Sean MacLeod is an Irish musician, songwriter, composer and author. A founding member of Dublin band Cisco, he has pursued a solo career combining melodic songwriting with experimental and microtonal music. His work is influenced by Plato, Goethe and Rudolf Steiner, as well as artists such as The Beatles, David Bowie and The Smiths.
Sean is the author of several books on popular music and culture, including Leaders of the Pack, Phil Spector: Sound of the Sixties and Behind the Wall of Illusion: The Religious, Occult and Esoteric Worlds of the Beatles. He also writes short fiction. His music and writing explore consciousness, identity, nature, transformation and the relationship between the individual and the wider world.
The lyrics submitted here are from Sean’s latest album, That’s When the Earth Becomes a Star, which brings these musical, literary and philosophical interests together.

Inside Out

Liquidation of the individual
Commodification that has no use
You take this bread
You turn it to stone
God, he ain’t dead, just turned into stone
Numbers dictate what we’ve bought and sold
Now there’s no authority
So
LOOK OUT
Neither Inside or out

The feeling’s the same
The illusion is real
Who is to blame
If its lost its appeal
Abstract exchange
Consumer demands

Now there’s no authority
So
LOOK OUT
Neither Inside or out

Do you know who you are?
Do you know how you feel?
Do you know what to think?
Do you think that you are free?
Are you happy or are you sad?
Are you good or are you bad?
Is your time running out?
Time constrain us all.

Affirmations are all that’s left
Corporations, integral theft
Take care of your self
Become your own brand
Gods of the past
They dig the new bands
Why is this art so hard to understand
Now there’s no authority
So
LOOK OUT
Neither Inside or out

You got me inside out
You turn me inside out.

Let the Light In

So the day begins
You feel you’ve got nothing left to give
Weighed down by so many things
But still you struggle just to live
But forget them sad ole stories
But made up with all your glory, you
You might just feel inspired

Sometimes you laugh
Sometimes you cry
Sometimes you never
know the reason why
You’ve got to let the light in

Sometimes your off
Sometimes your on
Sometimes you don’t know
Where it all went wrong
You’ve got to let the light in

You’ve got to let the light in
That’s where we begin
You’ve got to let the light in

When all’s been said and done
But still you’ve got a
Distance left to run
There’s an invisible sun
That gives its warmth
To everyone

When every day’s the same
A silent voice
Calls out your name
In the name of love
You keep on

Sometimes you laugh
Sometimes you cry
Sometimes you never
know the reason why
You’ve got to let the light in

Sometimes your off
Sometimes your on
Sometimes you don’y know
Where it all went wrong
You’ve got to let the light in

You’ve got to let the light in
That’s how we’re gonna win
You’ve got to let the light in

You’ve got to let the
You’ve got to let the light in.

Who Unchained the Earth from the Sun

Who Unchained the Earth from the Sun
Who Unchained the Earth from the Sun
I was not the one
Who Unchained the Earth from the Sun

O save my soul
Resounding sound
Infinite treble
The stars sing out
From up above
To inner tones that
Can transform the soul
For love

Who Unchained the Earth from the Sun
Who Unchained the Earth from the Sun
I was not the one
Who Unchained the Earth from the Sun

O self-creative
Nature of mine
Senselessly lifted
Out from the world
That splits in two
Silent the Nightman
Creates himself
Whole and new

Who Unchained the Earth from the Sun
Who Unchained the Earth from the Sun
I was not the one
Who Unchained the Earth from the Sun

Illuminate

The light it strikes the dark
And there creates a spark
Colours bursting forth with life
Suffering love, a love in strife

No time for separation
No talk of fragmentation
Just one authentic whole
Just one living soul

Primary quantity
Distinct from quality
Distorts the integrity
Of Nature’s living
Breathing Soul
Is immediacy
Not a reality
All at once a living whole
One authentic soul

Illuminate, Illuminate
The colours are not separate
Resonate, all resonates
All thoughts together
Co-create our world

The light it strikes the dark
And there creates a spark
Colours bursting forth with life
Suffering love a love in strife
No time for separation

No talk of fragmentation
Just one authentic whole
Just one living soul

Analyse, don’t analyse
Prone to intellectualise
Sensitise, desensitised
All will change before your eyes

Rationalise, don’t rationalise
Logic’s truth is well disguised
Mechanise, all mechanised
No hidden world that hides inside itself

Sun within
Stone without
Seeds of love
Seeds of doubt

Sun within
Stone without

Goodbye

Goodbye, my beautiful
We’ll always think about you every day
Our guiding light that always lit the way is gone.

Goodbye, my darling one
Can we accept the fact that you have gone?
No longer hear the sweetness of your song
No more.

And as the sun begins to die
A brighter one fills up the sky
Streaming light into our eyes
Don’t you see it?
Don’t you see it?

Some transformation taking place
In some new time
In some new place
Something bigger we must face
Oh, believe it
Do you believe it?
Can you believe it now?

Goodbye, the time has come
Time comes to take away all that we love
All that we understand again

And from the ashes there will rise
A new phoenix see him fly
Into our hearts and into our minds
Don’t you see it?
Don’t you see it?

Something’s gone without a trace
Something else for us to taste
Something new that we must face
Oh, believe it
Do you believe it?
Can you believe it now?

Goodbye.

Album: That’s When the Earth Becomes a Star
To listen: https://seantmacleod.bandcamp.com/album/thats-when-the-earth-becomes-a-star-2