Paul J Penton – Songwriter

Just One More    © 2008 Paul J Penton

Just one more drink, Then I’m gonna hit the road
Gonna Hitch it up,  get hauling this heavy load.
To a destination that I’ve never seen
Just one more drink, And I’ll be movin’ on

There’s just one kiss, resting like a butterfly
here on my cheek, As the miles go dragging by
When I get to where I’m going, I’m gonna telephone
There’s just one kiss, That’ll linger on
Across the miles and emptiness
In my mind I hear your voice
……..It comforts me
When I’m feeling at a loss as these miles go stretchin’ past
I touch the place where you last touched me

Just one more load, and I’ll be travelling
Babe I’m coming home, I’m gonna touch your face again
 Getting back to you, it’s the place where I belong
Just one more load, And I’ll be gone
Just one more load, And I’ll be comin’ home

Instrumental 4 bars

Just one more drink, then I’m gonna hit the road
Gonna hitch it up, and get hauling this heavy load
When I get to where I’m going, I’m gonna telephone
Just one more drink, And I’ll be gone
Just one more load, And I’ll be coming home
There’s just one kiss, that lingers on
Babe it’s just your kiss, that lingers on
Babe it’s just your kiss, that’s gonna bring me home

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Mary Celeste                             © Paul J Penton March 2008

She hides everything in a  dark swirling mist and lives in a ghostly halo,    
this girl is cloaked in mystery 
her spider-web wheel spins round and around
she drifts on a dead calm sea

her sails await a friendly wind
but none ever comes blowing

Mary Celeste
Mary Celeste
Trying to make up for the life that you missed
you sail upon a sea of regrets all alone
oh Mary Celeste

her fiery emotions are strong as the tide, you don’t want to let them down
her lofty ideas are telegraph masts
her eyes become lanterns as she tells you about them
they explode in a firework blast,

too many days asleep in the hammock
too many nights alone on the deck

Mary Celeste
Mary Celeste
Trying to make up
for the life that you missed
you sail upon a sea of regrets all alone
oh Mary Celeste

she’s a puffy white moon that floats in the stars
smoothing the tides of emotional scars
the floorboards creek to a lonely homecoming
from a party of fools where she sat and did nothing

REPEAT VERSE ONE –NO PRE CHORUS

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Buried and Dead                                © Paul J Penton 2009

Friday night and I’m out driving
the same old streets
the stores arrive in the same old way
I remember that they did
when I was a kid
behind those doors they won’t know me
Nothing’s changed since I left here
under the bridge a lot of water’s flown

and this ain’t my home
I don’t know this town

I never thought I’d come back again until this day
everything’s been buried and dead – for so long
Now I’m walking here like a ghost
that no-one can see
It’s all been dead and buried to me

I’m in a room it’s full of flowers
seems like I’ve been here for hours
she’s showing me the choices I can make
which one will I take
there’s notices to go in papers
words to send to stone engravers
do you want to say some prayers or not
well I forgot
if he ever believed

I never thought I’d come back again until this day
everything’s been buried and dead – for so long
Now I’m walking here like a ghost
that no-one can see
It’s all been dead and buried to me

We’re rolling past a statue made to honour those who died
fighting in some foreign war where they bravely gave their lives
and his medals pinned into my coat
look down where he lay
some battles you can’t win I say
as I salute a final wave

I never thought I’d come back again until this day
everything’s been buried and dead – for so long
Now I’m walking here like a ghost
that no-one can see
It’s all been dead and buried to me
buried and dead
all buried and dead

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Sunset over the bay © 2008 Paul J Penton

Sunset Over the Bay-Update 15July >

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Most of today was consumd with trying to find an alternate melody and chordal structure for the chorus of ‘Low Maintainance’- not sure if I have succeeded yet- also did some more writing on a co-write on a song with workng title of ‘stranger at the table’.

I also did a mix on ‘buried and dead’… so obviously I have been completely Un-Productive today!- NOT !!!! And I did my exercises now 74.5 Kilograms- a delightful lamb stir fry for dinner.

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After trawling through the latest round of ‘fragments and thoughts’ I managed to get some melodic ideas for some of the ramblings. A particularly nice one for a song in progress called ‘another perfect moring’ – just a vignette about waking up as autumn mornings close in and the air begins to chill somewhat.

My friend Howie came over for a critique sesion on Saturday and put some blunt truths in front of my face regarding a need to differentiate choruses from verses- stuff I know already but hadn’t applied thanks H. I will be looking at changing entries etc on vereses so they are after the beat and trying to modulate to different chords for the choruses and verses.

Not sure if I wrote about the Nashvile critique for Mr Perfect – well recieved – great lyrics- but where’s the chorus? It was felt by the five participants in the session that there was nothing they could clearly come away humming as a hook line – thus failing the ‘singability’ criteria. I have a line I am pursuing for a chorus and will record it over the next week.

About to do a co-write via skype right now- and managed to do a couple of songs with Julie Stewart on Firday so – there’s plenty of balls in the air- oh and I need to get at least five songs complete for the ASC songwriting comp by WEDNESDAY!

Did someone mention I need a holiday?

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Well this morning I attended an online Critique of ‘Mr Perfect’ with five other particpiants [ whose songs were being critiqued also] - the session was led by one of my mentors - Jai Josefs – The response was highly favorable especially the line ” Bar stool dissapointment” . He didn’t say a word about the music so it must have been in the zone…. he did suggest that the ‘hook’ should happen earlier so I’ll visit that idea. I’m sort of pretty happy with it as is! I went out shopping for a Hi Definition video camera and realised they were a lot more expensive than I thought- but to do more video I think it’s justifiable. I re-strung the Regal Resonator to re-work ‘Sunset over the bay’ and then sat down to start recoreding it and wound up remixing ‘Buried and dead’ instead!- so I’m about to do a voical for that now- will post it  on the demo page soon. 

- Oh and I did manage to get my exercise set in there too – hey I’m at 75Kilos- only another 6 to go!

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I have been working on MR perfect the last few days whittling away at those last few jagged lyrics - I also have the deadline of a Nashville song critique tomorrow – so that was good to focus the mind- check out the demos page for the latest version.

In other news as you may have noticed I now have a Youtube prescence! More of a training exercise in using my Cannon Ixus as a video camera than anything serious- it turns out the video and the sound do not sync up too well which created hours of editing room joy and pleasure! – Conclusion I will be investing in a proper video camera soon.

This after noon I ran over some of my latest ramblings and fragments and thoughts and plucked a few melodies out of the air. Most of the day has been spent on ‘Webby’ stuff.  Though I did edit down ‘Low Mainteneance” yesterday. Yes , I am being productive!

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There’s been a bit of organisational stuff happening working out what might and might not make it on the albums- I spent some time at Phillip Island [thanks Digny]categorising and recording ideas- as well as some video for ‘sunset over the bay’ this was my first attempt at this sort of thing and I learned a lot apparently it’s all about image and smiling- all those performance things I’ve gritted my teeth about for so long- I now have a new admiration for ‘performers’ how do you smile so much? -For comedy purposes I’ll post the edited video on Utube and link it to front page!

I ahve nbow got all the ‘bits’ I think I need including a Pro Tools upgrade [ I won't go into some installation headaches] – liking the new look and features. A new Keyboard controller for those far out filtered EQ effects and I also signed up for DIgidesign’s ELEVEN guitar Ampo simulator- this IS the best I’ve sued- I thought Wabes GTR was good but decided it was to ‘sharp’ for my tastes- the velvety tones coming out of the speakers now are  very pleasing.

I have combed the back catalogue for suitable songs for the ‘Backlog’ album and have been finding some interesting relics and melodies on Ye ancient cassettes from Yesteryear. Initially it’s been a question of do I have a lyric or recording of this song? So the ones I have identified as possibles thus far are:

Clare, Galaxy, Kombi, Myra, Lemonade, Rewarded, Heart of gold, Soon, love U still, The word, take some time, Got a lot on your mind, everything is better, Act naturally, Sometimes, Hungry for some love, Happy world, Sing for me, Leading me on, Someone to love/News for you, Come to their Senses, Easy Street, New Girl ,best man, think you’re gonna make it, under the sun

I have revisited the lyrics for Clare and Kombi adn will run over the others in the coming weeks.. there’s too many tunes for 1 album so some will remain ‘on the shelf’

The more current songs and ones to be soon written Under the working title Forelog [ or Last of the Noughties as someone has suggested]:

WHEREVER SHE MAY BE, MARY CELESTE, JUST ONE MORE, ROUGH AROUND THE EDGES, WHICH PART OF OVER, SUN SET OVER THE BAY, MR PERFECT, BIO-BOMB, LOW MAINTENANCE, TOMORROW TODAY ALWAYS, BURIED AND DEAD, JUST LIKE SUNDAY, LET’S MAKE LOVE, SILENT AT LAST, LIFETIME IN YOUR EYES, DIAMONDS ON THE WINDSCREEN, DAMN THIS RAIN, WAVELENGTH/RECEIVING ME,CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY, MY FATHERS MEDALS,WRONG BET, EVERYTHING NEW AGAIN, YOU HAD ME AT HELLO,SOUND OF MIDNIGHT,STUCK IN CASABLANCA,SHOULD I BE GETTIN WORRIED

Once again probably to many easier to erase than invent I guess. Lyrics for Mr Perfect have been gone over with severeal tooth combs – demo coming soon.

I will be engaging in colaborations over the next few months that I hope will yeild more great tunes.

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THe big question is can I complete two albums – or at least get the backbones of two done in 3 months or so?

There will be two on the go simultaneoulsy…

Backlog: all the old songs that I haven’t yet recorded and
Forelog: The ones I’m working on now and will create in the next three months!

Last week I bought a keyboard controller to help in the process, today I upgrade to Pro Tools 8 and also buy a presonus portbale mic/midi interface – AND also take the Gibson acoustic and fender tele for a set up… then off to Phillip Island for four days of meditation and recording – I hope!

p.s. I have to get to 69 kilos from 78 by then as well – wow! that’s only 3 kilos a month… EASY!

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