Get all 8 Robert Sherwood releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of fiction presents: Space Rock Opera, Purple Majesty, Coming Home, You Shouldn't Know (But You Know), Mr. Sherwood, Time Out Of Mind, Song For The Weary, and Good Expectations.
1. |
Like Dying
05:02
|
|||
|
A wing of birds across the sky
A window flying open…
A ring of blood around the moon
An empty house in winter…
You can never say what you’re gonna do
Who you’re gonna know
What you’re gonna reap
What you’re gonna sow-
You just never know
If it’s gonna be a good day
And you’re always being born
Even when it feels
Like dying…
The way the curtains catch the wind
The way that sweetness follows…
Your fathers kiss upon your mouth
When flowers grew in winter…
Maybe there’s a way you can say what you want to say
Maybe next week, maybe today
Opening your veins for your chance to be
The chosen one…
But you’re just gonna have to live-
Even when it feels
Like dying…
My only wish is that I’d
Spent less time missing things that
Weren’t in my power to undertake
My one request is that you
Please keep my memory with the
Songs that I wrote when I was alive…
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
Help me now I’m falling fast
These summer days they never last
And I won’t make December on my own…
Please forgive me if I’ve done you wrong
I love you more than any song
You’re all my best mistakes rolled up together…
We could find
A way to shame the sun to shine
We could fly
Due east into the light …
This is how you get to heaven…
Please indulge me if I do protest
There is a glove that fits the best
My heart will beat inside your breast forever…
We could find
A way to shame the sun to shine…
This is how you get to heaven…
And from the corner of your eye
The first brave leaf of autumn flies
Just let it warm your heart to know I love you
We could find
A way to shame the sun to shine…
This is how you get to heaven…
|
||||
3. |
You And I
02:24
|
|||
|
You and I could never be
Simply for the taking
That is why I’ll always love you
You and I have never been
Even close to breaking
So I know I’ll always love you
And I...
Don’t want to live so long
That I’d have to live without you
My life is a dream about you…
You and I will always be
Something in the making
That is why I’ll always love you
|
||||
4. |
I Could Cry
05:13
|
|||
|
Well, I’m seasick
Thrown about on the swells of your beautiful confusion
I’ve been searching for a beacon in the night
Could you be my Cape of Good Hope?
Won’t you fall in
Through the hole in my heart to the center of my sorrow?
I believe that there is sunlight in this world-
I believe somewhere it’s dawn…
I could cry…
I could cry…
But it’s just another world ending
It’s just another will bending
It’s just another world ending…
I keep wondering
How’s a man born of light gonna make it in a dark world?
I believe you are the center of the storm
Please don’t tell me if I’m wrong…
I could cry…
I could cry…
But it’s just another world ending
It’s just another will bending
It’s just another world ending…
Sacred evening
Fall around like a curtain, like the eye of heaven closing…
Light a candle, curse the darkness anyway
Sweet and blessed light of day…
I could cry
I could cry…
But it’s just another world ending
It’s just another will bending
It’s just another heart breaking
It’s just another tear falling…
It’s just another world ending
It’s just another tear falling
It’s just another world ending…
|
||||
5. |
An Easy Winter
04:43
|
|||
|
Take your coat from the hook by the doorway
This old world, she won’t wait for you now
And in time it will find it's own meaning
But for now take your coat from the wall…
I recall how you tore me to pieces
That was small but I paid you in kind
And I cried through that god damned December
With the words that you said on my mind…
And I’m praying for an easy winter
The kind you have when you’re just 25…
An easy winter
Because I can’t stay inside…
I will float like a mist on the water
To a place where I’m kissed by the sun
And your light will no longer suffuse me
(and your light no longer shines upon me like an angry star)
But for now, there’s the door- that’s the one…
(but for now just turn this ship in to the sun)
And I’m praying for an easy winter
The kind you have when you’re just 25…
And easy winter
Because I can’t stay inside…
That’s why I’m praying for an easy winter
The kind you have when you’re just 25…
And easy winter
Because I can’t stay inside…
|
||||
6. |
||||
|
Vultures were lawyers and judges corrupt
Starlings were children who never grew up
The martins and magpies were artists and thieves
And the blackbirds were misers whom nobody grieves…
Seagulls were sailors who fell to the deep
Kingfishers those who would save them
A corporate board is a murder of crows
And the owls were the learned (as everyone knows)
We all come back the way we were
We all come back as birds…
Meadowlark sang every day of her life
Rook stole his fortune and murdered his wife
You’ll be a heron and I’ll be a crane
On the wing through the mist of a soft autumn rain…
We all come back the way we were
We all come back as birds…
|
||||
7. |
Mystery
04:39
|
|||
|
You’ve got a piece of me
Don’t you treat me bad now
You’ve got my heart on a string
Don’t you turn into the wind now
One day when we’re older
Gonna wish that we’d taken some time…
Why not think it over
Just for your own sake, if not for mine?
Because you’re a mystery
I guess that’s just the word that comes to me
When I think of what you are to me
You’re such a mystery…
I’m so beyond that thing
Where you put yourself in harm’s way
My innocence is gone
But that’s a price we both payed...
It doesn’t take a very keen mind to understand
We’ve gotta love while we have the chance…
Woman, I’d have never asked you for the North Star
I only wanted to know how far…
Because you’re a mystery
I guess that’s just the word that comes to me
And when I think of what you are to me…
You’re such a mystery
Because you’re a mystery
You’re like a secret that you keep from me
And when I think of what you are to me
You’re such a mystery…
|
||||
8. |
Leaving California
02:42
|
|||
|
I think of all the promises I made to myself
When I was young and under a mistaken impression
The funny thing is that I think I might have kept them
But oh, at what a cost to the people that I really, really loved
Now I'm leaving California
And I'm never coming back to California...
Through all the miles you never think what's at the end of the road
You feel like something that you buy but that you never really use
It's not too late, I swear to God it's not too late-
We'll sing and laugh and drink and fuck and fight
And scream like banshees at the moon
Because I'm leaving California
And I'm never coming back to California...
Gonna walk down the main street of my home town
Never let me hear you say you told me so
|
||||
9. |
Madrid
03:20
|
|||
|
Elizabeth
With the little braid
And the purple flowers woven in…
Holding hands down Arenal
In early June…
Is this what it’s like to be in love?
Summer scenes
When you’re fifteen
Oh well, they change your life
Or maybe it’s just me…
Everyone I know grew up and went away…
But I still walk Cibeles in the rain…
I always knew that you would break my heart
I always knew that you would break my heart
But I never thought
That it would be forever…
Elizabeth
With the pretty eyes
And the heartless smile
She did this to me
Kissing for the first time on Torregalindo
Is this what it’s like to be in love?
I always knew that you would break my heart
I always knew that you would break my heart
But I never thought
That it would be forever…
|
||||
10. |
For What It Is
04:56
|
|||
|
My love don't give me no sorrow
Tears of only joy
I wake up feeling like magic
Lying in her soft employ
But now and then the mask will
Slip aside and then I
I see my life for what it is...
For what it is...
My love is whiskey and peppermint
Sweet and drunk and fine
One summer dream scented hyacinth
Drowning in a pool of white wine...
But time and time again I
I see the signs and then I
I see my life for what it is...
For what it is...
|
||||
11. |
Monday Wedding
03:43
|
|||
|
I tried to tell you
But somehow I just couldn’t utter the words…
I tried to sell you
But you just won’t get with that old bill of goods…
You’re gonna make somebody happy someday-
Someone with just a little more faith than me
Oh, pretty baby-
My heart must have skipped a beat…
But if you ever need
Somebody sweet
And easy on the eyes
For whatever you’ve in mind, my friend-
We will have our Monday wedding
And we’ll file for grounds on Tuesday afternoon
And what a day we’ll have, we two…
Do you remember
The day that we met on that cold city street?
All that November-
The way that it felt when our lips used to meet…
I never thought that I could feel that way
I still remember it like yesterday…
Oh, pretty baby-
So sad when it goes away…
But if you ever need
Somebody sweet
And easy on the eyes
For whatever you’ve in mind, my friend-
We will have our Monday wedding
And we’ll file for grounds on Tuesday afternoon
And what a day we’ll have, we two…
|
||||
12. |
Top Of The World
03:31
|
|||
|
Don’t be a fool
Never let the other children see what you can do
Don’t let your parents know
Loneliness has its rewards…
In the night…
Don’t let them find
You moving those things with your mind
Just be that little boy
Lost in a world of your own
‘Til the time comes…
You’re gonna know…
Who stays behind
And the few that will go
To that beautiful place
With you at the top of the world…
A night full of stars
The messages come from afar
Don’t let the neighbors know
Don’t let them in the garage
‘Til the time comes…
You’re gonna say
Who gets to come
And the rest who will stay
In the cold, ruined earth
But you’ll be on top of the world…
|
||||
13. |
||||
|
Brattleboro April 6, 12:05 AM….
One last foot of snow to dress this winter up in spring…
You can’t get much farther from the center of LA
And that’s all right with me
That’s all right with me today…
Used to take the PCH right up through Newport Beach
Now it’s south to Northfield Mass. from Winchester or Keene
You can’t get much farther from the pier on Ocean Way
And that’s all right with me
That’s all right with me today…
And it ain’t true that you’ve gotta be somebody
And it ain’t true that you can’t just be Your Name Here for god’s sake
Everybody’s got a story
Everybody’s got a tale to tell…
Brattleboro April 6, now it’s turned to rain
A billion brittle diamonds as the headlights climb away
Can’t believe it’s been 8 weeks
Since that night on Cuesta Way
But that’s all right with me
That’s all right with me today
That’s just fine with me this way…
|
||||
14. |
Elizabeth Street
04:29
|
|||
|
I met her in the summertime
But I don’t know her name
I’ve known her for a thousand years
But I don’t know her name…
She ain’t just another memory
A child of wishful thinking
Trying to create what never was…
She ain’t just another memory
A happy-ever-after
Tearing me away
Tearing me away…
Take a good long walk
Down Elizabeth Street
And you’ll remember…
I didn’t know what love was for
I’ve never felt the same
Now, yeah now I know a little more
But I don’t know her name…
If she’s just another memory
Then why am I still haunted
By a past that never was?
Why does time become an enemy?
A tide of broken wishes
Washing me away…
Take a good long walk
Down Elizabeth Street
And you’ll remember…
You’ll remember…
|
||||
15. |
This Goodbye
03:45
|
|||
|
This goodbye-
Harder than the ones before
Because it comes from my heart…
This goodbye
Just enough to make me cry
Because it comes from my heart…
Through all these years I’ve burned for you
And now I’ve burned myself right out
And it’s hard to say
The words get in the way…
Of this goodbye…
Every day
Waiting for the birds to sing
For the rain to roll through …
This goodbye
Like a dream you wish away at night
Like a stone in your shoe…
And all these years I’ve burned for you
You see, I’ve burned myself right out…
And it’s hard to say
The words get in the way…
Of this goodbye…
And ain’t there just a million stars tonight?
Must I bid farewell to every distant light?
And it’s hard to say
The words get in the way…
Of this goodbye…
|
||||
16. |
||||
|
Standing on the dock with you
Love was always ours to lose
After all the times we said
It wouldn’t happen…
Loved the way you checked your look
Mirror in your pocketbook
As if only lipstick writes
The perfect answer…
But time could find you
Knocking on your own front door
Trying to meet the queen before
You greet her courtiers…
Trying to switch off that light
Trying not to burn too bright
And never draw undue attention
It’s best to be your own invention…
Said I’d never let you down
Said we’d get a place in town
With some art up on the walls
And some direction…
Never meant to sink so low
But baby you were good to go
When we lost the heart to fight
Our predilections…
Time could find you…
|
||||
17. |
Only Child
04:04
|
|||
|
You say the river is wide
Much too wide to swim over
Yet you wade in the river
Wade in the river
Wade in the river...
All the stars in the night
Much too far for the reaching
Yet you laugh in the starlight
Laugh in the starlight
Laugh in the starlight...
The universe is an amusement park
But your admission's still a million years away
But don't you cry...don't you cry...don't you...
Daddy's gonna take such good care of his only child
Of his only child...
How you toss through the night
With your dreams of destruction
But you build in the morning
Build in the morning
Build in the morning...
You curse the darkness and you curse the light
You light a candle and you burn yourself in fright
But don't you cry...don't you cry...don't you...
Daddy's gonna take such good care of his only child
Of his only child...
|
||||
18. |
Bedroom Town
03:53
|
|||
|
Newspapers blow across her driveway
The neighbors greet them with a frown
She made her big escape from Bedroom Town
Dead letters from the other side
Of some enchanted world
And does it make a sound if there's no one to hear the knocking?
Knocking on your door...
I've got a xerox of a picture of a photograph
Of you and someone else I've never seen
But you must have loved him
So much more than me...
When the night falls down around in Bedroom Town
We'll celebrate another year of almost living
Oh, slam that pedal down
And we could pull the sheets up over Bedroom Town
Over Bedroom Town...
Shabby postcards of a rust belt night
And morning sickness dawn
And does it make a sound if you die on the freeway
With no one else around?
I've gotta hand it to you
You must have said goodbye to everyone but me
So I guess this timeworn tryst ain't meant to be...
When the night falls down around in Bedroom Town
We'll celebrate another year of not quite dying...
Oh, slam that pedal down
And we could pull the sheets up over Bedroom Town
Over Bedroom Town...
|
||||
19. |
||||
|
We pushed against the tide
But tides don’t yield so easy
And then they don’t at all…
We did all that we could
But maybe love’s a question
And we don’t have the answer…
And sometimes it’s just too much to ask
To find a little love and make it last
And sometimes it’s just too hard to say goodbye…
And speaking of questions, child-
What am I gonna do without you?
How am I gonna live alone?
Who am I gonna be without you?
Without your soft voice on the telephone…
I wonder if you’ll feel
Relieved to be without me
Set free from my demands…
We did all that we should
But maybe love’s a candle
And we can’t strike the match…
And who’s going to be the first to say
I don’t feel the same as yesterday
And who’s going to be the first to shed a tear?
And on that note, my dear-
What am I gonna do without you?
How am I gonna live alone?
Who am I gonna be without you?
God, I don’t want to be alone…
What am I gonna do without you?
How am I gonna live alone?
Who am I gonna be without you?
Without your soft voice on the telephone…
|
||||
20. |
Missing Something
04:14
|
|||
|
There’s a light that shines
For everyone one but you
Everyone knows why
But you…
There’s a flower that blooms
For everyone but you
Everyone knows why
But you…
And you’re always missing something
And you don’t know what it is
And you’re always missing something
And that’s beautiful
It is.
There’s a secret told
To everyone but me
Everybody knows the answer
But me…
And we’re always missing something
And we don’t know what it is
Yeah, we’re always missing something
And that’s beautiful
It is.
Ain’t it beautiful?
It’s beautiful
It is.
|
||||
Robert Sherwood Northampton, Massachusetts
If you like Robert Sherwood, you may also like:
Garden of Earthly Delights - An XTC Celebration
by Various Artists
supported by 7 fans who also own “Good Expectations”
XTC had their moment in time...this recording extends it...Full of small, tight , quirky songs it juz rolls along. Recommended but maybe only for XTC fans..
go to album
Penny Novelettes
by The Cleaners From Venus
supported by 5 fans who also own “Good Expectations”
The 4-track has been switched for Garageband (I'm guessing), but his writing hasn't lost a thing. Turns out it wasn't about the Tascam.
go to album
I Want Love (Big Stir Single No. 130)
by Nelson Bragg
supported by 5 fans who also own “Good Expectations”
go to album
Terns in Idle
by Rain Recordings
This collaborative project offers a fresh twist on classic indie sounds of the early 2000s with hooky choruses and quirky instrumentation
go to album
The latest from Julian Temple Band is full of shadowy, trembling art rock, wtih melodies that summon a sense of mystery.
go to album
Me Chama De Gato Que Eu Sou Sua
by Ana Frango Elétrico
featured on Bandcamp Radio Aug 22, 2023
go to album
No Weapon But Love
by Icecream Hands
supported by 5 fans who also own “Good Expectations”
Such a joyful collection of songs. Nothing like quintessential Melbourne alternative rock to lift the spirits. Listening during yet another lockdown transports me to a band room in my favourite pub. Thanks for the music lads- looking forward to seeing you for real when we get outta here.
go to album
