Get all 29 James Jefferys releases available on Bandcamp.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Lifetime for the Shy, So Now He Hides, Songs For People Who Keep Their Heads Down, Or a Hollywood Movie, All Is Worry, Now I Can See Exactly Where the Sea Begins, Gone is Trouble, Stand Outside Your House, Face the Street and Shout, and 21 more.
1. |
Hexagons
02:20
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James Jefferys - Hexagons
Heroic
If that's what the world needs
Then heroic I will be
Fingernails
Didn't say I'd wanted to
But I'd do it for you
Hexagon
I'll hold on. I'll hold on.
I'll hold on and then be gone
Pentagon
Nobody to confide
Even though I've lost a side.
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2. |
One Less Ray of Sunshine
05:10
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James Jefferys - One Less Ray of Sunshine
Today we woke side by side
The iridescent star of message
Had fallen from the sky
And no-one can claim he belonged
To an order or a scheme
And yet they're wrong, as he said in his songs
He only walked through the past and your dreams
One less ray of sunshine in the world
People open mouths but don't sing.
They look at the holes that are left in their souls
(If you believe in these things)
But no-one can claim he belonged
To any pretty plans
Laid on their backs, they grind their axe
But the tools turns to wool in their hands
One less ray of sunshine in the world
No more music, not today
It's taken an age, but they've packed down the stage
Gone home to their domes in dismay
I'm looking round
As people break down
And not knowing where to go next
They break off the ties
That surround their eyes
And find it all hard to accept
One less ray of sunshine in the world
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3. |
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James Jefferys - Five Seconds Before Showtime
When...
When will you tell me
That I'm wasting my time?
Right before the curtain
Lifts up...
Lifts up?
You...
Break my heart in two
Destroy me
Then pull on the cord
There I am
Thanks for that.
Only five seconds before showtime
(I turn round, you're gone and so am I)
My
Fingers feel the neck
Of my guitar
It trickles down my neck
Forms a puddle
At my feet...
Only five seconds before showtime
(I turn round, you're gone and so am I)
And not one noise comes through.
What's there to do?
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4. |
> X's
04:04
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James Jefferys > X's
Now ignore me
And talk along
Sing a story
Tell a song
A postcard curled
Upon the bridge
A little burned
Around the edge
And this small sight
That no-one saw
Could not be called
A sight at all.
Why do you want everyone
To know you're sad...?
Fools never fall
From stories tall
They learn to crawl
George on the wall
I'm greater than
And yet teething
From all of man
I was thieving
And taking from
The burglars
Come down upon
The murderers
Why do you want everyone
To know you're sad...?
Did no-one ever say to you
That strangers
Are dangerous?
Always keep an arm between
You and the enemy
Always keep an army between
You and that that don't feel right to me...
Why do you want everyone
To know you're sad...?
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5. |
City is Bristling
03:36
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James Jefferys - City is Bristling
Concentric salty circles
Spread out on my wooden floor
Where your raincoat dripped and dried
On Saturday, but I'm not sure
Why there's no rush to clean it up
Cos it it were just anyone
I don't think I would be this pleased
I'd be sad. Not invite again.
So what does it matter if this city is bristling
With trillions in the business
Of not really listening?
The hands of my clock are fast
So they show the right time
In a year or two, just for you
As no-one knows the clock is mine
And there's no time to wind it up
And it won't be right twice a day
The irony of this drama
Is that no-one knows the secret
So what does it matter if this city is bristling
With trillions in the business
Of not really listening?
I need my enthralling fill
Of skin of almond milk
To fall on silk
To fall on silk
The miracle was Friday
Why won't it be my day
To be a permanent person, any
Body guesses I'm mercenary
And my presence is gracious,
But not necessary
I need my enthralling fill
Of skin of almond milk
To fall on silk
To fall on silk
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6. |
Understudy
03:30
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James Jefferys - Understudy
You and me could bruise the grass
Then possibly open the page
Two fossils of a bygone age
Should show the children how to last
The man with the hailer, loud
Fidgets gently in his chair
So the midgets went and stared
Because everything is allowed
My understudy moves in the scene
Puts pedal to the Pharaoh
So maybe I have come and been
And he wants it more than I do?
Try again; this time with gusto
With a strong full-on forlorn
Through the night to morning's dawn
Where understudy's rusty
Butter drips
On his manuscript
From where he's stuffing
His English muffin
Down his throat
In his tweed coat
Two barrels, bolder
Over his shoulder
He studies colder
He studies colder...
My understudy moves in the scene
Puts pedal to the Pharaoh
So maybe I have come and been
And he wants it more than I do?
My understudy moves in the scene
Puts pedal to the Pharaoh
So maybe I have come and been
And he wants it more than I do?
He studies colder...
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7. |
Guilt Taps
02:46
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James Jefferys - Guilt Taps
It might not be the news,
But it's nursery to the college
As it might not be the truth,
But universally acknowledged
That there's a white guilt edge
To every black cloud
And umbrellas are said
To play the problem down
Myriad obstructions here
Cos no-one wants you through
You, a slave from crib to grave
Doubled-up then cut in two
Up on all fours
That's how it's carried
Tend to bullet sores
In the plaster of Paris
Guilt taps a dance out on
The coffin of showing off
It plans a bit, then plants a bomb
In all that is held aloft
How many combs can you lend
To a head that's bald and spending
Too much time at your wit's end
And isn't even friendly?
We've pawned our very breath
To a panting regime, it's
Our cherries on the tart of death
And still proclaimed a treason
Up on all fours
That's how it's carried
Tend to bullet sores
In the plaster of Paris
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8. |
Confident Teens
03:02
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James Jefferys - Confident Teens
Confident teens
Bustle with the shopping streams
The sub-zero post-Christmas air
Struggles to carry the spirit
Of promise the boutiques and merchants
Hang in the windows
Confident teens
Who didn't get a new coat
Stiffly stride behind their mothers
Wearing only their dresses, or
T-shirts with a blackness that only
Today dares to bring
Confident teens
A redness than hasn't yet
Been dampened on a sofa smudge
“I hope the others will see me
I hate to think for nothing I freeze”
Hang in the windows
Hang in the windows
Hang in the windows
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9. |
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James Jefferys - Thankful for Your Illness
The waterline retreats, then swells
Then wicks up your socks, as well
And her response will be
Whatever it wants to be
It's not something you can change
By wanting harder, or how you pray
… And someone calls that pattern 'weakness'
A trapdoor on the stage that teaches
All the actors to tread to care
As if there' nothing even there...
You hear above the chatting, calling
That someone sees a pattern forming
You will find that your frail feelings
Are lights projected on the ceilings
They'll not shine through
Is cute, but untrue
Just be thankful for your illness
Let the sheltered saint pretend
That secrets still find time to spend
A life locked up and never uttered,
Never accidentally spluttered
Never changed from uncooked meat,
Never strayed into the heat...
I hope that you are never taken
To that place where every thought is
A brand new way to be mistaken
And reasons why are all distorted
Reasons why are all distorted
You will find that your frail feelings
Are lights projected on the ceilings
They'll not shine through
Is cute, but untrue
Just be thankful for your illness
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