Daryl Runswick and Kerry Lee Crabbe

The years 1973-4 were productive ones for the Crabbe-Runswick songwriting partnership. Twelve good songs emerged, plus Feet Of Clay which I left unfinished at the time and completed years later.

If an average of one song every two months should seem a small number, remember that at this time we were both busy professionals in other fields, and songwriting was almost like a hobby for us. Today Kerry often says, looking back, that even as we were working at ‘important’ things for a living we were writing the songs ‘with our left hands’.

Of the output from 1973-4 only four songs found their way onto my 1980-82 studio recordings: Sweet Old-fashioned Thing, Move, Edge Of The City and The Colours Ran (see Volumes 1 and 2 on this website). Move and The Colours Ran were also recorded by Cleo Laine, and Too Much To Ever Touch by Swingle II.

Eight songs from 1973-4 which don't appear on Volumes 1 or 2 are offered here in new recordings, made in 2010-11, thirty-seven years after their composition.

[ 1 ]    I Never Want To See
  Another Rose

Mr Good-Time-Get-The-Show-On-The-Road
Doesn't know where to go from here
And his friend Mr Help-You-Carry-Your-Load
Is choking back a tear
And his wife Mrs Everything'll-Work-out-Fine's
Looking shiney round the nose –
     It's bad news
     It's the unexpected blues
Everything is coming up roses and I never ever want to see another rose.

Mr I-Say-What-A-Beautiful-Day
Is headed for a big surprise
Mr Let's-Make-Hay-For-Life-Is-Gay's
Getting bleary round the eyes
And Mr Sunshine-Days-Of-Roses-And-Wine
Has hit one of his all-time lows
     It's bad news
     It's the unexpected blues
Everything is coming up roses and I never ever want to see another rose.

     Mud-in-your-eye
     Nice-as-pie
     Just-an-ordinary-bloke
     Such fun-loving folk

Mr Good-Friends Mr Days-Without-Ends
You're just in time to join the fun
Mrs Make-The-Most-Of-What-The-Good-Lord-Sends
Has caught a bad touch of the sun
And Mr Smile-And-The-World-Smiles-with-You
He smiled until it froze
     It's bad news
     It's the unexpected blues
Everything is coming up roses and I never ever want to see another rose.

Daryl, vocals, Hammond organ, piccolo bass guitar, sequenced backing.

[ 2 ]    Mister Man

Mister Man
it brings me down
every time you leave this town
'cause you're such
a lovely clown
Mister Man.

Mister Man
step up and step in
there's too many people
crowding me in
I'm your number one fan
Mister Man.

Mister Man
here's news for you
the gang
are all missing you too
come and cut us in half with a laugh
'cause that's what you do.

Mister Man
I'm your number one fan...

Daryl, vocals, piano, fretless alto bass guitar.

[ 3 ]    Philosophical Song

I know what's going to happen
there'll be a lot of noise
everyone insisting
they're not one of the boys
everybody saying
that this is how it's done
but when the chips go down
look around
every mother's son
has hit and run

    maybe I'm right and maybe I'm wrong
    it's only a philosophical song

Every time there's trouble
you get the same routine
people volunteering
to be the man between
you're never short of someone
to load and aim the gun
but when the chips go down
take a look around
and every mother's son
has hit and run

    maybe I'm right and maybe I'm wrong
    it's only a philosophical song

All you need's a crisis
to sort the nasty from the nice
amazing how it conjures up
a crop of good advice
everybody queuing up
to see the rabbit and have fun
but when the chips go down
just look around
and every mother's son
has hit and run

 Ah lackaday
 the boss is on holiday
 oh sigh and moan
 the world and his wife have gone home

    maybe I'm right and maybe I'm wrong
    it's only a philosophical song

Daryl, vocals, piccolo bass guitar, sequenced backing.

[ 4 ]    Time Out Of Mind

On the other side of the hill
Where the river runs, and the tree stands still
We built a little hideaway
To go to every Saturday
Leaving school and bicycles behind
Time out of mind.

On the other side of the hill
Where the river runs, and the tree stands still
You know the air was cleaner
And the grass was greener
But it's a very hard place to find
Time out of mind.

Same clouds, same sky
Same you and I
But we can't see the river and we can't see the tree
I can't see you and you can't see me
I never guessed we'd grow so old and blind

On the other side of the hill
Where the river runs, and the tree stands still
Why did those kids ask who we are?
Why are they staring at the car?
Why do they look as if they mind?
Time out of mind.

Daryl, vocals, piano, piccolo bass guitar.

[ 5 ]    Feet Of Clay

Woman, won't you take me in
on this unlucky day
a man is still a man
hair turning grey
and feet of clay.

Woman, will you comfort me
is there nothing you can say
I'll make some other plan
hair turning grey
and feet of clay.

   Did you see me crumbling
   before your very eyes
   my whole world tumbling
   and was it such a big surprize?
   Okay, okay
   my feet are clay.

Woman, you can't leave me now
that's too big a price to pay
you know I'll do the best I can
hair growing grey
and feet of clay.

Daryl, vocals, lead synth, piccolo bass guitar, sequenced backing.

[ 6 ]    The Sound Of One
Hand Clapping

It's a long long time since I've seen the sea
now I'm a hundred miles inland
but if I close my eyes it seems to me
I can hear the water lapping
   and the world revolves in a grain of sand
   with the sound of one hand clapping.

It's a long long day since I've felt the rain
in my face or on my hand
but if I stand behind my window-pane
I hear gentle fingers tapping
   and a dying flame is softly fanned
   by the sound of one hand clapping.

   Trouble and time are only man-made things
   love is the other side of pain
   shadow and light is how the sunshine sings
   over the plain.

In the deep deep dark of the bluest night
that a traveller ever spanned
the owl and bat in their silent flight
hear the moondog's distant yapping
   and a sea-bird cries from a far-off land
   and the song is one hand clapping.

Daryl, vocals, piano.

[ 7 ]    Too Much To Ever Touch

The yellow taper of a match
split softly into song
and fluttered gently in the lantern of her hand;
I love you, but I love you much too much to ever touch –
understand, understand, understand.

She held a halo glimmering
and shadows leapt the wall
and made a play across her neck and eyes and hair;
I love you, but I love you much too much to ever touch –
have a care, have a care, have a care.

      So graceful and grave
      she puts heaven to shame:
      lower your head
      blow out the flame –
      stay the same, stay the same.

      How one fleeting image
      cuts life down to size:
      two cigarettes glow
      and dance in our eyes –
      fireflies, fireflies, fireflies.

      Ethereal music
      sets angels to weep:
      never till this
      was stillness so deep –
      go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep..

A silver moon is ferrying
my sleeping love away
as she hides her head among the stars and sighs;
I love you, but I love you more than words can ever say –
now sun arise, now sun arise, now sun arise.

Daryl, vocals, piano, piccolo bass guitar, sequenced backing.

[ 8 ]    Such A Gift, Such A Burden

And now our evenings in the park are getting shorter.
The swans have found a sister on the water:
The mirrored moon floats in her final quarter...
The ugly man walks with his lovely daughter –

     Such a gift, such a burden.

The children make a ring, the youngest hold hands,
      A clump of trees at dusk their world of woodlands –
You can turn it upside down by doing handstands...
Those are only shadows sitting in the bandstands.

A schoolgirl stoops and picks a flower for her folder,
The lovers cuddle closer now it's colder,
The youngest of us all is growing older...
But Grand-dad holds a baby on his shoulder –

     Such a gift, such a burden.

However long a sunny summer day may last,
How clear the sky of clouds, how soft the breeze,
How long the line or shadow that we cast,
How short we stand at last beside the trees.

And now the day is lost, tomorrow is for winning.
The hero died, and left his bride unpinning –
And so it goes, the toiling and the spinning...
A courtesy, a cloud, a new beginning.

     Such a gift, such a burden.

Daryl, vocals, piano, sequenced backing.