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A Light Below the Door (2011)

by Anthony Toner

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1.
All of the Above All the happy couples that you meet, walking up and down Bedford Street, they can fill you with a sense of defeat, if you don’t beware. It can be a kind of danger zone, just walking around on your own. They’re blowing kisses into mobile phones, so you better take care. CHORUS Why are you avoiding love? What is it you’re so scared of? Is it the fear that it won’t be enough? To be the hand instead of the glove – all of the above? You used to think that it was easy to take, being lonely was a piece of cake. Now you listen to your heart break, a little every day. So you say you can’t take any more. You put a lock upon your every door, like nobody felt this before – you’re leading the way. CHORUS You better take your heart out, baby, and let it get kicked around. before it flies, it has to hit the ground. CHORUS
2.
Grateful 04:22
Grateful You don’t mind drinking, but you hate the coming round - and you don’t mind flying, but you hate the coming down, you’re glad to land anywhere that ain’t too hard. Your broken heart’s the perfect crime, and you go looking for clues. But you turn up nothing and it gives you the blues, you should know – you catch yourself red-handed every time. CHORUS I know the story of love, and as for eating humble pie, I’ve had a plateful. If there’s a light below the door, you should open it for sure… And if it’s luck that saves your ass, just be grateful. Your friends mean well, but there’s always a price, you get to pay for all this free advice, it’s your heart, and nobody knows it more than you. They get a secret little kick from your hard time – they like reading the cards on the roadside shrines, and they say, ‘there but for the Grace of God…’ CHORUS Stand tall and hold your hand in mine CHORUS
3.
Finally 05:33
Finally Everybody in the world should know your name today. You can feel your little toes upon the rungs. People stand aside as you go walking by, negativity just dies upon their tongues. Feel the breezes in the leaves above you, the here and now, and the ones who love you. Finally, you find home – and it’s a state of mind. Finally, you find home – it’s been here all this time. Every step you’ve made has brought you here today. Every choice that you made, right or wrong. And you live in light and love and fear today. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you strong. And you wonder why it took so long to figure out where you went wrong, then you see… Finally, you find home – and it’s a state of mind. Finally, you find home – it’s been here all this time. What you were looking for has finally found you: The world wants to put its arms around you, finally…
4.
East of Louise We all know that she’s bright, but sometimes she just doesn’t pay attention. The stuff you talked about last night, she’ll look like it’s a subject you just mentioned. She stops outside the station, and she ponders for a minute – there’s a train that’s leaving soon, she wonders if she should be in it, and decisions such as these, happen slightly to the East of Louise. And she tells herself she’s lonely, an isolated queen in a city castle. She was somebody’s one and only, but somehow it just wasn’t worth the hassle. But hey, relationships can wither, the least said, the soonest mended – she wrote it in a letter, but she never got it sended. And love is like a breeze that passes somewhere to the East of Louise. And I think I’m falling for her I lay my pearls of wisdom before her but after ten minutes, they just bore her back to tears. While she struggles with her laptop, I make coffee and I offer my suggestions. She says she’s lost a thousand emails, from potential lovers, asking the same questions. And I tell her, ‘love’s another virus, it can eat your heart alive-’ and she takes it off the desktop, but it stays there on the drive. And the instructions are Chinese, and that’s just too far to the East of Louise.
5.
Walking down the line Bad decisions, oh where do you start? Time and money and affairs of the heart: let it go, or let it tear you apart, trying to hold back time, just walking down the line. Things you wish you’d said, things you might have heard, the well-intentioned and the downright absurd - they flap around you like those bad news birds, trying to hold back time, just walking down the line. The kind of luck you want just comes and goes - slips through your fingers and between your toes - trying to hold back time, Just walking down the line Some you lose and some you win. But we’re still the people that we’ve always been, so just lie here, til the light comes in, trying to hold back time, just walking down the line.
6.
Way Too Dark 04:27
Way Too Dark Your little friend from school has got the flat next door, and there’s a baby, but the boyfriend doesn’t visit anymore. He went to London, like it was the land of milk and honey, now he lets it go to voicemail when she’s tapping him for money. She sees people on the TV holding champagne glasses, their teeth and their nails and their perfect little asses. And she looks out the window at the blocks of flats, and wonders - what you have to do, to get a life like that. CHORUS Sometimes she lights up like a Christmas tree, sometimes she’s here and gone, just like a spark. Sometimes she twinkles like a little star when it’s already way too dark. She gets low and she gets high, and it ends up in a crash, and she shows up at your door with her wrists all slashed. She’s wired and she’s wild, and in tremendous pain - but she’s way too cute to actually open up a vein. CHORUS They told us all we had potential if we just stuck to the tracks, but it’s hard to concentrate when all your luck slips through the cracks. She always thought her family was living with a curse. When she opened up her eyes, that’s what she whispered to the nurse.
7.
Still Unsigned It’s too cold to be out in her Converse sneakers. And her head aches from standing too close to the speakers. Now she’s out in front of the club with the oblivion seekers, and the taxis are passing her by. She got a mark on her neck, from a boy who kissed her, and then he said she went to school with his older sister. He sort of offered her a lift, but he must have missed her, and now it feels like it’s starting to rain. CHORUS Oh the band are so cool, but they’re still so young. They make everything sound like they’re having fun. And when they sing, you can taste the water turning to wine – it’s hard to believe that they’re still unsigned, it’s hard to believe that they’re still unsigned. She should have taken that ride with somebody’s dad, with the radio playing something warm and sad, and he’d be teasing her about how many drinks she had, and trying to look down her dress on the sly. CHORUS It’s just two guitars and bass and drums. They keep rocking all night til the kingdom comes. And when they bite down hard, they could really hurt someone. CHORUS
8.
You’re the One Will you say that you’ll be my love? Light me up like the stars above? It’s the situation I’ve been dreaming of. And we’ll walk this city hand in hand, from Strandtown to the Holy Land. And all the restaurant windows shine down on our plans… You’re the one I used to sing a sad refrain - I was a man who thought he’d missed his train. Now I’m as high as a beacon on a shipyard crane. You’re the one Everybody needs a hand to hold, and a smile to stop you growing old. You can have my hand, my smile, my heart and soul… You’re the one
9.
The Great Escape Well she came from good people, but no-one was with her, and she moved to our estate to get her act together, and if our lives are a novel, hers was torn at the edges, sitting crying in the kitchen smoking Benson & Hedges. They were painting up the kerb stones for the 12th of July. My mother said I couldn’t join in, but she wouldn’t say why. She wore this fur coat that always smelled kind of funny, and every time she came around she would always give me money And at Christmas, she’d get blue, and let the film unwind Sad tears and bad years and Blue Nun wine We called her my aunt, but we never were related, she gave me a Jim Reeves record, I don’t think I ever played it (welcome to my world…) Did we still win the war? I was sleeping on the sofa when they called the final score. And I’ll miss ‘The Great Escape’ for this. Somebody blow me a goodbye kiss. She’d lost her husband Willie to a heart attack and she was told she’d go the same way if she didn’t cut back Everything in the house was made of plastic and nylon, when you looked out her back window there was a fence and then a pylon Sometimes the house was spotless, other times it fell apart – tobacco-stained ceilings and the Sacred Heart (Hail Mary Full of Grace…) Did we still win the war? I was sleeping on the sofa when they called the final score. And I’ll miss ‘The Great Escape’ for this. Somebody blow me a goodbye kiss. I was just a little kid but I knew it couldn’t go on, I came home from school one afternoon, and she was already gone. The neighbours came running and they kicked down the door, and they found her lying gasping on the kitchen floor. When your heart’s that big and broken, it can’t always be trusted. My father ran for help, but the phone box was busted. (is anybody there…?) Did we still win the war? I was sleeping on the sofa when they called the final score. And I’ll miss ‘The Great Escape’ for this. Somebody blow me a goodbye kiss.
10.
Nashville Snowflake From my hotel room in Nashville I see it starting to snow: both sides of the Cumberland River and Music City Row. Falling on the sleepless and the homeless, on the geniuses and fools, on the parking lots and the backyard swimming pools. And it makes me miss my baby, a little bigger than the day before. And whatever was important between us, is just a little more. CHORUS Every song is a snowflake that wants to live forever. They’ve been falling from the sky for so long. They blow between the passing cars on Broadway - as they land upon your tongue… they’re gone. And it makes you feel so helpless, the way weather is supposed to do, as I turn up my collar and think about you. Songs can get you from here to there - you don’t know how they do it. They move your heart and your feet, and somehow get you through it. CHORUS Every song is a snowflake that wants to live forever. They’ve been falling from the sky for so long. They blow between the passing cars on Broadway - as they land upon your tongue… they’re gone.

about

2011 - Anthony Toner's fourth album, featuring 'East of Louise', 'Nashville Snowflake' and 'Walking Down the Line'. Lyrics and credits are outlined below. Anthony has also written an extended blog post about the inspiration behind the album and the recording process, including some early design ideas and a video from the Hutton Hotel in Nashville, the inspiration for the 'Nashville Snowflake' song. Click here to read it: bit.ly/3nsr8dv

credits

released September 14, 2021

All Music & Lyrics by Anthony Toner
Produced by Clive Culbertson

Musicians:
Anthony Toner: guitars and vocals
Clive Culbertson: bass and harmonies
John McCullough: piano and organ
Paul 'Hammy' Hamilton: drums
Ronnie Greer: guitar on 'Way Too Dark'
Eilidh Patterson: harmonies
Linley Hamilton: trumpet
Dave Howell: saxophone

Cover photograph by Ken Haddock
Design by Frank Ideaworks

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Anthony Toner Belfast, UK

An independent singer songwriter and guitarist, based in Belfast.

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