Song Lyrics

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Press Clippings & Reviews

Mannheim Morning Newspaper:

Paul Fogarty is a singer-songwriter of the classic kind: he does everything alone on stage, but shines on his instruments as well as on vocals; in his texts he tells stories and his announcements take hold of his personal wealth of experience, so as not only to announce his songs to the listener, but to bring them a little closer. Fogarty plays the guitar excellently, impresses on the lapsteel and plays songs on a ukulele because his wife buys him instruments that he will have to learn. In general, he likes to talk about his wife and how he emigrated from Australia to Germany for love. In the past he was a journalist, then a taxi driver. Maybe that explains why he has so much to tell. He now lives on music, and it works best live.
Paul Fogarty played his songs, told his stories and stamped on his stompbox - he is capable of producing a sound on his own, with which nothing is missing. The thought never comes up that he should better find a band. Every note sits, and there is still room for little jokes, for example when he imitates the whiskey voice of a Tom Waits in a song and later the nasal genome of Grand Master Bob Dylan, and then nasal-wise to give the sometimes somewhat weak Neil Young a swipe before starting the blues harp solo. His statement that he was actually only playing this instrument to delight the ladies present was commented on by a gentleman in the audience, saying that it would be better not to tell so much about his wife - but Fogarty went one step further and played one of his most beautiful songs, the "Born Naked" dedicated to his little, four-year-old daughter, in which he thinks about what you should give a small child from birth.

Fogarty is pleasantly apolitical in his music, not a protest singer. In his announcements, however, he can ask whether there are really no bankers present - you never know who you are playing with.

The audience was entertained in two halves of one hour each and couldn't get enough; after two hours and 15 minutes, after two encores, of which he only played because someone in the audience wished he could play a piece on the ukulele, an intimate concert came to an end. Paul Fogarty mingled with the audience, was in a good mood and chatted with anyone who wanted to chat. And unfortunately there is still a long way to go with a new album, even if many of the guests wanted to persuade him to just record one of his concerts. That would certainly be Paul Fogarty in its purest form.

Lieder zum Wohlfühlen, kunstvoll einfache Musik

Paul Fogarty verwöhnte sein Publikum im Exlibris in Schwäbisch Gmünd – Mit seinen „Dreams“ will er die Menschen aufwecken

Werte und Gefühle in lyrische Texte verpackt, kunstvoll einfache Musik, eine Stimme, die im Wortsinn zu Herzen geht: Das ist Paul Fogarty. Der australische Songwriter, Sänger und vielseitige Instrumentalist füllte am Samstag das Exlibris in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Sein Publikum bezog er in seine warmherzige Umarmung mit ein.

Für die Veranstalter der jungen exklusiven Reihe „Perspektiven“ war die Mischung des Publikums geradezu ideal: alle Altersstufen, anspruchsvoll, aber nicht verwöhnt, offen für die leisen und die Zwischentöne, aufmerksam und dankbar.

Paul Fogarty hatte sich dieses Publikum verdient. Zwei Stunden hüllte er es ein in die Wolke seiner warmen Stimme, verzauberte mit dem Spiel der Gitarren. Er erzählt in seinen Songs Geschichten von seiner australischen Heimat, von den offensichtlich zahlreichen girlfriends und von Menschen, die ihm nahestehen.

Mancher Song klingt wehmütig wie eine Ballade, mancher hoffnungsvoll, mancher trägt das verhaltene Temperament der Rebellion. Der Songschreiber in der Tradition eines Bob Dylan oder Leonhard Cohen bleibt authentisch in Text und Musik. Seine Leidenschaft wendet sich nach innen und verleiht seiner Stimme eine Intensität, die in Nuancen und nicht in Dezibel zu messen ist.

Schon mit 15 Jahren verschrieb sich Fogarty der Musik und der Lyrik. Sein Studium des Journalismus’ und der Geschichte verdiente er sich mit Auftritten in Cafés.

Humorvolle Jokes in vernuscheltem Slang

2001 brachte er das erste von den drei bisher erschienenen Alben heraus und legte damit seinen Weg zur Musik endgültig fest. Das neue Album nach der Geburt der Tochter heißt „born naked“. In seinen Auftritten greift er inzwischen auf mehr als 1000 Songs zurück.

Sein Stil ist eine Mischung aus Folk, Rock und Pop, Alternativ Country und Blues. Nach Gmünd brachte er neben der akustischen Gitarre und der Mundharmonika auch die Runde Slide Gitarre mit ihrem eigenartig schnarrend-quäkendem Klang mit, die das Publikum begeisterte. Die paar Brocken Deutsch passten ebenso zu ihm wie die bescheidenen, humorvollen Jokes, die allerdings durch den vernuschelten Slang nur schwer verständlich waren und entsprechend wenig Resonanz finden konnten.

Ein Wort durchzog den Abend immer wieder: Dream. Im Traum kommen ihm die Melodien, im Traum hat er Visionen von Liebe und Wahrheit von Freiheit und Schönheit. Seine Träume haben das Ziel, die Menschen aufzuwecken.

Seiner deutschen Frau sind viele zärtliche Lieder gewidmet, „Daddy come home“ erinnert ihn an den Vater. Er beschreibt in „My rainbow Child“ die Geräuschlosigkeit auf der Farm und besingt liebevoll mit „Let it be“ das Zwiegespräch mit seiner Tochter. So klingt ein Abend zum rundum Wohlfühlen.

Hanna Meid

Song Lyrics

I have written thousands of songs of all shapes and sizes, for all different uses, different people, different scenarios. They come to him in dreams, while rehearsing, while waiting on the phone, in a queue, on the beach, while running, swimming, surfing, driving...

The songs get played in Elevators and supermarkets in Sweden, TV series and movies and radio networks in Germany, Shopping Centres in Finland, on tourism showcases in Spain, on NPR radio in the US, radio in South Africa, in ads and radio and film all over.

Here below is a small sample of some of my song lyrics from songs that begin with the letter "S" or "T":

The First Hello

You had me from the first hello
You floored me Lord I had no place to go
We undressed each other never laid a hand
The soul got secrets the heart can't understand

I don't mean to treat you bad
And I don't mean to make you cry
I wish I could take back all those stupid things I said
I got crazy notions baby they're steaming up my head

I don’t mean to be the one to break your heart in two

I don’t mean to make you wonder what you got yourself in to
You had me from the first hello

You had me from the first smile
And every word you spoke it sunk me another mile
Honey I got so high, I forgot how it felt to come down
I need to thank you but my tongue don't make a sound

I don’t mean to be the one to break your heart in two

I don’t mean to make you wonder what you got yourself in to
You had me from the first hello

You had me from the first hello
floored me Lord I had nowhere to go
Undressed each other never said a word
yeah the soul got secrets the heart ain't never heard
I say the sould got secrets the heart ain't never heard
the soul got secrets the heart ain't never heard...

The Bird Don’t Sing

Baby baby let me be

I ain’t strong enough to set you free

baby baby don’t mean a thing

but the sun won’t shine

if the bird don’t sing

I say the sun don’t shine

if the bird don’t sing

Baby baby let me breathe

when you come too close

I just got to leave

baby baby don’t bring me down

no need to drag my name

all over town

I say there ain’t no need

to drag me down

When will we ever learn

I say when will we ever learn

Hole in the sky

big as the sun

everything you won

has come undone

hole in the sky

big as the world

ain’t no amount of loving

gonna save us girl

ain’t no amount of loving

gonna save us girl

Talk About Love

Love is a cruel and foolish thing

It don’t wait for the weary

Or the gifts they bring

It don’t want no piece of paper

Or the words therein

It don’t care about our crisis

Or the mess we’re in

And don’t go thinking it was all a waste of time

And don’t go telling me I’m just losing my mind

Love is a cruel and foolish thing

Talk about love, talk about love

Love will not follow like the sheep in the herd

It never listen to one of those meaningless words

It don’t know no music but for the song it sings

It don’t see no colours it don’t feel no strings

And don’t go thinking it was all a waste of time

And don’t go telling me I’m just losing my mi nd

Love is a cruel and foolish thing

Talk about love, talk about love

I saw you today with that look in your eyes

You smiled like an ocean baby I could not realise

Love came a rolling like a wave to the shore

And I could not keep my heart to myself anymore

And don’t go thinking it was all a waste of time

And don’t go telling me I’m just losing my mind

Love is a cruel and foolish thing

Talk about love, talk about love

Summon Up The Guts

Stay with me

Don’t go a way

Stay with me

Til the break of day

Leave your woes

And troubles far behind

There’s no one here

To make you change your mind

and I won’t ever let you down I won’t turn away

and I won’t ever mention love unless it falls our way

well maybe it will fall our way

I found out

A long time ago

Love is all

You ever need to know

I’ll love you

Till the end of time

I’ll be yours

And baby you be mine

Why can’t we

Summon up guts

To tell the truth

Before the door shuts

Everyone around us

Fell into the abyss

Ain’t no amount of hurt

Can’t be healed with a kiss

Teardrop In My Heart

I feel a teardrop falling in my heart

I feel a sense of weariness

By now a form of art

I struggle through the quagmire

Of my uncertainty

It’s a darkness and it’s blinding me

And so I cannot see

I close the curtain tightly

I leave the front door closed

It’s just one more lonely night time

And a thousand fears exposed

And the friends and the lovers

Who were martyrs to the call

Leave their footprints on the pages

Leave their laughter on the walls

I wash unpleasant memories

Down the sink like flooding rains

Wash the city, clean the alley

Damp the spark of weathered brains

I close the curtain tightly

I leave the front door closed

It’s just one more lonely night time

And a thousand years exposed

Stranger

I woke up a stranger

in my own skin

never knowing the danger

that I was in

I looked out the window

I didn’t notice nothing

we were traveling the same speed

as the blinding spin

of the universe above us

and the earth below

but you could’ve fooled me

Lord it felt so slow

baby why can’t you love me

for who I am

I looked in the mirror

dripping onto the floor

if I had a faster mirror

I wouldn’t be here no more

I walked to the window

I stepped outside

I started to fly

I didn’t touch the sides

a voice all around me

said “just look inside…”

you can run forever

but you will never hide

baby why can’t you love me

for who I am

Tell me what is love, tell me what is love

I rose through the atmosphere

I felt the pull from the past

and when it got suffocating

I stepped on the gas

my love she stood silent

all withered and bowed

and then she slumped in the dirt

neath the deafening crowd

neath the deafening crowd….

Stay

Why don’t you stay

make yourself feel right at home

and stay

we don’t have to talk too long

stay yeah, stay yeah

You don’t have to be alone

and I don’t ever want to be alone

Drop your cares and woes and come inside

listen to the whisper of your wounded child

Drop your barriers, drop your denial

higher voices beckon us to rest for a while....

Why don’t you stay

light the candle draw the shade

and stay

forgive me for my bed’s unmade

stay yeah, stay yeah....

you don’t ever have to be alone

and we don’t ever have to be alone

Drop your cares and woes and come inside

listen to the whisper of your wounded child

drop your barriers, drop your denial

higher voices beckon us to rest for a while

Stay

don’t let my heart get in your way

I ain’t your problem anyway

stay stay

I don’t ever want to be alone

we don’t ever have to be alone

Stay….

Or you can turn and run you got the right to choose

Stay

I can’t lose when I got the blues

Stand Tall

Wake up, shake yourself down

Don’t leave til tomorrow, whatever comes around

Stand Tall, don’t be caught lying down

Step on into the melee,

Or you’re gonna lose your ground

Stand tall

Your grandfather’s died

In the year of their prime

Fell in fields of blood red roses

Way ahead of their time

Your grandmothers wept

Broken and bent

Carried armies of orphans

Til they too were sent

Stand tall, don’t be caught lying down

Fight for freedom you about to give away

If’n you don’t stick your head out and have your say

Of the greedy take good care and good heed

They will strike in your sleep

They’ll take more than they could ever need

And they don’t need they will keep from you

Stand tall

Ain’t no use in crying

You know liars be lying

What they sell you ain’t buying

Love your neighbour

As you love yourself

Don’t give in to hatred

Leave it on the shelf

Stand tall

Ain’t no use in crying

You know liars be lying

What they sell you ain’t buying

Wake up

Shake yourself down

Step on into the melee

Or you’re gonna lose your ground

Stand tall stand tall stand tall stand tall

Stand tall

Stagefright

well it was far ago and long away

I didn’t know a stranger from the time of day

and I was crawling on my hands and knees

just to change my view

you may be proven right, in the long run

I may be proven wrong

love is no place to suffer stagefright

and all that’s left to do

is just to keep on keeping on

Well it was two for you and none for me

I thought it better just to let it be

and I cried myself to sleep

like a lonesome window in the rain

you may be proven right, in the long run

I may be proven wrong

love is no place to suffer stagefright

and all that’s left to do

is just to keep on keeping on

Well it was up for the money

down for the show

after the introductions no one really wants to know

there’s always so much going on

in the minds of the thinking few

you may be proven right, in the long run

I may be proven wrong

love is no place to suffer stagefright

and all that’s left to do

is just to keep on keeping on

well it was all for none and none for all

I never understood how we could let it fall

ain’t nothing ever gonna put us back together again

you may be proven right, in the long run

I may be proven wrong

love is no place to suffer stagefright

and all that’s left to do

is just to keep on keeping on

Spectators In The Stands

Love slides away

like the melting of your touch

and you know it never bothered me

never bothered me that much

Love drains away

like blood through dripping hands

and we are left on the outside

like spectators in the stands

spectators in the stands

Don’t you remember what you told me

How nothing matters any more

How everything is without meaning

Like waves that roll themselves up on the shore

Love fades away

leaves a melancholy hue

leaves just a fading photograph

a dream of me and you

You slide into your shades

like a dinosaur into the sand

we bury our pain underneath it all

spectators in the stands

Sometimes

Sometimes late at night something pulls me clean out of bed

I see your face in the window I remember everything you said

it ain’t easy keeping love together when we’re so far apart

I got to believe you’re gonna take good care of my heart

Sometimes late in life we look back at what was said and done

see our faces in the mirror can’t pretend that we don’t wanna run

it ain’t easy keeping dreams together when they come undone

you got to believe there’s gonna come our day in the sun

cos I can’t take another sleepless night like this

like this

baby I’m yours til the end of the line

baby I’m yours til the end of time

God only knows baby if you are always gonna be mine

and I can’t take another sleepless night like this

Sometimes late in the morning

something keeps you from getting out of bed

see your face in the pillow don’t remember if I’m dreaming or dead

it ain’t easy keeping it together in the face of doubt

got to believe there’s gonna come a time when we got to break out

I can’t take another sleepless night like this

like this like this. like this

baby I’m yours til the end of the line

baby I’m yours til the end of time

God only knows baby if you are always gonna be mine

and I can’t take another sleepless night like this

God only knows. God only knows. God only knows

Something is Wrong

There must be something wrong in a world

where the children cannot sing