Music & Lyrics: M.L. Hammond

I thought I would see you at least one more time
if only just to kiss you goodbye
oh but last night in all the confusion
you vanished like some kind of illusion
and I think I know why

whenever somebody gets too near
you lose your nerve and disappear
how can I tell that’s the reason
well I’ve been pulling that same old trick for years
masters of the great escape are we
Houdini and you and me

I looked for you in vain up and down the halls
I hoped we would cross on the stairs
when I gave up and finally opened your door
I saw ropes and scarves on the floor
but you weren’t there

and just when I thought I’d found
a reason for holding my ground
life has to play a little joke
like making me go and pick
someone whose favourite trick
seems to be vanishing up in smoke

oh, I’m feeling like Alice with the Cheshire cat
you’re fading away as I stare
blink my eyes and you’re gone now
but your smile hangs on and on in the empty air

magicians of the future will all agree
there was Houdini and you and me

Music & Lyrics: M.L. Hammond

he sits in front of the radar screen
watching the signal, watching the planes
go pulsing across, leaving their tracks of light
there’s a buddy on the line now from Byron Bay
he’s probably lonely but he’d never say
he’s just looking for some kind of comfort
in this twenty-four hour night

they call it defending the country
he calls it saving up money
don’t quite know what he’s saving for
but as soon as he’s got just a little bit more
he’ll be going outside for good

but look out that you don’t get caught now
’cause some find their way back but some do not
you gotta watch for the warning signs
on the Distant Early Warning Line

oh he hasn’t seen a woman in five or six months
not since that night down in Cambridge Bay
she took him by surprise but
oh lord it was all right
well it’s not the getting laid
that you miss so much
it’s just someone to hold you,
someone to touch you
ah what he’d give to be held now
in this black and frozen night

well there’s always the telephone
but what’s the use, he’d still be alone
he tries to focus on the screen, only to find
that girl is moving like a track of light
across his mind, leaving him blind

chorus

and on leave he heads for the west coast
to the rolling blue Pacific
he lets the waves crash over his body
under a burning summer sky
but at night he dreams of silence
and a vast and frozen ocean
stretching white to the horizon
and he don’t know why

and he’s scared that he might be caught now
’cause some find their way back but some do not
they say dreams are a warning sign
on the Distant Early Warning Line
you gotta watch for the warning signs
on the Distant Early Warning Line

Music & Lyrics: M.L. Hammond

this is a song for you
though perhaps some others will hear
this is a song for you
when you can’t be near

now I don’t want to play the poet
or the clever clown
just want to take hold of these feelings
and pin them down

’cause maybe it’s just a mirage that I’m seeing
some maverick gleam
a trick of the way the light falls in a dream

oh I’ve never seen eyes like yours
brown in a circle of blue
like the sky ’round the earth
when the sun comes shining through

and when you turn those eyes to me
well I hardly know what to do
I see the sky ’round the earth
I see me in a circle of you

but maybe it’s just a mirage that I’m seeing
some maverick gleam
a trick of the way the light falls in a dream

well you know that I’m hard to live with
sometimes I’m downright mean
but you make me feel I could love you
love you like you’ve never seen

and I thought it was just a mirage, oh
some maverick gleam
a trick of the way the light falls in a dream

but I think finally this time
I can trust the view
see how the light holds steady
when it’s coming from you

so this is a song for you
though perhaps some others will hear
this is a song for you
when you can’t be near

Music: Doug Bowes,   Lyrics: M.L. Hammond

there’s a cat on the steps
and I sure could use a lesson from her
she got sly yellow eyes
she got three-coloured crazy-quilt fur
she slinks and creeps, she leaps and she teases
but whatever she does, she does just as she pleases
ooh she’s the calico cat

when she’s feeling lazy,
she just stretches out in the sun
oh but when she’s feeling crazy
she got all the local dogs on the run
she’s lean and mean, she’s a backyard queen
and she looks out for number one
and nobody can break her heart

on those hot summer nights
all the toms come ’round to woo her
but she turns up her nose
’cause they don’t mean a damn thing to her
well she’ll pick them over when she’s in the mood
but when she’s not, look out,
she ain’t afraid to be rude
ooh she’s the calico cat

when she’s feeling lazy… etc.