Lyrics

Updated: 12 Oct 1996

Here are the lyrics to a few songs that I've written over the years. These aren't the best or the worst. They just are. Many people put poetry on their pages. I don't consider myself a poet, although lyrics are certainly a kind of poetry. However, I think song lyrics, at least the way I write them, are more restricted in form, due to the need to conform to the rythmn and flow of my songwriting style. Enough analyzing. First the syrupy love songs, then the psuedophilosophical stuff. If you're still around at the end of this, there's a link to a site where you can actually download a song I wrote called In The Still And The Dark. Really. Read on McDuff.

All songs are the copyright of William F. Greenrose and are made available under the Free Music Philosophy (click here). In a nutshell this means you can enjoy them for your own, noncommercial pleasure, but if you make any money on them I get my cut. I promise to use it for therapy.

• Is This Love
• (A syrupy love song title for a syrupy love song)
  
  • I saw you today and that feeling hit again
    I've felt it for so long I know it like a friend
    When I see you you it churns me up inside
    Like the front seat of a rollercoaster ride
    
    I see you everyday
    I just don't know all the words to say
    All I know is the feeling that I feel
    You see me everyday
    But you just smile and then walk away
    I gotta know what I feel
    Is it real
    Is this love
    
    I've been around
    I've travelled far and wide
    But I'd never found the one I wanted by my side
    But all that changed the day that I met you
    Feelings rearranged and there's nothing I can do
    
    Should I pursue
    Or be content with a distant view
    Is your love just a prize I can steal
    Should I stand here and wait
    Or will your love be lost if I hesitate
    Is this confusion an illusion that I feel
    Or is this love
    
    It's so absurd
    I can't believe it's real
    Can't find the words to tell you to tell you to tell you how I feel
    Is this love
    
    When you see me you smile and melt my heart
    But this confusion is tearing me apart
    I must decide to your heart I will implore
    'Cause I can't hide this feeling anymore
    
    I see you everyday
    I just don't know all the words to say
    All I know is the feeling that I feel
    Should I stand here and wait
    Or will your love be lost if I hesitate
    Is this confusion an illusion that I feel
    Or is this love
    
• I Don't Know

• (Proof that not all love is sweet)
  
  • Here we are two people once again
    We're so together but alone
    Knowing things that only lovers know
    As we share our dreams the things we want the things we could have
    If we think the same
    Or is it just a game
    Do we want the things we can only have alone
    
    Do you look at me and see the man inside the man
    And do I know the woman of your soul
    Did we take the time to learn each other's hearts
    Lord I just don't know
    
    And so we go through our days
    Making plans as if we know our minds
    As if we know what we want in our lives
    But are we prepared to give and take to sacrifice
    And will our love stay
    When things don't go our way
    Or are we just destined to fade away
    
    I wish that I could give to you the things you want from me
    I wish I could be half the man you see
    I wish that I could figure out just what I really want
    But lord I just don't know
    
    And so we go around
    And around looking so serene
    But like me do you wonder what it means
    Why we're here why it's you why it's me
    And is this all
    But above it all
    I wonder why can't I love
    
    Know this that I would not hurt you for the world
    You mean so much to this man
    I wish that I could make you understand
    But lord I just don't know
    
    I wish that I could see just what the future holds
    But lord I just don't know
    
• Oriental Odyssey

• (I thought I knew it all at 22. Jeez)
  
  • Incense burns in a darkened room
    Smell is so sweet I can't see through the gloom
    Came in don't know when to get out of the heat
    But this place is about a thousand miles from the street
    
    Through the smoke returns the old man who let me in
    As he sits across from me he's wearing a grin
    I think that there was something in the tea he served me
    For I seem to be losing my self identity
    
    And I still don't know why I came
    Can't even remember my name
    But something tells me it's all the same
    Just another move in the game
    
    Don't know why I was drawn to this place
    But it seems to be existing in its own time and space
    Maybe there is something to this far eastern thought
    But when I try to think it through my logic runs short
    
    I turn to ask the old man but he's no longer there
    Instead a smiling Buddha sits crosslegged in his chair
    He gestures with his hand and I take one final sip
    And as he laughs I realize we are off on a trip
    
    And I think I might learn why I came
    Maybe remember my name
    But I still feel that it's all the same
    Just another move in the game
    
    He takes me to a place that is both in and out
    And gesturing again he asks me to look about
    When I do I have an all encompassing view
    Of atoms and stars doing the dance of Vishnu
    
    This is the answer to my quest I realize
    And I study it until I have to blink my eyes
    When I open them again I'm back on my feet
    Moving down the middle of a Hong Kong street
    
    But now I know why I came
    And now I have ten thousand names
    And everything is all the same
    Just another move in the game
    
• My Silmarillion

• (If you've read Tolkien then you know what this one's about)
  
  • Many miles I've travelled
    Many miles I've roamed
    Fought in so many battles
    Trying to make it make it my own
    My Silmarillion
    
    Killed so many men
    I've been cut to the bone
    But I'd do it again
    To find it I'd give up my thrown
    For my Silmarillion
    
    The quest began so long ago
    A fleeting glimpse was a fatal blow
    Now an endless search both high and low
    To find it I would lose everything I own
    
    It's in all my dreams
    I see the fires bright glow
    Yet it always seems
    The closer I get the farther I've got to go
    For my Silmarillion
    
    The quest consumes my every hour
    Searching in the thistles for a delicate flower
    To all but me the fragrance has turned sour
    To find it I must use all that's in my power
    
    My time's at an end
    Now I am alone
    Without a friend
    I am on my own
    Just me and my Silmarillion
    Just me and my Silmarillion
    
• In The Still And The Dark

• (This is the one that you can download)
  
  • Smoke curls slowly from a fire much diminished
    Vapors rise from a drink recently finished
    In the embers dying my vacant soul is imaged
    In the still and the dark I am alone
    
    Wetted from the glass fingers trace a glistening trail
    Eyes in mimicry reveal the heart's betrayal
    By love once thought eternal but destined to fail
    In the still and the dark I am alone
    
    Alcohol once dulling brings the mind to sharpened clarity
    While the tragedy on mulling reveals much similarity
    To the Grand Comedy as nothing more than parody
    In the still and the dark I am alone
    
    They say that love conquers all
    If this is so how can it condone
    Two people once in love to fall
    Into their private hells alone
    
    Passing hours take their toll and thoughts once deeply hidden
    Are revealed stark and bare though desperately unbidden
    Emotions strain the cold heart stains as another stake is driven
    In the still and the dark I am alone
    
    Heavy stillness comforts soothes transforms the sullen room
    Gives way to false security regression to the womb
    In time the truth a light will shine upon emotion's tomb
    Where in the still and the dark I am alone

Well that's about it for this installment, folks. If you like this stuff, great. If you don't like it, well, my music ain't for everybody. If you want more let me know, there's about 120 more where these came from.
You can send me e-mail by clicking here.

As promised, here's the famous link to a song that I wrote. Actually, I co-wrote it with a friend of mine, Jim Russell. Jim and I have known each other since we were 5 years old (that's a long time), and we've been playing guitars and singing songs together for most of our lives. Even though he still lives in New Jersey and I now live in New Hampshire, he's still my karmic twin (Don't ask me to explain, it'll just scare you.) Anyway, Jim gets credit for most of this. In all the years we've known each other, we never collaborated on a song together. He kept bugging me, so I finally gave him some lyrics and said, "Go ahead, write a song. Just stop bothering me." Well, the son-of-a-bitch (Sorry, Mrs. Russell) actually DID it. To make matters worse, he produced a version of it in his rinky dink recording studio in his basement. Then, just to rub salt in my wounds, he put it up on the web for all the world to hear. From a server in Sweden no less. Being of Finnish ancestry this hurts. Despite all this, I still love the guy. (He also makes beautiful kids, but that's because they look like their mother.) These are not my favorite lyrics but one takes what one can get. Anyway, if you have any complaints, write Jim, not me.

This song is in .WAV format and it is BIG. The zipped file is about 3.4 megs long, so you better be patient downloading it. Like I said, don't blame me.

If you like it, it was really my idea.

Antrim Studios

Song If you don't want to be a nice net citizen and read my friend's page and just want to download the song. You'll miss his other songs, though.

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