some kind of joke, said the cloud
Oh can't you see I'm wearing such a pretty dress
You see, I am the prettiest little chick cloud
That you'd find anywhere up above
I just dropped in on you awhile
To see if you could give me some kind of love

And float with me ... etc

Just then the chief cloud come into view
He says, Hey girl, now what d'you think you're doing there
I've told you so many times before
You just don't seem at all to care
You know you should be floating up above
Now don't let me catch you down here again
And as my cloud rolled out of view
There come falling down a gentle shower of rain
Happy rain come falling down
Red, green, blue and golden
And every drop as it fell it smiled
And throwing hack its head began singing-

Come float with me to distant lands
Wondrous and fair
Float with me to distant lands
Wondrous and fair
Yatatatatata tatatata tatatata towwow
Yatatatatata tatatata tatatata towwow.


Blues for the Muse
by Robin Williamson

I wake up in the early when I see my day walk in
I wake up in the early when I start to begin
I drink up my coffee to drive dreams away
and I think about leaving but remain for the day

Oh Glory but I just stay blind
think about my loving, yeah, some of the time
I want to be easy, ain't it hard like they say
but I can play ...
and most any morning, most any morning
I like to be born into my guitar day
they say it's all butterflies
don't let your dreams get in your eyes,
but Orpheus made the sun rise
'cause he knew how to play

Well she sings so fadey,
I call her my guitar lady
she's a noted writer, I just can't seem to let
her be and she is my flower
I call her my easy hour.
she's a low special, and baby that's enough for me

I got my sorrows felt, I got my sorrows felt
I will reach for my lady
and I swear she's sure to blow the blues away
and it's rain in the ocean
rain in the ocean
and stones on the mountain
and just like I say
I'm just the string striker
I ain't no prizefighter
it's easy to play

Well, she sings like the seashore
tonight I don't ride on your seesaw
I will call up the angels if they have a little word to say
and I think I'll try cloudwalking
it's just my face you see here talking
and it's just the guitar singing
and I have to let her have her way

Well it's alright, you're in the graveyard now
it's all right, you're in the graveyard now
you may weep and you may moan
you may pass your life so gay
but lucky in love I swear sometimes
surely going to have to reach a leaving day

Well she sings like the seashore,
tonight I don't ride on your seesaw.
I will call up the angels if they have a little word to say
and I think I'll try cloudwalking
it's just my face you see here talking
and it's just the guitar singing
and I have to let her have her way.


The Eyes of Fate
by Robin Williamson

Oh, who can see in the eyes of fate
all life alone in its chronic patterns
Oh swan, let me fly you
To the land of no winds blowing
I know nothing and know that I know nothing
all is in the eye and in its blinks of seeing
so just like the morning, the ghost of the following day listen...

Ory, cry, cry.....
rear the rollers wild and stormy
echoes holy only lonely
gone before-y, ory ory.

All rivalry and opinion still cast their wild spells
effort and contrariness change the directions of time
the lion still growls in your hollowness
please let's be easy, please let's be friends
watching and learning like small children
'till out of the morning is growing the strength of the day listen ...

Ory, ory, ory, ory
rear the rollers wild and stony
echoes holy, only lonely
gone before-y, ory, ory.
servant of fame or fame for a servant
you see what you see, you see seldom what is servant of fate or fate for a servant
you see what you see, you see seldom what is servant of fate, oh ...


The Mad Hatter's Song
by Robin Williamson

Oh seekers of spring
how could you not find contentment in this time of
riddling reasons
in this land of the blind
by the joke of fate alone
it's sure that as the loved hand leaves you,
You clutch for the slip-stream, the realness to find.

But do what you like, do what you like,
do what you like, do what you like, do what you like
do what you can, do what you can, do what you can
live 'til you die, my poor little man
For Jesus will stretch out his hand no more.

But in the south there's many a waving tree
Oh would that musky fingers move your pain
in the warm south winds the lost flowers bloom again

And if you cried,
you know you'd fill a lake with tears
still wouldn't turn back the years
since the city has took you
Mad Hatter is on my mind
so sad
sad to see the way it grew
those of the people that I knew
that have either fell or faltered
Mad Hatter's on my mind
And you must have to see clear some time

Prometheus the problem child still juggling
with his brains
gives his limping leopard's visions to the miser
in his veins
saying gods are indigestions, I come for gain

But I am the archer, the lover of laughter
and mine is the arrowed flight
I am the archer, and my eyes yearn after
the unsullied sight
born of the dark waters
of the daughters of night
dancing without movement after the clear light.
Oh Prithee and fate be kind
in the rumbling and trundling rickshaw of time
hooked by the heart to the king fisher's line

I will set my one eye for the shores of the blind.


Alice is a Long Time Gone
by Robin Williamson

White rabbit smile, white rabbit smile
cry not so loud my lover frowns
I'm a grown up lady from London town
Yet ever more he sang his sad song-
sweet Alice is a long time gone

Oh Alice is gone, gone
Alice is gone, gone
sweet Alice is a long time gone

she was pretty, oh yes
with her flaxen hair, her eyes so fair
her sweet voice and her snow white dress

Oh Alice is gone, gone
Alice is gone, gone
sweet Alice is a long time gone

It's seven long years
since last I seen your face
no-one in Wonderland
could take your place
but when I see you again
that sets me back apace
sweet Alice is a long time gone

I would exchange my coat of fur
if time would turn or waters burn
I'd wish you back the way you were

Oh Alice is gone, gone
Alice is gone, gone
sweet Alice is a long time gone.


See Your Face and I Know You
by Robin Williamson

I sit down in the Underground trying to be gay
see the wild grass turn just into hay
I see the magic movement but they don't fly away
bad karma and it ricochets my eye
bad karma round me
the asp and the ashed and the infant of flame
Murgatroyd and Doris and the leper-leaping lame
the sad and the giggly and the black-suit swain
I see your face and know you

Easy as lightning I've laughed in the leaves
and I'd feel like Ali Baba when he quit the forty thieves
I can cruel no more so you cause me to grieve
I see your face and know you
I don't dig hating and I don't like to try
but how can I love you when you want me to die
oh Lord, live and learn
I see your face and know you

I wish I was springtime green as the snow
I'd sprinkle me with growing dust green for to grow
I'd leave here running 'cause walking's too slow
I see your face and know you
oh watch how the light comes new each day
if you learn how to wonder you will know how to pray
oh Lord, live and learn
I see your face and know you.


Frutch
by Mike Heron

Now I met me a girl and her name was Frutch
And she liked dirt and me very much
She said if she'd met me during the war
And she found me hiding underneath the door
Even if she was German and I was Dutch
She wouldn't shoot me
She was a fine girl, Frutch
Shot me last Tuesday

Now I met me a girl and her name was Scrot
She kept a notebook with many a jot
About how to turn a banknote into a cat
And many such things just as useful as that
But I told her she wouldn't dig it if she turned
into a piece of gunshot
She didn't listen
She was a fine girl, Scrot
I got her right here in my shoulder now
thanks to Frutch

Now I met me a girl and her name was Blit
And she bought a do-it-yourself submarine kit
She tried it in the bath and it went down the plug
And she was inside it, she was making it chug
When she found there wasn't no place at all for
her to sit
She didn't worry none
She was a fine girl, Blit
She was still standing when she passed Norroway
for the fourth time

Now I met me a girl and her name was Twing
She looked like a yoyo without a string
She rolled up and down like a solid hoop
Right round the block and right through the soup
And right through the stew and the chicken stuffing
She was a fine girl, Twing
She was a good cook as cooks go...she went!

Now I met me a girl and her name was Plof
She had a car with a nasty cough
She fed it with aspirins and vitamin pills
Lotions and potions for to cure all ills
'Til you couldn't see the car for three miles of froth
Big Claimsville
She was a fine girl, Plof

Car don't cough no more
Just sits in the garage all day long
And screams for the doctor
Hypochondriac!


The Iron Stone
by Robin Williamson

A long wind, a weaving mind
over all the land the wild flowers grow
echoing kind to kind
on that day when I found the iron stone
heavy in my hand in the sloping rain
ever the seas rolled on
and o'er my heart they roofed their slates of grey
the iron stone I found it on that day

The iron stone I brought it home
heavy in my hand I brought it home
black as the thoughts of doom
a man told me it came from the moon
flying through time it flew
upon the long beach there I found it
dancing horses told their tale
among the stones it called me
there my hand it knew

Seeing in the thickness of its thick black sight
forests and centaurs and gods of the night
never that sun shone on
where high Atlantis raised her shores
how sang the dragons of the sea
the stag hunt rushing round the world
one turn of light it's gone again
the eyes of Merlin speak
beneath their crown of silver grey
A piece of iron black and heavy
smoothed and rounded by the sea
holding its sand and stones...


Good Dog
by Robin Williamson

This dog is no puppy dog
she's strange as the trees
she's brown as the mountain
and white as the breeze
she walks on the water
without any boots
her eyes arc as fine
as the music of flutes

but she will not sweep chimneys
nor will she pluck corn
but she is the best little dog
that ever was born

I have lain in the womb
of the rocks cold and chill
while she speaks in my heart
with the voice of the hill
and when I am risen
and ready to run
she will laugh without laughter
to welcome the sun

but she will not learn language
nor will she bear scorn
but she is the best little dog
that ever was born

The water god offered me
the ring of his rings
to buy the dog from me
to teach she poor kings
the ring's on my finger
the dog runs behind
since watery palaces
would ne'er suit her mind

but as yet she can't fly well
nor play on the horn
still she is the best little dog
that ever was born.

Back Conflict of Emotions

Torch Song

The light in the crooner's life is an old torch song
Flaming up for his first loves -
Misty romancing and moonlighting dancing into dawn

"You are my sweet theme song
You linger when the spotlights fade
With my sweet theme song I've got it made

Just love me
Run to meet me when I come home
Take my feelings,
Show them a new day.
Make me say;
I will sing again
Jus tlike the brown eyes of autumn years
Singing to the yellow moon
‘The dawn is soon coming'
I will touch again
Dreams in the lonely glass at 4am
And walk onto the foggy street
The chance to meet a dream coming"


Belinda

There was no foolin'.
Stretched out her hand and led me,
Let her long hair fall soft on my cheek

She made it so clear
She would go with me one time
And dance for me a dance so sweet

It took all my love to show that girl the sun
It took all my love to show that girl the sun
Took all my strength just to watch her goin'
Like she was no one

Oh! Belinda I'm glad you closed your door

It could've been rough
If you'd seen me fallin'
All over your dancin' floor


It Takes My Breath Away Yet

I did not meet you soul to soul.
I felt the kiss and missed the words that you spoke.
Your skin so soft and warm on mine,
Sighing like the best was done and gone.
And the way that I was playing it was just one
night with you
Opened my eyes and you were smiling.
Oh darling I'm further and further and further
>From the way that I thought when we met.
Isn't it amazing to watch our love growing?
You know it takes my breath away yet.

Went lookin' in the city streets
And in the ways of the country
And all the time what I needed
Oh all the time just what I needed
Was lookiil' to find me
Lookin' to find me


Jane

Jane can't tell me if her hands
Are trembling with emotion
Of grief or fear or joy.

Jane looks down at her brown shoes.
She knows that the shine upon them
Should please someone like you.

Someone like you would like to take Jane off
To run on sands so white.
To buy her boat trips if you could
And watch her drink tea.

Jane can't tell me if her heart
Is racing with emotion
Of grief or fear or joy.


Maker of Islands

I do my job and its pleasing to me.
I'm getting so I can sail upon the roughest sea.
On the roughest sea I do alright.
But when my work is over and done
I get to being a lonely one,

I need someone to take the wheel at night.
And someone to navigate 'til light comes,
But most of all I need a maker of islands,
Rested in the golden sunlight where the seas are kind
She could make me islands for my peace of mind,

If I could only see her.
Look into her eyes.
Then I'd lie easy
I'd lie easy
I'd lie easy
In my soul.


Transiberian Express

A relationship was being ended.
She sent me a book - "Famous freezing cold railway journeys",
Instead of a hint, what I got was an intimate
knowledge of the Transiberian route!
Following up with, "Wheels across the Steppes"
I felt myself trundling through the crisp snow
and I could have introduced you to the
population of Urkutz station by "Chuffing into hostile terrain".

Oh how I knew, it, I could see there was a change.
It was written in your eyes. It was - oh written across your face
And when you told me I saw flashin' of a flag,
Heard the rollin' wheels beneath me.
I swear that I was movin'
There by your side but so far away
Mercury drops, there's nothing to say

chorus:
I can't hold this room still
Got the towns flashin' by
Got the faces at the stations
It's colder so much colder now
And I just can't stop this Transibeflan Express,
Transiberian Express.
And you bought it, you bought my ticket, ticket

Through the pine trees and they're whisperin' of blood
In the field of my vision I got samovars and overcoats
Into Kirov there's a pink stare of daybreak
Falling over the town.
Then I can hear your voice
"Only one thing more" and you tell me 'bout him
"Only one thing more" but the train is speeding

chorus:
Thirteen hundred miles from Moscow, snow is everywhere.

We could have been so warm together.
Instead you put me here
Will I be travelling on this line for evermore
Through forest, steppes and hills,
Through Perm and Omsk and Urkutz
And at my soul the loss of you.
Feeling at my core the grip of winter

chorus:


Squeeze The Minutes

My heart melts at the thought of two people
achingly in love - "Living apart for the life we're
going to build". - "Romance on the top of the
podium yet again and geography just scrapes bronze"!

That I feel strongly enough about it to write a
song is entirely due to overexposure, as a child,
to 'Family Favourites'.

Now we're livin' apart for the life we're gonna
build when the time is right.
But the time gets stretched in she Space that’s between us,
Squeeze the minutes
I wanna hear you whisperin' to me
I wanna kiss you in the night, in the night

chorus:
Squeeze the minutes
Chase the hands round
Anything to get you
Sooner than has to be here in my arms
Squeeze the minutes
Squeeze the minutes
Squeeze the minutes
I want you here in my arms

As you said it yourself in your note it wasn't
such a bad photograph of you
But if lookin' was all to the way you are then I
could keep my heart more
I wouldn't mind this livin' apart so
Maybe wouldn't think of it all the time

chorus:

Oh I threw it away the thought - "I wouldn't
wait, couldn't wait for one love".
I only think of the way you understand me and
I know that it's worthwhile
I only think of the way that you are
It's makin' me know what I want - oh what I want

chorus:


Winter in China

"The world moves on and leaves a tear".
"Warmth, dazzle are gone".
"It gives you conflict of emotions".
Dragged wailing into existence by the unnatural
and largely hopeless act of rendering Chinese
poetry into English, they ended up here!

Cold, cold as a crystal, the world moves on and leaves a tear
We both used to see the same thing when we closed our eyes in loving
I'd like to believe there's more wine in that glass
But a shiver in the night says
"Cut your losses
Cut your losses - oh run"

chorus:
Warmth, dazzle are gone
Gone from the sun as the year moves on
Warmth, dazzle are gone
Gone from the sun as the year moves on
Oh! dazzle, it's got no place in my life anymore
Loud in the deep night
The cold,
The cold cracks like a whip - like a whip

Idle dreams of the far away, they got you in the lead still.
I taste doubt on my lips now,
Don't know if you're stayin', goin'
Fresh paint on the landscape
I really don't know what to think
bout our love
Cold misty rain in tangled threads falls on me
chorus:

A dream can be all that’s free sometimes,
I know the feelin’ well.
A dream got a grip like winter,
Hold you back from all your dealings.
Set your eyes on a distance, pin a heart on your sleeve.
Give you conflict,
Give you a conflict of emotions
And you can’t break away

chorus:


Savage Moon

"To the white man nature was a wilderness infested with wild animals and savage people.
To us it was tame, earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery".
Chief Luther Standing Bear

"We saw the Great Spirit's work in almost everything; sun, moon, trees, wind and mountains.
Sometimes we approached him through those things. Was that so bad"?
Walking Buffalo

"The Sioux knew that man's heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing things soon led to lack of respect for humans too".
Chief Luther Standing Bear


>From pastures of plenty, sailin’ in with the gold
"Free land for the taking" they said
And they told of the primitive red man.

chorus:
"Naked in the river he stands
His arms stretched out to the sky
He’s worshipping the spirits of the land
And his song to the moon
Is the savage wolf-cry
Great moon, hawk moon
Hoop moon, hawk moon
Hawk moon -stretch out your wings
In a hoop - circle of the people

These people feel kinship with the birds of the air.
With the trees, with the winds that blow,
In fact, they see kinship everywhere.

chorus:

"Sir it pains me to tell you that you hoped too
much for this land.
Wild barbarous country it is.
And it's alive with the beasts and the red am".
chorus:


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