From the recording Never Look Back
I wrote this song when I was leaving a place and set of people I loved to remind me not to look back. But the song wrote itself and told me that you will always look back occasionally, however much you tell yourself not to.
Lyrics
Never Look Back
In Bb (NB Capo on 3rd fret, play in G = chords in brackets)
Verse 1
Bb(G) Gm(Em) Eb(C) F(D)
I once loved a girl her hair it was black,
Bb(G) Gm(Em) Eb(C) F(D)
Her skin was as pale as the moonshine on rocks
Bb(G) Gm(Em) Eb(C) F(D)
She never lifted her eyes to mine
Bb(G) Gm(Em) Eb(C) F(D)
And so I have drifted like foam on the tide
Chorus
Eb(C) Cm(Am) Bb(G) F(D)
And I’ve spent too long pacing the deck
Eb(C) Cm(Am) Bb(G) F(D)
Battered and cold when the wild winds attack
Eb(C) Cm(Am) Bb(G) F(D)
And time as she goes is hauling in slack
Eb(C) Cm(Am) Bb(G) F(D)
And everyone knows you should never look back
Verse 2
The day I set sail I thought I’d be free/ But the ship left a trail to the empty quay
And no one was waving her shawl for me/ Just a lonely dark figure gazing out to sea
Verse 3
There’s a far away land where the fruit tastes so sweet
And the sun burns the sand under your feet
And dusky young girls hold out their hands
But I shunned their comfort walked down to the strand
Middle 8
Ab(F) Eb(C) Bb(G) Gm(Em)
Oh memory is like the endless sea
Ab(F) Eb(C) F(D)
Oh Lord set me free
Verse 4
And now I have landed the other side of the World
Like a ship that is stranded, like a sail that is furled
The loss of the oceans I’ll not regret/ But that lonely dark figure I’ll never forget
Verse 5
I still love that girl whose hair was so black
Whose skin was as pale as the moonshine on the rocks
Though she never lifted her eyes to mine
My heart has not shifted in the sands of time
Copyright Kevin O'Regan 2010