This page includes original lyrics written by Tinplate Tiger, as well as videos of unplugged versions of new songs recorded in 2020.
The rights of Tinplate Tiger to be identified as author of this content have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this page may be reprinted or reporduced or used in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means whatsoever, without permission in writing from the author.
What's On Your Mind?
Free
The Potter
A Glimpse of the Sea
Let Myself Go
Wild Cherry
Too Hot To Sleep
In Her Eyes
Time Stood Still
Do yourself a favour
Long, Long Line
Chalk Waterfall
Why don't you tell me, what's on your mind?
Why don't you tell me, what's on your mind?
Whatever your story, can't be stranger than mine
I'm going nowhere, special today
I'm going nowhere, special today
Sit here a while, I'll listen what you say
Why don't you tell me, what's on your mind?
Why don't you tell me, what's on your mind?
Wherever your head's at, can't be more messed than mine
Got no magic to take your troubles away
Got no magic to take your troubles away
But yesterdays gone now, tomorrows a new day
Why don't you tell me, what's on your mind?
Why don't you tell me, what's on your mind?
Whatever your worries, can't be no worse than mine
Lord knows we've all been there
Brothers and sisters
we've all been there
So grab a second glass, bring that bottle over here
Why don't you tell me, what's on your mind?
Why don't you tell me, what's on your mind?
Whatever your story, can't be stranger than mine
I'm free, got too much time
Try to watch TV to ease my mind
Go barefoot, room to room I roam
Move stuff aound, but never feel at home
So I sing to myself as I pace the floor
Search for the right words better chords
Feel like a dog howlin' at the door
It's so quiet, but there's no peace any more
Got a king-size bed, but I get no rest
I tell myself it's for the best
Now I've got this place to call my own
Guess I'm not used to spending nights alone
There's too much space up on the shelf
The room rattles as I yell at myself
Watch rain shadows dance up the walls
Listen for the phone, dread any call
Got a king-size bed, but I get no rest
I tell myself it's for the best
Now I've got this place to call my own
Been thinking 'bout building me a clone
I can see who I want, wear what I like
Have wild adventures, ride a motorbike
But I never dreamed I'd crash like this
Now all he things I hated, are the ones I miss
Got a king-size bed, but I get no rest
I tell myself it's for the best
Now I've got this place to call my own
It's the strangest placee I've ever known
The potter in his painted bus passes by with little fuss
through twisted trees where streams run clear
In shadows he shapes wild clay, lights a fire late each day
Waits for colours to appear
Wherever he hides, they spy his coat, his silver beads
Cry "This place ain't safe for a new-age Apache.
Don't wanna have to do you harm, but you took wood from Jonah's farm,
Best you pack that teepee boy and leave"
"Take your green and your gold, all the colours of the soul
The blues of burning bone, them boiled-salt flesh tones
Reds of rust and blood, yellow of dried mud
Take the black of cindered wood - by dawn's end be gone for good!"
The potter in his painted bus drives away with little fuss
to a road lost in forgotten hills
Just before the fall of night, finds a clearing's sudden light
Where the leaves hang grey and still
He slept not knowing he was in a viper's nest
He'd met bad men before, but these were far worse than the rest
Five brothers who stole in under cover of the dark
Beat him where he lay, trashed his bus, smashed every vase
All the green and gold, all the colours of the soul
The blues of burning bone, them boiled-salt flesh tones
Reds of blood and rust, yellow of dried mud
The black of cindered wood - warned "By dawn be gone for good"!
He wakes and wipes away the blood, stumbles dazed around his bus
Feels cracked and hollow emptiness
He re-lights the fire pit, his mind in broken bits
Tries to save what little them vipers left
The youngest brother sees smoke spiral up the rising sun
And vows to finish off what the others have begun
Grabs a twelve bore and a shovel, through the trees he slips
But flaming arms each from the fire drag him into the pit
And he burns green and gold, all the colours of the soul
The blues of burning bone, them boiled-salt flesh tones
Reds of blood and rust, yellow of dried mud
Turns the black of cindered wood - by dawn's end he's gone for good!
Sometimes a glimpse of the sea is all you need
When you're going through those ups and downs, losing speed
Didn't know we was racing.
Who is in the lead?
Is it too early to pull over and concede?
Sometimes one smile can chase your blues away
And one harsh word can wreck your day
You lay awake all night - should I go, should I stay?
It don't take much to sway me either way
I see all those people travellin' up the line
With their heads down - might as well be blind
But if I stay another minute,
swear I'll lose my mind
I'm gonna buy a one way ticket. I ain't joking this time
Sometimes a glimpse of the sea ain't quite enough
To get you through when the going gets tough
Never asked to be included in this push and shove
So I'll show myself out and wish you luck
I'll go down to the harbour, jump on a boat
Don't care about storm warnings! I live in hope
And if I'm thrown overboard, I pray I'll float
Wherever I wash up, I guess I'll cope
I see all those people travellin' up the line
With their heads down - might as well be blind
But if I stay another minute,
swear I'll lose my mind
I'm gonna buy a one way ticket. I ain't joking this time
My nerves are frayed, shredded meat
This morning (again) I pressed delete
On all my memories, all I know
Hit the button and let myself go
Ooo I let myself go, I let myself go
Ooo I let myself go, I let myself go
I need to fall to feel free
Ask not who are you? only who was he?
Keep changin' my name, the reason's so
They never find out why I let myself go
Ooo I let myself go, I let myself go
Ooo I let myself go, I let myself go
Was only a kid when I lost my grip
Left grasping a handful of broken bits
Now I'm stuck together, weathered by time
But it's hard to hide all them jagged lines
That shooow I let myself go, I let myself go
That shooow I let myself go, I let myself go
So I cover the cracks, blot the stains
Torniquet the poison flow
Cover my tracks to numb the shame
Never quite stay for the afterglow
Ooo I let myself go, I let myself go
Ooo I let myself go, I let myself go
The cherry by the old wall to heaven raised its limbs
Where the stream spilled over, fed freely by a spring
She threw wide her windows, heard birds in blossom sing
Each dawn the wild stems rose up to join in with their hymn
Over the wall he smiled at the sad young widow
Stole in in the early hours, with tools his love to show
Woken by blades biting wood, saw her calm oasis gone
Blossom and branches lay on the ground, she cried "What have you done?"
"Where are all the songbirds?
Where's my sweet rambling rose?
Leave me be you savage,
And let my garden grow
All is not controlled by man
Love can't be bought nor forced
It is but a wild stream
That follows its own course!"
He wiped away the mud and sweat and dragged her by the hand
"It took all my heart, to execute this plan!"
"Oh you blind fool. Through my heart you've driven your hewn stake.
You thought you'd tame the wild chains that tighly bind my gate?"
"See I've dammed the flood," he said, "and straightened out the flow"
"Love can't be plucked and pruned," she cried, "nor planted in neat rows.
I'll feed the thorns with my blood, water them with my tears.
You've left love's bud in tatters, unflattered by your shears!
So take you dirty shovel, and your filthy rake
Wait 'til my garden's born again - however long that takes!
I'll move the stones piled by the stream, and tear up you flower beds
If you dream you'll ever see me again, pray my cherry's not dead!"
"Where are all the songbirds?
Where's my sweet rambling rose?
Leave me be you savage,
And let my garden grow
All is not controlled by man
Love can't be made nor forced
It is but a wild stream
That follows its own course!"
You tore the top of my head off, when you blew my mind
Im gonna buy a hat in the morning, wear it most of the time
I hear a train in the darkness, carrying me away
Parts of my mind have gone so far, its already another day there
It's too hot to sleep now
I don't care how I compare or what secrets you keep
Lying there you make the devil stare and all the angels weep
Youre wearing nothing but an innocent air and its too hot to sleep
Open up the window it's like a furnace in here
And the way you make me feel I want the whole world to hear
The sheets are wet with your sweet sweat its sticking to my skin
So lets roll onto that cool floor and start all over again
It's too hot to sleep now
I don't care how I compare or what secrets you keep
Lying there you make the devil stare and all the angels weep
With your long dark hair and your laissez faire and its too hot to sleep
Feel like I'm in heaven doing things that send you to hell
You're nearly 47, but you move like a teenage girl
In the dawn's half dreaming I hear the ringing of bells
But we can't go to church in the morning, the righteous our sin can smell
It's too hot to sleep now
I don't care how I compare or what secrets you keep
Lying there you make the devil stare and all the angels weep
You're wearing nothing but 'Terre de Lumiere' and its too hot to sleep
She was like a bird that kept falling from the sky
Wherever in this world she tried to fly
Back then, her wings seemed pretty broken
But just lately something has awoken in her eyes
In her eyes
In her eyes
In her eyes I see a look
A look that took her by surprise
She told me all the ideas in the world had been used up
And her wings were flattened by the wingshield of a truck
And she had run out of places to hide
Days fell heavy like bars across her eyes
So she keept all her sorrow by her bed in a heap
Then a switch flipped in her
head one night she smiled in her sleep
Was it something someone said? Some small reason she had found?
In her dreams that made her fly so high above all that old ground?
In her eyes
In her eyes
I see that bird
I watch it fly
In your eyes, let it fly
Set it free, let it fly
So I can see, in your eyes
How high that bird can fly
Time stood still and the stars all froze
As evening fell and the bars all closed
And the night swept us up in cupped palms
Held us together in dark gentle arms
The world may turn in step with the moon
The end of days may come too soon
The sun will burn us clean away
But time stands still and you never age
When we first kissed,
Paper stars spun above your bed
The thing I really miss is
All the funny thing you said
Some days I see colours
The blue of your cotton dress
They surround me and I drown
In your soft caress
Blue as the birds that flew
On the shabby drapes of that room
I still see the flying shapes
When I dream of you
We drifted on waves a shade
The sea, the sky will never be
But the memories never fade
You will always stay with me
I never fitted in a school
Tried my best, but broke the rules
Never too good at joining in play
Left to my devices for much of the day
Only thing that calmed me was to draw
Things I imagined and things I saw
But I viewed the world in a different way
It worried my teacher and she used to say
"Take my advice, it might just save ya'
The recipe for a good life got no crazy
flavours
Tame your wild ideas, your wayward behaviours
I'm being nice, do yourself a favour"
She said, "Numbers can't be colours in your head.
It's just some crazy notion from a book you've read.
Sure, God gifted you a way with words
But your stories lately are quite disturbed."
So they shut me in a room and told me to draw
The things I imagined and things I saw
The chief headshrinker was trully appalled
"These kinks, this quirks, cannot be ignored!
"Take my advice, it might just save ya'
The recipe for a good life got no crazy
flavours
Tame your wild ideas, your wayward behaviours
I'm being nice, do yourself a favour"
A few years on I'm going out with a girl
Drifting in a bubble in our own little world
A reto, art-school vibe going down
Me in paisley-patched flares, her no bra in a gown
We're sat in cafe sipping peppermint tea
When I see my old teacher looking over at me
"I hardly recognised you. You're looking much older,
And
I know it's no longer my role to scold ya',
But you might find a job if you found a razor
And took a trip to a sensible tailor.
I know you like art, you're no fan of compliance
But a man makes good money from finance or science
Take my advice, it might just save ya'
The recipe for a good life got no crazy
flavours
Tame your wild ideas, your wayward behaviours
I'm being nice, do yourself a favour"
In a simple life I became a believer
Down by the coast, an underachiever
On remote beaches I found solace
Hidden away like a six-foot mollusc
I worked in a warehouse, a funfair, a zoo,
A lab, an asylum, a newspaper too
Computers took over, it drove me mad
I stepped off the track then, but I still feel glad
I never looked back, never too their advice
They never did save me
I sit with a glass, clinking ice
Drinking with my dogs, gaze out at the sea
With all my wild ideas and my wayward behaviours
As it turned out, I done myself a favour!
Now I'm descended from a pirate named Silas McGill
Who built a house of broken rocks high up on the hill
Above old copper mines that reached under the sea
His blood is in my blood, so in all sincerity
Your Honour I apologise, but the fault ain't truly mine
You gotta realise I come from a long, long line
Silas plundered Spanish gold in the Caribbean Sun
Carried seven, silver cannon-barrelled flintlock guns
Had all his limbs intact, but lost his mind to rum
Hid his treasure in the tunnels then forgot what way he'd come
And his rum-soaked blood ain't been diluted much by time
So I salute you, your honour, but I come from a long, long line
McGill's favourite son stole the Mayor's prize goat
He did it just for fun, but they didn't get the joke
As he stood on the gallows, hemp tight round his throat
Before they shoved him off, he said "Good people take note
Have pity on my soul, you know that the fault's not mine
It's in my blood, I come from a long, long line"
Granny McGill ran an antique shop on the parade
Where local smugglers laundered half the money they made
In the basement was a club with a smokey, incense smell
And the new-age witch upstairs sold all manner of spells
It was no surprise when Nanna ended up doing time
But the fault weren't really hers, she came from a long, long line
Well mum and dad they never liked to settle down
Dragged us all along the coast from town to town
I spent more time in the sea than ever I did in school
I swim like a fish, but find it hard to follow rules
So I know this ain't my first offence, but the fault's not really mine
In my defence, I come from a long, long line
His beard smudged all colours he draws chalk waterfalls
As the crowds veer aound him for fear they might fall
I said, your chalks must be magic, that pool looks so real
He just smiles up at me from the street where he kneels
He says heeeyyy life is but a dream
Nothing is ever quite what it seems
You live and learn, the eye deceives
You only see the world the way you believe it to be
He sleeps in the subway, a half smile on his face
Commuters step over him, mutter it's a disgrace
And I wonder what he dreams curled up in the dirt
A world drawn in pastels where life doesn't hurt?
He says heeeyyy life is but a dream
Nothing is ever quite what it seems
You live and learn, the eye deceives
You only see the world the way you believe it to be
The streets are his canvas, the walls are his sky
When it rains his world bleeds like the tears we all cry
No more an illusion than the lives we all lead, he says
Heaven swims in memories of the loved ones we leave
Heeeyyy life is but a dream
Nothing is ever quite what it seems
You live and learn, the eye deceives
You only see the world the way you believe it to be