Devil’s Elbow

We Both Go Down Together

Here on these cliffs of Dover
So high you can’t see over
And while your head is spinning
Hold tight, it’s just beginning

You come from parents wanton
A childhood rough and rotten
I come from wealth and beauty
Untouched by work or duty

And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together

I found you, a tattooed tramp
A dirty daughter from the labour cans
I laid you down on the grass of a clearing
You wept but your soul was willing

And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together

And my parents will never consent to this love
But I hold your hand

Meet me on my vast veranda
My sweet, untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying

And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, oh my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together

Evoking A Campfire Singalong

The Gymnast, High Above The Ground

The gymnast, high above the ground,
Limbers up and falls timbers down.
Ankles splayed and all tied.
The gymnast long has arrived.

Lazy, your long sister lays
Waiting out this long light brigade.
Prayed for snow a long time.
And lazy, it long has arrived.

Through the tarlatan holes
You’ve been slipping, been slipping away
And the weather will hold
It’s been ever so, ever so gray.

But here as we’re coming down
And we’re sounding out:
it’s a terrible, terrible tide
As it lights upon your eye

But there on the motorway,
Reeks of marmalade
It’s a chemical, chemical kind
As it lights upon your eye
Lights upon your eye

The bosun calls upon the quay.
Compass gone, he long has lost his way
To lighthouse shine, to calm tide.
The bosun long has arrived.

Through the tarlatan holes,
You’ve been slipping, been slipping away
And the weather will hold
It’s been ever so, ever so gray

But here as we’re coming down
And we’re sounding out:
it’s a terrible, terrible tide
As it lights upon your eye

But there on the motorway,
reeks of marmalade
It’s a chemical, chemical kind
As it lights upon your eye
Lights upon your eye

Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect/Dreams

And here I dreamt I was a soldier
And I marched the streets of birkenau
And I recall in spring
The perfume that the air would bring
To the indolent town
Where the barkers call the moon down
The carnival was ringing loudly now
And just to lay with you
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
Save lay my rifle down

And try one, and try two
Guess it always comes down to
Alright, it’s okay, guess it’s better to turn this way

And I am nothing of a builder
But here I dreamt I was an architect
And I built this balustrade
To keep you home, to keep you safe
From the outside world
But the angles and the corners
Even though my work is unparalleled
They never seemed to meet
This structure fell about our feet
And we were free to go

And try one, and try two
Guess it always comes down to
Alright, okay, guess it’s better to turn this way

And here in Spain I am a Spaniard
I will be buried with my marionettes
Countess and courtesan
Have fallen ‘neath my tender hand
When their husbands were not around
But you, my soiled teenage girlfriend
Or are you furrowed like a lioness
And we are vagabonds
We travel without seatbelts on
We live this close to death

And try one, and try two
Guess it always comes down to
Alright, it’s okay, guess it’s better to turn this
But I won, so you lose
Guess it always comes down to
Alright, it’s okay, guess it’s better to turn this way

Dracula’s Daughter

oh
dracula’s daughter
dracula’s daughter
dracula’s daughter got it bad

you think you got it bad
try having dracula for your dad
see how it looks on you

Wonder

A Brief Introduction To Shirley Collins

Barbara Allen

It was round and about last Martinmas tide
When the green leaves were swellin’
That young Jimmy Grove of the West Country
Fell in love with Barb’ry Allen

He sent his men into the town
To the place where she was dwellin’
“Oh will you come to my master, dear,
If your name be Barb’ry Allen?”

And slowly, slowly got she up
And slowly came she nigh him
And all she said when there she came
“Young man, I think you’re dyin'”

“Oh, yes, I’m sick, I’m very sick
Indeed I think I’m dyin’
But a word from you would revive me again
Oh lovely Barb’ry Allen”

“Do you recall, young man,” she said,
“When the red wine you were spillin’,
How you made the ladies’ health go round
And you slighted Barb’ry Allen?”

And death is printed on his face
And all his heart is stealin’
And again he cried as she left his side
“Hard-hearted Barb’ry Allen!”

As she was goin’ over the field
She heard the death bells tollin’
And every sound that death bell gave:
“Hard-hearted Barb’ry Allen!”

“Oh mother, mother make me a bed
Oh make it soft and narrow
Since Jimmy died for me today
I’ll die for him tomorrow”

The Engine Driver

I’m an engine driver
On a long run, on a long run
Would I work beside her
She’s a long one, such a long one

And if you don’t love me let me go
And if you don’t love me let me go

I’m a country lineman
On a high line, on a high line
So will be my grandson
There are power-lines in our bloodlines

And if you don’t love me let me go
And if you don’t love me let me go

And I am a writer, writer of fictions
I am the heart that you call home
And I’ve written pages upon pages
Trying to rid you from my bones
My bones
My bones

I’m a money lender
I have fortunes upon fortunes
Take my hand for tender
I am tortured, ever tortured

And if you don’t love me let me go
And if you don’t love me let me go

And I am a writer, writer of fictions
I am the heart that you call home
And I’ve written pages upon pages
Trying to rid you from my bones
I am a writer, I am all that you have home
Home
And I’ve written pages upon pages
Trying to rid you from my bones
My bones
My bones

(And if you don’t love me let me go)
And if you don’t love me let me go
(And if you don’t love me let me go)
And if you don’t love me let me go

On The Bus Mall

In matching blue raincoats,
Our shoes were our show boats
We kicked around.
From stairway to station
We made a sensation
With the gadabout crowd.
And oh, what a bargain,
We.re two easy targets
For the old men at the off-tracks,
Who.ve paid in palaver
And crumpled old dollars,
Which we squirreled away
In our rat trap hotel by the freeway.
And we slept-in Sundays.

Your parents were anxious,
Your cool was contagious
At the old school.
You left without leaving
A note for your grieving
Sweet mother, while
Your brother was so cruel.
And here in the alleys
Your spirits were rallied
As you learned quick to make a fast buck.
In bathrooms and barrooms,
On dumpsters and heirlooms,
We bit our tongues.
Sucked our lips into our lungs
’til we were falling.
Such was our calling.

And here in our hollow we fuse like a family,
But I will not mourn for you.
So take up your makeup
And pocket your pills away.
We.re kings among runaways
On the bus mall.
We.re down
On the bus mall.

Among all the urchins and old Chinese merchants
Of the old town,
We reigned at the pool hall
With one iron cue ball
And we never let the bastards get us down.
And we laughed off the quick tricks–
the old men with limp dicks–
On the colonnades of the waterfront park.
As 4 in the morning came on, cold and boring,
We huddled close
In the bus stop enclosure enfolding.
Our hands tightly holding.

But here in our hollow we fuse like a family,
But I will not mourn for you.
So take up your makeup
And pocket your pills away.
We.re kings among runaways
On the bus mall.
We.re down
On the bus mall.
We.re down
On the bus mall.
Down on the bus mall.
oh ooh oh

A Skull, A Ship, And A Sheep

California One/Youth And Beauty Brigade/Ask

Take a long drive with me
On California one, California one
Take a long drive with me
On California one, California one…

And the road a-winding goes
From golden gate to roaring cliff-side
And the light is softly low as our hearts Become sweetly untied
Beneath the sun of California one

Take a long drown with me of California Wine

And the wine it tastes so sweet
As we lay our eyes to wander
And the sky, it stretches deep

Will we rest our heads to slumber Beneath the vines of California wine?
Beneath the sun of California one

Annabelle lies, sleeps with quiet eyes
On this sea-drift sun
What can you do?
And if I said, O it’s in your head
On this sea-drift sun
What can you do?

We’re calling all bed wetters and ambulance chasers
Poor picker-pockets, bring ’em in
Come join the youth and beauty brigade

We’re lining up the light-loafere’d
And the bored bench warmers
Castaways and cutouts, fill it up
Come join the youth and beauty brigade
Nothing will stand in our way

I figured I had paid my debt to society
By paying my overdue fines at the mulnoma county library, at the library
They said ‘son, go join up
Go join the youth and beauty brigade’

Nothing will stand in our way

The Bachelor And The Bride

There’s a wrinkle in the water
where we laid our first daughter
And I think the wind blows so sweetly there
Over there
And the windows and the cinders
And the willows in the timbers
The infernal rattling of the rain
still remains

“But I” said the bachelor to the bride
“Am not waiting for tonight.
No, I will box your ears
and leave you here stripped bare.”

Hear the corncrakes and the deerhooves
And the sleet rain on the slate roof
A medallion locked inside her hand
in her hand
And his fingers are they telling
of the barren of her belly
And his callouses cure her furrowed brow
even now

“But I,” said the bachelor to the bride
“am not waiting for tonight.
No, I will box your ears
and leave you here stripped bare.”

“But I,” said the bachelor to the bride
“am not waiting for tonight.
No, I will box your ears
and take your tears
and leave you, leave you here
stripped bare.”

A Cautionary Song

There’s a place your mother goes when everybody else is soundly sleeping
Through the lights of beacon street
And if you listen you can hear her weeping,
She’s weeping, cause the gentlemen are calling
And the snow is softly falling on her petticoats.
And she’s standing in the harbour
And she’s waiting for the sailors in the jolly boat.
See how they approach

With dirty hands and trousers torn they grapple ’til she’s safe within their keeping
A gag is placed between her lips to keep her sorry tongue from any speaking, or screaming
And they row her out to packets where the sailor’s sorry racket calls for maidenhead
And they’re scarce above the gunwales when her clothes fall to a bundle and she’s laid in bed on the upper deck

And so she goes from ship to ship, her ankles clasped, her arms so rudely pinioned
‘Til at last she’s satisfied the lost of the marina’s teeming minions, and their opinions

And they tell her not to say a thing to cousin, kindred, kith or kin or she’ll end up dead
And they throw her thirty dollars and return her to the harbour where she goes to bed, and this is how your fed

So be kind to your mother, though she may seem an awful bother, and the next time she tries to feed you collard greens, Remember what she does when you’re asleep

Red Right Ankle

This is the story of your red right ankle
And how it came to meet your leg
And how the muscle bone and sinews tangled
And how the skin was softly shed
And how it whispered,
“Oh, adhere to me for we are bound by symmetry
And whatever differences our lives have been
We together make a limb”
This is the story of your red right ankle

This is the story of your gypsy uncle
You never knew cause he was dead
And how his face was carved an ripped with wrinkles
In the picture in your head
And remember how you found the key
To his hide-out in the Pyrenees,
But you wanted to keep his secret safe,
So you threw the key away?
This is the story of your gypsy uncle

This is the story of the boys who loved you
Who love you now and loved you then
And some were sweet and some were cold and snuffed you
And some just layed around in bed
And some, they crumbled you straight to your knees
Did it cruel, did it tenderly
Some they crawled their way into your heart
To rend your ventricles apart
This is the story of the boys who loved you
This is the story of your red right ankle

Bandit Queen