ring of stones

at the... 

end of the 

actual 

day

when the... 

moon pushes 

through the 

sky

we fold 

our bones

round a ring 

of stones

and talk 

across 

a fire

we talk 

across 

a fire

we wonder how - we will get through the snow

we wonder how - we will carry this load

we wonder how - we will build a new home

we wonder how - we will follow this road

oh, go on

we go on

we can do 

nothing else 

but go on

oh, go on

we go on

and we sing

while we walk

a walking song 

till the... 

end of the 

actual 

day

when the... 

moon pushes 

through the 

sky

we fold 

our bones

round a ring 

of stones

and talk 

across 

a fire

remember how - we would lie in the grass

remember how - we would play by the shore

remember how - we would watch the day pass

remember how - we wanted nothing more


[[ nomads, refugees, wanderers  ]]

in this land

in this land

the frost is climb higher

in this land

no time to build a fire

in this land

we shun the gift of sight

in this land

we are the ghost at night

in this land

we have a heart of ice

in this land

we eat the sacrifice

[[ call and response ]]

she will turn the moon around

one touch, she will turn your wine to vinegar
one touch, she will wither the crop in your field
one touch, she will tumble the fruit from your trees

a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around
a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around

one look, she will smoke the image in your mirror
one look, she will dull the edge of your razor
one look, she will crumble your iron and brass

a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around
a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around

do not let her
draw the water
from your well

she will drive
the bees from your hive

a woman like her cannot cross a running stream
a woman like her will cause your horse to miscarry
a woman like her will drown your boat in a storm

a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around
a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around


[[ See the Golden Bough. http://www.bartleby.com/196/149.html ]]

into the wood

[[ it might be trance, drugs, meditation, dreams ]]

nothing else 

only this horse

only

only the horse

only

nothing but this horse

nothing

nothing but this horse

nothing

so saddle up

put on your hat

your hat

put on your hat

your hat

nothing but this horse

nothing

nothing but this horse

nothing

and then hold on

we are almost gone

into the wood

you feel so good 

you forget 

you feel so good 

you forget 

nothing but this horse

nothing

nothing but this horse

nothing

you forget 

you have ever 

wanted

you forget 

you have ever 

wanted food

you forget 

you have ever 

felt this

you forget 

you have ever 

felt this good

you forget

almost

to breathe

people say 

you're wasting

people say 

you waste away

people waste 

their days

saying things

when they could
go with you

into the wood

A lighted torch

[[ Have you seen the hand stencils in the caves? ]]

A lighted torch,

then hands reach
through the dark

(reach through the dark)

The artist's hands

a conjurer's hands

reach out to you

(reach out to you)

from when they were

(from when they were)

to when we are

(to when we are)

from what we were

(from what we were)

to what they have

(to what they have)

what we have become

Devil in the Detail

[[ A blues song about the actualities of figuratively selling your soul. The devil is an empty belly. ]]

There was a man selling whisky.

There was a man selling cigarettes.

There was a man selling fast cars.

There was a man handing out regrets, handing out regrets.

And what did I have?

I had these fingers.

I had this voice.

I had this guitar.

I had no choice.

There was a girl from across the roadway.

There was a woman in a dark saloon.

There was a woman consumed my heart

Under the moon, under the moon, under the moon.

And what did I have?

I had these fingers.

I had this voice.

I had this guitar.

I had no choice.

The devil is an empty belly.

The devil is sleeping on the floor.

The devil is working enough to get by.

The devil is being poor.

And what did I have?

I had these fingers.

I had this voice.

I had this guitar.

I had no choice.

There's a devil at the crossroads,
at every intersection,

when you leave home forever behind.

And if you find a Jesus,
if you ever find a Jesus,

you will find him in your bread and wine.

unwholesome man

[[ A hard-drinking wife-beating 'unwholesome' man is executed by the community but comes back as a zombie to have one last drink at the local saloon with his wife, then walks back to the cemetery. Yeah. Call and response. Maybe two singers alternating on most lines, maybe overlapping like an echo. ]]

unwholesome man

(unwholesome man)

he was a man would

(he was a man would)

take a fist to his woman

take a bottle to his bed

take a fist to his woman

take a bottle to his bed

take a fistful of dream

stick it all in his head

they said that man's an animal

they said put a man down

they said that man's an animal

they said put a man down

next day it fell on a Thursday  

next day sheriff put him in the ground

unwholesome man...

take a fist to his woman...

sheriff put him in the ground

that man he dug himself out again

that man stood under the moon

that man he dug himself out again

that man stood under the moon

that man could smell it was Friday

man walked to the local saloon

unwholesome man...

take a fist to his woman...

sheriff put him in the ground

dead man walked back to town

that man had a penny on his left eye 

that man had a penny on his right

that man had a penny on his left eye 

that man had a penny on his right

that man slid a penny to the barman  

bar man said you drink all night

unwholesome man...

take a fist to his woman...

sheriff put him in the ground

man walked back to town

man bought another round

that man stood next to his woman

woman said I've nothing to say 

that man stood next to his woman

woman said I've nothing to say 

that man knocked back his last whisky

said I'll see you on Judgment Day

unwholesome man...

take a fist to his woman...

sheriff put him in the ground

man walked back to town

man bought another round

never made another sound

walked back out of town

fearsome blues

[[ still working on this ]]

[[ parenthetical bits are backup singers in gospel choir style ]] 

[[ this stanza is the core of the song ]]

Up in a cumulonimbus

Snug in the thunderstorm

God tosses bolts of lightning

Keeping his throwing arm warm

God is the updraft (lifting, lifting)

And we are (we are, we are...)

we are the downpour

[[ the rest is the rest ]]

God is the sunlight through honey

God is the moon on the bay

God is a firefly under a leaf

God is the Milky Way

God is the seven continents

God is the seven seas

God is the multiple mouths of the Nile

God is the Pleiades

[[ now we are small scale ]]

God is your hidden diary

And your anonymous call

God is your deathbed confession

God is a voodoo doll

[[ and growing bigger  ]]

God is a grilled cheese sandwich

God is your average weird

God is an excellent climbing tree

God is a trendy beard

God is the jism of -ism

God is the grist for the -ist

God is an anthropomorphism
God cannot really exist

[[ shift gears musically and raise the pressure ]]

God is your evolution

God is your ma and pa

He is a she if you want her to be

God wears a push-up bra

[[ and now we are in the human realm, big style ]]

God is the locomotive

God is the Golden Spike

God is the Suez and Panama

God is the turnpike

God is the spinning jenny

God is a spacewalk, live

One god is one too many
God is the Saturn V

[[ step into a swamp and sing like it  ]]

God is an alligator

God is a crocodile

God knows the difference between them

God knows it's in the smile

butcher house blues

Take me to the butcher house

Lay my head on the block

Take me to the butcher house

Lay my body down on the block

Off comes my head

and off comes my cock

out comes my asshole

like a lost sock.

Off comes my skin

to show my pink insides.

Just slip in the knife 

to see where the man resides.

||: Release my warm red blood - 

Begin the ancient flood :||

Stack up all the parts of me

limb by limb by limb.

Stack me back of the butcher's block

so I see me by him by him.

Take a saw to my cranium

And pop off the top 

Watch the steam from my brain

Rise thought by thought by thought

A spirit coiled (the mocking ghost)

[[ this one began with something real -- Diplacusis dysharmonica, Diplacusis echoica -- and turned into a spirit walking at night in my peripheral hearing and mocking me, and this became a song to be sung with chants and drums and a chorus of mocking spirits]]

[the predicament of the soul]
A spirit coiled
in the curl
of my ear

talks to me
like a lurker
in the other room

I cannot tell
above the wind
that whistles by

Is this the me
who's talking? Whose
tongue is this?

My mind or spi
rit coiled within
my inner ear?

Whose tongue is curled
in my left ear?
Come out now!

[one explanation of the soul's predicament]
They say
the mocking ghost
will walk your words
back home.

They say
the mocking ghost
will turn your tale
around.

They say
the mocking ghost
will live in your
left ear.

[chant of the mocking ghost in insect voices]
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost

[wonderment from within]
My mind
or flight of birds?

My mind
or branches aching?

My mind
or not my mind?

[another explanation of the soul's predicament]

They say 

the mocking ghost
will show
another you.

They say
the mocking ghost
will bend the light
round you.

They say
the mocking ghost
will live in your
left ear.

[chant of the mocking ghost in insect voices]
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost
They say
the mocking ghost

crawling blues

[[ this could be the myth of Robert Johnson's death -- see the notes at the bottom ]]

[Verse 1]
Take another man's wife
But leave his liquor on the shelf
Take another man's wife
But leave his liquor on the shelf
If he offers you a whisky
You best open that bottle yourself

[Verse 2]
Tip your hat to the stranger
Tip your hat to the foe
Tip your hat to the stranger
Tip your hat to the foe
Check the shape of his skull
See where those horns might grow

[Chorus]
Seen a grown man crawl
Craw-ling / on his / hands and / knees
Seen a grown man crawl
Craw-ling / on his / hands and / knees
He barked like a dog
And he died, he died like a disease/

[Verse 3]
Pour a sweet one for your baby
Pour a strong one for your host
Pour a sweet one for your baby
Pour a strong one for your host
Pour yourself a long, cool water
Or you may travel home a ghost

[all sorts of silly guitar things go here]

[Chorus]

[Verse 1]

[Coda]
Corn whisky make a man forget his own name
Corn whisky make a man forget his own shame
Corn whisky make a man forget the lies you tell
Corn whisky make a man forget he's in hell
etc.

[[ horned = devil + cuckold ]]

[[ Bring your own bottle, pour one out for your girl and your host -- trust neither ]]

[[

The song finishes with a stomping song about drinking whisky. Because why not?

There's a story (and I mean story) about how Robert Johnson died from drinking poisoned corn whisky given him by the husband of a woman he'd been flirting with:

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Robert_Johnson

Recollection survives that Johnson died after drinking whiskey poisoned with strychnine, allegedly given to him by the jealous husband of a lover. Fellow blues singer Sonny Boy Williamson II claimed to have been present the night of Johnson's poisoning. Williamson said that Johnson crawled on his hands and knees "howling and barking like a dog," later dying in Williamson's arms. Another, perhaps more credible, report was given by Johnson's temporary musical partner, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, who had teamed up with Johnson for a regular "gig" at the Three Forks juke joint near Greenwood, Mississipi. According to Edwards, the man who ran the juke joint became convinced that his wife had become involved with Johnson and determined to get rid of him. Johnson temporarily recovered from the initial poisoning, but soon died, on August 16, 1938, in Greenwood.

Could be true, could be totally made up. Everything is a story.

]] 

cloverleaf blues

When the devil comes to meet you,

you will walk the edge of the road,

When the devil comes to meet you,

you will walk the edge of the road,

Walk backwards with your thumb out,

look forward to laying down your load.

When the devil comes to meet you,

you'll be walking away from grief,

When the devil comes to meet you,

you'll be walking away from grief,

He won't meet you at the crossroads;

you'll be lost on the clover leaf.

When you go to meet the devil,

you will both be half way home,

When you go to meet the devil,

you will both be half way home,

When he opens the door of his automobile,

keep your eye on the chrome.

[[

cloverleaf as opposed to the crossroads, of course -- this is modernized and more confusing, and the cross has been twisted

the devil drives a Hupmobile

the chrome is gaud and distraction and wealth and a mirror -- watch yourself.

]]

branches in my pathway

[[ I like a straight blues form. This one is literal and allegorical. A real storm, but also the difficulties and decisions in life, and we have an appearance by Bede's sparrow. ]]

verse 1:
I've got branches in my pathway
I've got the wind in my face
I've got branches in my pathway
I've got the wind in my face
Pull one star from the night sky
Leave a darkness in its place

verse 2:
Wind is whistling down the chimney
Wind is whistling down the stair
Wind is whistling down the chimney
Wind is whistling down the stair
Leave a door waiting open
For a thought too hard to bear

middle:
Fly in at one door, sparrow,
Fly out the other

verse 3:
I've got branches in my pathway
I've got my face in the blast
I've got branches in my pathway
I've got my face in the blast
Leaving no trail behind me
And the horizon's coming fast