Voice Inside the Radio

David Bentley  

• Buy track
• Lyrics

  I’m just a voice inside your radio
  i come right inside your room
  a laidback funky deejay on the late night show

  each night round midnight i start to beam
  if i don’t leave here soon i’ll start to scream
  my hands are shaking and my throat is dry
  cross my microphone and hope to die

  i’m just a voice inside your radio…

  pick me up on your fm band
  listen to me darlin’ i’ll understand
  i’d hug and kiss you but can i misbehave
  can’t get romantic on a radio wave

  how can i count the hours
  what can i do
  it seems an eternity
  until i’m back on the air

  LINER NOTES
  I wrote this as a kind of tribute to a couple of late night radio announcers that I listened to in my prepubescent years. They were females and the spoke in husky tones that exploited the close proximity effect. They disappeared and I don’t know what happened to them. Perhaps their ratings weren’t very good.

1

Ultrasonic Blues

David Bentley  

• Buy track
• Lyrics

  looky here, you got no more time to lose
  got to put on your green fluorescent dancing shoes
  ain’t no ordinary boogie we got here for you
  it’s the here and now today, right this minute
  ultrasonic blues

  leave your hat and coat right there where they fell
  step inside my cool blue cosmophonic spell
  i swear no harm will come to you
  from the here and now today, right this minute
  ultrasonic blues

  when you wig in on my wave length
  it takes you on from strength to new strength

  now that you’re building up some steam
  want you to wig on my cool blue cosmophonic beam
  welcome to my spaced out sound capsule
  and the here and now today, right this minute
  ultrasonic blues

  LINER NOTES
  I guess the lyrics for this were meant to be funny or whimsical or whatever….but I do like the groove. Don had a happy knack of finding a rhythm that went perfectly with the songs I wrote and there’s some solid bottom from Peter on bass.

2

Now You See It Now You Don’t

David Bentley  

• Buy track
• Lyrics

  did you hear about the old magician
  he’s a master of the sleight of hand
  he can make a man jump right out his hat
  have him disappear again
  he’s the strangest kind of showman
  when you think he will then won’t
  ain’t life a game with an acorn and pea
  now you see it, now you don't

  did you hear about the mighty empire
  they said would last a million years
  along came a wild volcano
  and the whole thing disappeared
  if rain don’t fall on the fat land
  ain’t nothing left but dust and bone
  ain’t life a game with an acorn and pea
  now you see it now you don't

  rich man lives for money
  pauper ain’t the money to live
  seems the more somebody gets
  the less he’s willing to give
  if rain don’t fall on the fat land
  ain’t nothing left but dust and bone
  life’s just a game with an acorn and pea
  now y see it, now y don’t

  LINER NOTES
  This is my version of a down home vibe - and, actually, it works. It definitely worked when we played at The Melbourne Hotel (where the band worked for four years, often with Margret RoadKnight as guest performer.)

3

Mail Order Bride

David Bentley  

• Buy track
• Lyrics

  if i live to see the morning
  i won’t be a single man no more
  the girl i wooed by correspondence
  is on the train from baltimore
  just can’t sleep for anticipation
  just can’t wait for the morning light
  i’ll take red roses to the station
  when i meet my mail order bride

  never was no fancy dancer
  big city lights just cramp my style
  i prayed for rain and i dug for water
  to make my crops grow firm and ripe
  if my hair’s all in a tangle
  and my necktie don’t sit right
  i’ll have my sunday suit and shoes on
  when i wed my mail order bride

  i sure that she recognise me
  it’s seven years since my photograph
  when she said she’d come
  it did surprise me
  felt so good i began to laugh
  from now on, i won’t be lonesome
  there’ll be no counting sheep at night
  i won’t be poor for understanding
  when i wed my mail order bride

  LINER NOTES
  This is an all right song, in my view... and I keep meaning to re-record it. Peter Wragg dusts off his electric guitar for this one. Frank Millward, who had just joined the band, contributes some high powered Hammond organ.

4

In this World or the Next One

David Bentley  

• Buy track
• Lyrics

  by word of mouth we travelled south to make a time and place connection
  we did not bluff we had enough to establish a direction
  the wind came howling on my track/ i felt its fury at my back
  when six dark horsemen came riding across the plain
  i turned my companion…i said: no no not again

  by and by…in this world or the next one…it comes to you one fine day
  the life you live is just a mirror reflection of the love you give and the love you gave

  on good advice we rolled the dice and left our papers for inspection
  the guard in white did not think twice/he left a space blank for correction
  the light was shining in my eyes. i looked around to my surprise
  six bright madonnas were rising from the mist
  i turned to my companion i said there’s got to be a twist

  by and by…in this world or the next one…it comes to you one fine day
  the life you live is just a mirror reflection of the love you give and the love you gave

  the moon was rising on the full/ i felt the power of its pull
  when six motor cycle dragons came gunning their machines
  i turned to my companion i said what do you think it means

  LINER NOTES
  Man, I must have been a deep thinker in the mid-70s. Even now, I’m not sure what this song is trying to say. The riders of the apocalypse feature at one point in the lyric content, as do six “bright Madonnas”. The odd thing is, I travelled to Spain shortly after writing this song and in my rented house was a niche containing statues of six little Madonnas.

5

High Fine Woman

David Bentley/Col Loughnan  

• Buy track
• Lyrics

  i must admit i’m at a loss to explain
  why she should love me still why complain
  ain’t no woman like that high fine baby of mine

  sweeter than honey from the magnolia vine
  can’t get enough of that sweet thing of mine
  ain’t no woman like that high fine woman of mine

  she can make the sun shine
  chase the clouds from the sky
  i do believe that i love her
  there’s a light in my eye
  i’m tellin’ you why

  if words could reveal this good thing i’ve found
  i’d button my lip lest the word get around
  ain’t no woman like that high fine baby of mine

  LINER NOTES
  The noted sax player and former Deltone Col Loughnan handed me an unsolicited set of chord changes one day and I put a melody and lyrics to them. Voila! High Fine Woman. As lyrics they’re nothing earth shattering, but it’s a nice song to play and sing - and Bentley’s Boogie Band did just that for around 15 years.

6

Get Back On Your Feet Again

David Bentley  

• Buy track
• Lyrics

  what would do if all on the same day your house burned down, your car got repossessed and it then started to rain
  would you moan? would you groan? what would you do?

  if you’re caught out in the driving rain
  ain’t no cause for you to complain
  just pick up the pieces
  get back on your feet again

  if you’re caught out in the rolling fog
  ain’t no use to say: ain’t i’m a dog
  got to rattle your brain
  get back on your feet again

  turn yourself around to the sun
  everybody all in one
  that’s the way the web is spun
  that we live in

  your own soul holds the key
  be what you want to be
  be kind, beware
  learn to love again

  LINER NOTES
  This is a sort of motivational shuffle. It might speak to people who have been cast down by life’s unfairness, or it could also address members of the audience who have over-imbibed and, having fallen over, now find difficulty regaining an upright stance.

7

Faith Healer

David Bentley  

• Buy track
• Lyrics

  you stare at me with expectation
  as if to coax a miracle
  in your eyes i see hope flicker
  through the cracks in your aching shell
  why look to me for mercy
  i’m the child of your own belief
  so cross my palm with silver
  kiss my hands and lick my feet

  i’m your faith healer
  come and let me heal ya
  i’m your faith healer
  come and let me heal ya
  go tell the warder of your soul
  give up the key to the nightmare hole
  releasing power to control
  black light so bright and cold

  six brothers lived before me
  a gift not mine to choose
  and the man whose woman bore me
  was a seventh brother too
  you come to me believing
  truth that only truth can tell
  asking me for drops of water
  to quench the fires of your hell

  go tell the warder of your soul
  give up the key to the nightmare hole
  releasing power to control
  black light so bright and cold

  LINER NOTES
  There is a belief, mainly in Ireland, that anyone who is the seventh son of a seventh son may be possessed of magical healing powers. At the time I wrote this song, there was such a person going about Britain and Europe performing miracle cures and charging large amounts of money for his services. Margret RoadKnight also recorded Faith Healer - and did a very nice job, too.

8