Richard C McNeff
Author
Slim Volumes Doktor Theatre
What am I Doing with my Life?
A sunflower bursts in the pigment of my sight
I am the voice that won’t be heard
Mine is the song without reverb.
Children throw stones, The women smell of shame,
In the maison de tolérance I search for some release –
Where is my home? Where is my wife?
Where we won’t need to live so hand to mouth
Fruit falls from all the trees,
We will paint the diamond seas.
Where is my home? Where is my wife?
On the reefs of madness I will stay –
Is yours the voice that will be heard?
Is yours the song with reverb?
Where is my home? Where is my wife?
THE WEB U WEAVE
I went to the doctor
I wasn’t shy
I said I couldn’t forget
That look in her eye
He said you’re spinning in circles
You’re trapped like a fly
You better leave the web you weave.
Life keeps changing
Well ain’t it a shame
You get your shere of thunder and rain
Still the storm will break out again
If you don’t leave the web you weave.
They say a soft doctor
Leaves a stinking wound
What you leave till later
You get back real soon
It can cost the sun and the moon
Leave that web, c’mon leave that web,
You better leave the web you weave.
I went to the doctor
And I didn’t lie
I said what you give me
Don’t make me high
He said you’re spinning in circles
You’re trapped like a fly
You better leave the web you weave.
They say a soft doctor
Leaves a stinking wound
What you leave till later
You get back real soon
It can cost the sun and the moon
Leave that web, c’mon leave that web,
You better leave the web you weave.
LOVESICK
Told me himself of the promises you made
All this while you were staying with me
Were broken on the stone
Time you went and made it
On your own –
Lovesick, lovesick, love –
Punch and Judy
A man needs a muse
But a woman made all the rules
These differences often confuse
The star-crossed
Or just those caught in queues.
Your face upon a screen
I wouldn’t plant a tree
Where you have been
I’m not trying to
Start a scene
Running High,
It’s just
Avoiding your eye.
As we came on the stage
The biggest laugh
Was often raised
By the stick
That broke the stone,
By the word
That broke the bone.
Upon the shore,
I’m never going back, going back,
For more
I’m going to break
Your every Law.
Or is this just a lullaby?
Mr Punch and Judy.
A man needs a muse
But a woman made all the rules
These differences often confuse
The star-crossed
Or just those caught in queues.
Your face upon a screen
I wouldn’t plant a tree
Where you have been
I’m not trying to
Start a scene
Running High,
It’s just
Avoiding your eye.
SMUGGLERS OF LOVE
I don’t know about the smugglers of love
I don’t know what they done with the stuff
I wasn’t there, I got my mouth in a glove, I don’t know.
I didn’t go to the masquerade
I didn’t see the one who paid
The frontiers are open if you’ve got sails,
Ho! Ho! Ho!
I don’t know, I don’t know,
I don’t know what I don’t know.
It wasn’t me you saw in that room
It was my double on that afternoon
With a fistful of dollars and a map of the moon
No! No! No!
Well we’ve all got to change with the years
Don’t ask me about my fears
This job’s a job, it’s not a career.
I don’t know about the big white lie
Didn’t have no American pie
Don’t think I like that look in your eye
No,no,no!
THE EMPEROR (HAS NO CLOTHES)
I saw you with the Emperor
The day he had no clothes
You asked for an audience
But all you found was gold.
I saw you with the prince
In his fountain of love
You danced around like crazy
You trembled in the mud.
I hear the Emperor has no clothes
The secret of secrets ain’t no rose.
You rode into Jerusalem
In another life
You found a maiden
You made her your wife
The royal ones gathered
Outside your stable door
None of them were certain
About the idea on the floor.
They saw the Emperor had no clothes
They saw the Emperor had no clothes.
I lost my identity
In the twinkling of an eye
I danced on a foreign lawn
beneath a changeling sky
Some silent pretender
Some Jacobite like you
The King over the water
The King is naked too.
I hear the Emperor has no clothes
The secret of secrets ain’t no rose.
Point of Care
Sometimes I get lonely, when the light’s are low,
Sometimes I wonder if there is a place to go,
Run to my window, what do I see?
No light surrounding me.
Doubts they come in legions
Hopes they come alone
Well it’s hard some times
To find your home,
Bur rise and rise, rise and spread your wings,
Those the sun can never singe.
What’s the use of worry? what’s the point of care?
The point of care.
Throughout all the ages
Since the birth of man
Well, we’ve stumbled round
Looking for the plan,
Each man on his own,
Oh so far away from
What no man ever sees.
Some Voodoo
Don’t know what I’d do if I can’t have you
I’d raise the dead, turn the moon blood red,
Then I’d walk down the avenue
That leads to those who have a view
On just what I’d do if I can’t have you
With some voodoo, some voodoo.
What would I be if you don’t have me
A lonely man on a lonely sea
Without song or melody
If you don’t have me, don’t have me,
With some voodoo, some voodoo.
Don’t know what I’d do if I can’t have you
I’d melt the sky, make the seas run dry,
‘Cos I’m on fire ‘cos you’re alive
This fire that burns in a world that turns
Is my way of saying don’t know what I’d do
If I can’t have you with some voodoo,
Some voodoo.
All Songs (except ‘Emperor’)
Dick McNeff: vocals, acoustic and electric guitars
David Halling: guitars,synthesisers, bass, percussion
Produced by David Halling and Dick McNeff:
Pandora Studios, West Hampstead, London
© RC McNeff 2015
‘The Emperor (Has No Clothes)’
Dick McNeff: vocals
Maarten de Groot: synthesisers
Produced by Maarten de Groot
Oldenzaal Studios,
Holland.
Copyright RC McNeff 1992