1. |
Loaded For Bear
03:08
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You’d arrive unannounced - catch me unaware,
Made yourself right at home - curled up on a chair,
Stayed as long as you wanted - you just didn’t care,
But I’m gonna see you off now ---- I’m loaded for bear.
I’ve gone done got me a shotgun - so now I’m prepared,
I’m ready to meet you, and I’m no longer scared.
I can smell when you’re coming - gonna get you, I swear,
I’ll blow you away now - cos I’m loaded for bear.
You’re a mean black dog, a howling nightmare,
You don’t fetch me no rabbits, you just drag in despair.
But I’ve had enough - had more than my share,
So I’m putting you down cos I’m loaded for bear.
You can climb through the window - slink up the stairs,
Try to creep round my door - but you’d better beware,
Cos I will be waiting - you haven’t a prayer,
You’re gonna get both barrels, boy ----- I’m loaded for bear.
You’d arrive unannounced - catch me unaware,
Made yourself right at home - curled up on a chair,
Stayed as long as you wanted - you just didn’t care,
But I’m gonna see you off now, cos I’m loaded for bear....
copyright Alan Mark Stephenson 2021
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2. |
Freda's Not Coming Back
04:39
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CHORUS:
Freda’s not coming back - Freda’s not coming back,
She stayed for a while as an infant and child,
But now Freda’s not coming back.
If you meet me don’t hang your head down,
Don’t cast your eyes on the ground,
Don’t cloak your face with a frown.
Now that Freda’s no longer around.
But when your face tells me that you know,
But you swiftly turn away and go.
It cuts like a knife, it destroys another life,
It hits me like another mortal blow.
When I know that you know but you pretend it isn’t so,
I suppose that you think you’re being kind.
But when you don’t say her name it’s like losing her again,
And I don’t think that’s what you had in mind.
CHORUS
Please don’t fear that you’ll open up the wound,
For you know that it won’t be healing soon.
Don’t be afraid that you’ll remind me, it’ll never be behind me,
But it helps to know you’re thinking of her too.
Please don’t leave me with one friend less than before.
Don’t let this nightmare keep you from my door,
I don’t need my space Just need to see a friendly face,
Now that Freda’s not around any more.
You say you think of me often, but I can’t read your mind,
So maybe give me a call, just once in a while.
You need to understand that I’m still the same man,
That I was before Freda went away.
CHORUS
You know that I never will forget,
But it’s a comfort if you speak of her yet.
When you mention her name it feeds that inner flame
That burns off sadness and regrets.
I need to start living once again,
Though life without her will never be the same.
But showing you remember keeps alive that glowing ember
That slowly will melt away the pain.
copyright Alan Mark Stephenson 2022
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3. |
Sensible To The Last
04:39
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How easily we laugh at my odd forgetful ways,
At names lost in the babble of the day.
Age just plays these tricks, hiding things away,
Makes the words I search for go astray.
But whatever comes to pass - I’ll be sensible to the last,
And I never will forget that I love you.
And now my train of thought often gets delayed,
And words stick on my tongue, and there they stay.
I won’t say it out aloud, but I grow more & more afraid,
And life becomes a slight-of-hand charade.
But whatever comes to pass - I’ll be sensible to the last,
And often I remember I love you.
Sometimes your face and name go their separate ways,
And day-to-day existence melts to haze.
The present takes its leave, and I dwell in yesterdays,
While I fumble blindly through life’s growing maze.
But despite what’s come to pass - I’ll stay sensible to the last,
And I think that maybe once I loved you.
Phrases spinning in my brain emerging time and time again,
To that uneasy laugh that fails to cloak your pain.
Days of clarity grew fewer, and my moonlight mind just wanes,
As rust eats slowly through my memory’s chain.
But now it’s come to pass, and sensible cannot last,
I think I used to love someone who looked like you.
Now I’m staring at a face that I just don’t recognise,
That holds a welling teardrop in the corner of its eye,
It wears a sad and weary smile, but I really can’t think why,
And it tires me to even try.
I live in pictures from the past, live a life through frosted glass,
Join the ghosts who live in long-gone rendezvous.
And now it’s come to pass - sense has drifted off at last,
And I wonder to myself...‘who are you?’
copyright Alan Mark Stephenson 2019
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4. |
Never Died A Winter Yet
05:12
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Well, they lived here since they married back in 1953,
And they’d laugh about the time the parish priest came round for tea,
He told them of the birds, and he told them of the bees,
While underneath the table they squeezed each other’s knees.
And the twins were born upstairs in 1958,
They’d joke about it later, but at the time they were a state,
‘Cos they’d expected just the one, judging by her weight,
And they’d only bought one cot, so they used an old fruit crate.
And things were going fairly well in 1962,
They’d chat about the future, all the things that they would do.
He got made up to a foreman got a pay rise too,
So they bought a little car and a cheeky cockatoo.
And life got oh so modern in 1968,
They planned some home improvements, so he brought round his joiner mate,
They panelled in the plumbing and boarded up the grates,
She got rid of the teapot and the willow pattern plates.
They had their ups and downs, but they never had regrets,
Though there were times when he would worry,
Times that she would fret,
Then he’d peck her on the cheek & say ‘Don’t you worry, pet’
‘We never died a winter yet’.
They bought the house of-off The Council back in 1982,
They’d discussed it with the kids who said ‘it’s the only thing to do’,
So they used up all their savings, took out a mortgage too,
They were proper proud as punch and their politics turned blue.
But they finally closed the works down in 1984,
And they worried how they’d manage to keep the wolf from their new door,
She’d got 5 hours cleaning said she’d try to get some more,
He got a part-time warehouse job in a brand new superstore.
Sometimes they’d have a row, sometimes she’d chuck the china,
Sometimes he’d slam the door screech off in the Morris Minor,
He’d get a little grumpy when he got his damned angina,
And once she flung a tart at him and gave him quite a shiner.
Well things got quite exciting back in 1987,
They won a few bob on the pools, so had a week in Devon,
She had a little weep when the boy got work in Yemen,
United went to Wembley - and the parrot went to heaven.
In the year 2000 he started drawing on his pension,
They talked of more improvements, maybe build a small extension,
But the kids don’t ever visit now, so it’s hardly worth the mention.
She worries about her memory and her growing inattention.
They had their ups and downs, but they never had regrets,
Though there were times when he would worry,
Times that she would fret,
Then he’d peck her on the cheek & say ‘Don’t you worry, pet’
‘We never died a winter yet’.
Now she doesn’t know what year it is, doesn’t even know the day,
She never ever speaks and he’s run out of things to say,
She stares all day at nothing, and he has to look away,
She should be in a home, but he’s determined she should stay.
Now the weather’s turning colder, and she’s taken to her bed,
He pops in and plumps the pillows that he’s propped behind her head.
So much has past between them, nothing more needs to be said.
But he sits down at her bedside, talks to himself instead.
‘We had our ups and downs but we’ve never had regrets,’
He says she has no need to worry now, she has no need to fret.
He pecks her cool pale cheek and says ‘Don’t you worry, pet’
‘I never died a winter yet’.
They had their ups and downs, but they never had regrets,
Though there were times when he would worry,
Times that she would fret,
Then he’d peck her on the cheek & say ‘Don’t you worry, pet,
We never died a winter yet’
They had their ups and downs, but they never had regrets,
Though there were times when he would worry,
Times that she would fret,
Then he’d peck her on the cheek & say ‘Don’t you worry, pet,
We never died a winter yet’
copyright Alan Mark Stephenson 2018
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Mark Stivvy England, UK
Based in Cumbria. Turned to song writing in playing 2018, and now has 86 songs completed, with many more in the pipeline. First EP ('4/4 Freda') released in autumn 2023. Totally genre fluid in musical style and lyrical content - moving from poignant to proper nonsense, nostalgia to naughtiness in no time! ... more
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