Menubar Home

MUSIC: Lyrics: A New Kind of Blue

Stephen Cummings: A New Kind of Blue
When Day Is Done

Cummings/Joe Camilleri

Somewhere a long time ago
In the blue night
You had a dream
A love supreme
And that dream, it gave you a fright
An insight
You need something you could come to me
You could come to me
Come to me
You turn on your heel
And you ran away from me
Said, you knew, said you knew you'd get neurotic about it eventually
Seeing someone
Yeah I see you, I see you
And if it's meant to be
It's meant to be
And after this
Will you still see me
It's not the arrival
It's what happens on the journey

  When day is done, when the day is through
  I'm stuck, still stuck on you
  When the day is done, when the day is through
  I'm stuck, still stuck on you

I was seeing this girl
Trouble, what else is there?
It's all trouble
And we're laughing manically
On the telephone
Talking to her
It was no trouble at all
It was no trouble at all

  When day is done, when the day is through
  I'm stuck, still stuck on you
  When the day is done, when the day is through
  I'm stuck, still stuck on you

It was winter
And it was bitterly cold
Some new kinda flu
It was a precarious time for us but
What I knew

  When day is done, when the day is through
  I'm stuck, still stuck on you
  When day is done, when day is through
  I'm stuck, still stuck on you
A Life Is A Life

Cummings/Dean Richards

Patti Labelle was singing, "going down makes me shiver"
Sooner or later we're all going down to that river
We'll meet our maker and he'll take care of all the details
And when he wails
I know what you need

Someday we'll all be freed
Well what are we going to say
If it doesn't quite work out that way
I know what you need
Someday we'll all be freed
Well what are we going to say
If it doesn't quite work out that way

  A life is a life
  More or less
  A life is a life
  An SOS
  A life is a life
  More or less
  A life is a life
  An SOS

You were dancin' to the SOS band's "just be good to me"
Keep your feet on the ground and your hopes up high and mighty
Life is just a waiting room, don't collapse like a pile of bricks
Lighten up, kick against the pricks

I know what you need
Someday we'll all be freed
Well what are we going to say
If it doesn't quite work out that way
I know what you need
Someday we'll all be freed
Well what are we going to say
If it doesn't quite work out that way

  A life is a life
  More or less
  A life is a life
  An SOS
  A life is a life
  More or less
  A life is a life
  An SOS

I know what you need
Someday we'll all be freed
Well what are we going to say
If it doesn't quite work out that way
I know what you need
Someday we'll all be freed
Well what are we going to say
If it doesn't quite work out that way

  A life is a life
  More or less
  A life is a life
  An SOS
  A life is a life
  More or less
  A life is a life
  An SOS

Notes:

Screwed Up State Of Affairs

Cummings/Dean Richards

I'm in no condition
To discuss this condition that I find myself in
It's just wishful thinking
Oh my heart was sinking
Sometimes I miss you a helluvva lot

  A screwed up state of affairs
  And no one even cares
  A screwed up state of affairs
  And no one even cares

I'm well aware there's someone elsewhere and they're just like you
We were talking in bed, when I think you said I met someone new
I was trying to figure out where it all went wrong
You said, hey but you're so headstrong
You're way off groove
You can't make a move
Without screwing up
That's what you're doing

  A screwed up state of affairs
  And no one even cares
  A screwed up state of affairs
  And no one even cares

I'm well aware there's someone elsewhere and they're just like you
We were talking in bed, when I think you said I met someone new
Life can be so strange...

You're wasting away
Today clouds were low and grey
A man alone is easy prey

  A screwed up state of affairs
  And no one even cares
  A screwed up state of affairs
  And no one even cares

I'm well aware there's someone elsewhere and they're just like you
We were talking in bed, when I think you said you met someone new

  A screwed up state of affairs
  And no one even cares
  A screwed up state of affairs
  And no one even cares
Running Away

Cummings/Andrew Pendlebury

It was the kind of a day that you wished you'd never got up
Smell of rain in the air and it's about to erupt
When there's too much coincidence
And you more or less admit defeat
You bump into an old flame on the street
And you're both shuffling your feet

  Running away
  I wasn't even running away
  Just catching my breath
  Running away
  I wasn't even running away
  Just catching my breath

Everything takes longer than you expect it to
I'd been out walking, trying to get a hold of you
Good morning blues, you're so punctual, come on in
With skin like porcelain
Balanced her coffee on her knee
And told me all about her family

  Running away
  I wasn't even running away
  Just catching my breath
  Running away
  I wasn't even running away
  Just catching my breath

Yeah, but still I get frightened and my shoulders feel tight
And I can't get back to sleep in the middle of the night
Walked you home, kissed you at your front gate
Wrote your phone number on a scrap of paper, while I wait
Then we talked about life, death and uncertainty
And made a tentative date to see an American movie

  Running away
  I wasn't even running away
  Just catching my breath
  Running away
  I wasn't even running away
  Just catching my breath
Your House Is Falling

Cummings/Andrew Pendlebury

The spirit is fragile
And climbs up on the roof
Who said love was foolproof
The ceiling is leaking
We're not speaking
We were the closest of friends
And when the darkest night descends
She threw her hands up in despair
I ran mine through my hair
I asked her for a cab fare

Enough is enough
Folks have a certain way of doing stuff
She said you don't care one bit, don't care what you forfeit
She'd been hurt, I should have been more alert
I was digging a ditch with this train of thought
We were both distraught
We needed support
Then she said

  Your house is falling, falling apart
  Your house is falling, falling apart

I was connecting the unconnectable
Unscrewing the unscruitable
The M.O. is so familiar
It's beautiful
Grateful kiss
It's weariness
And the rain keeps falling all over the town
Well I tell ya, it's not the coffee that keeps me from sleep
Drops me in the deep
It gave me quite a start, when she said

  Your house is falling, falling apart
  Your house is falling, falling apart
  Your house is falling, falling apart
  Your house is falling, falling apart

Your house is falling, falling apart (oh tumbling down)
Your house is falling, falling apart (falling apart)
Your house is falling, falling apart
Your house is falling, falling apart

(ad lib and fade)
Melancholy Hour

Cummings/Shane O'Mara

Slumped against the bar, chewing the fat with a friend
The door opened and shut and then opened and shut again
Disappointment, pride's about to take a fall
Beams from the car lights made patterns on the walls
"Don't be mad at me", my friend broke down and did confess
That he was having a liaison with our favourite waitress
I was dumbfounded, obviously I was in distress
Jane is her name and Jane is wearing a Picasso print dress

  This is the melancholy, melancholy hour
  This is the melancholy, melancholy hour

Well rain was still falling, hey look what the cat's dragged in
It was Jane and she was soaked to the skin
I said Jane tell me, why him?
She said, it was my night off, it doesn't mean anything
Well I said if on that same wet night it had been me
Jane said it wouldn't have happened, you were too melancholy
You're talking to stay awake, tell me Jane is anything wrong
She said, don't ever use this against me in some dumb song

  This is the melancholy, melancholy hour
  This is the melancholy, melancholy hour

Don't fall asleep behind the wheel of your car on your way home tonight
Watch the clouds baby, not the building sites
Don't fall asleep behind the wheel of your car on your way home tonight
Watch the clouds in the sky, not the building sites

Anyone may fall from grace into the arms of temptation
Don't you be harsh on me, someday you might be in the same situation
Happily that's how this story ends
Jane and I are still friends

Slumped against the bar, still chewing the fat with the same friends
The door opens and shuts, opens and shuts again
Disappointment, pride's about to take a fall
Beams from the car lights made patterns on the wall

  This is the melancholy, melancholy hour
  This is the melancholy, melancholy hour
  This is the melancholy, melancholy hour
  This is the melancholy, melancholy hour
Silent As The Grave

Cummings

Your heart beating flames my confusion
As beauty blunders into my room
This improbable world can be an impossible pain
Some miracles gonna have to happen soon
The day disappears and it seems like
There's nothing I can say or do
I thought well I'll change and you'll change, it'll even out
And then you said, now I don't even like you

  As silent as the grave
  As silent as the grave

Foolish heart, you upset me so
You don't really believe that do you, heaven be praised, no
And so our quarrel continued from room to room
Yeah well nobody wants to be the last to go
You've got eyes baby, what's the story, can't you see
You might have to take a dive for your dreams eventually
Even if we mess up that good thing we once had
Cheerful, fearful, happy or sad

  As silent as the grave
  As silent as the grave
  As silent as the grave
  As silent as the grave

You've got eyes baby, what's the story, can't you see
You might have to take a dive for your dreams eventually
Even if we mess up that good thing that we once had
Cheerful, fearful, happy or sad

  As silent as the grave
  As silent as the grave
  As silent as the grave
  As silent as the grave
When Love Comes Back To Haunt You

Cummings/Colin Talbot/Shane O'Mara

When love comes back to haunt you
You drink too much, you think too much and fall
For the memory of it all
It was nothing at all
And it does you no good to pretend that the past
Has a ghost of a chance to return again
Though I tell myself over and over that love can never end

  When love comes back to haunt you
  It whispers the pain you thought had gone
  Had been waiting like a thief all along
  When love comes back to haunt you
  It whispers the pain you thought had gone
  Had been waiting like a thief all along

When love comes back to haunt you
All the magic disappears from your sky
And you know that you're going to keep on living
But you want to die
What we must have had was a haunting melody
To cast such a spell on us
And we danced such a pretty dance
That we were quite delirious

  When love comes back to haunt you
  It whispers the pain you thought had gone
  Had been waiting like a thief all along
  When love comes back to haunt you
  It whispers the pain you thought had gone
  Had been waiting like a thief all along

When love comes back to haunt you
You don't need to draw a diagram
You don't need to paint a picture
Or talk on the telephone ad nauseam

  When love comes back to haunt you
  It whispers the pain you thought had gone
  Had been waiting like a thief all along
  When love comes back to haunt you
  It whispers the pain you thought had gone
  Had been waiting like a thief all along
Carrying A Torch For You (For Years)

Cummings/Shane O'Mara

Maybe I was sick, only I, I didn't know it
Maybe it was a trick
Of the night
Something inexplicit
You think that nothing's going to change the way ya feel
You're in a state of blessed grace
And now my aching heart
Is gonna have to turn about face

It's the law of desire, fate knocked at my door
So I let her in
My friend said he was surprised it hadn't happened before
And how it's fascinating
Trouble can't always be seen
Till it's right on top of you
Till it hands you the old switcheroo

  Carrying a torch for you
  Carrying a torch for you
  Carrying a torch for you, for years

It's a most sweet, brief moment of grief
I'm curious to see your look of disbelief
I get scared and I know that
But try not to feel disappointed in me
This unreliable heart
Is sometimes not as strong as it should be

  Carrying a torch for you
  Carrying a torch for you
  Carrying a torch for you, for years

You think that nothing's going to change the way ya feel
You're in a state of blessed grace
And now my aching heart
Is gonna have to turn about face

  Carrying a torch for you
  Carrying a torch for you
  Carrying a torch for you, for years
Come On, Come On

Cummings/Andrew Pendlebury - an instrumental version of this song titled "Crime of Time" appears on Andrew Pendlebury's "Don't Hold Back That Feeling" album

The car was moving
Swaying across the white lines
Fires lit across the flatlands
Smoke hung at tree level
A world stretched out flat
Like cinemascope
Disorder, disruption, darkness
Light and hope

Out here the stars really shine
Almost caress your skin
Here at the river's edge
In search of a direction
People like us go forward
Almost timid at heart
Strange magic of the highway
Impatient to depart

  Come on, come on
  Come on, come on
  Come on, come on

A calmness
A yearning
Seems like we're always too late
New moon shimmering
Reluctantly
We arrived at dawn
The rising sun a ball of fire
I'll drive she said
Just as soon as we fix this flat tyre

  Come on, come on
  Come on, come on
  Come on, come on
  Come on, come on
Here Is Where The Sky Is Blue

Cummings/Andrew Pendlebury - from CD release of A New Kind Of Blue

Clenching my fists, thanking you for the advice
The air was clear and cold, have a happy and virtuous life
Stars and flowers, whatever riches you possess
You're a whole lot of trouble bundled up in a little black dress

  Here is where the heart is hard to subdue
  Here is where the sky is blue

Standing here thinking of you with some affection
Running down the alley, keep your heart alert
Whatcha gonna do when the worst comes to happen
You know who to turn to when they dish that dirt

  Here is where the heart is hard to subdue
  Here is where the sky is blue

  Here is where the sky is blue
  Here is always brave and true
  Impossible to subdue
  Here is where the sky is blue

You look good today with your hair all messed up
It's a wonderful terrible pain to be in love
All uncertainties and doubts, swoops and darts
You upset this limp lump that I call my heart

  Here is where the heart is hard to subdue
  Here is where the sky is blue

  Here is where the sky is blue
  Here is always brave and true
  Impossible to subdue
  Here is where the sky is blue
Keep On Asking Me/Questions

Cummings/Andrew Pendlebury - from CD release of A New Kind Of Blue

Sunshine and simplicity
From now on, I tell you that's how it's going to be
Someone's always ready to do a deal
If you were me then you'd know how I feel
When you...

  Keep on asking me all those questions
  That I don't know the answers to
  Keep on asking me all those questions
  That I don't know the answers to

It never hurts to do
Somebody a favour or two
Love me tenderly
When we first met you were just twenty
Spent the afternoon in your room
Going over the lost years
You say a person stumbles into your life and hey they just disappear
So don't...

  Keep on asking me all those questions
  That I don't know the answers to
  Keep on asking me all those questions
  That I don't know the answers to

I'm foolish, tired, ridiculous and all the rest
But your unaffected beauty it leaves me deeply impressed
Her lips are just finely shaped things
And then she says, hey people, they're just things without wings
So don't you...

  Keep on asking me all those questions
  That I don't know the answers to
  Keep on asking me all those questions
  That I don't know the answers to
The Last Thing

Cummings/Dean Richards - from CD release of A New Kind Of Blue

Whoever's in charge out there
Show some interest, a little care
Don't say it don't happen
It happens all the time
Hope, health and strength of mind
No matter what drugs or medications
Whatever residue
Love's easy to misconstrue
But hard to subdue

  The last thing I'm supposed to do
  Isn't it enough I'm doing this for you?
  The last thing I'm supposed to do
  Isn't it enough I'm doing this for you?

I don't know if it's wrong or right
I thought you all sweetness and light
Beyond temptation lies my narcissus
Oh you are so suspicious
Times I think I can
Times I think I can't
Your power to enchant
I want more
An encore
A feeling you can't ignore

  The last thing I'm supposed to do
  Isn't it enough I'm doing this for you?
  The last thing I'm supposed to do
  Isn't it enough I'm doing this for you?

the Stephen Cummings site - email: feedback AT lovetown.net