Get all 14 Brian Campbell releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of A Crystal Rim (EP), By the River's Blue (album), The Arrow (single), Let's Talk (single), By Heart By Hand (single), Comedy of Errors (single), On This Shore (EP), The Room (single), and 6 more.
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1. |
In Round
05:15
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IN ROUND
(after a poem by a certain Eric)
words & music Brian Campbell ©SOCAN
In the stillness of this place
you show me how
the rocks quiet and deep
sleep in round . . .
How they hold the sea
And guard the sky . . .
And open a curtain of dreams
And open wide before us a curtain of dreams
And open wide before us a curtain of dreams
(Spoken)
slumber here side by side hand in hand
I kiss your lips, hold you close
(sung) and enter new lands
downward through lips of surf
the simple fruit
jewel of a brilliant seed
in our salty tango
roseate moonsmash sonorous perfumes
undulent symphony
in our salty tango
roseate moonsmash sonorous perfumes
undulent symphony
The idea for this song came from a trip I took down The Gringo Trail through Mexico and Guatemala back in the mid-’80s. (That dates me; but why turn down a good date?)
On a beach near Puerto Angel in Mexico, I met and traveled for a while with a couple of disheveled but sweet-tempered fellows from New Jersey named Eric and Richard. Richard, a former teacher in his late 40's who had suffered a serious breakdown and psychosis, wrote stream-of-consciousness poetry, much of it incoherent (at least to me) that he kept in shabby notebooks. One lens of his glasses was cracked, and later on in the journey he lost them. He claimed that he preferred “to see the spectacle without specs”: in his visual blur he saw bicycle wheels in the trees and angels in the sand. A large man, he would impulsively stage improvised street theatre in Mexican villages in bad Spanish. In one village, the inhabitants were so spooked by his antics, both he and Eric were chased out of town by men wielding machetes.
Richard’s friend Eric, who was about my age, watched out for Richard like an older brother; at times it seemed he was as much Richard’s caretaker as his friend. He was sensitive, melancholy, read a lot and wrote poetry, some of it quite good, although he didn’t like almost anything he wrote. One time I found a poem of his on a scrap of paper in the sand in the hut they shared. I read it and was immediately impressed. He told me – rather, urged me against my protestations – to keep it. This I did, finding it in a notebook decades later. I’m indebted to Eric for most of this song’s opening lines, but I couldn’t adhere to his subsequent meanderings (believe me, I tried, because I like them). So I resolved it into something more explicit, easier to resolve into song. Here’s the original poem.
IN ROUND
The rocks quiet and deep
sleep in round
the sea
and guard the sky
open
a curtain of dreams
and enters
a clown man
of Byzantine
to sell you a book –
you look –
all is pale
in this moment of time –
the statues
are in gloom
avoided, outcasted
exhausted of automobile fumes –
we build
our bridges backwards
not to reach the other side –
the rivers, the rocks, the town asleep
the dogs bark war cries –
the night, the hammock, the stars
my blindness
my sight
all is one
in giving and taking
down by this seaside.
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2. |
Let Us Not Love
06:33
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LET US NOT LOVE
poem by Imre de C. Nemeth, adapted and put to music by Brian Campbell
©SOCAN
Let us not love
I’m afraid of the flame
the passion and burning
the reckless game
Last night through clouds
I saw a star
looking as though longingly
from afar
Not now, not ever
I am not yours
time only stopped
and only for hours
When my hands reach through
the midnight air
they feel the golden kiss
of your hair
Let us not love
let’s be free of the blame
the cycle of pain
that’ll surely come in that game
Go… but please don’t…
but you should…oh you must…
before we burn and turn
into ashes and dust
Let us not love
Let us not love
Dawn, the sun will come
soon we must part
let me touch your lips once more
But I won’t leave my heart
won’t leave my heart
leave my heart
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3. |
Surprise
04:05
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SURPRISE words and music by Brian Campbell ©SOCAN
Walking along
Sunlight on our skin
Blue sky in our eye
Hand enlaced in hand
Other couples walking by
you can tell by the light in their eyes
Bird in the blue, tilting on a tree
So—say hello to the breeze
Spring is come and winter's gloom is gone
There's a shadow
running through the grass
disappears into the sunlight
as we will disappear
by the light of the moon
orange & butter yellow
swirling pastels in a starlit cafe
pass on through the light...
pass on through the light...
Instrumental
The constant surprise that we're alive
the bird the breeze the leaves the waving sea
afternoons of light
afternoons of light
light light light light ...
hand enlaced in hand
hand enlaced in hand
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4. |
Shadows On Our Joy
03:38
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SHADOWS ON OUR JOY
words and music by Brian Campbell ©SOCAN
Here through the palm trees
Ocean blows a salty breeze
Playeritos* hopping on the sand
Let’s raise our glasses here
We’ll not think now on prospects drear
Or the sufferings all around us in this world
I have you and you have me
Life our laughter and our tears
It’s been a long hard road to this shore
So let’s rest, enjoy this breeze, whispering through the palm trees,
And forget for now these shadows on our joy
Shadows on our joy
Shadows on our joy
Shadows
On our joy
Solo
This world’s in so much pain
Don’t know when it’ll ever be sane
Babies torn from their mother’s arms
The forests they’re dying the oceans they’re crying
This whole planet’s a fire alarm
But I have you and you have me
In our tenderness and our tears
It’s been a long hard road to this shore
Let’s rest, enjoy this breeze, whispering through the palm trees,
And forget for now these shadows on our joy
Shadows on our joy
Shadows on our joy
Shadows
On our joy
Shadows on our joy
Shadows on our joy
I’m afraid we’ll never be happy till we
wipe these shadows from our world
Shadows on our joy
Shadows on our joy
I have you and you have me
But we’ll never be truly happy
till we wipe these shadows
from our world
*Playeritos, Spanish for sandpipers.
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5. |
Ellipse (poem)
01:21
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ELLIPSE
The curves of the palm leaf are you,
The camber of eyelashes, the curl of waves,
Caress of winds,
Ripples in sand: you.
Before you came into my life
I was a spiky crown of compass points, calculi
of angles, intersections in a desert.
Now with our bodies we shape
an earthen circle. We chart zodiacs
in parabolas of deep inner space.
Our song, a spiral, a vibrating sphere,
the surf’s crashing concavities,
exhalations of foam
spreading silken fingers up the sand.
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6. |
On This Shore
05:10
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ON THIS SHORE
Music by Brian Campbell
Lyrics adapted by Brian Campbell from “Gulf of Mexico”, poem by Imre de C. Nemeth
©SOCAN 2019
The sand is velvet
beneath my feet ,
night breeze a gentle hand
that brushes my cheek.
The sea is calm now
between the tides.
It seems to invite me to walk
to the other side…
Cross the busy daylight path
and just wade out
into the cool water,
just wade out
into the cool water.
The sea does not ask questions,
the sea does not tell lies.
Soon I will arrive
On another shore
or on this shore
or on this shore
or on this shore
or on this shore
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Brian Campbell Montreal, Québec
Brian Campbell is a song-poet, dexterous finger-stylist, and impassioned, heart-felt singer. A widely published poet, Campbell has several critically acclaimed collections to his name. On stage he is relaxed and natural, an entertaining storyteller who spellbinds with his songs. He performs regularly, mostly in the Montreal area. To learn more about him, see campbellmuse.com ... more
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