Category: Songwriting

Song for Today · Songwriting

Just Listen To Your Heart

Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

I had some notes in the notebook where I keep scraps of lyrics.

I’m not sure if they really fit together, but I have the music all sorted and it might be a song. You never know.

I had the chorus somewhere in my notes – I couldn’t remember where it came from …

The verses are all about a guy called Sam. I saw him one day, and was struck by his serene face. He is someone who has known great suffering and difficulty, yet has a still centre. I was prompted to speak with him and tell him what I saw in his face. He seemed ok for me to have said that to him. He seemed happy to hear it. I don’t know if he would now remember that I had said it to him ?

The chorus is about darkness and light, and that sometimes we have to embrace the darkness. In the Hebrew Scriptures, God is sometimes hidden, or wrapped in darkness.

‘Rather than provide us with a neon sign in the sky, he envelopes himself in hosek and waits for us to search. Perhaps those who find are only those who notice his absence’ https://skipmoen.com/2015/12/the-hidden-god-2/https://skipmoen.com/2015/12/the-hidden-god-2/

I’m still not sure if it works as a song. I might save the two parts and use them another way ?

Chorus

When the night falls
Don’t be afraid of the dark
Some nights
the way is clear to me

When the day calls
Just listen to your heart
Some days
The light’s too bright to see

Verse 1

I see you in the crowd
When everything is loud
There’s a ring around you now
A place without a sound

Chorus

You have a special gift
I don’t know what it is
I seek you out to tell you what I see
You grip my arm and smile at me
You understand

Chorus

Bridge

Your face is shining
In this space in time
Your face is shining
In this space in time

Chorus

community · Song for Today · Songwriting

Breaking Bread Around The Table

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This is another song from the last year or so.

I had a riff on the guitar, and pretty much the tune for a whole song, but no words. It’s interesting because the song changes speed from slowish to fast within each verse, and then goes back to the slower speed for the beginning of each new verse.

Words wise, it came from something I read or heard somewhere that was to do with how our environment in part shapes who we are. I think the song is a plea for knowing who we are and being willing to engage with others, especially those with whom we have disagreements.

I realise that is a tall order. It’s hard enough resolving differences within a family setting, let alone a community or nation.

But in the end, we have to learn to break bread with people with whom we disagree if we are to get anywhere.

The title comes from the Linden (Lime) Tree being a symbol of peace.

The Linden Tree

We are who we are,
We are who we are,
We are who we are,
Because of where we come from.
Because of where we come from.
Will you come and eat with me around the table?

Where we are going,
Where we are going,
Where we are going,
Is something we can shape together.
Will you come and sit with me under the Linden tree ?

Who will come with me ?
Who will come ?
Who will come with me ?
Though we do not know the way.
Will you come and walk with me along the road?

Song for Today · Songwriting

I Am On A Roll

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I haven’t posted for so long, but I just have a backlog of songs that need to be out there somewhere.

The band I am in did a gig back in February, and the same weekend I did a gig with my wife and tried out some of my newer songs.

This is one of the newer ones that seems to have gone down well.
It strikes me that these are just the lyrics. I will have to do some recordings, but I’m never happy enough with them to put them out there. (Yet)

At the songwriters circle that I go to. We were given a challenge.

This was to write a song with four lines in each verse, lines one, two and four were to be the same but with a different third line. (A bit like a country blues)

A
A
B
A

Pity the refugee without a home
Pity the refugee without a home
Her past is behind her for future unknown
Won’t you pity the refugee without a home

Pity a world without any respect
Pity a world without any respect
I’m sitting here, wondering, whatever next
Please pity a world without any respect

A life with no reason is no life at all.
Won’t you carry me down to rest in the soil?

(The word pity can be changed as required as lib to: Think of, Remember, etc).

September 2025.

Climate Change · Poetry · Songwriting

This House Is On Fire

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I’m not sure what this is. I tried to make a song out of it, but it’s still work in progress.

I just had a phrase in my notebook. ‘This house is on fire.’

House

This house is on fire.
This house is on fire.
Can you feel the smoke?

They say keep small,
They say keep small
Be invisible

Don’t ask for any trouble
Don’t ask for any trouble

What if I want to ?
What if I have to?

Because this house is on fire,
Because this house is on fire.

September/October 2025.

Song for Today · Songwriting

This Moment We Are In

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Another song.

I realised how long it is since I’d posted very much, in spite of having things I would have to say …

Maybe now the best thing I can do is post lyrics of new songs as I write them. That is a pretty constant feature of life for me at the moment.

I’m grateful to be a part of two songwriting circles where we have an opportunity to try out songs that we are working on and get some feedback from other songwriters

This one is called ‘I’m Just Saying’ and was written in February 2026.

I had a couple of phrases in my notebook that I had gone back to several times but not used. As it turned out, they seemed to work with this song.

Verse 1

Met with some old friends yesterday.
Talked about the people we all knew.
The times we shared, both the good and the bad.
The crimson and the blue.

Chorus.

This is a waiting game.
Everyone is playing.
We are all the same.
I’m just saying.
I’m just saying

Verse 2

One decision I’ve yet to make
Is whether to be buried or burned?
And the past to heaven
Is always round the bend.

Chorus.

The only thing I’m really afraid of, it’s not dying.
The only thing I’m afraid of, is not dying.
The only thing I’m afraid of it’s not dying.
The only thing I’m really afraid of is not living

Chorus II

The only certain thing
Is this moment we are in
We are all the same.
I’m just saying.
I’m just saying.

February 2026.

Activism · community · Political · Song for Today · Songwriting

We’ve Got A Big House

Jonnyfun.E2 Comments

My wife and I were walking back from feeding chickens for some friends who were away on holiday, and on the way home we passed a big house, with a tall hedge in front.

I immediately felt a rhythm in the words … We’ve got a big house, behind a tall hedge …

It made me think of TV programmes like Escape to the Country where someone looks round a selection of properties with a view to buying … One recurring theme is a requirement for the property to be secluded with no near neighbours.

Writing the song made me think about the rats’ nest that is world politics. It is very tempting sometimes to ignore everything that’s going on and just get on with life …. But …

Here’s the song

Verse 1

We’ve got a big house
Behind a tall hedge
Nobody’s lookin’ in
No-one’s making friends
And that’s the way we live
In these troubled times
Holding on so tight
To everything

Chorus

Do you know what I mean
Do you know what I mean
Can I get some sympathy
Do you know what I mean

Verse 2

We’ve got a big house
Behind a tall hedge
Nobody’s lookin’ in
No-one’s making friends
’Cos we’re not quite sure
If we can let it go
Open up the door
And let you in

Chorus

Verse 3

We’ve got a big house
Behind a tall hedge
Nobody’s lookin’ in
No-one’s making friends
We don’t want to live in feat
So we hide away
From everything

Chorus

Bridge

There are days
when I might make a change
Get a bigger heart
I’ll need a safe space
To make a start

Chorus

Ecology · Songwriting · Storytelling

Clothed In An Earthy Disguise

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I have a new song.

It’s taken a lot to get it finished, but I’m happy that the original idea of ‘hiding in plain sigh’ has been realised. I have a recording of it, but I’m not happy enough with it to add it here.

For the sake of brevity, here it is, and I might post some of the back story to the writing at a later date.

I have in mind a walk through a wood, and trying to be quiet, to be attentive to whatever is around me, and sensing something moving in the trees

The song is in part about being attentive to things in general. Spending time and cultivating an attitude of awareness.

Young Deer

Suspicion of a movement
Beyond a curtain of branches and leaves
Suggestion of a breaking
And making a sound in the trees

Young deer, why are you hiding
And biding your time to appear ?
Is it a hint of your presence
Or maybe your absence is near ?

Elusive as a whisper
Breathing gently, blowing free
Fleeting as some distant music
Carried away on the breeze

Young deer what are you seeing
As you flee from the questioning eye. ?
If I stop, and patiently listen
Will you come on by ?

And meanwhile everything everywhere 
Is hidden from our eyes
 Meanwhile everything everywhere
Is clothed in an earthy disguise

Climate Change · Ecology · Poverty · Songwriting

There’s Something In The Water

Jonnyfun.E2 Comments

I wanted to write a song about inequality and the idea that the rich have unequal access to resources – with the example of a river, where upstream factories and communities are taking all the water, so that the land downstream is depleted.

The end result was a bit different but linked. I’ve played it our band, (The Apple Snatchers), and they like it, so it’s provisionally in the set. We’re looking at doing a couple of gigs in the Autumn, which should be fun.

There’s something in the water,
floating down the stream.
It’s come from up the river,
I wonder what it means.
There’s moonlight on the water,
blue lights in the town
Sun’s up in an hour or so,
soon I will be gone

And it’s not just in the water
it’s everywhere around
You can see the people thinking
to move to higher ground
They don’t want any trouble,
they’ll just let it be
And sometimes these old eyes of mine,
they don’t want to see

And the river is deep, the river is wide –
it’s way too far to the other side.

We need you to survive,
you must carry on
We need you to keep going
or else we’ll all be gone
Can the oak tree stand forever,
its branches touch the sky ?
We can tell most any story,
but it’s hard to live the life.

And the river is deep, the river is wide –
is it too far to the other side ?



Ecology · LIterature · Songwriting

The World Of Wet Land

Jonnyfun.E3 Comments

I picked up a book in a second bookshop that had an interesting cover. Then I read a random few sentences and thought … mmhh, this looks interesting.

It’s a book called Four Fields, by Tim Dee.

The writing is beautiful, and I really wanted to write a song after reading the first two chapters.

I’ve tried to stay somewhat within the sense of what he was saying- I hope I haven’t strayed too far.

Here’s what I came up with – and apologies to Tim Dee – I have used a load of the images that he used because they were so captivating. I hope that’s OK ?

I have a tune that I hope evokes something of the feel I’m going for. I’ll try and record that sometime.

I’m calling it ‘Elegy for the Fen.’

Field and fen, stream and river,
this is our life
Sun and seasons, clouds and rain,
water the earth

Generations have walked this land,
mown, mapped and known
Creation – will have our say –
we can’t be owned

Sound of the grass; ground shining green
Sound of the grass; ground shining green

We will show you how to live
with the grain
Whispers of Eden, guide you now
lead us home

We’ve been worked by other men,
‘til we were dry
But over and over and again,
we’re saved by the leaking sky

Sound of the grass; ground shining green
Sound of the grass; ground shining green

We have been orphaned from the land,
find the future in the past.

Sound of the grass; ground shining green
Sound of the grass; ground shining green

P.S. From the Hebrew Scriptures in the book of Job:

Crooks reside safely in high-security houses, insolent blasphemers live in luxury; they’ve bought and paid for a god who’ll protect them.
“But ask the animals what they think — let them teach you; let the birds tell you what’s going on.

Put your ear to the earth — learn the basics. Listen — the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories.

Isn’t it clear that they all know and agree that God is sovereign, that he holds all things in his hand — Every living soul, yes,every breathing creature?

Creativity, · Songwriting

Trying To Write A Song

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So … I’m trying to write something – a song.

I had a few instrumental ideas on the guitar that I took to the monthly song writing circle I attend. It was three tunes really, that could have worked together, with a slow section, followed by a fast section, then back to a different slow bit.

They liked it, and suggested a pastoral feel for the lyrics – think summer, sitting by a river, meadows and wild flowers.

It’s still around, unfinished. I tried some lyrics on it earlier this week.

I’d had an idea that was sparked off by listening to Ched Myers talk about the way that where he live – in Northern California, the river is dry because of water being taken off further upstream for communities or industry.

The same happens in the Palestinian Territories in the Jordan Valley, with the culprit being Israel’s industry.

It’s an idea with a more general meaning … that where there is disadvantage, or poverty, it’s probably because someone else has got to all the resources, leaving little for others.

Disadvantage = downstream.

So, the idea was to pick up on the suggestions made by my friends at the songwriting circle, but give it a twist. So use the image of the river, but think about stuff that’s done upstream that makes life hard for the people who live ‘downstream’

Moonlight on the water
Blue lights in the town (On the road / street ?)
Sun’s coming up in an hour or so (or two ?)
…???

It’s about something dark that’s happened that has called about the blue lights of the emergency services.

Anyway … today, I’ve moved on. Forget about trying fit lyrics to the tune that I have for now. Just keep thinking about the upstream / downstream idea, and get some lyrics.

The other thing to add into the mix is something I heard on an interview with the Musician/Producer T Bone Burnett. He made the observation that the word that occurs most in popular music is ‘you.’
’She loves you,’ ‘I wanna hold your hand,’ etc.

The singer is addressing the listener, drawing them in to the song.
Peter Case does this with his song ‘Have you ever been in trouble,’ and adds to it by making it a question.

So, that’s another thing I’d like to get into this song – address the listener, and maybe with a question.

Hopefully I’ll be back later … bye for now.