Song #6 Wanderin' Around

I’m now in England. I’m still feeling lonely and as I backtrack down this memory lane it’s clear that the break-up with my first real girlfriend had a huge impact on me. Two years on and I’m still dreaming I might bump into her on the other side of the world.

But this song also reveals how being in the UK sparked something inside of me and I start to contemplate the fact that somehow or rather I’m connected to ‘this rainy, windy, land.”

Though the song was written in England the ending may have been added when I was back in Australia. I stayed away for 14 months.

Interestingly this is the oldest song that I still play so it has stood the test of time. Very much a folk song with obvious influence from the English folk tradition. And I’d learnt to pick! 

 

WANDERIN’ AROUND (Listen HERE)

I wandered around in the great outdoors

Met a lover who was past dead and gone

Found a stone and carved my name

Thought a lady may pass there alone

 

Starlit night and a rock’n’rollin’ beat

The trees go wilting in the night

People danced while others drank and sang

It was cold and a Saturday night

 

CHORUS

While the sun looked down

Knockin’ you up town

To the pub, or a beach, or a lady’s arms

And you stroll over surf in your surfboard dreams

And never gave a thought to nature’s harms

 

In the eyes of the world

You’re a child gone astray

But your only concern was today

Walked on strong while feelin’ insecure

You’re just home – things are lookin’ newer

 

Take it in and sus it all about

Your accent’s showing and it’s pure

English, Welsh, and Irish in there too

If only those Celts has been fewer

 

With their crosses and their reels

And their stubborn present pride

It’s not easy to tell how you feel

You sprung from these people in this rainy windy land

Think I’ll float home on the next high tide

 

CHORUS

Where the sun looks down

Knockin’ you up town

To the pub, or a beach, or a lady’s arms

And you stroll over surf in your surfboard dreams

And never gave a thought to nature’s harms

 

In the eyes of the world

You’re a child gone astray

But your only concern was today

Walked on strong while feelin’ insecure

You’re just home – things are lookin’ newer

You’re just home – things are lookin’ newer

You’re just home – things are lookin’ newer

 

Copyright Michael Coghlan 1976

 

 

 

 

Song #5 I'll Never Write

 

 

A bit cringeworthy really, but in the interests of full disclosure: I obviously went to the trouble of typing this up many years ago so I must have thought it worthwhile back then. I think I played it in C#m and referred to it as “The C#m Song” in the years I played it live.

I’m clearly still trying to leave the memory of someone behind… but that someone keeps entering those vacant moments when I was alone …. 

I’LL NEVER WRITE 

I took a long time to write

I took a long time to call

You know it’s because I love you

I’ve been thinkin’ of you all day long girl

Sitting here at this window staring out to sea

 

I keep dreaming of you – you, me, us

Wondering why we ever parted

What I think is not what happened

Why don’t we just get together and thrash it all out again?

 

We’ll see who’s right

We’ll see who’s wrong

Already I know it’s best left dead

 

So I’ll never write and I’ll never call

Another time another place and another space

When time has done its work

And I can see your face and see the sea

See the sea

See the sea

 

1975 Aged 21