The New Normal

by Jon Downes

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1.
The New Normal 02:09
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The New Normal
2.
I never stopped loving you 03:33
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I never stopped loving you, You gave me everything that I never would’ve thought of, I never stopped loving you at all. I never stopped loving you, You took me on a journey which changed how I would define love, I never stopped loving you at all. Through the winding paths of my existence, I may have stumbled now and then But if I tried to explain, I just sound insane, And nobody would understand what I was trying to tell them, I am the luckiest of men I never stopped loving you, You gave me everything that I never would’ve thought of, I never stopped loving you at all. I never stopped loving you, You took me on a journey which changed how I would define love, I never stopped loving you at all. Through the winding paths of my existence I may have followed the wayward glance. None of this has come to pass for you and me in the way I would’ve wanted, But one seldom gets a second chance I never stopped loving you, You gave me everything that I never would’ve thought of, I never stopped loving you at all. I never stopped loving you, You took me on a journey which changed how I would define love, I never stopped loving you at all.
3.
Mick Farren 05:02
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I dreamed that I saw Mick last night, Alive as you or me, In shock I said Mick you’ve been eight years dead, Don’t talk fucking soft said he Don’t talk fucking soft said he You died on stage at the Borderline A perfect way to end your life, Not wheezing and spluttering your hours away In a hospice like my wife In a hospice like my wife I was bringing her to meet you On the day we heard you died We had just driven into Brighton When the fateful call arrived When the fateful call arrived The fact that the two of you never met Although you came so close through me Is probably now still my biggest regret Of the few times we ran free Of the few times we ran free Though we never met until you were old I’d learned about you when i was young And often done the things you’d told And done the things you’d done And done the things you’d done You were a Crazy passionate, situationist, Hippy revolutionary Most people thought you were barking mad But it made perfect sense to me It made perfect sense to me And so i hoped if at last you’d meet Then at last she’d understand But I knew as we drove down the street It wouldn’t go as I’d planned It never goes as I planned I dreamed that I saw Mick last night, Alive as you or me, He went off to loot the supermarket again see you around said he See you around said he
4.
GtoD 03:51
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This song goes from GtoD The sort of thing that’s quite easy for me When i need to blank out whats in my head Ive invented a place for me And sometimes i let people see It’s better than pretending to be dead Being old is no virtue Being young is no sin Being stuck in the middle of it all Is no place to begin Being dead isn’t an option Staying quiet even less I’m playing games within my consciousness I’ve been doing this for years Polishing the windows with my tears Cos They say the eyes are windows to the soul I think that your imaginary friends Probably stay with you until the end But does anybody know what happens to them then Being old is no virtue Being young is no sin Being stuck in the middle of it all Is no place to begin Being dead isn’t an option Staying quiet even less I’m playing games within my consciousness World building is such an art And the chickens sing ‘How great thou Art’ And you can revel in their absurdity I seldom let anybody in And when i do i block them out with gin The way i think vaguely makes some sense to me Being old is no virtue Being young is no sin Being stuck in the middle of it all Is no place to begin Being dead isn’t an option Staying quiet even less I’m playing games within my consciousness
5.
You don't stop loving someone just because they're not there anymore 05:59
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When I was just a little boy of five my Godmother gave to me a book about a river that flowed slowly to the sea. I didn't realise then it was a deft allegory, upon the stages of our life and our mortality. It started in the mountains with a tiny silver spring, the sacred fount of sustenance for every living thing, but even at the age of five the magical thing for me, was it was secure within itself and never ceased to be. and you don't stop loving someone you won't stop loving someone you never stop loving someone because somebody closed the door and you don't stop loving someone you won't stop loving someone you never stop loving someone just because they're not there anymore The river was portrayed as self-aware, and as its waters flowed on its journey from the source down to the mouth, its painted pages showed fields and factories, and life and death, all the journeys on life's road, until it dissipated in the sea, and then it shed its heavy load. The last page of the book portrayed the river sad and wan, as its story was now over and its journey had been done, then the river realised it could revisit any part of itself whenever it wanted, and it went back to the start. and you don't stop loving someone you won't stop loving someone you never stop loving someone because somebody closed the door and you don't stop loving someone you won't stop loving someone you never stop loving someone just because they're not there anymore I have loved and lost and been bereaved, many that I've loved are gone, leaving nothing now but memories of days when the sun shone, and I remember the book about the river in that dark before the dawn, and I realise if you remember them, then you never truly lose someone. Because you cannot ever destroy energy, only have it change its form, and we are all just massed electrons like the lightning in a storm, and if those organised electrons are augmented with our love, its an energy that can never end no matter what your thinking of. and you don't stop loving someone you won't stop loving someone you never stop loving someone because somebody closed the door and you don't stop loving someone you won't stop loving someone you never stop loving someone just because they're not there anymore And love and life and death itself are not a mystery, when you know that they're just phases of the way things have to be, standing naked in front of the universe who knows what they will see, but consciousness and love are energy and we know that will always be. The laws of physics intimate that what I say is true, that energy is pure and clean just like the way that I love you. And though the universe is infinite, it's intimate as well, and we occupy the spaces there where once the angels fell. and you don't stop loving some you won't stop loving someone you never stop loving someone because somebody closed the door and you don't stop loving some you won't stop loving someone you never stop loving someone just because they're not there anymore
6.
Sophie by the sea 05:55
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The voice of a generation Who once meant a lot to me Now sitting in a deckchair by the sea I used to have a postcard I dreamt was from all three The two of them with Sophie by the sea But forty years have passed And the nation can’t be arsed And a hundred tons of teeshirts must be sold And the tide breaks on the shore It doesn’t matter anymore As another generation just gets old We thought that we were different But of course we were just the same Just like the serried ranks that came before I never went to artshool So i never search the tide For all the empty plastic bottles on the shore But forty years have passed And the nation can’t be arsed And a hundred tons of teeshirts must be sold And the tide breaks on the shore It doesn’t matter anymore As another generation just gets old I never want to hurt you I never want to try I never want to know the reason why The emperor standing naked You can see him there today But will he answer back now I don’t think anyone can say? They let that fool divide and rule And he tore the world apart And he blamed it on conspiracy And a nations broken heart And millions still believe him Without stopping to think if The promised land is really At the bottom of the cliff And millions more still believe In manifest destiny When the rest of the world know its time to leave This bullshit behind me I know I am speaking for them But I believe i have the right Because i watched it all on Twitter In the middle of the night Yes I watched it all on Twitter A spectator sport with friends Our whole species in entropy And the nightmare never ends We’re gonna bounce right back from this Is what They always say But it ended on a lonely beach in a place no-one can stay So I’m sitting here with Sophie Who’s forever out of reach As she plays with rotting seaweed on the beach And all watch television And ignore the setting sun And the colonial bred retard with a gun But forty years have passed And the nation can’t be arsed And a hundred tons of teeshirts must be sold And the tide breaks on the shore It doesn’t matter anymore As another generation just gets old
7.
The elephant in the room 02:15
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When my sister introduced us in the back room of the chapel, Though I haven’t got a sister, but I’ve got a golden apple, The sweet fruit of the Hesperides thrown in our way to taunt us the same way as the things we’ve done traverse the years to haunt us We negotiated lockdown, we could only talk by zoom, But we always managed to avoid the elephant in the room For fifteen years our paths crossed, I worked with both your daughters Who helped me navigate a course across the pitch black waters Although we all got closer I never asked about your sister, more difficult than you could know because I truly missed her, gaps between the sentences as silent as the tomb Even quieter than the elephant in the room I’ve never known what I was doing, but I’ve done stuff I regret And I’m covered with the scars of stuff I never will forget Sometimes on the way to church, I swear I saw your mother, With Elvis holding one hand, and John Wayne holding the other, And she’d cackle when she saw me falling head along to my doom she’d never say if she had seen the elephant in the room I tried magic and religion and a weird mixture of both And I gave into temptation especially the sin of sloth, I withdrew from village life everyone thought I was bored yeah But in truth i was following a path laid out by the children of discordia And my life went on full circle i was regressing to the womb And i always hoped that it would be the elephant in the room
8.
Corinna's lament 08:24
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I wrote this song for the ceremony When you walked down the aisle and got married to me Then I put it away in a place you can’t see And thought I’d never hear it again I thought that I’d be with you all of my life And no matter what happened then me and my wife Would face all the terrors and horrors and strife But then came the cancer and pain I remember the night that I wrote this for you Sat by myself in my studio room Focusing my intent and my majick too Pulling the words down from out of the gloom But I hoped when I wrote it that night all alone The song I wrote for you would follow you home And I spent 26 months watching you die And preparing myself for a nightmare which I was convinced to my core I would never survive And still can’t believe that I would And the girls and i sat there surrounding your bed Not grieving but celebrating your journey instead And i sang this song quietly when I knew you were dead I was certain that you understood I remember the night that I wrote this for you Sat by myself in my studio room Focusing my intent and my majick too Pulling the words down from out of the gloom But I hoped when I wrote it that night all alone The song I wrote for you would follow you home I used this song for the ceremony When I said goodbye where everyone could see And I could feel you looking straight down at me From the blue crematorium skies I loved you far more than most people knew The good stuff I did, I did mostly for you And for you I keep doing the things that you do When someone that you adore dies I remember the night that I wrote this for you Sat by myself in my studio room Focusing my intent and my majick too Pulling the words down from out of the gloom But I hoped when I wrote it that night all alone The song I wrote for you would follow you home

about

One of my favourite books is Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban, and in this lovely tale, one of the protagonists says that gibbons in London Zoo do their remarkable acrobatic feats, swinging from branch to branch and brachiating to their hearts’ desire, in the same way that jazz musicians play their music without any thought of financial reward. And I have always extrapolated from that that the idea that true artists make art because that is what they do. They are incapable of doing anything else.

My last album, which was recorded in the summer of 2018, just after Corinna received her initial cancer diagnosis, sold eleven copies. But I know that far more people than that have listened to it, and I hope that they have got something from it. I have always seen my art as a mirror of my life, and when – back in the summer of 2018 – I was recording the songs which eventually turned up on ‘Coldharbour’, I was addressing the mental and emotional turmoil we were all facing, albeit writing in code, because Corinna wanted to keep her health problems private.

But now you know what lines such as “good things happen to bad people, bad things happen to you and me” and “this thing came out of nowhere, I suppose we should have planned” were actually about. My first wife, Alison, always said that I used to write in code, and I suppose this is a pretty fair accusation. However, quite often, the code is quite easy to break and written purely in a form that makes sense to me rather than any deliberate attempt as obfuscation.

And me? As you might have guessed, I have a new record out on Bandcamp. I may or may not do a CD release as well. It depends whether I have the emotional energy so to do. The record is called ‘The New Normal’, and is named at least partly because my darling friend Davey Curtis finds the term so irritating.

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released August 22, 2021

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Jon Downes Bideford, UK

Jonathan Downes is a naturalist, cryptozoologist, author, editor, film-maker, poet, novelist, activist, journalist, composer and singer-songwriter, best known for being the Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology. He married Corinna in 2007, and has two stepdaughters, Shoshannah (Born 1985) and Olivia (Born 1987) and a granddaughter, Evelyn (born September 2014). He was widowed in August 2020. ... more

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