Wednesday 19 December 2012

Into The Music

This is a heavy chest of songs recorded and written by the captain over the last ten years. It is his 'Best Of' volume 1, that contains work done with many different identities including 'SLUTCO', Peggy Brainchild', 'The Dawn Fanfare', Brainwire, Guttermask and White Trash ana Halfcast'.

They are like a suitcase of songs he has taken with him, as he builds the new sound and identity of 'The Dead Sea Captain'. It offers a glimpse of his musical past and like a memory box contains little treasures that will always take him back to that place.

Holes In The Souls  http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/holes-in-the-souls


Written about being poor but happy, and seeing and appreciating the beauty in the small things.

lyrics

I got holes in the soles of my shoes
I got those good-bye-girl blues
I've got a pocket that's full of your change
as I sing for my supper again

Should I get out of bed
I'll watch her sleep instead
and I'll crawl out of my mind
Should I follow the pack
and eat heart-attack
work 'till I'm sick to the bone

Is your money that good
are your hands full of blood
well, someone's gotta pay
in the blink of an eye
your life passes by
you didn't stop to see

a morning sunrise
when it catches her eyes
or feel a cool winter's breeze
and the beauty you miss
when it's money you kiss
it makes my world an ugly place

Well, I'll sing....

As they fight in their suits
for the land and the fruits
well there's none left for me
What can I do
when they build a brand-new
concrete factory
on the place where we'd go
to believe that our souls
were still allowed to be free

Well, I'll sing...

Well, it seems the race
has been won
and we're late
and the roads have been burned
by the well-fed
and the learned

I got holes in the soles of my shoes
I got those good-bye-girl blues
I've got a pocket that's full of your change
as I sing for my supper again

Should I get out of bed
or watch her sleep instead
and crawl out of my mind

 
Voices - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/voices-acoustic
 
This is the acoustic version of Voices, written on the dole. It was recorded by Pete Skalley of my old band White Trash ana Halfcast after we had took acid and went down Thurstason.

lyrics

Dont look, dont look for me.
Cos it's hard, it's hard to be
when it all gets lost inside your head
you say you know you never forget

Dont change, dont change who you are
cos you lost, you found out who your not
and its all too much for me to take,
my mind says no, my body will break

Its not the voices in my head,
she moves through me and my sanity says
I need you now before they take me away
my mind was all for you to take

Why cry, why cry so much
when you need, when you need my touch
but it all gets lost inside your head
I say I know I'll never forget.

Dont forget to say bye when you go
cos I feel no more love and she's letting go
I ache for the days, when she took me away
the woman you lose is the woman that stays

And I'd like to say why I even try
they look like they do, but then always pass by
I ache for the days when she took me away
the woman you lose is the woman that stays
and it all gets lost
and she moves through me
but I, I can see
she did it all for me.
 
Come By Ours - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/come-by-ours

I wrote this as a bit of a take on Kumbayour. I started playing the chords, and the opening lyric of 'There's another shit stain playing on my radio' came out. So I stuck with it and developed the idea. It was when I had just moved into a horrible flat in Kensington in Liverpool, and wasn't too happy!
The cheap quality of eggs with feathers still attached to them. The packs of tabacco with images of people suffering from throat cancer, wandering why they worship the cross when it was a torture instrument

lyrics

there's another shit stain
playing on my radio
and another girl I had to hurt to let go
Another junky at the end of my road
he moans and he mumbles
and he stumbles and he groans
Oh lord come by ours

There's another feather stuck to the egg that I'm about to eat
It was ripped out so fast
that it makes it snotty and weak
another image of death
on the pack of my cigarettes
and another reason
why I tend to help myself
Oh lord, wont you come by ours

There's another kid, who's got hatred in his words
he don't belong to his mother
just another loveless birth
and another miracle for sale on my T.V
god always seems to need
a little bit more money
Oh my lord come by ours

There's another cross on the spire of the church
what they used to kill jesus
and then murder in his words
Oh lord, come by ours
 
Under The Spreading Chestnut Tree - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/under-the-spreading-chestnut-tree
 
I wrote this as a farewell to a first love. The girl who had been a big part of my life and thoughts for 5 years. We gave it one last go, and realised our lives were heading different ways. I based it on the suicide romance tale in Orwell. As I just think it is a sad and beautiful line and image. Under The Spreading Chestnut Tree, I sold you and you sold me.

lyrics

under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me
I sat with my head in your hands and i said
made you a promise we'll do it again

and soon my love we will dance
soon my love we will dance
in a suicide romance

backwards and forwards and upwards we talk
but the words they are twisting and away i do fall
I sit with my head in my hands and I say
why does it always end up this way

goodbye my love
goodbye my love

(this isn't like me at all)
(this isn't like me at all)

we spoke in the rain
in cold seasons change
in the sight of spring
I remember everything
I awoke to taste
a dream that I erased

now I cant sleep
nothing tastes as sweet
in 4 walls of me
I fall silently

so I think i should go
I think you should know
I've been through your mind
in time I hope that you'll see
that memory of me
that makes you smile
and in that place we would go
where your flowers they grow
by your favourite tree
I'll pick one up for her
and give it to you
in someone new

Under the spreading chestnut tree
i sold you and you sold me
 
I Gotta Know - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/i-gotta-know
 
The lyrics are from a Woody Gurthrie song, and I wrote the music to fit my style. I think it is such a powerful poem, and love the energy in it.

lyrics

Why do your war boats ride on my water
why do your death bombs fall from my sky
why do you burn my farm and my town down
sir I just gotta know

What makes your boats haul death to my people
blockbuster cannons and guns
why don't your ships bring some food and some clothing
Sir I just gotta know

Hungry lips are asking me
wherever I do roam
comrades and friends
are falling around me
and I sure gotta know

Why cant my hands get a good paying job
I can work I can plant I can sew
I built your big house where you hide from my people
but why do you crave to hide?

What good sir have you done I ask you
to deserve my money from my hands
Why does your law book chase me off my land
well sir, I just gotta know

Hungry lips are asking me
wherever I do roam
comrades and friends
are falling around me
and I sure gotta know

You lock me in jail
and you shut me in prison
your hospitals full
your crazy house jammed
what made that cop kill my trade union worker
You gotta talk plain cos I don't know

Hungry lips are asking me
wherever I do roam
comrades and friends
are falling around me
and I sure gotta know

Old Pleasures - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/old-pleasures

This was a bit of a throw away track that I took a liking to. It was written for a songwriting excercise at university. I threw a couple of chords and lyrics together and out this came. It's about my worries of the world, how I felt freedoms were slipping through our fingers, and the future is becoming scary. The boat is sinking, but the captain tells us it's fine.

lyrics

I know the stories
that shape over time
a memory in melody
a childrens rhyme
the talk of the town
has buried the clown
and all the kings men
are loose all around
fe fi fo fun
i smell the blood of
of the wars you begun

blessed be beautiful
hollowed and vain
sold by the systems
for profit net gain

the pleasures of old
these freedoms I'm told
float from our reach
if we forget what we hold

i know the ship
is sinking right now
but the captain has told us
it's fine anyhow
just stay on your knees
and wait for your turn
but the more that we stand
the more that we learn
 
Daylight Savings - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/daylight-savings
 
 
I wrote this when the clocks went forward at spring just before I turned 29. I wanted to write a song and not use a minor chord. The lyrics are about watching the days fade, and that feeling you get when you know you should have done more.

lyrics

So many things I could have done
so many races i could have won
so many songs i wish id have sung
spent my days playin catch up with the sun

so many wrongs i should have made right
i shouldnt run when i should fight
there were times when i should have cried
instead of hiding beneath my pride

see how it works you get nothing from this world
if your waiting for your life to happen
see how it hurts just observin the world
afraid to make things happen

so many stories i wish i could tell
so many promises i broke to myself
all the dreams i had when i was young
fading more the older i become
 
Meet Me In The Middle - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/meet-me-in-the-middle
 
Written and recorded in a few hours. It is a simple track and the lyrics are about still missing my first love. Thinking that we can just meet in the middle of our crossing roads.

lyrics

why am i keeping
your pictures on my wall
does it solve the feeling
of gotta gotta give some more

my mind was sleeping
in the memory of your warmth
and my soul is creeping
to follow you out the door

i thought that i could shake it
i thought that it would go
but instead your everywhere
and my heart wont let you go

is it wrong to feel you
in the arms of another girl
is it wrong if i see you
in the smile of another girl

so the story goes
wherever the wind blows
ill meet you in the middle
of the crossing of our roads
 
 Resolve - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/resolve

I wrote this based a little bit on religion and ordered society. How orders are followed in blind faith. it was during my waking up stages and this is the band version recorded with The Dawn Fanfare

lyrics

Put your clothes on it's not what it seems
wipe your smile with all your broken dreams
sit tight and tell me just what you meant
your tongue is talking but your not making sense

and so it's so sentimental to
confuse the virgin of her fruit
God's got an answer in a sympathetic smile
lost in the pages of a human denial

put it all together boy it's all in your head
the secrets that they sold you were the ones you never read
and so it seems what you know is never right
what makes you different when you scream and fight

cos they all stand up for you
go fetch the stick for you
and they trust noone but you
but I say God is inn us too

It's never over the wars have just begun
Jesus is living in an asylum
crucified with drugs
nomality
and colours fight on reality-v

But I wont stand up for you
go Fetch the stick for you
cos I trust noone like you
I say God is in us too

I'm not making no sense if the moment pretends
to be anything but you
in a blissful decline
we slowly entwine
and forget we ever knew
I'm not making no sense
get it all off my chest
but all's I seem to do
Resolve
 
End of The World -  http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/the-end-of-the-world

This was written about a change I felt I was going through in understanding the world. I was in love with a beautiful girl, and it was special, but yet I felt guilty of feeling good and being in love when the world is ending, and I felt I needed to do something about it.

lyrics

Though they seem a bit confused
As to what it is to lose
don't taste that good for you
But it;s not hard to make a change
when the sympathetic blame
is all that gets you through
But if the sex is nothing less than the best just get dressed
and throw it all away
And if you seem a bit suprised
when you look me in the eyes
and the moment gives you away

Its getting harder says the father
I'm in love with another girl shes just like you
See what you need is what you get
a girl that helps me to forget its the end of the world

And now the mother takes another sip and moves a little closer
and all's it takes is a touch
and though I'm never giving in
you know ill still never win
cos you always lose too much
so you talk a little longer
about how your feeling stronger
smile like you care
but all's you think about is wanting
something more than what you got
when I promised you the earth

Its getting harder says the father
Im in love with another girl shes just like you
See what you need is what you get
a girl that helps me to forget its the end of the world
God, I love thew way you are
Want to taste the way we were
Oh well she's got me on my knees
Oh please

sometimes words can be mistaken
when the path that you have taken
has lost you along the way
but in the innocence of knowing
which way the wind is blowing
it always leads me astray
See I can try to cover up
with a sentimental blush
the silence in my place
but in the bottom of my heart
Ive forgotten that it's hard to give the world away.


Its getting harder says the father
Im in love with another girl shes just like you
See what you need is what you get
a girl that helps me to forget its the end of the world
God, I love thew way you are
Want to taste the way we were
Oh well she's got me on my knees
Oh please
 
Secret - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/secret
 
"This was written when I was living in an empty 15 bedroom mansion on Penny Lane. It is about a girl I was sleeping with who had a boyfriend. But we just felt completely and physically drawn to eachother. We never had a mental connection, just a physical one. A beautiful girl, good memories, good song."

lyrics

The Secret
she steals
From my eyes
The wanting The Needing
Speaks in Smiles
In sunlight, my thoughts might
Catch her waves
And when she lies with me
Her conscience sways

Maybe I'm afraid
She says with her hands close
Maybe I'll be late
And my reasons can't be told
Maybe I'm afraid of the secrets in your heart
Maybe Ill return back to where we start

The pale girl
remains still at my touch
Another before her
just wasn't enough
between her heart beats
her body's warm
the secret between us
set with the sun
 
 Another Social Casualty - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/another-social-casualty

This was a B side to the Guttermask sessions with 'Dog'. Again, the lyrics are about the decay of society and we satisfied our Ska tastes with the music. The alleyway were we used to rehearse in Liverpool was always filled with dirty underwear, rats and old men.

lyrics

Down in downtown deeply
in an alley there's a show
the policeman confiscates another nudder womans hole
starting to crawl creeping is the old man we all know
looking kinda tired with a story noone knows
down a little further we find pinkish underwear
A needle and a tissue and a lock of golden hair
a little biddy piece of her in all of you and me
taste it in the water in the air we breathe
It's another social casualty

This whole world is falling around me
The sky is grey so unnaturally
angry eyes are following me
concrete cages all around me

Looking just like insects in a march of unity
hooded little creatures scurry all around me
never had no love and they will show none in return
only breed another nother never ever learn
it's another social casualty

This whole world is falling around me
The sky is grey so unnaturally
angry eyes are following me
concrete cages all around me

walking through the cars pumping carbon in my face
past the factories exuding filthy fucking waste
another fucking bilboard with an angry army man
asking me to murder be the best I can

This whole world is falling around me
The sky is grey so unnaturally
angry eyes are following me
concrete cages all around me
 
A Heroes Theme - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/a-heroes-theme
 
I wrote this about soldiers in the middle East always being called Heroes. For blindly fighting a war that they know is not right. I felt a true Hero, is one that has seen and knows what true freedom means.

lyrics

Watch out for the preacher
with Jesus in his bones
Reachin out for ya money
Cos god he needs his throne

As the soldier dreams
Sleeps through the screams
The hero has seen
Just what freedom means

Watch out for the police
Policies to force
Not nice for the dreamer
Escaping from the wars

With all ya force
Get up off the floor
No more shall war
Be forced upon the poor

The salt of the seas
Is forgotten histories
Shaped by the breeze
Of our own destinies

Get out of the city
She got no love for me
Her thousand eyes
Keeps a track of me

As the soldier dreams
Sleeps through the screams
The hero has seen
Just what freedom means
 
Be Minor - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/be-minor
 
I wrote this in my band White Trash ana Halfcast. The lyrics are about a bit of the decay in society that I would feel, I would tell people about my views at these drug parties and noone would believe me.

lyrics

Momma told me someday
I would be a man
and they'll crucify me any way they can
so here's my story from a to b
I sold my soul for my sanity

Why do you cry when no-one hears
the morning leaves ya
but ya keep your fear
cos all those stories they used to tell
got lost in your mind
cos they knew too well
that I could talk all night

it tastes so sweet when thoughts entwine
and dignity eats away all your time
oh they say they know it all
don't question what your fighting for

I could talk all night but my momma told me not to lie

Well you move so soon when society blooms
they say why do you hide behind the truth
oh they say your getting old
no time to lose your self control

Its another mothers birth
an immaculate deception
of rejection of perception
getting kinda low
cos society blames it on a god they say
take hate so great in the love he made

Well you talk so clean for the king and queen
then spread your legs in a magazine
and you feel so pretty you feel so tame
now they got someone else to blame
 
A Song To Save The World - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/a-song-to-save-the-world
 
This was written under the guise of Guttermask which has 'Dog' from White Trash ana Halfcast on electric guitar. I wrote this during my problems with the world.

lyrics

my head was in the gutter
of a terrible dream
i really think id better
get a belly full of steam
and get myself away from here
this aint my home
or all it appears

there are eyes in the sky
i see planes fly by
making clouds that cloud
my troubled mind

I see God in the face of Adolf Hitler
I see God in Martin Luther
I see God in the hearts that hate
and I see God in the minds of the great

for a dollar a day
brown childrean make
the clothes that you
just throw away
its a sale of sin
just dont ask why
ignorance is bliss
when we dont hear them cry
its simple economics
and you dont understand it at all

there are no nations anymore
just share holders
and boardrooms
profiting from wars
dividing the world
and feeding the flames
enslaving us all
with debt to our names

we'll write a song to save the world
(but it will never work)
 
Voices - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/voices
 
I wrote this when I was on the dole, and I would wait for dole day to get some weed in and lock myself away and record and listen to music. It was spring and I just started playing this nice acoustic riff which became a favourite of people and was the first sign of me developing into an acoustic player.
This version was recorded in the big 15 bedroom house I was looking after! I collapsed after recording this for 2 days.

lyrics

Dont look, dont look for me.
Cos it's hard, it's hard to be
when it all gets lost inside your head
you say you know you never forget

Dont change, dont change who you are
cos you lost, you found out who your not
and its all too much for me to take,
my mind says no, my body will break

Its not the voices in my head,
she moves through me and my sanity says
I need you now before they take me away
my mind was all for you to take

Why cry, why cry so much
when you need, when you need my touch
but it all gets lost inside your head
I say I know I'll never forget.

Dont forget to say bye when you go
cos I feel no more love and she's letting go
I ache for the days, when she took me away
the woman you lose is the woman that stays

And I'd like to say why I even try
they look like they do, but then always pass by
I ache for the days when she took me away
the woman you lose is the woman that stays
and it all gets lost
and she moves through me
but I, I can see
she did it all for me.
 
Gods Own Blame - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/gods-own-blame
 
Written with my friend Radio Ray it is about religion a bit and is about the people who believe blindly. Saved by the blame of God.

lyrics

Who knows, what your dreams arer about
Where God has fallen from his cloud
She cries in words so blind
To find the same empty minds
Your sins, wash away my love
cant get no grace with what feels good
Were safe when were in our grave
and saved by Gods own blame

Reasons to burn the witch
on bliss she talks in myth
secrets still seem to itch
cant get no answers from the rich
 
Self Destruct  -  http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/self-destruct
 
From the Guttermask E.P Panopticon and another ska satisfaction track. With some Orwellian and Wells lyrics. It is about a system that is built on slavery and greed will self destruct.

lyrics

the pride of pigs
in the palace pens
dogs of war smart
uniformed men
sent to kill
for coloured ribbon

you know its gonna self destruct

the righteous king
of the old blood lines
spits his orders
to the marching lines
upon the throne
safely far behind

you know its gonna self destruct

pretty pictures
everywhere
product placement
in our stare
a clever dose
of mind warfare

soldier soldier
in the dirt
tell me why your conscience hurts
fighting for a brave new world

order order in the court
lock away the reasons for war
you know its for
the greater good

but i know
(its gonna self destruct

the television
will make you sick
programming minds
on what to think
soap for the washing
and fear is a fix
 
Make Up Your Bed - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/make-up-your-bed
 
Written as I was immersed in Orwell and Hicks. I recorded an E.P called We are The Dead over a couple of days, it was all just simple songs recorded on an old computer and bad microphone. This was the last track about waking up and dealing with the thoughts in your head.

lyrics

you say all that you see in your mind
its not that cold but i wont stand in line
open you eyes and make up your bed
live with the nonsense that pours out your head

gotta get by gotta get high on my own
gotta know
gotta know why gotta know why I'm alone
well take me or leave me but never say why
love me or leave me its OK to try

you found out what they wanted from you
just a moment a moment to lose
open your heart and do what you feel
live with your love and believe that its real

so you find what really makes you sane
with sunlight comes the chances to make change
open your eyes and make up your bed
live with the nonsense that pours out your head
 
Trespass - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/trespass
 
Bit of a throw away track this one that I took a liking to. I wanted to try some crooning and tired it with this track. The lyrics are inspired by the Lords Prayer a bit.

lyrics

When you return to find
the rest have lost their minds
and walk in insect lines
not what you left behind
forgive their trespass

Lead us to a land
where there are softer hands
that makes what god demands
in pyramidic sands
and build your world
between my nowhere stare
upon the cross he bares
he cremates my cares
my faith is in the air
believe your self

Dear God deliver me
from human industry
they breed so rapidly
not one born free
release your mind
 
Panopticon - http://thedeadseacaptain.bandcamp.com/track/panopticon
 
very proud of this track. I recorded it over 3 days, and got so ill from recording it. It is full of reverse messages about god and satan and the church and stuff. It really did make me ill! From the Guttermask album Panopticon.

lyrics

silence sits upon my throne
making castles in my home
graves are for the wall that falls
for a common cure
and all i ever do

salt is soothing but were moving
from the ocean to the shore
with all the souls that swim inept
in cold fetal silhouettes
shine shadows on the secrets
of stupendous saints of sex
rolling wombs out for the lepers
setting free the mindless deathless
Who are you to be

now recite my disciple my sweet acolyte
we have the loss of exhaled delight
through sorrow the king
has taken my wings
the curtains glow in the light
its check mate so stay up late
pass the days with coloured grace
you are the god of your own little race
though the suppers at my door
the letterbox is sore
off the bone is quite alright for them
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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