Lyrics by DAMIAN FITZGERALD

Trip you when you walk
There’s something about the way you fall,
I have to understand
the science that has led me here,
The universe be damned.
the starlight’s keeping me awake
I watch you through the night
- count your twitches like rose petals

Aye ay yi yi yo.
It's how it goes.

Freeze me let me stay
my rusting metal holds no tears
I’m proud of the decay,
eat my carbon I don’t need it.
I blinked for 20 years,
I was young I am no longer
listen, it’s okay,
reset myself and come back stronger

Aye ay yi yi yo.
It's how it goes.

Trip you when you walk,
just to watch you in slow motion.
You don’t have to talk,
it’s written in your frown you know love
I don’t understand
there is no guide, there is no manual
we should form a band, and
spit the truth down on them all


Aye ay yi yi yo.
It's how it goes
on Mapperly road.

- This is about being born in Britain to Irish parents, one of which hated the UK and was a proud IRA supporter. I just hated the whole thing. -


(Verse)
You can do what you want without thinking
The only cost is consequences
And guilt that follows like a stray dog.
So vicious you can’t ignore it

The walls you had were polluted
Reverbs of generational echoes
I was 12 and nearly recruited
at some point you just have to let go,

(Chorus)
What is it for?
what tribe would you die for?
What gain would be got, if you do?
Take up the arms of you have to-
I won’t be there when you do.

(Verse)
All the past that you’re holding onto
Spraying sniper shots from a bar stool.
Singing rebel songs, chanting lyrics
About victory and what you’d do with it.

They told me I should take the cause on
I said ‘the burdens not mine to carry’
I am not where I come from
But the sum of all that’s happened to me.

(Chorus)
What is it for?
what tribe would you die for?
What gain would be got, if you do?
Take up the arms of you have to-
I won’t be there when you do.

(Bridge)
Whispered talk in pub coves,
Treating strangers like plain clothes
Huddled over plans in tenements,
air thick with smoke and resentment

(Chorus)
What is it for?
what tribe would you die for?
What gain would be got, if you do?
Take up the arms of you have to-
I won’t be there when you do.

- This is too long. I know that. It was in a response to a producer who was struggling with lyrics to a MidLife crisis song. I felt he was getting stuck because he was singing about having a crisis in his wonderful life, and the lyrics were specifically about him and his circumstance. I tried a version where it was more 'universal' and, I guess more light-hearted. I'm not saying this is better that his, but it was my solve to his problem. I can provide the audio too.

(Verse)
Couldn’t tell you what rabbit, I’ve been chasing
I felt 20 last week - suddenly I’m ancient?
It’s like one day - everything aches,
The doctor just laughs and tells me it’s age
How’s that for terminal news?
I left there dazed and confused,
thought I was still in my youth.
Hadn’t really thought about retiring,
guess the second half will be real tiring,

(Verse)
Always thought getting old would be a dial
You feel it turn a touch once in a while.
Turns out it’s some binary shit - one day it just flips,
you get an ache in your hips,
from the weight of the chip on your shoulder, but you soldier on.
You lose count of all the people you got counting on you.
You lose track of exactly where you’re at -
the local tool store,
what did I come in here for?

(Chorus)
If I had my time again,
The choices were mine again,
I wouldn’t change a thing
I am, who I am, because
of everything.

If I had my time again,
The choices were mine again,
I wouldn’t change a thing
I am, who I am, because
of everything


(Verse)
Still having sex routinely.
Not often - Just routinely.
More of a grind than bump and grind
2 kids, 2 biz, too busy for this.
Sparks used to fly between us,
now darts fly between us,
Deep down, I hope we’re trying to miss,
I’m too dumb to back down, too smart to win.

(Verse 4)
What I’d win, isn’t worth winning,
Bruised ego’s and silent dinners.
a big house with bad vibes in it,
Any victory’s phyrrich
But then I picture leaving
The sight of my kids pleading
The new guy on the scene,
He’s year older but looks 19.

(Chorus)
If I had my time again,
The choices were mine again,
I wouldn’t change a thing
I am, who I am, because
of everything


(Verse)
New verse but he’s still on my mind
Bet he fills his car before the empty light,
5 days for him - I get weekends,
2 days to hear about Mum’s new friend.

Meanwhile I’d be first-dating
I’d be cheesy, they’d be grating.
I’d just be a technical Dad,
while my understudy takes the scenes I should’ve had

(Verse)
Then I realize why time was speeding,
I've always been too busy reaching,
Suddenly I feel a fool as I
recall the wisdom of Ferris Bueller,

I guess everything has it’s stages,
New chapters - all blank pages,
While flames of passion won’t always rage,
We'll forge something more important than age.

(I wrote this song when I was 19 and stuck in a soulless British suburban town). To be honest, looking back, it's pretty pretentious now, but it is how I felt. How many of us suburban Brits felt at the time).


Look at me, leaving-be on the night bus, 
rat-a-tat as the chicken bones roll past, 
you could cut the tension with a knife 
cos no-one here likes their life. 

No retreat. No surrender.
Remember, remember, 
There's a few with a temper, so much dead wood- just one ember.

They’re holding, they’re swaying, 
I can feel my real-time decaying. 
They’re golden, they’re swaying, 
I can feel my real time decaying. 

Look at me looking at the clock tick down,
5.30 and it’s straight to town. 
Just a quick one means a night
that’ll end at 3 with a fuck or a fight. 

I shouldn’t hate the town I live, 
I swear to God it’s a cultural sieve, 
give me someone who likes talking
give me somebody who reads

I don’t care if they’re local, 
just as long as they want to leave. 
I need curiosity,
curiosity.

No retreat. No surrender.
Remember, remember, 
takes one with a temper, so much dead wood, just one ember.

They chant what you’d imagine, 
they fuck without the passion, 
they’re trapped like rats, but unaware
deep down I wish I was them.

They’re holding, they’re swaying, 
I can feel my real-time decaying, 
They’re golden, they’re swaying, 
‘I can feel my real time decaying, 

A scream that pierces through the wait,
a night that seems to last for days,
watching every move you make,
Day one.

Strapping you into the car,
pulling belts and straining arms
screaming at the others to slow down

(where they got to get to anyhow,
on a day like this?)

Holding, rocking you to sleep,
hum a tune to your heart beat,
eyes closed, we melt as one,
you drift, but I hold on,

And sway you in my arms,
thinking of the love coming your way,
my son.
Day one.

Oh this life is something else,
It’s a game so play it well,
there’s so much to see and be,
friends to make and love to feel,

I show you things time will erase
Our memories; mine alone
I know you won't remember this,
I only hope I feel like home,
my son.
Day One.