Get all 4 Patrick Regan releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of NORTH ATLANTIC CROSSING, THAT PASSED, LIKE A WORLD, and CROSSCUT TIMELINE : SELECTED SONGS 1984 - 2022.
1. |
LIKE A WORLD
04:28
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LIKE A WORLD
Little island in the endless sea
Flicker in the endless night
No more constant than a tidal pool
Yet to me it’s like a world
See the universe in your own hand
Dissolve into a shimmering field
Yet you have a solid place to stand
Your feet believe the rock is real
How dependable the common sense
Steady as the solid ground
An illusion of the cosmic dance
What a joy to dance the circle round
Little island in the endless sea
Flicker in the endless night
No more constant than a tidal pool
Yet to me it’s like a world
What a wonder for the earth to grow
Flower of the human mind
Like a crocus thrusting through the snow
Like an orchard in the summertime
Fire flickers on the cavern walls
As we paint the great sustaining herds
Heavens part, a torn and flaming scroll
As we reach beyond the grasp of words
Little island in the endless sea
Flicker in the endless night
No more constant than a tidal pool
Yet to me it’s like a world
When the atoms of an inner space
Seem as far as star from star
And we look upon the human face
How we wonder what we are
Little island in the endless sea
Flicker in the endless night
No more constant than a tidal pool
Yet to me it’s like a world
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2. |
I SAW YOU FROM AFAR
05:20
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I SAW YOU FROM AFAR
I saw you from afar, walking light upon the earth
I was dying of hunger, my friend
I saw you from afar, walking light upon the earth
I was dying of thirst, you are rain, I am alive again
I was dying within these walls
Locked away from the moon and sun
Where I could not join in the dance
Where I could not join in the hunt
I had food but it had no heart
And my work did not make me strong
Voices of talkers, buzzing of lies
Took the joy from my song
I saw you from afar, walking light upon the earth
I was dying of hunger, my friend, I am alive again
I saw you from afar, walking light upon the earth
I was dying of thirst, you are rain, I am alive again
In this desert I sought you out
Like the water you sip from the sand
To ask you to teach me to draw it out
From the breast of my own desert land
What I found at the water hole
Cattle come and the Bushman gone
Men without joy leaning on the corral
And the words of your lost son
“I left the desert because of thirst.
There is no place to go, so I stay.
No, I don’t remember my father’s song.
Why should I?”
On a rock where painted animals live
I place my hand on the print of a hand
And you speak from the painted rock
“This is how I hunted the eland”
There you pass in a single line
A mirage in the shimmering heat
First people, come to the last place on earth
Shallow the print of your feet
Walking light upon the earth
I was dying of hunger, my friend, I am alive again
I saw you from afar, walking light upon the earth
I was dying of thirst, you are rain, I am alive again
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3. |
THE WAY THINGS ARE
04:29
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THE WAY THINGS ARE
Rising up in the morning
Day that could be the last
Tangled up in the future or the past
Shake it off and the morning will be
The way things are
All the world is a wide open door
All you have to remember
All you have to forgive
All the mornings remind you where you live
Let me open the window and see
The way things are
See the world as a wide open door
Walking home from the graveyard
One spring night long ago
I felt absolutely present
Every hair to every toe
Same time, felt I was flying
Seemed some kind of cosmic joke
Right there, and ten feet behind me
Felt every muscle as I hovered there
And watched my body walk
One foot in the future
One lagging behind
All a balance in motion, every stride
Got to laugh or go crazy sometimes
The way things are
All the world is a wide open door
Half that night the aurora
Played out streaks and streams of light
Smoke blown inside a bubble
Silk scarf waved across the night
Heavens hooded like a cobra
Racing lights like mackerel shoals
Bright ring traced by the aurora
Framed a window in the dome
Formed a crown inside my skull
Some of these mornings
When I walk through the door
I can laugh about after and before
Let me open the window and see
The way things are
See the world as a wide open door
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4. |
BEARSKIN
08:43
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BEARSKIN
Nothing waiting for him when he went home from the war
He met with silence at the table after silence at the door
In town he felt a vagabond, a tramp without a trade
At home he felt himself a stranger
A walking accusation and a mouth to feed
Bearskin
No one spoke unkindly, they just didn’t speak at all
And no one gave him any hard looks, but he saw their faces fall
One day he kept walking, past the churches, shops, and fields
He took the trail into the mountains
And he knocked the mud of that life from his boot heels
Bearskin
Empty as a penitent, he laid his musket down
Below him buzzards spiraled upward
Wisps of woodsmoke marked the town
“I know just what you need,” crowed the first voice heard in days
The soldier turned and faced the devil
He rose slowly to his feet and held his gaze
Bearskin
The devil summoned up an angry bear
The soldier took its life without a thought
Made a bargain and put on the devil’s coat
And over that he pulled the hide of the bear
Four long years he wandered, and as they had agreed
His pockets always brimmed with money
More than he could ever need
All that time he never bathed and never cut his hair
And though the money opened doors for him
Few could see the man inside the bear
Bearskin
Once he followed sobbing down the hallway of an inn
At first the troubled man was frightened, but he let the soldier in
All his ills were want of money, they were swiftly healed
A grateful debtor with three daughters
The old fellow offered marriage, but the eldest would not yield
Father, said the youngest daughter, go will I
I will wed this bearskin if he’ll have me
Surely there is more to him than meets the eye
I’ll repay this stranger’s generosity
Three more years he wandered over strange and hostile lands
Asking all he helped to pray he might slip through the devil’s hands
Thinking of the lion-hearted bride that he had found
And often touching half a broken ring
That one day with its mate would bring the world round
Bearskin
Could have bought a kingdom, or shipping, mines, and mills
He could have savored every luxury or mastered others’ wills
Gave where it was needed, letting go of every thing
And through repentance and detachment and compassion
He grew richer than a king
Bearskin
The morning after seven years were done
Bearskin called the devil to account
Settled up and took the trail down from the mountain
Feeling that was a battle he’d won
Fine as any general and mounted on a steed
There went the shunned and tempted man
Who’d conquered loneliness and greed
Father get your jacket on, the elder sisters cried
Here comes the finest man we’ve ever seen
A mare without a rider by his side
Three sat drinking cider while the elder sisters preened
It was the bearskin’s bride, the father, and the soldier in between
The woman reached and took his hand, not even looking up
She’d spied the half-ring, like a crescent moon
Shining through the cider at the bottom of her cup
First she teased he looked more handsome as a bear
Then she fit the broken ring together
Soon she rode beside him on a jaunty mare
To a simple life they both found better than treasure
Some say one sister hung herself
And one leaped down a well
Grandma says it’s just a tale her grandma used to tell
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5. |
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LOOK, NOW, OR THE CHILDREN ARE GONE
Time flies is what all of them said to me
Parents whose children had grown
Those first nights with the nest full of babies
Felt like an eternity 'til they had flown
Days inched like a worm in an apple tree
While they were learning to crawl
Look, now, and they’re not what they used to be
What you expect to see, not that at all
Like desperate sleepers who cling to their dreams
Though morning has come
We need to be shaken, and often it seems
Look, now, or the children are gone
No page from the book of your memory
Ever can bring back a day
Hear, now, it’s a hymn not an elegy
Life in a major key, children at play
If time is a wind, find a place in the lee
Each moment is one
A sheltering presence, a moment to see
Look, now, or the children are gone
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6. |
RECKONING
04:58
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RECKONING
After Gibraltar, the fleet headed northward
Into fog that had blinded us a dozen nights and days
One of our number approached our commander
With a plea that he turn the ships 'til we could see our way
Jack was a sailor, a scholar of water
By his own secret reckoning, we’d strike the Scilly Isles
High naval treason, that use of his reason
And the law said that Jack had earned the wages of a spy
Warring on foreign kings, none may keep a reckoning
Only the few would know where our ships were bound
One seaman beckoning, many met their reckoning
Jack was hanged, the old man murdered
Thousands more were drowned
No worse than others was Admiral Shovell
No more cruel than his officers, and not alone in pride
Home sailed his gentry with fair claim to victory
For we’d stung our old enemy and saved our skins beside
Harsh was their justice on one plain and honest
It condemned them as sure as him they’d hang before they’d hear
Thousands of others as blameless as he was
Were to die on the rocks beneath a fog that never cleared
Law came down thundering, none may keep a reckoning
Only the few would know where our ships were bound
One seaman beckoning, many met their reckoning
Jack was hanged, the old man murdered
Thousands more were drowned
Just two survivors were cast on the island
I imagine the admiral was sorry he was one
Soon came a woman to save or to doom him
Took his life with her hard hands
For a ring with sea-green stone
Law came down thundering, none may keep a reckoning
Only the few would know where our ships were bound
One seaman beckoning, many met their reckoning
Jack was hanged, the old man murdered
Thousands more were drowned
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7. |
DAMA
03:10
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8. |
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THE POOR ARE WITH YOU FOREVER
Halfway across a bridge in Paris, high above the Seine
Hold him in your mind, for he will never rise again
Someone said he had no papers, no identity
Someone said there was no refuge for the refugee
Frozen in the lights of Paris, leaping in the Seine
Was it fear he'd be sent home or despair of ever seeing home again
I recalled the words of Jesus when I heard the news
Never have I heard it questioned why it must be true
He said the poor are with you forever, but not I
Did no one ask why? Did no one ask why?
Must there always be these children too hungry to cry?
Must the refugees find haven only when they die?
Give a pack of wolves dominion forty thousand years
Would there now be countless millions of poor wolves here?
Now suppose that refugee was the creator's son
Ask yourself, whoever he was, whose will's being done
He said the poor are with you forever, but not I
Did no one ask why? Did no one ask why?
Must there always be these children too hungry to cry?
Must the refugees find haven only when they die?
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9. |
AND YOU'RE NOT ALONE
04:33
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AND YOU’RE NOT ALONE
Oh the choice is clear when the tanks roll in
But the challenge comes in a thousand ways
Always in the air in the calmest days
And if you should hear, you are not alone
Empire’s days are gone, so the tailor said
As he dressed the lie in the cloak of peace
Still you see the head of the same old beast
Through the children’s eyes, and you’re not alone
See it overgrown and still reaching out
To the fields of oil and the diamond mines
To the factories south of the borderline
See how victory spoils, and you’re not alone
With a kinder face it’s still slavery
With your dearest name it’s still genocide
Empire’s just the same when it thrusts inside
Your most private place
Friends and neighbors turn, cheer the winning side
There’s no middle ground in this make-believe
Though you fear you’ll drown, go against the tide
For the tide may turn, and you’re not alone
Oh the challenge comes in so many ways
On the path you take through the everyday
Let it pass, or stand though you’re only one
You’re the one who can, and you’re not alone
Dare to take a stand, though you’re only one
You’re the one who can, and you’re not alone
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10. |
UNDER THE CLOUD
04:13
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UNDER THE CLOUD
Under the cloud, we gather wood
To build a fire, sing it loud, life is good
At the end of the working day
Cloud forming like a bird of prey
You’re like an actor
Lost his place in a modern play
Act it out, or turn the page
In the end you’ll have to act your age
Wings beating in your ears
As they sweep the stage
Under the cloud, we gather wood
To build a fire, sing it loud, life is good
He’s your cat, he’s all your rage
Rogue tiger in a bamboo cage
Pure fury burning gold in a gelded age
Nothing new but the rising sun
Beware of following anyone
Put your back into the work to be done
Under the cloud, we gather wood
To build a fire, sing it loud, life is good
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11. |
TWO BIRDS
04:29
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TWO BIRDS
Two birds with golden feathers
In the branches of the same tree
They perch together
One tastes the fruits, both sweet and bitter
One tastes of neither, but calmly observes
On a peaceful Yankee Sunday
Not a sign of the war up above
Someone stood to pray for the enemy
Whom Jesus dared him to love
In that same white church sat the leader
Not a sign of blood on his hands
At the well to draw life's water
While death rained down at his command
And the good folk drowned out the prayer
They sang a hymn to the state
And when the singing was over
They dragged that man out the gate
Two birds with golden feathers
In the branches of the same tree
They perch together
One tastes the fruits, both sweet and bitter
One tastes of neither, but calmly observes
Every day at work it gets harder
To put my heart in the game
In my mind I see mass murder
Committed in my name
Can you stand untouched by the fires
That rage through the world in your day
Disengaged from contentment and desires
Could I still take part and play?
There's a yes I know in the riddle
They say Martin loved a good meal
Takes a still point down in the middle
And a movement round to make a wheel
Two birds with golden feathers
In the branches of the same tree
They perch together
One tastes the fruits, both sweet and bitter
One tastes of neither
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12. |
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GATHER ROUND ME
Gather round me once again
Song and story now you will spin
You are the circle that's always been
Who am I? The space within
In a vessel made of clay
Shaped by hands and fire-born
What you see but cannot say
What's within that earthen form
Gather round me once again
Song and story now you will spin
You are the circle that's always been
Who am I? The space within
Where the night is a deeper black
There the stars confound the eye
Desert stone beneath your back
Til you fall into the sky
Gather round me once again
Song and story now you will spin
You are the circle that's always been
Who am I? The space within
Unknown hands laid stone on stone
In the middle of nowhere
Where the sun goes to be alone
Empty circles in empty squares
Gather round me once again
Song and story now you will spin
You are the circle that's always been
Who am I? The space within
Follow music where it goes
When there's no one there to play
There is so much that no one knows
Even more no one can say
Gather round me once again
Song and story now you will spin
You are the circle that's always been
Who am I? The space within
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13. |
TRIAL BY WONDERS
03:58
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TRIAL BY WONDERS
What do you make of it?
How much can you take of it?
Trial by wonders
Is it a trial by wonders?
Did it start with a dream?
She led you to a river
Through a fallen city where you'd lost your way
City blocks broken to shivers
Put you back together and you swam away
What do you make of it?
How much can you take of it?
Trial by wonders
Is it a trial by wonders?
Was it something you saw
As you shivered on a hillside
Above a darkened valley and a shining lake
As the sun slid behind
Clouds and mountains on the far side?
Does the memory throw light on every step you take?
What do you make of it?
How much can you take of it?
Trial by wonders
Is it a trial by wonders?
Did it take you away
To the pleasures and the dangers
Beside yourself in deserts or beside your love?
Did it carry you home
From the company of strangers
To the quiet joy of moments you are dying of?
What do you make of it?
How much can you take of it?
Trial by wonders
Is it a trial by wonders?
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14. |
BIRTHDAY SUITE
03:07
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Patrick Regan Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
A songwriter and singer, I'm handy enough to be a one-man band but lucky enough to rope in great collaborators: Andy
Goessling, Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks, John Andrews, Shannon Anderson, and more.
This is one place I'm preserving and publishing the best of my songs. Look for new releases here throughout 2024.
... more
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