Counter Clockwise

by Paul Ellis Songwriter

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about

This has to be the best album I've heard in a LONG time (including both major and indie releases). Wow! I was not expecting to be clobbered with such a vast amount of musicality! - Alex of Poppermost Music.

I absolutely love it. Jellyfish, XTC, Richard Wright piano. Richard Twice playing a Linda Perhacs song. Some quality touchstones being invoked in the Rossi synapses listening to this. ‘The Painter’s Smile’: so cleanly played, so minimal, so understated yet emotive... one of my favourite tracks on the album, in fact. ‘Silvered Moon’ is gorgeous: that arpeggiated acoustic intro is so elegant. ‘When The Storm Ends’ has a particularly fine, relaxed vocal – but then they all are. The quality of your voice is balm upon the ear, Paul. The album seems to change gear from ‘The People That You Hate’ through to ‘The Termites Cried’ – which is a really effective bit of sequencing. The latter in particular is a markedly interesting composition (and recording): it seems to come out of nowhere really, with all of the should-be-but-aren’t oppositional textures you put together, along with the sound effects – an inspired piece of work.
Stunning, stunning. You should be super-proud!
-Marco Rossi - Reviewer for Shindig Magazine

credits

released 28 April 2012

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about

I'm calling this site Paul Ellis Songwriter to differentiate between my better known long-form Spacemusic / Ambient style and my lesser known shorter, more concise songwriting style.

"This kind of literate, intelligent but heartfelt pop doesn't come down the pike very often but when it does it resonates forever after... I can't get enough of this stuff. Masterful".
Marco Rossi -Shindig Magazine
... more

contact / help

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Track Name: Paul Ellis - Counter Clockwise
Counter Clockwise
Counter Clockwise

Where have you been Tom?
Things got rough... you disappeared.
It was a long Fall into Winter
And Mary doesn't need you here

Counter Clockwise
Counter Clockwise

You? You think you're telling me something I don't know?
I wasn't given a choice I had to go
And by the time I'd cleared my head
I found that Mary was the one thing that never left.

Counter Clockwise
Counter Clockwise

And Mary standing unnoticed by the door
said How can I be sure anymore?
So is there anything else? She sighed
There's a whole universe, Tom replied.
Track Name: Paul Ellis - You're The Ghost I See
Did you feel me watching you stand there?
You turned around, I saw your eyes.
I know by now you won't remember me.
I think you see me as another guy.
The cashier's talking so you turn away.
There's a price for it. And you'll have to pay.
And as I leave you're walking right towards me.
Your're walking right through me... and then you're gone.

You're the ghost I see
But you don't see me.

Did you feel me watching you stand there?
You turned around, I saw your eyes.
An orphan looks for someone everywhere.
An orphan is a thousand mile stare.

You're the ghost I see
But you don't see me.
Track Name: Paul Ellis - Lets Be Alive
You're fine, you're sublime, you're lit from the inside
Let's take it outside, yeah, let's go for a ride
Let's let the sun and our skin coincide
I know a great place by the riverside

Listen to me Miss Creme de la Creme
It's our lives and ours alone to reclaim
Come outside and just forget your name

You feel the impulse this is such an easy sell
A million reasons why you shouldn't do it yourself
Please let me be your latest infidel.
The great escape by way of laughing stairwell

Listen to me Miss Creme de la Creme
Come outside and just forget your name
If you've ever complained that it stays the same
I want to take you spark and make it a flame

If you come with me we'll be there by night
We've got a little time before things ignite
A few loose ends it's not completely airtight
A power outage before those things come to light

Once last glance at the city from your glass hive
One last sweep of the room for the rest of your life
You're fine, you're sublime, you're lit from the inside
Let's be alive
Track Name: Paul Ellis - Sleight Of Hand
You didn't think I saw...
You didn't think I saw your sleight of hand...
You stacked the deck... and smiled your little smile.

You didn't think I saw...
You didn't think I saw your sleight of hand...
I'm not gonna buy what you're selling.

Rearview mirror drowning wave
You turn away for another game.
"It's all relative"... when it's not your heart that breaks.

You didn't think I saw...
You didn't think I saw your sleight of hand...
You stacked the deck
You shaved the dice
It's all a game of shells... you smiled that smile.

Did you guess who's calling out as you're turning the volume down?
It's the one you were before... the one that you grew into...
The one you shut out.

You didn't think I saw...
You didn't think I saw your sleight of hand...
We'll play this game... you and I can't face...
what we became... or that we're the same.
Track Name: Paul Ellis - Secret Place
There's a place where the day tastes like
Mango, Lime and Coconut
Sunrise on your tounge
A wave that slowly comes

And the years will pass
And we'll forget these days
Vanishing in the dance
A thousand miles away
And with a coup de grace
A secret place and we're on our way
A secret place and we're on our way

I love how your kisses taste like
Mango, Lime and Coconut
Swimming into blue
Skin diving with you

Floating endlessly
In the neon reef
An ocean drift,
A private masterpiece
The rest of our life is
Worth living like this
A secret place and we're on our way
A secret place and we're on our way
Track Name: Paul Ellis - Slivered Moon
Slivered moon
Slides into view as I drive to you
These dappled chords
Sway in the breeze like rippling leaves

All the weight of the day
I feel it drifting away
And the ceiling of sky
Disappears for the night

Accompanied
I trace the shape of a melody
Perched on lines
The birds look like music against the sky

And the song played on
As the miles flew by
And the slivered moon
Followed me in the sky

Night flight
Half remembered in the daylight
The gravity and broken wings

Once I
Dreamed that I was flying through space
And woke up thrashing in a cage

Slivered Moon
Slides into this room conjures a quiet mood

Here with you
I listen to the silence shared by two

When I was alone
My nights were sleepless 'til dawn
This fading prison cell
Was self-made all along
Track Name: Paul Ellis - The Painters Smile
Do you love me?
It's ok if you don't
Some of you will,
Some of you won't

I dream a scene so mystical
Lovers float in a Chagall

Just before sunrise
Those watercolor skies
The painters smile

Now and then
a hidden light that has no end
Can break through and shine the inside
Of the most broken life

The peace of your sleeping face
The curve and the trace
The brushes and the paint
and all that you are...
That drew me to this place

Do you love me?
It's ok if you don't
Some of you will,
Some of you won't
Track Name: Paul Ellis - When The Storm Ends
Anna
It's ten minutes to show time
Anna
Are you alright?
'Cause we have to go through with it
The greasepaint smile
And the costume fit.

When the storm ends
Those words hanging in the air
When the storm ends
The rain still is falling from the trees down there

You know it'll be effortless
The props, applause and the spotlight
We'll put on these last few shows
We'll give them something they've never seen anything like
It's only for a few more nights

When the storm ends
Those words hanging in the air
When the storm ends
Rain still is falling from the trees down there

Daddy's girl
Daddy's hope
He smiles in time to save the scene
Daddy's girl
Daddy's home
Home is a receding horizon on the road

Anna
We can't wait any longer
Anna
Your mother loved you so much

When the storm ends
Those words hanging in the air
When the storm ends
Rain still falling from the trees down there
Track Name: Paul Ellis - The People That You Hate Aren't Always Wrong
It's ok to lie the advertiser said
As the CEO's wife climbed into his giant bed
Yeah this much is true
You've got your point of view

Business is business
There's nothing personal here
Some things vanish and they
don't reappear
Yeah this much is true
You've got your point of view

You've waited too long
The people that you hate aren't always wrong
But you burned that bridge
You've waited too long
The people that you hate aren't always wrong
Ain't it a bitch?

Lightning flashes
There's someone standing in the room
A clap of thunder
like a sudden gunshot wound
Yeah this much is true

Ah this much is true
You've got your point of view
And it might get opened just a little bit

You shouldn't have waited too long
The people that you hate aren't always wrong
But you burned that bridge
You shouldn't have waited so long
The people that you hate aren't always wrong
Ain't it a bitch?
Track Name: Paul Ellis - Rain On Your Window
Rain sprayed the lane, washed away.
The sound that we found yesterday.
You glow a stained glass soul.
I am the rain on your window.

Why cries the night into blame.
Play the opposite game.
So breathing body and soul.
I am the rain on your window.

It's just a little salt water.
Some gets spilled now and then.
It's the taste of your kiss
It's your skin too thin

So there you go
Your stained glass soul
I am the rain
On your window.

Cloak as the day turns cold
You glow from the memories you hold
You glow as a stained glass soul.
I am the rain on the window.
Track Name: Paul Ellis - I Had This Dream
Last night I was blown away by a microscopic truth
We turn into a feedback loop and nothing's getting through
I'm sorry for the pain you feel
But those self-inflicted wounds will heal
I'm sorry for the pain you feel
But those self-inflicted wounds will heal

Sisyphus, with a broken back still built the pyramids
Pandora, and her can of worms, dismissed everything he did
How many of your memories
Were TV shows or were they real?
How many of your memories
Were TV shows or were they real?

Free falling through the sky my mind
Falling through the sky my mind
Falling through the sky my mind

Sometimes life's as easy
As falling down the stairs to
The endless status quo charade
And that's about as much fun
As self-dentistry and
I think I'll have to fly away

I had this dream last night where I'm flying
Suddenly I was lighter than air
Watching the earth turn so far below
Watching the earth turn so far below
Track Name: Paul Ellis - The Termites Cried As The Buildings Collapsed
The termites cried as the buildings collapsed.
Don't you think it's time to
...pay for the things that you grasped.

Lovely mirror you can't look away.
And sure enough you're thinking
you'll put it down someday.

The pilot went blind an hour into the flight
While the passengers argued
...about going left or right.

Lovely mirror you can't look away.
And sure enough you're thinking
you'll put it down someday.

Lovely mirror you can't look away lovely mirror...
Lovely mirror you can't look away lovely mirror...

Seems to me this city is blocking out the sun.
And it's whispering in your ear that
...you're the only one.

Lovely mirror you can't look away
Lovely mirror you can't look away
Lovely mirror you can't look away
And sure enough you're thinking that
...you'll put it down someday.
Track Name: Paul Ellis - Unforseeable
There is the road that goes into Indigo.
I turn away and drive 'til it's day.

That's my hand
On the wheel.
But it's too numb.
To feel.

It clicked into place.
My life of escape.
And now it's time to move on.

It was unforseeable at the end of the day.
It was unforseeable at the end of the day.

There is the lake where the thin ice had to break.
I wasn't there when she tried to reach for air.

The ground was shaking.
Without making a sound.
Everything fell away.
As I turned around.
That whole landlslide tumbling down.

It was unforseeable at the end of the day.
It was unforseeable at the end of the day.
Track Name: Paul Ellis - I Know Not Where
I cannot reveal the lyrics to this song as they contain the secrets to the universe... and for that you need to shell out more than the $5 for this album... you cheapskate.