I wrote this song in 1978 while working emptying the bins at J & J Cash's (the famous name-tape and woven picture textile firm) doing my A' levels at night class. It was written for a friend going through divorce as with several others during the course of the year.
Inspiration also from a collection of poems by Coventry's Edith Wilkinson called Bright Flame which her daughters had published posthumously. I'd found it a Coventry bookshop and read it in the Golden Cross a few years before one poem was a metaphor about the Three Spires of Coventry giving comfort, I think written during the war and some of the poems very inspiration, written for her daughters -
"tackle anything that comes
Keep all those fears at bay
say to fate "you will not be, first you must to grips with me"
show life what you're made of..."
Edith Wilkinson - Keep Trying - from Bright Flame - Coventry 1973 (ish)
I sent the poem to my friend and this got me started on the song.
Don't Fall Into Despair
by Trev Teasdel 1978 Coventry.
I know that you feel like crying, feel like dying, can't stop sighing
I see that you're frowning, feel you're drowning,
A fool - just clowning around.
I know that you've got a problem and it's got you licked
and your affairs are so cross woven, they're hard to unpick
but don't sink into despair
Cos there ain't no answer there
Once it gets you in it's snare
You're gonna be hard to repair.
Bridge 1
Don't be defeated
Don't let yourself get mistreated
Show some courage - some character
Kick back to win, don't just give in
Say to hardship "you'll have a hard time with me"
I know you gotta problem and it seems too deep, difficult and involved
And you've given up thinking that it can ever be solved
It's been a problem for too long, it's second nature.
Bridge 2
But get up
Umm get out,
Shake your will-power, shake it all about
Turn the tables, switch the labels
Turn your problems inside out.
I know that feel like crying, feel like dying, can't stop sighing.
I see that you're frowning, feel you're drowning, a fool just clowning around.
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