Back to the Centre

Simply scroll down the page to see all lyrics, or click on the song of your choice below to go to the lyrics for that song.

1. Walk the White Line

2. Wheel of Heartbreak

3. Deep in Your Heart

4. To be the One

5. Follow On

6. The Soulbeat

7. Airwaves

8. The Island

9. The Homes of Donegal

Walk The White Line (Paul Brady)

Here come the footstep, here come that friend of mine
You’d think I’d know by now
Over my shoulder come the familiar line
Keeping me to my vow
Changing the roadsigns, dragging me here and there
Into the den of night
Touching my body, knowing I love the touch
So I don’t know wrong from right
No I don’t know wrong from right

Walk the white line!
Oh, it’s fading away, fading away…

Chorus

Too much needing leave you bleeding inside
Too much wanting bring you pain
When you’re running out of places to hide
Get back to the centre, right back to the centre

You know the story…wanting to feel it all
Out on the streets till dawn
Watching her moving, feeling her eyes on you
Energy burning on
Wanting to have her, believing that’s all it takes
To fill up the empty zone
How will you stand it, now that the feeling’s gone
Leaving you on your own
Leaving you on your own?

Walk the white line!
Oh, it’s fading away
That’s the life line
Oh, it’s fading away…fading away

Wheel Of Heartbreak (Paul Brady)

Who can keep a moonbeam from dancing on the floor…
who can hold a feeling till it’s morning?
Who can stop his lover from loving him no more…
How much do we have to keep on learning?

So much waiting
So much waiting
So much waiting

Chorus

But I don’t mind this hurt I feel
Troubling my soul
Got my shoulder to the wheel of heartbreak
Feel it giving
Feel it give!
Feel it rock ‘n’ roll!
Opening the way for the delivery
Opening the way for the delivery.

Who can keep from wondering just how long is long…
Who can have the nerve to say forever?
Who can find a reason why something right is wrong…
How can we be free yet still together?

So much waiting
So much waiting
So much waiting

Repeat Chorus

Deep In Your Heart (Paul Brady)

The lovers’ hour is here, the night is creeping down
This is the moment you’ve been dreading
Another bar-room in another lonely town
You wish you knew where you were heading

In everyone that you see
You see her
In every dream that could be
You see her, need her tonight

Chorus

You’re feeling the hurt again
It’s always the way
When the arrow goes straight to the mark
But try not to heed the pain
It’s only a gentle reminder
That while you’re apart…she’s still

Deep in your heart, and it’s hurting
Deep in your heart, still hurting

You feel it coming, it’s impossible to bear
The thought of one more night without her
You start imagining her perfume in the air
From every woman round about you

You try to find relief in someone else’s arms
She senses you’re in need of healing
But it would take more than just any woman’s charms
To wash away this empty feeling

In everyone that you see
You see her
In every dream that could be
You see her, need her tonight

Repeat Chorus

To Be The One (Paul Brady)

It happens so easy, in the wink of an eye
The moment you cut the cable
The rest of the world goes drifting by
Leaving you high and dry

Your love was there waiting to slip me the key
It’s just that behind my curtain
Your love wasn’t getting through to me
And setting my spirit free

What started me thinking of changing the plan,
What took me so long to find out
That you only want me as I am?

See how the silence sends it on down to you
Now all you need is to believe it’s true

This lesson is over, this message got through
I’m turning the corner
You know that I’m coming back to you
To be the one I can be

I know you told me but I had to find it out for myself
Oh sweet baby I cried
And when I saw the way I hurt you
Saw the tears in your eyes
But now it’s different cos I’m learning from my past mistakes
And I never make the same one twice
Listen to me when I tell you this is no disguise

See how etc

This lesson etc

Follow On (Paul Brady)

Shutters on the windows, chains upon the door
Sleepless nights spent waiting for an answer
Dreams of heaven falling, panic in the town
Lonely men with fingers on the future…

When all is said and done
You are the only one

Follow on
For the open road is waiting,
Like the song,
We will welcome what tomorrow has to bring
Be it fair or stormy weather
Take my hand
And we’ll walk the road together
I won’t mind
If it turns out that we never find the end
For all I ask is that you want me as a friend

Days of beauty calling, vanish through a haze
Lost inside some spiral with no ending
Still you bring me loving, free me with a touch
Lead me out to greet the calm descending

When all is said and done
You are the only one

Repeat Chorus

The Soulbeat (Paul Brady/ Shea Fitzgerald)

I stood so long outside the doorway to your heart
I tried to reach you
But I couldn’t seem to find the combination
Still something told me that I’d found the right address
And if I stuck around
I’d end up with the missing information

Day after day I wondered if our love was true

Sometimes it gets so hard to love the one you love
Sometimes it takes so long
To hit upon a true communication
Some people turn around, they walk the other way
They want to quit
They want to find themselves a different situation
Day after day I wondered if our love was true
Losing my way each time that I’d come close to you

It takes time
To hear the soulbeat
Ease your mind (it takes time)
To hear the soulbeat

How come a simple thing could be so hard to find?
How could I take so long
To stumble on the key in my posession?
Why should this always be the way it has to be
That when you think you know the answer
Then you find another question?

Day after day I wondered if our love was true
Losing my way each time that I’d come close to you
Wanting to say that you and I would make it through

Repeat Chorus

Airwaves (Paul Brady)

This rhythm gets too hot to handle
Like news that’s too good to be true
You want to get in on the action
And make believe it came from you
And then you start to lift the tempo
Cos who’s got time to hang around?
But in the noise and the confusion
You’re losing contact with the sound

Of the airwaves…
Check the message on the airwaves
All you need is on the airwaves
Don’t let it slip away.

A lover slips into your orbit
To show an easier way through
But like a fool you think her mission
Is to supply the missing parts of you
And then you find she can’t deliver
Your world is turning upside down
And in the noise and the confusion
You’re losing contact with the sound

Of the airwaves…
Check the message on the airwaves
All you need is on the airwaves
Don’t let it slip away.
Time will come
When you and I will be as one
Reaching out
To touch the heart in everyone.

The Island (Paul Brady)

They say the skies of Lebanon are burning
Those mighty cedars bleeding in the heat
They’re showing pictures on the television
Women and children dying in the street
And we’re still at it in our own place
Still trying to reach the future through the past
Still trying to carve tomorrow from a tombstone…

Chorus

But Hey! Don’t listen to me!
This wasn’t meant to be no sad song
We’ve heard too much of that before
Right now I only want to be here with you
Till the morning dew comes falling
I want to take you to the island
And trace your footprints in the sand
And in the evening when the sun goes down
We’ll make love to the sound of the ocean

They’re raising banners over by the markets
Whitewashing slogans on the shipyard walls
Witchdoctors praying for a mighty showdown
No way our holy flag is gonna fall
Up here we sacrifice our children
To feed the worn-out dreams of yesterday
And teach them dying will lead us into glory…

Repeat Chorus

Now I know us plain folks don’t see all the story
And I know this peace and love’s just copping out
And I know these young boys dying in the ditches
Is just what being free is all about
And how this twisted wreckage down on main street
Will bring us all together in the end
And we’ll go marching down the road to freedom…
Freedom

The Homes Of Donegal (Sean Mc Bride/ arranged Paul Brady)

I’ve just dropped in to see you all
I’ll only stay awhile
I want to hear how you’re getting on
I want to see you smile
I’m happy to be back again
And greet you big and small
For there’s no place on earth just like
The homes of Donegal

I long to see your smiling children
Standing by the door
The kettle boiling on the hearth
As I walk up the floor
And then to see a welcome free
For travellers one and all
For your hearts are like your mountains
In the homes of Donegal

I’d like to stay along with you
And while away the night
With fairy lore and tales of yore
Beside the turf fire bright
And then to see laid out for me
A shake-down by the wall
For there’s rest for weary wanderers
In the homes of Donegal

The time has come for me to go
And bid you all adieu
For the open highway calls me back
To do these things I do
But when I’m travelling far away
Your friendship I’ll recall
And please God I’ll soon return unto
The homes of Donegal

Donegal, Pride of all
Donegal, Pride of all