Greg Atkinson music

The Tinsel Terrier (Free Download) by Greg Atkinson

The Party I really liked the ideas in this poem by Becky Hemsley which this song is based upon: https://www.reddit.com/r/dementia/comments/13tfncp/afterparty_a_poem_about_grief_and_love_by_becky/ When grief crashed my party He had all his old friends in tow Frustration and anger followed And sat down beside me They outstayed their welcome And talked over every other But left when they saw you show...

Please check out this wonderful poem by Clive James, who inspired the writing of this song: https://archive.clivejames.com/poetry/asma.htm Also, the brilliant suitcase diorama shown in the song image is by Mohamad Hafez in collaboration with Ahmed Badr. https://www.unpackedrefugee.com/ For the great escape Did you pack a case For all your cashmere sweaters It’s cold up there this time of year Did...

Look at what You could have Won by Greg Atkinson

My Mother died in March 2024, a few weeks short of her 94th birthday. She was a wonderful caring and sometimes very funny person. In April, her ashes were scattered in the gardens of the local crematorium and I was struck by the way they resembled a shadow on the grass, albeit white - in a photographic negative way - as if she was still standing amongst us in a family portrait. The Long Shadow Sca...

A song I've revisited recently and changed the title to better reflect what I'm going on about :)

One of my songs I seem to like more than others.

Guitar tuning is: C F C g c d. Caught in a storm The lucid beginnings are long gone No escape from the storm The lucid beginnings Destroyed by a torrent That’s pushing her under the sea She clings to the sides With her nails digging in As the storm rages on She just turns within herself Here comes the storm A deluge, a maelstrom before long Fear the storm A deluge, a maelstrom That pushes her unde...

Guitar Tuning: D A D F# B C# with Capo on 1st fret Oh No Another miscalculation White knuckles all the way I should have stayed in lane And recognised my weaknesses Are here to stay This town A parallel note of caution That was sorely needed To change the narrative But now there’s far too many words To place in the way Of us Add a little love don’t take away As they divide us from each other Multi...

The Gifted House by Greg Atkinson

Our love was born upon the shore Beneath the dome of sequins Our hands compressed into the sand We slow-danced through the shallows And the stones that skimmed Were the ones we threw together We claim this shore for us alone A landscape crafted for our love As the sun sets on us As the sun sets on us This is our shore Our shore On our return we brought a friend Our first born’s cautious wading But...

It’s no good pretending Denying He almost crushed your soul With the weight of his wise wise words Just go on believing You’re happy He didn’t cling to you Like the smoke on his old clothes Like a wind-up toy Dead in bed and sick with the grief All joy stolen by a ruthless thief Just half a person fading thin air Late in the night Late at night when sleep suggested She stays up through the darknes...

My Midas touch is turning your bones to golden rust Poured my heart and soul Till it overflowed And drowned you out We walk immersed in an ocean of chemicals we curse At the wretched moon Pulling on our legs Till we get home We never wanted to let you down We never wanted to rule your world We only wanted to make you feel you’re golden You little thief you knelt down to pray in your defeat And you...

In the eye of the storm You retreat black and blue As the spark dissipated He’s still burning you But “I’m happy” you say Fill your world with excuses And pull down your sleeves To hide scars from view Then button your blouse To cover a bruise He is the poison that runs through your varicose veins Always in sight he is binding you tight with his chains You are a canvas daubed with paint His purple...

In shadows cast by his conscience He hides The dual embrace of regrets And lies A symphony of contrition Repeats His senses grind to a halt As he leaps Is he 4 Real? Yes he can view the world with wide open eyes Is he 4 Real? Yes he can be the child whose too raw to lie All the beauty of devoted butterflies They decorate the sky above the cherry blossom blanket The Sakura bleeds Bleeding pink and...

Here is a new version of a track I wrote last year. Tuning is C G C G C D with Capo high up on 6th Fret. Song is in the key of F# alternating between major (verse & bridge) and minor (chorus). Lyrics: There’s a man I know Who likes to hide behind To tear the pages of the books he finds He is a man Of course a male disease That spoils the ending of the lives we lead As you read he will smile At the...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65308769 Master of disguise I reach out in this easy listening style Cos I don’t surmise You’ll embrace Nails by Benefits Want to talk about the double standards So I need to know Oh do we really have a common foe? Hindering our growth Or is it just the usual lies from Thrones so well entrenched they stupefy us Stifling mists On lost horizons Flooding airwaves A...

My daughter plays a bit of Cello on this one. She’s a member of the Teesside Open Orchestra for children with SEND. We worry when the roots will grow back in the aisles Then terrorise the soul who’s trained to answer back with blatant lies My war - rages in between the hours of 5 and 4 Your war - gets the better of me all the time it does it does Your War My War Your Five Against my Four When I se...

A song about the difficulties of originality in song-writing. I like the story of Paul McCartney dreaming the melody to ‘Yesterday’ and him not believing it was original :) Innocent channeling Or guilty of Plagiarism Through my prism of waves All I’ll ever know Is your discarded rag and bone That I recycle and remold For new I tried to copyright All of these chords Litigation On the occasion I’m j...

OMG KFC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63499057 Quietly contented in my lair where I can hide to pounce on TV screens TV screens The world is somewhere out there but I take a certain solace that you’re Here with me Here with me Then they come Into our world They overwhelm Tell us how to make it right Tell us how to make it right We only want to make it right Real concerns excused as lame...

You know nostalgia isn’t what it used to be But then neither am I Neither am I I used to think about it in my hidden room I was out of your sight Out of my mind That ship has sailed away On the sea of regret and the ocean of hate Was there a better way Perhaps we could have preyed For all the angels we lost on the way If the Earth turned more than this We’d be aligned With the ether redesigned We’...

The suits might have changed but the nightmare remains as I wake up Reflection betrays the few hopes I retained Am I still alive? I’m weighing up the costs between Filling My belly and warming my bones What do you think? Who do you see? Someone who you think you never will be Grey skin wrinkled by the winds of years that blew right past me Only old men miss old men these days The cold is alive An...

Born the day before the World Cup Final 66 You thought you were destined for great things You thought The rare “I like you” Seeping out while in the bedroom Illustrates my real conundrum Why I’m still around you I’m half alive then Half unsure that I’m dying Cos there’s nothing I rely on When I’m left around you Don’t call Desiree You’ve really got the better of the 10 percent that’s still me Don’...

Sick of Putin and various other arseholes in the world, so decided to try and channel some feel-good songs I like. “Stuart”, “Guy” and “Simon” being the respective singers in Big Country (In a big Country), Elbow (One day like this) and Boo Radleys (Wake up Boo). Lyrics: Stuart reminds us that we’ll see the sun in wintertime Growing those flowers in the desert is not sensible Although you’re gone...

In these dark days, I'm privileged enough to be able to escape to places like Ingleby Incline, which many people from Teesside know well. It an interesting place which was once an industrial focus for Iron ore mining, but all that is now gone, leaving rural ghosts from the past. A brief history is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosedale_Railway Ironically, when I visited to take the photograp...