This was written for the Corner Hotel launch of the wonderful Carl Pannuzzo‘s second CD, “The Passing Eye Of The Sun“. Carl had asked me to operate lights for the evening and also asked if I wanted to do a song, so I thought it’d be fun to combine the two themes and sing the song from the lighting desk position, angling a Maglite torch at my face. It worked a treat on the night, and I ended up doing it again at Tripod‘s 2007 Christmas show, “Smaller Than Jesus”. Funnily enough, that was also at the Corner Hotel, so I’ve only ever sung this song live twice and it’s been from exactly the same spot each time.
It’s a pretty rough vocal take, I think, but it’ll give you the general idea.
(Never Had Somebody) Shine A Light On MeI must have lit a hundred shows
I’ve seen ’em rise and fall
From back behind this lighting desk
I swear I’ve seen ’em all
And I always had a crazy dream
But it never came to be:
I never had somebody shine a light on me.
I’ve bathed Australian Idols
in the softest rosy glows
And I guess I should be grateful
that I wasn’t one of those
Still I stumble through the shadows of
my anonymity:
I never had somebody shine a light on me.
But if I give myself permission to shine
Nobody seems to care
So I wrap myself in darkness divine
‘Til I’m not even sure I’m there…
I won’t pretend I haven’t looked
For a lonely white fresnel
Or a profile of my very own
With a dusky amber gel
But there ain’t no midnight special
Not that I could ever see
So I never had somebody shine a light on me.
It’s just a simple torch song
A parcan fantasy
But I never had somebody shine a light on me.