The Crane Wife 3

The Island

1. Come and See

There.s an island hidden in the sound
Lapping currents lay your boat aground
Affix your barb and bayonet
The curlews carve their arabesques
And sorrow fills the silence all around
Come and see

There.s a harbor lost within the reeds
A jetty caught in overhanging trees
Among the bones of cormorants
No boot-mark here nor fingerprint
The rivers roll down to a soundless sea
Come and see

Chorus:
The tides all come and go witnessed by no waking eye
The willows mark the wind
And all we know for sure amidst this fading light
We.ll not go home again
Come and see

In the lowlands, nestled in the heath
A briar-cradle rocks its babe to sleep
Its contents watched by Sycorax and Patagon in parallax
A foretold rumbling sounds below the deep
Come and see

Chorus

2. The Landlord.s Daughter

As I was a-ramble down by the water
I spied in sable the landlord.s daughter

I produced my pistol, then my saber
Said, .Make no whistle or thou will be murdered!.

She cursed, she shivered, she cried for mercy
.My gold and silver if thou will release me!.

.I.ll take no gold, miss.  I.ll take no silver.
But I.ll take those sweet lips and thou will deliver!.

3. You.ll Not Feel the Drowning

I will dress your eyelids
W. dimes upon your eyes
Lay you close to water
Green your grave will rise

Go to sleep now, little ugly
Go to sleep now, you little fool
Forty winking in the belfry
You.ll not feel the drowning
You.ll not feel the drowning

Forget you once had sweethearts

They.ve forgotten you
Think you not on parents
They.ve forgotten too

Chorus

Hear you now the captain
Heave his sorrow.d cry
The weight upon your eyelids
Is dimes laid on your eyes

Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)

Soldier: Heart carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind

Girl: Far from the hills and the sea-swaled Carolinas
That.s where my true love lies

Soldier: Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bow high

Girl: But you are in the ground with the wolves and the weevils
All a-chew on your bones so dry

Chorus:
But when the sun breaks to no more bullets in Battlecreek
Then will you make a grave? For I will be home then
I will be home then.

Girl: When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in

Soldier: And there at the fair when our eyes caught, careless,
Got my heart right pierced by a pin

Soldier: But O did you see all the dead of Manassas
All the bellies and the bones and the bile?

Girl: No, I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child

Chorus:

Soldier: And stems and bones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you
This skein of skin is all too few
To keep me from you

Soldier and Girl: But O my love though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind

O Valencia!

You belong to the gang
And you say you can.t break away
But I.m here with my hands
On my heart

Our families can.t agree
I.m your brother.s sworn enemy
But I.d shout out my love
To the stars

Pre-chorus:
So await for the stone on your window, your window
I.ll await by the car and we.ll go, we.ll go

When first we laid eyes
I swore to no compromise
.Til I felt my caress
On your skin

How soon we were betrayed!
Your sister gave us away
And your father came all
Unhinged

Pre-chorus
Chorus:
But O Valencia!
With your blood still warm on the ground
Valencia!

And I swear to the stars I.ll burn this whole city down

All I heard was the shout
Of your brother calling me out
And you ran like a fool
To my side

Well, the shot it hit hard
And your frame went limp in my arms
And an oath of love
Was your dying cry

Pre-chorus
Chorus

The Perfect Crime #2

Sing, muse, of the passion of the pistol
Sing, muse, of the warning by the whistle
A night so dark in the waning
A dawn obscured by a slate-sky raining

Five and twenty burglars by the reservoir
A teenage lookout on the signal tower
The mogul.s daughter in hog-tie
The mogul fingers the wrong guy, all right

Chorus:
It was the perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect crime

The bagman.s quaking at the fingers
The hand-off glance a little lingers
A well-dressed man in the crosshairs
A shot rings out from somewhere upstairs

Chorus

It was like a ticker-tape parade
When the plastique on the safe was blown away
And we all gazed from eye to eye
As we mouthed our silent goodbyes

The valley.s sleeping like a bastard
It stinks of slumbering disaster
Two words are spoke on the tap-wire
The agents. ploy finds a sure-fire backfire

Chorus

When The War Came

With all the grain of Babylon
To cultivate, to make us strong
And hidden here behind the walls
Our shoulders wide and timber long
.til the war came
.til the war came

A terrible autonomy
Has grafted on to you and me
Our trust put in the government
They told their lies as heaven-sent
.til the war came
.til the war came

And the war came with a curse and a caterwaul
And the war came with all the poise of a cannonball
And they.re picking out our eyes by coal and candlelight
When the war came, the war came hard.

We made our oath to Vavilov
We.d not betray the solanum
The acres of asteraceae
To our own pangs of starvation
When the war came
When the war came

Chorus

With all the grain of Babylon
With all the grain of Babylon

Shankill Butchers

The Shankill Butchers ride tonight
You better shut your windows tight
They.re sharpening their cleavers and their knives
And taking all their whiskey by the pint

.Cause everybody knows
If you don.t mind your mother.s words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from you curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers want to catch you awake

They used to be just like me and you
They used to be sweet little boys
But something went horribly askew
Now killing is their only source of joy

Chorus

The Shankill Butchers on the rise
They.re waiting .til the dead of night
They.re picking at their fingers with their knives
And wiping off their cleavers on their thighs

Chorus

Summersong

Rambling, where to begin?
I tasted summer on your peppery skin
Been saved, the warm of the waves
I felt a slip into a watery grave

My girl, linen and curls
Lips parting like a flag all unfurled
She.s grand, the bend of her hand
Digging deep into the sweep of the sand

And summer arrives with a length of light
And summer blows away and quietly gets swallowed by a wave

Waylaid, the din of the day
Boats bobbing in the blue of the bay
In deep, far beneath
All the dead sailors slowly slipping to sleep

The Crane Wife 1 & 2

It was a cold night and the snow lay .round
I pulled my coat tight against the falling down
And the sun was all
The sun was all down

I am a poor man, I haven.t wealth nor fame
I have my two hands and a house to my name
And the winter.s so
The winter.s so long

But all the stars were crashing .round
As I laid eyes on what I found

It was a white crane, it was a helpless thing
On a red stain with an arrow in its wing
And it called and cried
It called and cried so

Chorus

And how I helped her and how I dressed her wounds
And how I held her beneath the rising moon
.Til she stood to fly
She stood to fly away

My crane wife, my crane wife

My crane wife
Arrived at my door in the moonlight
All star-bright and tongue-tied
I took her in

We were married
And bells rang sweet for our wedding
And our bedding was ready
When we fell in

Chorus:
Sound the keening bell
And see it.s painted red
Soft as fontanel
The feathers in the thread
When all I ever meant to do was to keep you
My crane wife

We were poorly
Our fortunes fading hourly
And how she vowed me
She could bring it back

But I was greedy
I was vain and I forced her to weaving
On cold loom in closed room
With down wove

Chorus

There.s a bend in the wind and it rakes at my heart
There is blood in the thread and it rakes at my heart
Rakes at my heart

Sons And Daughters

When we arrive, sons and daughters
We.ll make our homes on the water
We.ll build our walls of aluminum
We.ll fill our mouths with cinnamon

These currents pull us .cross the border
Steady your boats arm to shoulder
.Til tides all pull our hull aground
Making this calm harbor now home

Take up your arms, sons and daughters
We will we arise from the bunkers
By land, by sea, by dirigible
We.ll leave our tracks untraceable

Hear all the bombs, they fade away
Hear all the bombs, they fade away

After The Bombs

After the Bombs

And after the bombs subside
And this long, low campaign
Calls it good for the night

Will we meet in the streets
Will we meet in the bar’s cold light?
When we grip at our hands
Will we hold just a little tight?

After the bombs
After the bombs
Subside

And after the rockets calm
And the glimmer of fire
Portends an early dawn

Will we pinch at our skin
While we wonder how we
Escaped harm?

We forget all our trials
All there
In our baby’s arms?

After the rockets
After the rockets
Calm

Then we’ll go dancing
Won’t we go dancing
Yes we’ll go dancing

‘Till it all
Starts over again

Culling Of The Fold

Cut him up, boy
You’ve got to cut him up, boy.
He’s a wicked disgrace,
And he said it to your face
You better cut him up boy.

Take by the teeth,
Get him down on his knees,
With your hands all shaking,
That’ll teach him how to take it,
Gotta cut him up, boy.
(And how…)

Ply her heart with gold and silver.
Take your sweetheart down to the river.
Dash her on the paving stones,
It may break your heart to break her bones,
But someone’s got to do the culling of the fold.

Cut him up, girl.
Really cut him up girl
He lives by himself,
In a hole in a wall
You’ve got to cut him up, girl.

You can take him in a stitch,
Dump his body in a ditch
Leave his limbs all naked,
That’ll teach him how to take it,
Better cut him up girl.
(And how…)

Chorus

Listen up boy,
And listen up girl.
It’s a shallow little trench,
And it’s giving off a stench.
It’s a shallow little world.

Feeling down in the face,
Could you use a little space?
When the radio crackles,
And the in-laws cackle
Better cut ’em up boy,
And cut ’em up, girl.

Hurdles Even Here

So it started in your ovaries
A stone, a seedling
Our bones entwined
A warning from the orderlies
A bulge for bleeding
This will take it’s time

So it all ran down the telephone
And saw me clearly
Only nine years old
Calmly cast in styrofoam
In my Tony Llamas
When the shock takes hold

Mom, there are hurdles here
That I cannot seem to clear
Dad, there are demons ’round
I know I said that I
Said I’d be all right, I lied
I lied
I lied
I lied

So fix your brood and belly now
Til your sinews sweeten
And your veins retire
It’ll eat you from the inside out
Until it comes out screaming
Until it all falls away

Dad, there are hurdles here
That I cannot seem to clear
Mom, there are demons ’round
And though I said that I
Said I’d be all right, I lied
I lied
I lied
I lied

The Perfect Crime #1 / The Day I Knew You’d Not Come Back

I got a gun, I got a girl
I got a bullet-proof plan to pull
The perfect crime
I got the perfect crime

I got a warehouse down at the docks
I got fifteen precincts of cops bought
The perfect crime
I got the perfect crime

You got to get your clock locked
Get your stopwatch synchronized
You got to get it so you can’t put a pin through your alibi
To pull the perfect crime
To pull the perfect crime

I got a guy bought on the inside
I got a night guard gagged and hog-tied
The perfect crime
This is the perfect crime

I got a brain, I got a brawn
I got all the proper papers for the gendarmes
The perfect crime
C’est ç the perfect crime

I got the mob boss bought
I got a letter from the DEA
I got a mock-up of the lockup
Where they stock up on their pocket change
To pull the perfect crime
This is the perfect crime

We hit a snag when we tripped the alarm
Because the dock side spics had been tipped off in time
To this perfect crime

Called out the dogs, called out the cops
I caught the deputy ops
In a cold cock. I will do time
For this perfect crime

So we ran around town with the cops snapping on our tails
Because we’d rather brave death then a fist-fuck in county jail
Just for the perfect crime
For the perfect crime
This is the perfect crime

—

The day I knew you’d not come back
I made this castle out of glass
But I could never understand
Where the windows and walls began and end
I built this colonnade of sand
Stretched out like fingers from my hand
But with the waves coming in
In the morning I had to build again

After The Bombs – Early Take

Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) (Alternate Take with Alela Diane)

Culling of the Fold (Alternate Take with Sean Nelson)

Hurdles Even Here (Full Band Take)

The Perfect Crime #2 (Early Take)

The Island – Come and See / The Landlord’s Daughter / You’ll Not Feel the Drowning (Home Demo)

O Valencia! (Home Demo)

The Perfect Crime #2 (Home Demo)

Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) (Home Demo with Carson Ellis)

The Capp Street Girls (Home Demo)

Culling Of The Fold (Home Demo)

Hurdles Even Here (Home Demo)

Shankill Butchers (Home Demo)

Summersong (Home Demo)

The Day I Knew You’d Not Come Back (Home Demo)

The Perfect Crime #1 (Home Demo)

The Crane Wife 1, 2 & 3 (Home Demo)

Sons & Daughters (Home Demo)