Original Music

To hear some of Skatz’ music, click the link to the right.

He also has a huge repertoire of others’ material (about 17 hours’ worth). For an exhaustive list, click here

In the meantime, here are some of Skatz’ lyrics to whet your appetite. First off, a very recent song written the day after the Paris terrorist attacks. He performed this for the first time at a concert in Ballinskelligs in November 2015.

Spinning The Clay

As you stare into the dark, and the tears in your eyes reflect only red
When you’re battered by the storm, in a city of light turned upside down
Hold my hand, hold my hand
Bodies are broken, tears and screaming, burst open the heart within
Anger, unreason, ends every dreaming, from now on the night is real
Hold my hand, hold my hand
And the billboard signs say it could happen to you
In the twist of a word we believe that it’s true
Is this what we bring up our children to do?

I can feel your heart racing, every part of you wants to turn back the clock
There’s a shattered sense of loss in the name of a god burned black and cold
Hold my hand, hold my hand
Borders are closing, faces hard’ning, this powder keg’s ready to blow
Anger, unreason, ends every dreaming, from now on the night is real
Hold my hand, hold my hand
And the newsmen says just what the boss tells them too
In the twist of a word we believe that it’s true
Is this what we bring up our children to do?

Two wrongs don’t make a right. Who’s wrong when both sides fight?
It’s all smoke and mirrors, they push us and pull us
And freedom’s a bull in a china shop spinning the clay and then breaking the pot
The Kalashnikov salesman is laughing at children
In some distant country all firing their weapons
And you’re laughing too because they’re all so foreign
As long as it’s there and not here that it happens
Aggression, aggression, breeds only aggression
How long til will all learn the lesson?
Hold my hand, hold my hand, hold my hand, hold my hand
In a world turned upside down, only love can turn it around
So hold their hands, hold their hands, understand and hold their hands
For this you can bring up your children to do

 

And one more for now, this is from a recent album called Where Are You Going?
(This is a leaving song of a dark colour, highlighting Skatz’ love/hate relationship with his country of birth and the twisted view of the English countryside of Skatz’ youth as a romantic idyll).

My Septic Albion

I’ve fallen out of love with you, my septic isle
Green unpleasant land, you used to be the stalker of my heart
Who’d shoot me down to fall on cowslip mattress
On the turntable you’d spin
Childhood fears and church bells singing deep within
And here my dreams of dinosaurs begin, over and over
Here on the softest of sheets
Bedded down and wedded here to leaden skies and custard pies
But who the hell can tell me I’m not home in Albion

Half of me feels privileged and half of me’s a fraud
Half of me’s religious, aye, and half will not be bowed
You might clone me in your image but you can’t take my sword
Oh no, there’s thunder in my blunderbus and fortune in my role
And half of me is tender and half of me’s alone

So now it seems I was a fool to your sceptred smile
Grey and pleasant land you bicker with your ego, change your song
You punch the clown then feed his bastard children
Woodchip over guilt you’d hang
While all along your proud unblemished heart is strong
Then here I dream you tell me you were wrong, over and over
Here on the loudest of streets
This middle son of middle lands is standing up for apathy
But not for long, and by your vinegar smiles I see
You’re with me on this one
And who the hell can tell me I don’t love my Albion

Bring me my Bow of burning gold
Bring me my Arrows of desire

Advertisement