A RECIPE FOR MODERN LIFE

​

Can you make it down to breakfast?

It was only just a thought.

My affair within this kitchen

is going to be short.

I'm staring at the ceiling

playing movies in my head

and trying to decide if something

hasn't yet been said.

​

Action kills the theory

that is wasted by the word.

It seems the louder that we shout,

the more likely to be heard.

So when she says "I love you,

do you really love me too?"

It's a trap for younger players,

don't say yes unless you do.

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1992

Carlton McRae

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​

VEGETARIAN (A 60 second love song)

​

I don't make concessions easily, I know what's mine.

I like to spend my money on

books and film and bottles of wine.

Our love may not be like

some script from Hollywood.

Indeed, I may not love you

like I know I should.

​

But I'd go vegetarian for you.

I'd go vegetarian, if you wanted me too.

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1992

Carlton McRae

​

 

A PAIR OF NEW SHOES

​

There's a man in the race,

a man with such a serious face

and he's scared, he thinks he might lose,

if he don't buy a pair of new shoes.

​

Well now me, I don't compete,

not at least, when I have cold feet.

Second hand; it just means used.

I go and buy a pair of new shoes.

​

One shoe it grows thin.

The other half simply goes from within.

When I need some good news,

I go and buy a pair of new shoes

so when the cold wind blows,

so as though my toes are exposed

and I'm feeling less amused.

I go an buy a pair of new shoes.

​

There's an ad on TV.

It's my jing, they're playing it for me.

I can't decide and I can't choose,

the colour of my pair of new shoes.

Some would have me settle down.

Some would say; "Stop fooling around!"

But second hand, it just means used.

I go and buy a pair of new shoes.

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1992

Carlton McRae

 

 

LOVER'S LANE

​

In this dark and dirty room,

I feel some inspiration getting through.

The lines are here, the books been read,

I sleep on it with Mozart in my head.

I'm in no doubt, so deep I spin,

I think of how I need to touch your skin.

​

And what would happen, if I stayed?

Could I wait for judgement day?

You have to run to understand,

in Lover's Lane they

don't make those demands.

​

Like a secret  that's been passed around,

a lonely bed, this is my favourite town.

And while it's true I aim to please,

you open doors I can't close on my knees.

We can't go back until we've tried,

lips to lips we dance to stop this lie.

  

In this dark and dirty room,

I feel some inspiration getting through.

Here together face to face,

walk through me as you leave this lonely place.

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1992

Carlton McRae

 

 

FEMME FATALE

​

She paints up her pretty face

and only talks between the takes.

They try to shoot a simple scene,

with images of Jimmy Dean.

​

Femme fatale.

​

Jobs and cars and family,

fade slowly from her memory.

Someone younger and fresher faced,

just stepped in and took her place.

​

Femme fatale.

​

Style is measured by her cash.

She's parking cars and pumping gas.

Ride her big blue limousine,

she's selling love for amphetamine.

​

Femme fatale.

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1992

Carlton McRae

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​

PRODIGAL SON

​

No choices are easy. Decisions are made

on chancing an instinct or playing it safe.

The view from the window of our earlier years,

celebrates with the past but remembers the tears.

Chameleon. Infidel. Bohemian. Wishing well. 

 

The price we pay for fashion, a designer name to drop.

It’s not so much in what we choose as where we choose to shop.

An ego skates on thin ice, never what it seems,

we’re only as important as we are in our dreams.

Dionysus. Oedipal. Narcissus. Kiss & tell.

 

It’s halcyon days I spend as the prodigal son.

I follow in footsteps with laces undone.

A shot at redemption, no ready relief,

a train in vain is still my beggars belief.

Arthurian. Balthazar. Fenian. Coup d’etat.

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1992

Carlton McRae​​

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​

DREAMS

​

Zoot suits in the jazz bars, New York’s many friends.

Sculpture, lights & accidents, time to set new trends.

‘Freak Street’ art & pizza, winter round the blades.

Selfish priests in cold sweat faith claimed it could be saved.

 

We need new dreams tonight. We need new dreams.

 

A heroine she’s fallen, telephones & jam.

The full moon & the lion lie down with the lamb.

 

We need new dreams tonight. We need new dreams.

 

In concrete & in wire, the truth, the big city.

Renaissance & the 60’s come together over me.

 

We need new dreams tonight. We need new dreams.

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1992

Carlton McRae

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​

STORMING HEAVEN

​

Intellect & intuition, money changes hands.

A cinderella science will alter all the plans.

 

In every class the weird kid has an empty open book,

which all amounts to fiction and the price we pay to look…and we look!

 

these are not Victorian days that the prophet steals,

lullabies in every line complete her wheeler deals.

 

In every class the weird kid has an empty open book,

which all amounts to fiction and the price we pay to look…and we look!

 

Action, lights, intensity, money, glamour, glitz,

police, tequila, cinemas, movie-makers, hits.

‘Turn on, tune in, drop out’, the generations change,

yet, Huxley, Blake & Leary tell us; ‘Take that trip again!’…and again.

 

In every class the weird kid has an empty open book,

which all amounts to fiction and the price we pay to look…and we look!

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1993

Carlton McRae

​

​

RUBBER SOUL

​

The more I know, the less I feel.

I've fashioned it that way.

As naked as reality

when all is stripped away.

Time will ease you pain, they say,

the longer that you feed.

And all the things you left me,

are all the things I need.

​

Have faith in me by showing me your hand.

And you know, I'll help you if I can.

​

Time just keeps on rolling by,

consistency in change.

By capturing the colour,

it will always be in frame.

The more I know, the less I feel,

I've fashioned it that way.

As naked as reality

when all is stripped away.

​

See are keen, but never stand a chance.

Together they will wander while we dance.

​

Now I see the wolves are at your door.

He's standing in the coat that I once wore.

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1993

Carlton McRae​​

 

 

BURLINGTON STREET

​

She passed this way one charming morning, many years ago.

History is set in text and written in the stone.

Said a man tailored to the lady in the lace,

"Mine eyes they are not worthy, to look upon your face".

 

There is a lady sweet and kind, 

was ne'er a face so pleased my mind.

I did but see her passing by,

will I love her till I die?

 

Good cloth says, "now beggar man,

the gutter will you lay"

"What's a title?" he replied.

"But a wage away!"

 

There is a lady sweet and kind, 

was ne'er a face so pleased my mind.

I did but see her passing by,

will I love her till I die?

 

She passed this way one charming morning,

maybe I was there?

Was her taste the gin of love

in sweet September air?

 

There is a lady sweet and kind, 

was ne'er a face so pleased my mind.

I did but see her passing by,

will I love her till I die?

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1994

Philip Hartshorn-Carlton McRae

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​

DIG THE NEW BREED

​

Dig the new breed,

graduating this year.

Financial, means a safer career.

Welfare, just means owned by the state.

Indigestion, was it something I ate?

​

Possession 9/10th's of the law,

are you happy?

​

Drink me, uncorked to your lips.

Digest me, I'm all fingers and tips.

Authentic, quite the antique.

I'm 'one of',

give me something unique.

​

Possession 9/10th's of the law,

are you happy?

No, I need more...more...

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1996

Carlton McRae​

​

​

MR. POTTER'S GARDEN

​

Mr. Potter's garden is such a homely place to be.

Spending hours on the grass and drifting into sleep.

Spending summer Sunday's chasing shadows in your sun.

Dancing on to autumn when those colours start to run

​

and now, the weeds have taken over 

and the gardener gone away.

A ticket from the cradle to the grave.

​

You can jeopardise your future, if you struggle with your pat.

or gamble on a winner, hoping that it won't run last.

You can do your penance pushing pens across a page.

Working forty hours just to earn an average wage until

​

the weeds have taken over

and the gardener gone away.

A ticket from the cradle to the grave.

​

(c) RACING MIND RECORDS, 1995

Carlton McRae

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