Stray Dogs
by Peter Doran
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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Voices, Blue Mountains (feat. Haley Heynderickx), Nothing New Under the Sun, Stray Dogs, Oldtown Sessions: Live at Canton Casey's, Outlines, Live in Holland, Overhead the Stars, and 2 more.
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1. |
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What would you do if you were to start over
Who would you tell would you keep it silent
A wave of your hand or a click of your fingers
Take a flame to all you are
Oh answer me, truthfully my love
are these the kind of things you're thinking of
How would it feel to wake up in a new body
All of the lines have vanished from your skin
Given the chance with no strings attached
Would you become smoke in the air?
Oh answer me, truthfully my love
are these the kind of things you're dreaming of?
If you could go back to the very, very start
Think of the moves you'd make!
I know it's crossed your mind, many times
I've watched the hands spin backwards in your eyes
Oh answer me, truthfully my love
are these the kind of things you're dreaming of?
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2. |
Daughter
04:04
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I had a Daughter, I gave her away
I was too young, we were too young that's all I know how to say
I had a secret, I buried it away
But I never forgot here and all that I wanted was here to be happy and safe
Will you come looking for me one day
Will you want to know me at all
You can call me mother if you want to
I just want to know you child
There's no trail to follow
There's now way to know
When records are boxed up, when names are all blacked out
When stories go untold
Will you come looking for me one day
Will you want to know me at all
You can call me mother if you want to
I just want to know you, I just want to hold you child
Please don't think I didn't want you daughter
I was afraid, I was afraid and I couldn't see another way
Now fourty years have gone by, fourty years have flown
Here you stand flesh and bone, there you stand flesh and bone
Two strangers setting out on a road
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3. |
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On a peaceful and clear night, a boy was staring at the sky
Eyes lit up with moonshine, feeling like a valentine
In the silence someone spoke, an old man in an overcoat
He said, “Don’t you find it magical, I can’t recall a night so still.”
“It’s quite a sight” the boy replied. “The universe is vast and wide.
Do you suppose we’ll ever know, just how far out she goes?”
“Come in close” the man whispered, “why I myself have known for years.
But if you listen good and you listen well, I’ll tell you of the turtle shell.
We’re on a tiger that’s sitting on top of an elephant
Who in turn is balanced upon the back of an old tortoise
And all that’s beneath them is solid and sound
For it’s turtles all the way, all the way down”
The boy thought this was quite absurd, the strangest thing he’d ever heard
But there was something in the words. The wildest thing he’d ever learned.
“Tell me sir, could this be true, how can I believe in you?
You haven’t got a shred of proof, but yet you seem so resolute”
“Boy believe what you will, you are young with years to fill.
I promise you you’re safe and well. You’re dancing on the turtle shell.”
We’re on a tiger that’s sitting on top of an elephant
Who in turn is balanced upon the back of an old tortoise
And all that’s beneath them is solid and sound
For it’s turtles all the way, all the way down”
Son I best be on my way, I've said all I have to say.
You don't believe me anyway but perhaps you'll think of me some day and smile.
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4. |
The World Is Wide
05:21
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Did you mean what you said when you said you were thinking about leaving here
Well it got me to thinking how would you feel about having company?
All we need is a stick and a good handkerchief to tie to it
And we'll fill it with things that adventurers bring when they go
Where the world is wide and we ain't no fools
Yeah the world is wide and we make the rules
Yeah I meant what I said when I said I was thinking about leaving here
I've been building a boat made from barrels and ropes that I found
You can come with me but I'll have to swear you to secrecy
'Cos if somehow our mother's find out then all is lost ('Cos they've forgot)
That the world is wide and we ain't no fools
Yeah the world is wide and we make the rules
And there will be snakes, there will be ladders sometimes
There will be maps showing us treasure to find
You can put your hands up anywhere and pick an orange from the sky (oh oh my)
Meet me in the yard at the end of history
We'll climb the wall that leads to the railway tracks
and we won't look back
Oh the world is wide and we ain't no fools
Yeah the world is wide and we make the rules
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5. |
When You Can
03:38
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When you can greet the morning with a song and not a sigh
when you can watch your clock tick and know you are alive
when you can find the finest restaurant in which to dine
for the time will come when these here things will be beyond you
When you can be light hearted and all your secrets tell
when you can forgive everyone, you know they're doomed as well
when you can be romantic as a midnight Eiffel tower
when you can be as wild and free as a near by meteor shower
for the time will come when these here things will be beyond you , and beyond me
when you can...
when you can go the distance
when you can go explore
and I beg you leave your paranoid visions on the shore
If invited join the orgy and if not just pretend
when you can burn your candle out at each and every end
for the time will come when these here things will be beyond you, and beyond me
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6. |
Tug
04:50
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There are things that tug at you,
There are things that tug at me
Sometimes rightly sometimes wrong
Sometimes lightly sometimes strong
There's no burying some things I'm afraid
You won't ever dig a deep enough grave
There are ghosts that follow you
There are ghosts that follow me
Make you doubt the road your on
Pour the poison in your song
There's no burying some things I'm afraid
You won't ever dig a deep enough grave
There are rooms that lie beneath
Hiding things you should not keep
The Static for your stereo
The Cracks inside the truth you hold
There's no burying some things I'm ashamed
They will hang forever from your name
You might try to close the book
draw a line underneath
Close your eyes and never look
But you've already seen too much
There's no burying some things I'm afraid
You won't ever dig a deep enough grave
But don't you run or cry out to be saved
Just look them in the eye and show them you are brave
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7. |
Knife Throwers Eyes
04:08
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Some day I will pay for my own wine
But until then, what is yours is mine
And I know you’d never dream of keeping score
And that you’re well aware, what is mine is yours
But I only wish it was a whole lot more
But I don’t want to be the stone around your neck
I don’t want to be the years that you regret
I don’t want to be sunlight in your eyes
That blinds you every time you’re throwing knives
Some day I will hold you in my hands
But for a while more, you will have to stand
Some day I will fill up your belly
But for a while more, we won’t go hungry
But I don’t want to be the stone around your neck
I don’t want to be the years that you regret
I don’t want to be sunlight in your eyes
That blinds you every time you’re throwing knives
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8. |
Sleepless Street
07:22
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Alison she slipped under the curtain and plunged right into Sleepless street.
The clothes she wore were minimal, and all a size or two too small, and she knew that she would fit right in.
She didn't crave enlightenment, only excitement, something to lose herself in.
Alison and I rarely spoke.
She moved slowly into this gathering of nocturnal nail-biters.
The place was a carnival, all glow and luminous, the insects danced from street lamp to street lamp,
Gazing down upon the swarms of escape artists shuffling chaotically below.
Alison had nowhere else to go.
She felt at ease among the lazy star gazers, the stray dogs and mathematicians,
She drifted into orbits packed tight with addicts of every possible shape and size,
Behind the dull glow of her eyes her mind was racing, she felt at last that she belonged.
Alison was very often wrong.
Dancing from one devil straight to the next one, each one took her deeper underground.
Into damp hollows where no light follows deep below the earth of sleepless street.
There she met with monsters with marks in their armour and women that cried out in shame.
Alison you're difficult to tame.
Time passed she broke away, it looks like she found a way back to the buzzing of the street,
The party was in full swing, the fireworks exploding and all the telephones and ears were ringing.
She pushed her way through the crowd, they all seemed more lost than found. the smoky air pulled heavy on her lungs.
She raced toward the curtain tripping over tired men, photographers and wild eyed lovers.
All that she wanted then was to feel the sun shining down on her pale face again.
Oh, Alison and I were never close, But I hope she makes it.
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9. |
Steeped in You
03:32
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10. |
O God O Man
03:55
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The night's gained one more star
I've gained one more scar
i think it's fair to say I've lost this fight
You can't always win, you thought me that
But you never showed me how to lose
O God O man
What does it mean?
Lie in bed 'til noon,
sing a happy tune,
It's far happier than this.
Who will keep us warm,
In this dark dark storm
who's gonna be our light?
O God O man
What does it mean?
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11. |
Blue Snow
05:02
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It's hard to find the glow when you're walking in Blue Snow
and it doesn't matter what you sow because nothing ever seems to grow here
and all the stones you used to throw
my friends keeps for spare eyes
and every wind that blows is just a vessel for your lies
Your whispers said I'll always be warm
and that love this strong will never be torn
your loving arms will never let go
and then you just leave me to die in your snow
You're an old rag doll, and stinking of alcohol
you got no place to fall and no one to call out to
But you'll get home soon, by the light of the moon
and the trail of her perfume and the warmth of her room
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about
The idea for "Stray Dogs" was to revisit older songs that I felt I had abandoned over the last years. Songs that had slipped from set lists for one reason or other and left to fend for themselves in deeper obscurity than their better-loved siblings.
I rounded up these stray dogs in the month of November in the year of the Pandemic and recorded them simply and directly at my home studio over a three day period. It took a little time to find my way into some of these songs again... I altered some lines here and there, dropped the key of one song, and came at many of them from a different angle than on the original recordings. As the saying goes, a man never steps in the same river twice.
It's been both nostalgic and fun to revisit these songs and over all I think they've held up pretty well over the years. There is one new and previously unreleased song on here called "Daughter".
I hope you enjoy listening and that these old dogs can be companions to you as they have been to me.
I rounded up these stray dogs in the month of November in the year of the Pandemic and recorded them simply and directly at my home studio over a three day period. It took a little time to find my way into some of these songs again... I altered some lines here and there, dropped the key of one song, and came at many of them from a different angle than on the original recordings. As the saying goes, a man never steps in the same river twice.
It's been both nostalgic and fun to revisit these songs and over all I think they've held up pretty well over the years. There is one new and previously unreleased song on here called "Daughter".
I hope you enjoy listening and that these old dogs can be companions to you as they have been to me.
credits
released December 4, 2020
Recorded at Oldtown Studios, Westmeath, Ireland, November 2020 using a Universal Audio Apollo Twin x , Cubase, an Aston Spirit microphone and a Shure sm 57
Peter played Santa Cruz Guitars (1929 & Vintage Artist) and a Bourgeois Slope D.
Recorded / Mixed / Mastered by Peter Doran
Recorded at Oldtown Studios, Westmeath, Ireland, November 2020 using a Universal Audio Apollo Twin x , Cubase, an Aston Spirit microphone and a Shure sm 57
Peter played Santa Cruz Guitars (1929 & Vintage Artist) and a Bourgeois Slope D.
Recorded / Mixed / Mastered by Peter Doran
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about
Peter Doran County Westmeath, Ireland
Welcome to the official Bandcamp Store of independent Irish Song-maker Peter Doran.
Here you'll find Peter's entire back-catalogue available on CD & digital download.
New album "Voices" out now.
discography
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Dec 2013
contact / help
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