Get all 7 Jon Downes releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Eschatological Baby, Lukashenko Maxine, Out of my Head (1979-93), The New Normal, Evelyn's song, Coldharbour, and I’ve never felt more like a father before.
1. |
The New Normal
02:09
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The New Normal
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2. |
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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.
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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
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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
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5. |
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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