LYRICS – jonathanchurcher.org

Aim High

© Jonathan Churcher 2016
Verse One
Aim high when you’re wandering solo.
Aim high when you’re desperate for change.
Aim high when she’s walking towards you and she’s within range. Aim high when you dial the number.
Aim high when you make the connection.
Aim high when she’s sitting in front of you and you think she’s perfection.
She’s sitting right in front of you and she’s perfection.
You can see she’s perfection.

Verse Two
Aim high when she’s standing in front of you.
Aim high when you realize. You’re feeling all crazy and wonderful; she’s looking deep in your eyes.
Aim high when the kissing won’t stop.
Aim high when you play truth and dare.
Aim high when you go beyond words and she’s waiting for you there.
You go way way way way way beyond the meaning of words. She’s already there. Right there.

Chorus
Aim high when she tells you her story,
aim high when she shares of her pain,
Aim high when she tells you she loves you again and again and again and again.
Aim high when she dances her dance, aim high when she laughs her laugh,
Aim high when she’s got no questions, she’s got nothing she needs to ask.
She’s got no questions, she’s got nothing she needs to know.
You’re living in a world of love and trust, but watch out.

Refrain
Aim high when you’re feeling rage, aim high when the energy’s gone.
Aim high when you try to explain but everything comes out all wrong.
Aim high when the truth gets ugly,
Aim high when she curses your name.
Aim high when you show her your heart and she just walks away. But don’t give up.

Chorus
Aim high when she tells you her story,
Aim high when she shares her pain.
Aim high when she says “I love you”
Again and again and again and again.
Aim high when she dances her dance,
Aim high when she laughs her laugh.
Aim high when she’s got no questions,
She’s got nothing she needs to ask.
When there’s nothing she needs to know, nothing she needs to ask.
Aim high, aim high, aim high, aim high

The Ballad of Walter Edgi

Verse One
He was born on the banks of the beautiful Deh Cho, life changed fast, but what did he know?
They took him young, he didn’t understand why he could not live in his ancestral land.
All alone far from home and friends, in a really bad school, where the pain never ends.

VERSE 2
When Canada was 100 years old, he wanted to be brave, to do something bold. Out of the blue, he got a call, “Would you like to paddle to Montreal?”
Three-thousand miles in a canoe, he did not quit, he made it through.

Chorus 1
What a summer that was, he was part of a team, with hope and joy, he started to dream.
Go back home, hunt caribou, catch fish for the elders and the sick ones too.

VERSE 3
Many years later, a lot went down, his precious mother gone, so he left town.
From then on, the streets were his home, in Yellowknife, he was quite well known.
A photo shows him with big sad eyes, they say, “I had dreams, but all of them died.”

VERSE 4
But he trudged like a trapper through alleys and lanes, past City Hall to the Frame Lake Trail.
There he was on Old Airport Road, with a big black bag at the bottle depot.
Though he wasn’t trapping lynx, marten, or fox, ancestors were with him wherever he walked.

Chorus
Year after year in the cold and the heat, he never stopped, he never missed a beat.
Step after step, with a determined stride, he was a man with a will to survive.

VERSE 6
On a warm July day, down by the lake, the very last trip he’d ever take.
With ptarmigan, jays, and ravens around, he lay what he was carrying on the ground.
Close to the shoreline, warmed by the breeze, he took his last steps near whispering trees.

Chorus 3
Though he wasn’t trapping lynx, marten or fox, ancestors were with him wherever he walked.
On the other side, he’s not alone, his ancestors are guiding him home.

Colliding With Goliath

Verse One
He was on a world tour, young, healthy, virile, strong.
Very suave, very cool, with a gift for sweet love songs.
He could move woman’s hearts, he could make them swoon and weep.
They’d scream for him on stage, and call his name out in their sleep.
But the woman he desired, his true soul mate for this life.
The one he loved so deeply, she called him late one night.
Bluntly, and unkindly she declared, “We are through.
I’ve emptied the entire house and our bank account, too.
You’re not creating music, you’re pimping for the man.
Send nothing for my birthday, don’t speak to me again.”
His heart was heavy with grief and disgrace
But he had to perform and with a smile on his face.
Three Times A Lady, Fly Me To the Moon
Ain’t No Cure For Love, he’d valiantly croon.
Take It Easy, Michelle, My Heart Will Go On,
Love Will Keep Us Alive, but the thrill was gone.
He was colliding with Goliath, but time’s healing hands revealed
What the dark and lonely battle with his demons had concealed.
Over the horizon rose a glowing, inner sun.
And then the war was over, he survived, he won.
Those who face Goliath, they are warriors tried and true.
Their solo warrior’s dance opens doors we all walk through.

Verse Two
She wrote seven drafts of a story she so baldy had to tell
Each one fraught with sweat and tears, was driven and compelled.
But every time she handed over the re-written manuscript,
The editor would laugh and scoff and try to make her quit.
Courageously she handed in the reworked manuscript once more and thought,
“This one will change the game and open every door”.
But the editor replied:
“You are not a budding writer, an author you will never be.
Your writing’s not much better than a teenager’s diary.
Don’t waste your time, go home, throw away your writing tools
Go hang your head and stand in line with those other loser fools”.
She started in again with passion not despair,
Refusing to be silenced and abandoning all care.
Words they flowed freely, sentences were tight,
Paragraphs and chapters, she knew when they were right.
She grasped essential truth and laid them out so clean,
Her ninth draft was accepted, she got to live her dream.
She collided with Goliath and refused to back away.
She looked a monster in the eye and said, “I’m here to stay!”.
Her strength of mind kept her in the true arc of her life,
She can call herself an author, for that she’s earned the right.
Those who face Goliath they are warriors tried and true,
Their solo warrior’s dance opens doors we all walk through.

The Dragon’s Breath

Refrain
I live on Silent Hilltop, in the Valley of Don’t Come Near,
In the middle of Lonesome Forest, beside the River of Fear.
I sleep alone in the darkness, I dream of outer space.
I rise each day to the sad refrain of a planet going to waste.

Verse One
Where the industrial revolution started to unfold.Nobody asked, “What about the globe?” Shakespeare could have penned the script, for all the world’s a stage.Now the plot’s as thick as smoke, we’re the actors in this play.

Verse Two
Lakes and rivers fail, as the rain declines to fail.Insects, plants, and birds they begin a northward crawl. Mountain lions leave the south, following the deer.The land is full of omens speaking loud and clear.

Chorus
Every lightning strike ignites a forest fire, Every burning tree emits a cry. Every cry is nature’s voice, listen as it tells.We brought this dragon’s breath upon ourselves.

Verse Four
Such confusion for the hibernating soul,Autumn stays so long it keeps away the cold. Caribou can’t find protection from the winter’s freeze.They wander here and there looking for a stand of trees.

Verse Five
The 2014 wildfires we can’t ignore.Smoke blocked the highway, it pounded on our door.And this ain’t no incense filling up our lungs all summer long,And it ain’t no ceremonial smudge, it’s way too strong.

Chorus
Every lightning strike ignites a forest fire, and every burning tree emits a cry. Every cry is nature’s voice, listen as it tells.We brought this dragon’s breath upon ourselves.

Have You Ever

Chorus
Have you ever held someone so close it changed their life forever?
Have you ever been held so close it changed your life forever?

Verse One
I felt it once, for just a flash.
No sound or sight, free at last.
No more tomorrow, no more today.
All points of reference taken away.

Chorus
Have you ever held someone so close, it changed their life forever?
Have you ever been held so close it changed your life forever?

Verse Two
There he was, on a ledge
Anger came flying out, fear was spread
Everybody’s thinking, can we pull him through?
But it’s not what you say, it’s what you do.

Chorus
Have you ever held someone so close, it changed their life forever?
Have you ever been held so close it changed your life forever?

Verse Three
You struck the chord, you sang the line.
You got the feeling right, and that’s all fine
The lyrics came, and then the song.
You played around the world and proved the critics wrong, but…

Chorus+
Have you ever held someone so close, it changed their life forever?
Have you ever been held so close it changed your life forever?
Have you learned the lesson your heart wants you to know?
Have you learned the lesson your heart wants you to know?

Men Who Spit Venom

© Jonathan Churcher 2018

Verse One
My father’s father worked in a London shipyard
A carpenter on the wooden boats, he slaved so hard.
Breathing in the sawdust and the fumes from burning tar.
Two young boys at home he had to keep.
His wife gone to her eternal sleep.
A brew of toxic chemicals, flowing through his veins.
Sometimes he spit venom, when he couldn’t stand the pain.

Verse Two
My father was a pacifist then came the second war.
Right away he enlisted, a fighter to the core.
He said to me “We had no choice with Nazis at the door”.
In a German prison camp, he spent the three years.
His brother shot in Italy; the warrior shed tears.
In the hands of the enemy, no news from home.
Sometimes he spit venom, he was utterly alone.

Verse Three
When the fighting was all done, with a family of their own.
Parents looked around the world for another home.
“O Canada O Canada that’s where we’re going.”
No longer chained to history.
Headed for the future from sea to sea to sea.
But anger is subtle, silently it hides.
Sometimes we spit venom, never knowing why.

Verse Four
For seven decades my brother and I never got along.
Then he learned his time on earth would soon be done.
That changed everything, the bitterness was gone. He said:
Life has a way of teaching hearts how to expand.
The way I see it now is we have got a second chance.
We can do much better; walk away from the cold.
Breathe warmth into this blizzard of anger, suspicion, and control.

Coda
He said: Life has a way of teaching hearts how to expand.
The way I see it now is we have got a second chance.
We can do much better, walk away from the cold.
Breathe warmth into this blizzard of anger, suspicion, and control.

George Churcher. Back row, second from left.

Gazing at Polaris © Jonathan Churcher 2014

Verse 1
When all you hear is breathing and your mind is really calm
When you see the tide has turned, and your frantic pace is gone.
When you’re ready to stand still, and your intellect’s at rest.
Listen for the melodies buried in your chest.

Verse 2
Go walk the El Camino, get some training for your brain
Write letters to the editor, call the mayor, complain.
Burn the midnight oil, burn the candle at both ends.
Become a workaholic, rise so fast you get the bends.

Verse 3
The music in your heart is a vast chromatic scale,
It touches everything from the atom to the whale.
A wellspring of emotion, the energy of life
A constant point of reference, a Polaris star at night.

Verse 4
Buy some Nordic walking poles, never eat ice cream
Binge on sitcom reruns, learn to speak Chinese
Party with your friends, gamble all night long.
Go to work with bloodshot eyes, tell the boss he’s wrong.

Verse 5
Something to consider when your life becomes a blur
A coyote with no heart is just another predator.
What started as eccentric, became a circle true,
I knew I’d found the center, when your face came into view.

Pack of Lies

VERSE ONE
Join the table but beware
Everyone’s playing solitaire.
This could be your lucky day?
What do the fortune tellers say?
Get closer you can hear the sighs of people playing with the pack of lies.

VERSE TWO
Face up to the truth, pick any card,
Turn it over, now that’s not hard.
Not what you want? – take some more
Add them up, what’s your score?
Nobody wins, nobody ties, when they’re playing with a pack of lies.

VERSE THREE
This game could be your winner takes all.
Go with your gut as you make your call.
A thousand words is a picture’s worth.
Use them to pray for your re-birth.
You’ll need to find a way to rise, when you get hit with the pack of lies.

VERSE FOUR
Hold those cards close to your chest,
As close to the heart as you can get.
You seek a warm and caring hand
But not the kind that robs a man.
Still alone after a thousand tries? You must be playing with a pack of lies.

VERSE FIVE
Are you in the lead like an Alpha dog?
Or trotting along at an easy jog?
Shuffling with this crowd of fools
Everywhere you go it’s Nevada rules.
Look around and realize, you’ve been running with a pack of lies.

VERSE SIX
The game continues through the night
It’s getting tense, it’s flight or fight.
The others fold, each falls and slips,
The pot is yours, it’s golden chips.
And then you can’t believe your eyes, it’s a glistening pack of lies.

Finale
Look around and realize
You’ll need to find a way to rise
Nobody wins, nobody ties
When they’re playing………….. with a pack of lies………….

Reverie at Cameron Falls

Lyrics © Jonathan Churcher 2015.

A strange and perilous wave breaks over the water-worn rocks of Cameron Falls, where plot lines, timelines, headlines, and heart lines converge and merge.

Band sings:
“When the earth is a ghost town, and the seasons barely change.
When the earth is a ghost town, and the seasons barely change.
‘Blues for a Blue Blue Planet’ will be the final serenade”

Is this just another night of play going nowhere on the unethical treadmill of the good life?

The roaring and cresting tsunami of your shortsightedness towers over you.
Filling your ears with a dumb cacophony that crawls and shudders across the land, like a genetically-modified, artificially-intelligenced, industrially-super-sized bulldozer.

If this dwindling waterfall were an oracle, it would not speak with the explosive thunder of a bursting volcano, or the shuddering low groans of a creeping glacier, but as a drought of whispers.
Our own breath must carry survival secrets to our ears; loud and clear, now and here.
Our own breath must carry survival secrets to our ears; loud and clear, now and here.
Our own breath must carry survival secrets to our ears; loud and clear, now and here.

Intro spoken
Some walk the windswept deserts, or the trails of wolf and deer.
Other cruise the oceans or navigate the star-filled sphere (or: astrosphere).
Seers walk the wondrous road of images clearly seen,
Where imprinted on the etherscape is everything that will be, is, and has been.
Holding court within the cinematic treasure trove,
Chronos shares his secrets with all who wish to know.

The Troubadour’s Prophecy

VERSE ONE
Around the world our thoughts will fly, in the twinkling of an eye.
Our towns will row and spread so far, joined together with stone and tar.
And where the snow would once be found, the locals walk on open round.
The frightened lowland people flee, running from a rising sea.

REFRAIN:
This story’s told in simple verse, be it blessing be it curse.
I not singing of next week, it’s future centuries I see.

VERSE TWO
Where dark of night and bright of day, loner than a season stay.
A man named Franklin I think, will strive, to sail three ships, he won’t survive.
The sun descends like a fiery brand, and warms the air of a frigid land.
With no more snow on the mountain side, the hunters’ relics no longer hide.

REFRAIN:
One day the blue replaces white, as water freely flows from ice.
And soon thereafter all will hear, the winding, watery passage is clear.

VERSE THREE
The wind’s not cold and it cannot freeze, so short the winters all will be.
And no more antlered cattle found, on the melted grazing round.
With the northern waters growing warm, a whole new nation will be born.
And as the waters rise on the Mackenzie Delta shore, some wonder if there will be war.

REFRAIN:
Everything we do or say, creates tomorrow in some way.
Do what you can, be at your best,
Share, teach, give, love, ignore the rest. Jonathan Churcher © 2011

Destination YZF

Have You Ever

Journey Home

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La Ballade de Jean Batailleur

Launch Don’t Drift

No Eclipse

Pack of Lies

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Reverie at Cameron Falls

Rock Walker Blues

Troubadour’s Prophecy

Twelve Bar Blues

Where I want to Be

Without You

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