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Here’s me performing “My Naked Heart” for my first-year class on 9th May. The lyrics are here.
06 Friday Jul 2012
Posted Performances
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Here’s me performing “My Naked Heart” for my first-year class on 9th May. The lyrics are here.
23 Monday Apr 2012
Posted Performances
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Edinburgh 2012, George Mackay Brown, Just Rain, Margaret Griffiths, Michael Boyd, My Naked Heart, Snakeskin, Streets of Gold, The Bard that Sang Stromness, The Festival of Spirituality and Peace, The Fringe 1980, The Story So Far, The Wanderer, Wilfred Owen
I’ve been booked by the Festival of Spirituality and Peace to play four concerts in Edinburgh on 6th, 8th, 10th & 12th August at 4pm each day.
They will be printing 10,000 programmes, where my event, “My Naked Heart”, will be described as follows:
“Melodic and melancholic songs on acoustic guitar by Scottish singer/songwriter, Duncan Gillies MacLaurin, who has now lived in Denmark for over two decades. He portrays the natural beauty of where he resides on the west coast of Jutland, pays homage to poets such as George Mackay Brown and Wilfred Owen, and paints the contours of his own personal vision. A complimentary pamphlet of his lyrics will be provided on entry.”
It will also be put on the Festival’s website with links to five of my songs: “The Bard That Sang Stromness”, “The Wanderer”, “Streets of Gold”, “My Naked Heart” and “The Story So Far”.
Hope to see you there then!
P.S. My friend, Michael Boyd, turns 50 on the day of my final concert, and he features in a poem/song I wrote called The Fringe, 1980, published in Snakeskin, October 2008. He can’t be there unfortunately, but I’ve promised to dedicate “My Naked Heart” to him.
P.P.S. I’m only planning to sing two of my sonnets, but one of those is “Just Rain”, my sonnet for Maz, aka Margaret Griffiths.
27 Monday Feb 2012
Posted Sonnets
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I’ve assembled the sung versions of my sonnets on a single page. There are also two spoken versions.
I’ve recently purchased a Roland R-05 wave/mp3 recorder, and I’ve begun to record some of my other poems/songs. My most recent post, “My Naked Heart”, whose title is a translation of the title of one of Baudelaire’s works, Mon Coeur Mis à Nu, showcased my first recording on it. I can recommend it.
23 Thursday Feb 2012
Posted Publications, Releases, Songs
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Am C E Am x 2 Dm F6 C Dm x 2 Dm F6 Am Am C E Am Am
hhAm Dm
I used to think the world was mine;
hhhhG7 Am
whatever happened, I’d be fine;
hhhF6 Dm Am E E
by some design the sun would shine on me.
hhhAm Dm
But now I’ve learnt it isn’t so
hhhG7 Am
as rain pours down and ill winds blow
hhhF6 Dm Am E E7
the cover over all I know to sea.
hhhC G E Am
It used to be so warm inside my shell,
hhhhF6 Dm Am E
but that was where the storm would hide as well.
Dm A
Every spark of northern lightning
Dm A7
in the dark is more than frightening;
F6 F6 Dm A7 A7
I just break apart.
Dm A
I’ve no lack of understanding:
Dm A7
every crack of thunder’s landing
F6 Dm F6 A7 A7
on my naked heart;
F6 Dm A7 Dm Dm
on my naked heart.
I used to think I understood
things better in my solitude;
alone, I could be wise and good and free.
I used to think it made me strong
to eat my heart out all night long:
but each new song betrays how wrong I’d be.
It used to be…
It’s fair enough you all ignore
the ‘welcome’ sign stuck on my door;
I’m on the floor still looking for the key.
I think it would be opportune
if I could find it pretty soon:
but no cocoon means no immunity.
It used to be…
hF6 A7 Dm
…on my naked heart.