Get all 34 Paul Roland releases available on Bandcamp and save 45%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of 'Hello Fred' the Thin Youth Said (Home demo), 1992 Dutch Radio Session, A Grimm Fantasy For Orchestra (demo), Nosferatu (Gothic ballet music only), (My Dog Is Hooked On) Cocaine with Andy Ellison, Candyman (bandcamp exclusive EP), In Memory of a Time Traveller (unreleased early mix), Lair of the White Worm (unreleased version), and 26 more.
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Candy’s Mother Cries
Candy doesn’t know how she’s supposed to grow
Or what she has to say or why she feels this way
Candy’s always known that she’ll end up alone
Unless she can find another of her kind
Candy’s mother cries and when they ask her why
She can’t quite find the words and pretends she hasn’t heard
It’s such an awful shame why can’t she be the same?
Why can’t her little pearl be like other girls?
Candy’s mother knows although it doesn’t show
Everyone will know, it’s not something she’ll outgrow
Candy shrugs and sighs when her friends lower their eyes
And turn away again, but Candy’s not ashamed
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Jenny Doesn’t Mind
Jenny she’s always smiling, nothing seems to get her down
The others, she says, are wearing theirs upside down
Jenny doesn’t seem to mind them, she doesn’t join in their games
Jenny doesn’t seem to understand she is not the same
Jenny is kind of awkward, she doesn’t know what to say
Likely she’s going to play on her own today
It seems so cruel to wake her when she’s so far away
What do we say when she asks, ‘Why am I this way?’
“Daddy, she says, “please tell me when will I be like them?
I never want to feel this way again.”
Jenny Jenny don’t mind them, Jenny Jenny don’t cry
Paul: Jenny is autistic, but you may chose to interpret this lyric in another way.
As the father of a child with Asperger Syndrome I found this particularly painful to write, but necessary.
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Her Room Is Like A Garden
Her room is like a garden adorned with scented flowers
Her bed is it an abhor and she the princess in the tower
Her skin is white like marble and round her Egyptian eyes
Her face is framed with ringlets patterning the pillow where she lies
Had we but time child, had we but time
if we had tomorrow if tomorrow were mine
You would have the season to bud and to bloom but summer is fleeting
As the rose’s perfume
Her room it is an orchard, a glade of tangled vines
Where on a verdant blanket she so gracefully reclines.
Paul: I have never forgotten a fleeting glimpse I had as a child into a young girl’s bedroom and the feeling then that girls were exotic creatures beyond our understanding.
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I wrote a letter today ’cause I might need it someday
And some things need to be said
in the years that lie ahead
And it read…
You won’t win every hand
Cause not everything goes to plan
Just do the best that you can
I’m Ok as I am
And move on
This is the letter I wrote myself today
I wrote a letter today to tell myself it’s OK
If things don’t work out just right
Just give it time and they might
Turn out fine
And don’t try to hold on
to those whose time’s come and gone
nothing will last
the good and bad times will pass
This is the letter I wrote myself today
I wrote a letter to myself, just in case there is no one else, to say “It’s OK
Don’t try to save everyone. You’ve got to let be what is done
something inside you will know sometimes you have to let go”
And don’t be frightened to try or to say goodbye,
cause somehow you will get by,
Yes, you’ll get by
Paul: I wrote this song for Anna Barbazza, a very talented young Italian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has graced several of my albums and plays bass and sings in my Italian band. It was my small way of thanking her for all she has done for me and perhaps play ‘the wise old man’ who is passing on his guidance to the young ingenue.
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When I See That Girl home demo
I’m gonna see that girl and when I do
she’s gonna be sorry it was me she ran into
When I see that girl again
I’m gonna see that girl and I’ll tell her straight
If she has changed her mind well, too bad cause it’s too late
If I see that girl again
If I see that girl I’ll tell her to her face
that she ain’t no good I’ll put her in her place
I don’t need that girl no more
When I see that girl I won’t bite my tongue
I’ll tell her right out now just what she done
How she hurt me so but now I don’t care
Cause I got a girl and I got one to spare
I don’t need that girl no more
But it’s not true big boys don’t cry
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Preaching The Devil’s Gospel studio outtake
It was a night for neither man nor beast
I thought I’d send out for a priest
Guess it was time to confess my sins
Though, hell, I wouldn’t know where to begin.
I was raised in a one-whore town
Which didn’t wake up till the sun went down
I didn’t see no sense in going to school
Just to plough a crooked furrow behind a cross-eyed mule
I’ve been preaching the devil’s gospel for so long
I don’t know right from wrong.
I had so little time to spare though I ain’t going anywhere
Till I’m ready to meet my maker
Or be one more joker for the undertaker
Lawdy mama how I misbehaved but I won’t be born again I won’t be saved
My mama said I weren’t no good, I ain’t done what a good boy should
But as Preacher John used to say, my kind don’t get to heaven anyway
Paul: The main reason I rejected this track was that I felt the devil had appeared in far too many of my songs and the good ol’ southern boy is not a role that is one I ought to be playing.
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Charlie Manson’s Wedding (Home Demo)
I got a letter from Ellie Mae she’s getting hitched a week come Sunday
Don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout the groom, no sir
‘Cept he’s doing ten to twenty in stir
Yeah I’ve been invited to a swanky do
All the cons will be there and the crazies too
Gonna be a ring ding hullabaloo
Might even take a bath and get a new tattoo
He’s no spring chicken, but hey, what the hell
They won’t be playing house in no six foot cell
She’ll bust him out and they’ll go on the lam
She’ll get him out if anyone can
I’ll get my coon dog and clean my gun
Sweet home Alabama we’ll have us some fun
Them banjo pickers will play ‘here comes the bride’
Lawdy mama, we’ll get dixie fried
We’re all going to Charlie Manson’s wedding
Gonna get higher than a hog at mating time
Yeah we’re all going to Charlie Manson’s wedding
Gonna give away that little girl of mine
She’s real enterprising that girl of mine
She’s pricklier than a porcupine
Can’t believe she’s all growed up
Drinks, cusses and fights and drives a pick up truck
He could croak anytime soon five will get you ten it’ll be on their honeymoon
But she’s got a scheme to make us some dough
Exhibiting his carcass in a travellin’ show
I might tear up when I give away the bride jus’ like I did fur Bonnie and Clyde
Yeah I might get sappy when I give her away now my baby’s in the family way
Note: ‘ten to twenty in stir’ means sentenced to ten to twenty years in jail. ‘in the family way’ means pregnant.
Paul: I dropped this because it was a mite too whimsical to sit well in the context of ‘1313 Mocking Bird Lane’ and it was another case of the good ol’ Southern boy not sitting too comfortably with the Englishman.
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13 Women (Home Demo)
03:09
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13 Women home demo
Slow down you move too fast I said slow down you moving way too fast
Slow down mama I want to make this feeling last
Mama don’t waste my time I tell you mama don’t you waste my time
I got 13 women waiting in a line I got 13 women and all of them are mine
Sweet love I got sweet love on my mind
That kind of loving is so darn hard to find
I’m going downtown switch blade in my hand
I’d better not find my woman in the arms of another man
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Moses (Home Demo)
02:56
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Moses home demo
Pharaoh reigned in Egypt land. He ruled with an iron hand
Kept the slaves under his thumb till Moses said “your time has come”
“Do your worst old man,” they sneered. Moses did far worse than they feared
He summoned forth his wrathful Lord, formed a serpent from Pharaoh’s sword
It said, “Let my people go!”
He summoned forth ten grievous plagues put pharaoh’s first born in his grave
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Icarus (Home Demo)
04:15
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Icarus home demo
I keep my eyes wide open
As I fly towards the sun
I don’t know if I’ll make it
As the journey’s just begun
My father said, “be cautious
Now take things slowly, son
And don’t you be a-flying
Afore you can run.”
Ever since I can remember
He’s tried to hold me down
But if I fall from heaven
Who’s to say that I will drown?
Me, I was impatient
To spread my wings and fly
But if I fall from heaven
I could say that I had tried.
Paul: I flirted with electronic pop on this one but added acoustic guitar and violin. I like this very much though it is untypical, or perhaps that’s the reason I like it.
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The Lord Made A Woman home demo
The Lord made a woman on the seventh day
He took Adam’s rib and a mess of clay
He made her shapely and he made her sweet
He made her so a man don’t get no sleep
The Lord made a woman to raise a little Cain
But first he made her drive her man insane
Yeah he made her stubborn and headstrong too
So she’s never satisfied what a good man do
Lordy mama ain’t you heard the news
A woman wants no loving just high heel shoes
She wants to dress up so mighty fine
I’ll never have enough for that woman of mine
God made a woman for company
But he didn’t make the right one for me
When I get to that holy ground
I hope there’s gonna be enough to go round
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The Wolfman’s On The Prowl studio outtake
Mama when you hear me howl you know the wolfman’s on the prowl
Who’s been sneaking round your back door, who’s been sniffing round your back door?
Don’t wanna see him round you no more
When that one-eyed cat comes creeping by you know a good man’s gonna die
Look what you’re lovin’ done to me you brought a grown man to his knees
Mama didn’t raise no fool boy child, no mama didn’t raise no foolish child
Gonna have to put you down for a while
Don’t need a crystal ball to see you’re gonna bring nothing but grief to me
Lord see the shape I’m in I guess I’ll have to pay for my sins
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no lyrics available at this time
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Carmilla (Home Demo)
11:30
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Paul Roland England, UK
Formerly managed by June Bolan, Paul has been spinning supernatural and historical-themed tales against a backdrop of gothic rock, psych-pop and baroque strings, earning him the sobriquet, ‘The Male Kate Bush' (attributed to former label mate Robyn Hitchcock) ... more
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For almost 50 years Marc inspired and energised me. Privileged to have been managed at one time by June and to have written 4 biogs - trying to capture what made him my main man.
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