These songs started out as "Campfire Songs" and then evolved into something else. The focus was on the words and to keep the guitar chords simple, so that anyone could strum along. I think they are honest and simple. I hope you enjoy a few of them.

All songs written and performed by Sean Mugan.
(Except for "Helpless" wihich is a Neil Young cover)

Special Thanks to:
Murray Fergusson - multi-tracked violin on "Mule", "Tooth and Claw" and "Sad Song".
Luciana Zogbi - vocals on "You do My Head In" and "Helpless"
Ana Mugan - vocals on "Bumble Bee"


Leaves form Trees I Can't Recall

My eyes have seen the come and go
Of days of fortune, days of woe
But them’s been portioned evenly
So to my grave I justly go

My hands have touched the tender skin
Of wife and love and children
And all the years of safe routine
Have led me to this dignity

My ears have sensed the rise and fall
Of trends and men and mountains tall
But all these ghosts are blown away
Like leaves from trees I can’t recall

My heart has pumped a trillion times
And now she wants to close her eyes
And dream a dream outside of time
When I was yours and you were mine


Lackluster

One of those dogs is out there barking
One of my lungs is caught up coughing
One of them nights I keep recalling
One of my children’s up to something

Some of my mind is clumped in clusters
All of my heart is still 'a-flutter

All of my days are caught up running
One of the ways I keep from wondering
Some of myself has declared mutiny
All of my ways derive from preset codes in my brain
Much of my time is spent lackluster
All of these things have become clutter
Throw them away


To Hell With You

The lord in the sky and I
We aint never seen eye to eye
We never been close and that’s why I suppose
I’m going to hell when I die

The man in the church and myself
Read different books from the shelf
He’s sure of the word, as I am the absurd
And that’s why I’m going to burn

The wind in the trees and me
Are chums about as close as could be
She ain’t never said where to rest my head
And her leaves and hair are the colour of fire


Mule

Last night you told me to choose
”It’s me or the bottle, you can’t have the two”
So I thought long and hard about the love in my heart
And I toasted to somebody new

You can’t blame the mule for his ways
Like you can’t fault the sun for the day
You loved me like this before we got hitched
You’re trying to change me in vain

This morning you asked me to leave
So I gave you a kiss on the cheek
I said my farewell and how my heart for you still swells
I moseyed myself down the street


You Do My Head In

You do my head in all the time
You drive me crazy but you’re mine
After the 12 long years it’s been
You’re still the prettiest thing I ever seen
I spend my time in bars and shame
You watch the news with chilled Champaign

Your tastes run French along the Siene
I microwave away my pain
Your skin is like café ou lait
You smell like fine Paresian eau de toilette

And you still catch me when I stare
At your thin neck, your thick black hair
I just can’t help it what can I say
I hope to kiss your eyes until my dying day


Vowels

Had a chance but then I missed it
Should'a faced ‘em double fisted
My my my my, my phone’s no longer listed
Could'a been the blended whiskey
Last night is cloaked in mystery
I I I I and me, not us and you
Had a scar but then you kissed
Star shot we double wished it
Try as I might there’s no escape from you
Deflect the direct question
No doubt I’ve learned my lesson
y y y y and a e i o u

Come come the day when you forget about the past
Find find my way through your vowels and consonance
Come come and stay in my hearty paragraph
We’ve hit halfway and there’s no more looking back


Bumble Bee

What came from my father will go to my son
The pull from the moon affects everyone
In time and space
The whole damned place
Is caught in a flutter of the wind from a wing
Of a bumble bee, la de da dee

The mighty oak tree grew from the small seed
The grass in the graveyard is long and it’s green
And the light from the stars
Like the love in your eyes
is fleeting like the flutter of the wind from a wing
of a bumble bee, la de da dee

What name can we give it, ask poets of weight
While light men of science hold heated debate
As it spirals and it spins
Back to where it begins
Like the yang in the yin from the wind of a wing
Of a bumble bee, la de da dee


Sad Song

I ain’t never had a dog that died
Never been spit on by my ex-wife
Never stalled my truck on the train tracks
Never lost the shirt from off my back
But I ain’t never ever even owned a dog
Never even had a wife to get spit from
I ride nothing but the city bus
And I’ve got a cleaning service to press my shirts
So I ain’t got much to go upon
Cause I ain’t lived enough to feel what’s gone
But one of these days I’m gonna lose it all
And have me good reason to sing this song

Tooth and Claw

Imagery like birds and trees and falling leaves and everything
like mountain peaks and snowy sheep
like farmer’s fields and plows of steel
like bones in graves and ocean waves
like tooth and claw like hands and paws and bugs that bite
a moonless night
like gravity and symmetry
like random chance the fire dance
of shadows cast from the deep past
like rocks and sand a fearful hand and everything and everything