Get all 5 Harry Stafford releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of We are the Perilous Men, Juniper Sunday (extended re-mix), Bone Architecture, Gothic Urban Blues, and Guitar Shaped Hammers.
1. |
Make me Almighty
04:33
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Make me Almighty Dm . . . . Bb7/A7/Dm
Make me the tempest, and I blow your world down
Give me the sun and I’ll parch the oceans
Make me atomic and I’ll raze you to ash
Grant me sainthood and I’ll make miracles of death
Bb7 A7 Dm
Now I’m walking above with a soul stacked up with earth
To a place where the laughing monsters all gave birth
A hungry world or a self-serving greedy engine
Even God can’t set his canon against mass slaughter
If I was Noah I’d leave humans behind
If I was terror I’d guillotine my father
Make me almighty I’ll let loose the serpents
And I’ll sit with the devil who’s even cheating at death.
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2. |
The Glass Coast
04:19
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Em A7
The Glass coast seems too fragile to get to
Bm
Should have gone when we had the chance
Bm A7
Over my shoulder and chasing us there
Why don’t you let me drive? Dmaj7
A sack full of rubies and emeralds
One day I’ll lace them round your neck
Chipped out of the rock in broad daylight
And hidden at the bottom with the wreck
C (maj7, 6th)
And if anything can speed me faster to you
I’ll take a ride with a broken meth angel (wide eyed demon)
G D
So pass me some headphones and music
Am D
Kill the lights shine the stars
G B7
Bundle me into the back seat
Am D B7
Breathless we’ll meet the Glass Coast, the Glass Coast.
A hundred years and counting won’t crack it
We’ll still shatter under the same sun
A look that has waned in the seasons
A hunger that has wasted our souls Dmaj7
I curse the God of expedience,
He’s brought us this close so far
But it’s time to leave the shadows,
To the Glass coast; where the music chimes.
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3. |
Guitar Shaped Hammers
03:17
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Contradictory spelling on the killing floor
For want of an easy exit door
Black Jack, Dead hack, unruly operator
Fire Fight, traffic light, sonic aviator
Every one of these moments are captured in time
Every one of these mistakes are written in bone
Written on the hardest granite stone
I’d loved to have come with you on the last flight out
Sell my soul to Guitar shaped hammers
Looking kinda seedy on a missing list
Put on the wall with an official fist
Just went out for a bucket of beer
Just cashed up a mountain of fear
Every one of these moments are captured in time
Every one of these mistakes are written in bone
Written on the hardest granite stone
Sky rocket leaves in waltzing cars
Land me on a planet of Guitar shaped hammers
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4. |
He Says Goodbye
04:30
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Dm Am/C Dm
In time of sanctuary I’d hide the broken hearted
Dm Am/C Dm
I’d keep them from themselves and a lie
Gm7 C7 Fmaj7
I’d dress their wounds with essence of salvation
Gm7 C7 Fmaj7
And remove them from the harm they might cause
Gm7 C7 Dm
As far as I can see there’s a sorrow
Gm7 C7 A
As long as the night never ends
Placed inside a tunnel with a view Where no one can get you anymore
I’d like to set you free today. Don’t curse me when he says goodbye
On wings of web and flights of sound When no one wants you around
F C Dm Am/C Dm
Don’t want to be there when he says goodbye
It’s more than all the world of lost goodbyes . . he says goodbye
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5. |
Dark Before Four
03:47
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Am E7 Am E7
It gets dark before four and the tram stations roar
Am E7 Am E7
Lights and the pity and the glass and the city
Am F Am E7
We’re looking out of a window we’re going home too early
Am F Am E7 Am
Tip the Palace into the water, the Cathedral in the river.
Vast architecture and scenes of revolution
Towers with vistas and valleys with twisters
Lines of damn people queuing up for solution
In an obdurate town I’m only here until Friday
Am Am+G Am7- F+ E7 or (Am/G/F/E7)
Drop me at the border in the rain and the snow
They’re using a new language the few words that I know
Send me back to the ocean where I’m sinking, I fear
Look up to the heavens and I’ll disappear.
The Streets in winter have few friends to call
Night watchmen in towers and frozen street drinkers
I’m sorry no one could see you in the dark and the light
Running through the traffic into an unforgiving night
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6. |
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Em B7
1 There ain’t no way to excuse what I done, Ain’t no way to forgive what I am
Em Am Em B7 Em
I sell out my sisters and I disown my kin, I steal and I lie and I make everyone cry
2 There ain’t nothing for it I know what I’ve done, Had my life in the sun searching for fun
I‘ve eaten the rations, meant for the poor, I’ve cleaned out the cupboard at the end of the Hall
Am Em B7
I’m walking down in the Shadow among the dogs and the dust and the Em bones
I’m walking down in the Shadow, I hope no body’s following me
3 I’ve caused famine and blight, the dust and drought, Blocked up the water, let the locusts out
Swallowed the medicine meant for the cure, Kicked out the family living in the door
4 I burned out the church and fenced in the hogs; I was cruel to my brothers and saw them as dogs
I used them as targets and blew up their cars, now I’m the only one left and he’s waiting for me
I’m walking down in the Shadow among the dogs and the dust and the bones
I’m walking down in the Shadow, I hope no body’s following me
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7. |
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White walls of disproportion
Oh my pale polluted friend . . . . . . . . You’re the sound of stone
Spilt out upon the clinic stairs
I guess you’ll never mend . . . . . . . a box that doesn't lock
Your paper breathing’s thin,
I think you really cease to care . . . . . . . . A worn out vessel
Your skin and bones they leave a mark
Like chalk and flint stowed in a bed . . . . . . . . I’m in your story
Don’t take this to your heart, I want to be here
Don’t think I don’t admire you, all the time
Don’t lend me your excuses, I‘ll be there
When there’s nothing to be done, until Friday
Left to fade away to white
Do not resuscitate . . . . . . . do not go quietly
Dissolve into the night
Oh my pale polluted friend . . . . . . . . . a box that cannot lock
Empty the bones into the box, the coffin to the flames,
The remains into the vessel, the ash into the sea.
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8. |
Three Wishes Blues
05:52
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Well I’m a sick and bad old man, waiting for my time to die.
I had three wishes baby I never should have took ‘em, but, By God, I was a sinner.
Yeah one day when I was low . . . . I chanced upon a generous angel,
But I swear I did not know . . . . . that the angel was a demon.
Ah well the fallen angel pricked his horns up high, Said I could have my heart’s desire granted three wishes, yeah for my soul. Said I could have three wishes for my soul
I looked at that creature and thought I could play God. I said Yeah (what the fuck!) I’ll have it all, just think what I could do, I told him I’d have . . . . everything!
But If you had had three wishes wouldn’t you have done the same? X2
Oh, my first wish yeah, was for riches . . . Far beyond my understanding,
And so I lived in a Big White House . . . With servants and strong liquor.
Credit ratings and oil paintings . . . fast cars and fire arms
. . . If you had had three wishes wouldn’t you have done the same? X2
My second wish was for the girl of my dreams,
In a wisp of blue smoke she sidled into my life
We had six months of intense abandon
Yeah, Nakedness and strong liquor
Then she went bad and took it all away,
She took my house, my money, and my cars
She took the Gainsborough and the Stubbs
But worst of all she dashed my heart. . . . . . . . . . .
My third wish was for to let me die, I couldn’t stand another day,
This he said he would not do. It was one thing he could not do
There was a debt, had to be met. It was one thing he would not do!
Well that’s my Story, Yes, that’s my Story. Yes I’m a sick and bad old man, waiting for my time to die, Yeah waiting for my time to die.
(There’s a long way down for me. . There’s a longing down on me-ee. . . . x4)
. . . . . . If you had had three wishes wouldn’t you have done the same?
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9. |
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Got released in the morning but was dead by midnight,
this is the last day of Jimmy Dance
Said goodbye to his mother and dependable brother
His father in heaven or the other.
Put his medals in order and squared it with God
Drank a draft of Scotch for the road
Then with evil in his heart and murder in his eyes said . . . “now I’m ready”
As he walked through the dark with a knife and a spark
mind racing with blood in his eyes
Looked up into the sky thought he saw a shooting star
a bonfire day rocket lit his path
Not so much tooled-up as brandishing a tulip With some ammo and dad’s service revolver
Then into the lair of the panthers and number 10, said . . . . . “Come die with me”
He took out the doorman with a blade to the heart
The next two the same with a start
Put the forth through a window and the fifth down the stairs,
getting closer to number ten.
With a weapon in his hand he dispatched the sixth,
Squeezing two rounds into the head of number seven
Then as he kicked down the door with number 10 in his sights
He feels the cold steel in his back.
Blood thumping like a night club, blade burning in the wound
He aims at number ten
The Training kicks in, lock-and-load- motherfucker,
He fires at number 10
Body guard intercepts and falls dead to the ground, Number 9 nine he follows the same
“So it’s you and me and I ain’t dying alone!”
This is the last gasp of Jimmy Dance.”
They pulled down the house, made it a car park
No one should walk those rooms again
At the funeral his mother and dependable brother said he’ll meet his father in the other.
Put his medals in order and squared it with God. . . . . Drank a draft of Scotch for the road
Got released in the morning but was dead by midnight, this was the last day of Jimmy Dance
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Harry Stafford Manchester, UK
Harry Stafford is guitarist and singer of post-punk-blues-Gothic-rockers Inca Babies. The incas were formed in Manchester UK., in the 80s. In 2015 he decided to release some solo material that echoes his love of Blues Piano and barroom ballads. But 30 years with the incas meant it wasn’t going to be as musically simplistic as that. Guitar Shaped Hammers and Gothic Urban Blues are the result. ... more
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