1. |
The Fall of Saigon
03:48
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It was the fall of Saigon
I was looking for a copy of the New York Times
To keep as a gift for my kids when I am gone
Just to prove I had some fun
They built the hydrogen bomb
I checked the weather over coffee
I’ve been feeling fine
Made tracks across the water just to prove it can be done
Never meant to hurt no one
And I’m worried I’ve been losing sight
Confused the TV screen for firelight
These are the things that keep me up at night
While I am safe and warm
And I’m ready to give up the fight
I’ve got a silent bark and toothless bite
It’s so much easier to run and hide
And shelter from the storm
A fourteen year old boy with a gun
Shoots the sky in sycophantic syncopation
The music of misinformation
I tap my toes along to that most lucrative song
They put the whole world in the palm of my hand
So I squeezed a little tighter
Just to let you know the chaos now is under my control
And what great fun
To put the squeeze on everyone
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2. |
Terms of Surrender
04:19
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If I die now
At least there’s a guitar in my hands
Though I never made the big time
And I broke up the band
And all of my songs are derivative and bland
At least I’ll be going out singing
If I die now
At least I have holes in my shoes
Though I never won the heart
Of a lover with my moves
And I never quite managed to get in the groove
At least I’ll be going out dancing
People like me aren’t destined to be the contenders
It’s all too tough for someone so timid and tender
When you ask what good it’s for
When we’ll never win the war
I’ll negotiate the terms of my surrender
If I die now
At least I’ve a story to tell
Though it starts sad and slow
And it doesn’t end well
The part of the hunchback just might ring a bell
But at least I’ll be going out swinging
If I die now
At least I’ve left tracks in the sand
That they’ll say of me
There was a rambling man
Though I never did cover too much of this land
At least I tried to keep moving
People like me aren’t destined to be the contenders
It’s all too real for such a persistent pretender
When you ask what good it’s for
When we’ll never win the war
I’ll negotiate the terms of my surrender
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3. |
Bone Town
04:42
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In this town
Since they closed the last factories down
I have been haunted by visions
And grave apparitions of you
A true rock and roller
Where the dogs don’t bark
At the car alarm noise anymore
There is a house
With a room
With your name in a heart on the floor
Reliving histories
A glass raised in toast to the dead drunk
Told stories so charming he choked on his own silver tongue
And I don’t believe we will see his likes again
But I’m proud to have walked on this earth the same time as him
In the ground
Where the soil and the sod keep us bound
I have been burying hatchets
Deep under the ashes
Where you once turned to cinder
Between nicotine yellow florets
On the living room wall
There is a photo of you and my old man
Preparing for war
Unrecognisable
A glass raised in toast to the dead drunk
Come back from California still singing that old Irish song
You will find him propping up the bar
With all the might of crooked plough and pilot star
In peculiar discourse on regret and remorse
As the end of our abstinence nears
There is a sad strange refrain
When you mention the name
Of a kid I’ve not thought of in years
It’s a lonely walk home ‘til the rain turns to snow
And we know it’s not just snowing here
There’s a vast blanket of white
Wraps the dead and alive
Til the whole goddamn world disappears
And the preachers keep telling me that I should feel blessed
For being in receipt of a whole host of gifts must’ve been misaddressed
And what use is music and song
When all that I hear is the sound of rattling bones
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4. |
Consonants
05:32
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O, Melusine! My serpent queen
Return to me
We can whisper through cracks in the wall
Play at Pyramus and Thisbe
And such things I would tell you
Such terrible unshapely things
I miss the lips I never kissed
The lies composed at your fingertips
The coil of your tail and the crush of your hips
The very sum of earthly bliss
In your big doe eyes are the ocean
In which I would happily drown
And after the nuclear fallout
I’ll come running
We’ll hunker down
Ondine Ondine
On the tide return to me
For though I’ve little much to offer
How I would love you with a fervour
How I might just boil over
At the page
At the pain
At the consonants in your name
I miss the mist that bellows from your lips
The heave of your breast and the pulse at your wrist
Your lithium kiss and your wrought iron fist
The very sum of earthly bliss
Love of mine are you still human
Or all my desires in tangible form
For even if you were the raindrops
I’ll forever
Be chasing the storm
The thought of him beneath your bedclothes
Like the merchants in the temple
If only you would let me worship
To give my tongue in exhalation
And all things broken and uncomely
We can rebuild
We can rebuild
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5. |
Painted Horses
04:49
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In the coffee shops of Amsterdam
Full blooded Anglo-Saxon men
Vomit and shout
They’re slaves unto their culture
While in Birdholme Working Men’s Club
Stands the only girl I have ever loved
She’s draining suds from her husband’s half of porter
I am wide-eyed
A lamb to the slaughter
In some piss-stain room off Boythorpe Road
Talking in code down borrowed phones
All the rest is overload
And I’m losing focus
‘Til someone calls another round
And a short one more to wash it down
There’s no need to be nervous now
We’re in this together
It was so good for so long
Nothing lasts forever
It was only once I’d returned to my senses
Did I realise you were always at the centre
We were all just painted horses going round
So the Artex ceiling drips its stalactites
While the smoke crawls through the window into night
Once the priest delivers sacrament
The coroner scrawls accident
We’ll carry on
The world must keep on turning
‘Til all that’s left are souvenirs
The only proof you were ever here
And the loose change in my pocket is money for burning
God knows I feel old now
There’s so much I’m still learning
Alone astride the carousel
Rich tapestry or living hell
The only constant is the changing of the seasons
But I believe in Herrmann Hesse
In Gustav Klimt and Joan Baez
I believe we must be put here for a reason
I’d unlock the secrets
But can’t get the key in
Then how shall I articulate this grief
With the romance of a poet
Or the honour of a thief
The things we treasure most we cannot keep
I’ll miss you old friend but I will not weep
We begin again
When we go to sleep
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6. |
Little Light
05:29
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The bells the bells
Must they haunt me
Each and every waking hour
Do they toll in remorse or for victory
Who was it gifted them such power
And mother is it true
The poison passes through
Then what will I become
I’ve seen it in the eyes
And heard it in the cries
The unmovement of your sons
Come
Let me in
I won’t bark
I won’t bite
I’m just looking for a little light
To shine on me
Sweet sister I beg you
Forgive me
I know not what I’ve done
When the source of your sorrow is a mystery
Must I always be the solution
And lover is it true
Your red eyes once were blue
Then what have I become
I’ve seen it in the eyes
And heard it in the sighs
I never was the one
Sometimes we all must be somebody new
‘Til midnight strikes and I am myself again
The bells the bells
Must the taunt me
How long now ‘til I succumb
Do they toll for the good man I tried to be
Or this heathen I’ve become
And mother is it true
I learnt these tricks from you
Then what will I become
There’s a rider on the rise
And thunder in the sky
A bugle call
A beating drum
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7. |
Races Run
05:19
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I was four miles I guess
From the nearest Tesco Express
Stoned to the bone
Under duress
Lord would you help me get out of this mess
And back on the straight and narrow
I was put here in jest
To distract and distress
Who the fuck did I think I was trying to impress
Cupid must be blind
Or shortsighted at best
I was hit with somebody else’s arrow
Ain’t you ashamed of what we’ve done
Then again we had some fun
Let’s pass on the baton
Had chances but our race is run
On a cold day in hell
At The Heartbreak Hotel
I asked the king how he kept his command
He said some things you don’t tell
And he simply won’t sell
Not for all of the rhinestones in Graceland
So I payed what I owe
Like some regular Joe
We’d been playing for fortune and fame
But it’s a hard line you toe
And I’ve my own row to hoe
So I reluctantly withdraw from the game
So I got myself smart
Checked the maps and the charts
To see where there’s land left to claim
But I quickly lost heart
Got sent back to the start
To begin it all over again
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8. |
King of the River
05:21
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On gilded ships we met the shore
Some filthy spectre of the sun
And carved the words there on the stone
All of the things we’d left undone
And the heavens hung above us
While we stood on feet of clay
And of this earth we both are made
And Avalon was yours and mine
I used to think that I was king of the river
But now I know
I’m just the ebb and flow
Going nowhere
I am nothing at all
With cruellest winter came decay
My crooked heart now caving in
You were my queen and I your slave
To Aphrodite we gave sin
And the oceans parted for us
While we took an easier way
And of your blood were borne the wolves
And of your bones the borderlines
And Olympus rose before us
While our bodies turned to clay
While in Elysian Fields you dwell
I build my home in Asphodel
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9. |
Hideous Heart
04:29
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I have ought
But a hideous heart
It’s yearning for the ugly love
Of a better half
And a hideous heart
Does little but pine
Receiving no reply
Such is a hideous heart as mine
And a hideous heart
Is battered and bruised
Your fingernails claw
At my open wounds
Please be golden children
Please be everything I’m not
Needs made must
With a terrible lust
Everyone I’ve ever loved
Is turned to dust
And a hideous heart
Knows little but pain
I’ve seen the true face
Of Dorian Grey
And a hideous heart
Is battered and bruised
Your fingernails claw
At my open wounds
You are golden children
You are everything I’m not
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