Cousin Lee

Tag: cousin lee

  • Bring a new song into the world every week… but what a ride

    Rocking it up at Sam Webb’s last night. I did a shaky first‑time performance of an old‑new song called You Can Find It in the Moon. Straight out of my Mad Hatters days, you really can’t make this stuff up. Threw in a few other tunes as well. It’s tough doing a new song every week…

    In fact, I’m thinking a song has to be over 75% there before it’s worth bringing out. By that I mean a good song is only half of it, the rest is in the performance

    Other songs included Teach Me Peace, (Currently very fitting) Come to the Ball, Waiting to Cross the Road.

    When will Route Note publish One Track Minds?

  • Choo Choo Choo Choo

    One two three here I came

    Five six seven eight for some more

    Nine ten eleven twelve, there is no floor

     

     

    American politics and law

    Autumn leaves and flowers in the fall

    Something that I can’t touch

    I am lost and in between

     

    I wish I was a bird swooping 

    choo choo choo choo

     

    Oh you don’t understand, do you

    I am all alone, far from here

    I try not to frown

    Still I am going down the pole

     

    Reason things are there

    choo choo choo choo

     

    Hey, let’s stay out late

    It will be just you and whoever

    Aah ‘ll pick you up at nine

    It is black and white, I am in line

     

    I am lover, not a fighter

    choo choo choo choo

     

    One two three here I came

    five six seven eight for some more

    nine ten eleven twelve let’s go

    Words and Music By Cousin Lee © 1993

  • In the Evening



    In the evening what you have to do:
    Accept the reality of what has happened
    and move on to the next step.
    Put the light switch on, stop this messing around.
    Now I feel like I am running—
    We all know what it’s worth.


    My heart aches, aches with longing,
    For what has passed and now I cannot go.

    Work fills my consciousness; to switch it off
    should be so easy in my work, but we never…
    Nothing that is everything, double by four.
    Would like to move on to some—
    This is personal, set it in a play.

    For what has passed and now I cannot go.
    My heart aches, aches with longing.

    Speed seems to be the essence.
    As I hold my head, pressure of it has to part.
    Caterpillar to butterfly—
    In this thought, in this world.
    How much can it take? Watch the people on the bombs.
    The punishment with a flick of the switch.

    There is a man with talent.
    I lost it about then, overtaken.
    Get up today in the afternoon—
    Lost it about then.
    Get up today in the afternoon.

    In play format:

    Title: The Switch

    Character: A solitary figure pacing a sparse, dimly lit room. The atmosphere is electric, time fragmented.


    Monologue:

    (Lights dim. A soft hum in the background. The figure stands center stage, wrestling with a memory.)

    In the evening, you face it.
    Reality. Cold, confirmed, inevitable.
    And then you move. Not forward—just… to the next step.

    You flick the light switch like it means something.
    Like illumination will dissolve regret.
    I’m running. I don’t know where, but it’s fast.
    Everyone knows what it’s worth—
    Whatever it is.


    (Pause. A breath.)

    My heart aches.
    Not in the poetic way. In the gritty way.
    A longing that scrapes bone.
    What’s passed is locked. No way back.
    Work takes over.
    It should be easy—I’m good at what I do.
    But “easy” is a word we’ve misplaced.


    (Steps forward.)

    Everything doubled, multiplied by silence.
    I want to move. Somewhere new.
    Maybe this is a play—maybe I am the playwright.
    And still…
    My heart aches.
    Same refrain. Same truth.
    Speed. That’s how we survive now.
    The pressure, the shift.
    Caterpillar to butterfly, sure—
    But what if the wings rip on the way out?
    Bombs drop in a world that doesn’t blink.
    Punishment comes with a flick of a switch.
    Talent unnoticed.
    I was overtaken.
    A moment. A blur.
    Got up in the afternoon and the day was already gone.

    (Lights fade to black.)















  • Get up, get on up, get up

    The words to a song .

    Get up, get on up, get up
    Get up, get on up, get up
    Take it out take it back 

    Modern politics is such a bore
    Give me some who says what they feel

    World economics that disinpowers me
     A government that is 500 miles from me

    Get up, get on up, get up
    Get up, get on up, get up
    I am so dazed and confused
    The rain falls mainly on the plain

    Social democracy want it contracted, I want to wake up and feel my rights
    Not too complicated to understand, show me where my taxes go

    We can work for indifference, Protection from whom
    Something worth protecting, Rise up and fight

    Get up, get on up, get up
    Get up, get on up, get up
    Heading to the light
    The rain falls on every one

    Listen to a version of it on Listen to it on Soundcloud amongst other places

  • (Cousin Lee) Special Birthday Pre-release. Only available here for a short time.3rd track from the forthcoming album Election.

  • see how it develops to https://t.co/1hOh8KKy9h 

  • (Cousin Lee)

  • Music to listen to varied tracks.

  • (Cousin Lee)

  • (Cousin Lee)