(C) Eclectic Guitar - David Halliday Well it's a strange old game it's anyone's call One day you're up the next you're down No rhyme and no reason honesty and treason Go home a hero wake up a clown You have to steal from Peter To pay what you owe to Paul It's a strange old game Yeah it's a strange old game gotta be on the ball Today is a blur but yesterday's clear It's not all black and white or what you thought was right Dangerous liaisons and crocodile tears You have to steal from Peter To pay what you owe to Paul It's a strange old game It's a strange old game too easy to fall Mess up here screw up there and you're on the floor It's not all cut and dried but the sharks they eat the fry You burn the wrong bridges and shut the wrong doors You have to steal from Peter To pay what you owe to Paul It's a strange old game

(C) Eclectic Guitar - Tom Kater Once upon a time when the only border That you knew was the one that you crossed in the summer In the car on the way to see your auntie and your uncle and your cousins In their big white house by the seaside You thought life was fine it was only right And the world was fair and the goodies wore white Romance was a windy walk in the night You never thought you could come to write about your hometown It's all so far and gone in a past that lingers on in your middle-aged mind Though you know that you went away But you find yourself in a smoky haze You're a drunk with a pencil as a mandolin plays So you write a song about a smoky town where the clouds pile up And the rain falls down on the pavement The 13 bus on a wet windy Saturday At 9 o’clock at night was only vaguely amusing When the drunk men staggered from the pub along the road With their roll-ups and their screw tops And a pressing need to know that you were all right In the heavy air when the sky turned brown You could catch the smell from the east of town of the charcoal works Where the bones burned slowly down in the flameless fires of no ambition It's all so far and gone in a past that lingers on in your middle-aged mind Though you know that you went away But you find yourself in a smoky haze You're a drunk with a pencil as a mandolin plays So you write a song about a smoky town where the clouds pile up And the rain falls down on the pavement The song of the Clyde ignored the built-up hill To the south of the sparkling water Of the river as it mixed with oil and the diesel From the tugs and the ships in Victoria Harbour floating rainbows You sat and watched the tip of your fishing rod As you tried for a flounder or a slack-bellied cod And at night Grieve Road reflected the lights As the Whinhill overlooked from fantastical heights of indifference It's all so far and gone in a past that lingers on in your middle-aged mind Though you know that you went away But you find yourself in a smoky haze You're a drunk with a pencil as a mandolin plays So you write a song about a smoky town where the clouds pile up And the rain falls down on the pavement

(C) Eclectic Guitar - David Halliday To a distant land I cast my mind Where at journey's end you said you'd find A place where there's no need to cry Beneath the darkening skies I picture you there without a care Throwing caution to the wind Do you think of me here with my cross to bear As you wander so far from home I'll be waiting here on the shore To a distant land I force my thought I feel you there with the pain that you brought I know it's never left you It's all gone wrong that much is true Why did you run and choose that tainted path When you should've stayed here with me But now it's too late love's twisted into wrath Someone else wipes your tears away I'm still waiting here on the shore From your distant land I turn my face But I'm bound to you as you revel in that place The image of you flies to haunt and pierce Tied to memories vivid and fierce Helpless I yearn though you'll never return And it's all I can do just to get through the day In another world beneath a different sun You'd never have gone I'd never be here Waiting on the shore

(C) Eclectic Guitar - Tom Kater The sun was high and it shone as we danced On the sands of a time when we couldn't lose The beating waves rose around our knees With the champagne bubbles rising A seagull cried in the gloaming light As we walked by the shore at the end of the day We sat by the fire and we talked of dreams Breathing woodsmoke in the air Floating along on the breeze And then the clown came in banging on the furniture Falling on the floor While the chessman waits in the hall with a hidden card The joker grins drinking all the wine again Watching MTV Leaving bubbles blown like wishes on a breeze Your eyes the colour of the sparkling sea As the thunder rolled in the afternoon Raindrops upon your skin Like silver rivers flowing I watched you sleep in the firelight As it cast red glow on the gloom of the night A full moon rose on the top of the trees And kissed a cloud goodbye Floating along on the breeze And then the clown came in banging on the furniture Falling on the floor While the chessman waits in the hall with a hidden card The joker grins drinking all the wine again Watching MTV Leaving bubbles blown like wishes on a breeze The joker's sense of humour hides a pea beneath a shell You can hear the cosmic laughter as the chessman casts his spell You're reaching out for heaven but you trip right into hell And that's when you realise the joke's on you And then the clown comes in banging on the furniture Falling on the floor While the chessman waits in the hall with a hidden card The joker grins drinking all the wine again Watching MTV Leaving bubbles blown like wishes on a breeze

(C) Eclectic Guitar - David Halliday Lately it's been playing on my mind Would that I could get up and leave it all behind Had a one-way ticket to a place just south of hell Life ain't pretty when you're waiting for the hammer to fall But then you walked in with your smile and your style Yeah you stormed in with your smile Well those dark old days they just drifted away And a fire burned and blazed all around Sunrise over Bluestown Clear skies are here to stay Danced with the devil and the devil took a piece of my soul Should've seen it comin' but pride kinda got in the way A poker hand later I was flat broke down in the dirt Day followed day in a whisky-soaked world of hurt But then you walked in with your smile and your style Yeah you stormed in with your smile Well those dark old days they just drifted away And a fire burned and blazed all around Sunrise over Bluestown Clear skies are here to stay Pick of the bunch happened right upon a New Year's day An acquaintance of mine said d'you wanna shoot some pool at the bar Well I got home late and my motor it was missin' some wheels Front door gone and the curtains tearing wild in the wind But then you walked in with your smile and your style Yeah you stormed in with your smile Well those dark old days they just drifted away And a fire burned and blazed all around Sunrise over Bluestown Clear skies are here to stay But then you walked in with your smile and your style Yeah you stormed in with your smile Well those dark old days they just drifted away And a fire burned and blazed all around Sunrise over Bluestown Clear skies are here to stay

(C) Eclectic Guitar - David Halliday I saw you one night as you walked slowly by Down by the river as the cold rain fell Windswept and weary with unseeing eyes You stood on the bank and you silently cried And it doesn't really matter what I say to you now The damage is done the battle is lost Whatever I do it's no good any more And all because mistakes were made You called me one night as I turned out the lights At a quarter to twelve as the cold wind blew Caught off my guard as the stars burned bright You struck the wound deep so deep and so wide And it doesn't really matter what I say to you now The scars won't heal the memories won't fade Whatever I do it's no good any more And all because mistakes were made And it doesn't really matter what I say to you now The scars won't heal the memories won't fade Whatever I do it's no good any more And all because mistakes were made