Album 11: Postcards: Memories + Loneliness

01 [ NATURAL SELECTION 04.01 / 28.07.01 ] (TO MORAT AND THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND )

Of all the people in all the world that I could have mets
omehow it was you to whom I was introduced back then
I wonder why, I pause to contemplate
Too much reminiscing makes a man lonely
Yet he who never reflects never learns
Better to seek the counsel of men than to sit in the dark
Better meet a man than to always be alone
He who never looks behind him never grows
He who doesn’t look ahead runs into a wall.

02 [ THERES ALWAYS MUSIC PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND 28.04.01] ( TO A CHILD I KNEW A FEW YEARS AGO, ALSO KNOWN AS ME )

Spent a lifetime of hours sat on the pitch at Wembley
Praising God as my heart came alive under the clouds of June
Gave my life again in the darkest hours though i barely understood
Prepared to be a fool to a repeating soundtrack as I began to meet the king
Things were so much simpler back in the summer of ninety seven
When all my dreams were my own and were yet to be made
After the early rain of June those days the sun always seem to shine
For the first time in my life i stood in life on my own
With the taste of lilt and dairy milk in the evenings
I read of adventure tales from someone’s world with delirious melody
Cycled to my hearts content into the sunsets of my childhood
Entered into the rat race world a child amidst grown men
Those days shed my childish mind and began to think
I'd tasted independence yet was deeply dependant
Waiting for the new world to dawn in my life
Carried along into my student days how things would change

03 [ CLEAR AND DENIED 28.04.01 ] ( AS DAWN BROKE AT WARSAW AIPORT 31ST JULY ’98, TO THE OLD BELARUSSIAN FROM WARSZAWA AIRPORT SAT OPPOSITE ME WHILST I READ FOURFOURTWO MAGAZINE )

Don’t know where you came from or where you have gone
We only met for a moment in the chilled dawn of Warszawa
I never knew your name just recall your single gold tooth
You said you were from Belarus a journalist by profession
Gathering coins from foreign lands you couldn’t go to
You spoke to me as I sat in unending silence American
I remember the coin that you asked of me that I didn’t give
The as sudden as you’d appeared you soon disappeared
Felt the chill of the dawn and glanced the clock that slowly moved on

06 [ THANK YOU (MAN WHO KNEW MY NAME) ]

Strange how rumours spread
A simple gesture spawns hysteria
Memories fade and then get revived
Last night I met a man who knew my name
The tune beats on and on
On different days in different ways
Another famous night
And I met a girl who new my name
At the heart of it all is another name
A face I’ve never met
Yet many worlds fed through space
One day I’ll meet one who’s name I know

[ WE SHARED THE SAME ADDRESS BUT I’M NOT SURE THAT WE EVER MET ]
[ BE MY VALENTINE (I BOUGHT THIS FOR YOU) ]
[ WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR (QUESTION OR ANSWER) ]
[ TOO MUCH REMINISCING MAKES A MAN LONELY - IT'S NOT TIME TO WRITE MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY ]
[ POSTSCRIPT IN FAVOUR OF ANTISENTIMENTALISM (I’M TOO YOUNG FOR THIS) ]