The Decemberists Unreleased Songs

1.After The Bombs

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

After the bombs subside
And this long, low campaign
Calls it good for the night
We meet in the streets

Will we meet in a bar's cold light？
We grip at our hands
We hold just a little tight

After the bombs
After the bombs subside

And after the rockets come
And the glimmer of fire
Pretends an early dawn
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 come

Then we'll go dancing
Won't we go dancing？
Yes, we'll go dancing
Until it all starts over again

Then we'll go dancing
Yes, we'll go dancing
Won't we go dancing？
Until it all starts over again


2.Grace Cathedral Hill

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Grace Cathedral hill
All wrapped in bones of a setting sun
All dust and stone and moribund
I paid twenty-five cents

To light a little white candle
For New Year's Day
I sat and watched it burn away
Then turned and weaved through slow decay

We were both a little hungry
So we went to get a hot dog
Down the Hyde St. Pier
The light was slight and disappeared

The air, it stunk of fish and beer
We heard a tuba
And trumpet play the National Anthem

And the world may be long for you
But he'll never belong to you
But on a motorbike

When all the city lights blind your eyes tonight
Are you feeling better now？
Are you feeling better now？
Are you feeling better now？

Some way to greet the year
Your eyes all bright and brimmed with tears
The pilgrims, pills and tourists here all sing
'Fifty-three bucks to buy a brand new halo'

Sweet on a green eyed girl, all fiery
Irish clip and curl, all brine and piss and vinegar
I paid twenty-five cents to light a little white candle

And the world maybe be long for you
But he'll never belong to you
But on a motorbike

When all the city lights blind your eyes tonight
Are you feeling better now？
Are you feeling better now？
Are you feeling better now？

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
Ooh, la, la, la, la


3.Clementine

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

You slept in your overalls
After the wrecking ball
Bereft you of house and home
And left you with sweet fuck-all

So we got in your car
With our kick about hearts
And we hollered out 'Sweet Clementine'

Tell your mom to marry us
A candle to carry us
With cans on our bicycle fenders
So sweet and hilarious

And we'll find us a home
Built of packaging foam
That will be there 'til after we die

And I'll play the clarinet
Use clamshells for castanets
We play with our bags on our shoulders
My sweet lady lioness

And I watch as you sleep
So indelibly deep
And I hum to you 'Sweet Clementine'


4.Oceanside

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Sweet Anabelle, as seen reclining on an ocean swell
As the waves do lather up to lay her down
'Til she's fast and sleeping

Oh, well, I guess I'm something of a ne'er-do-well
Who fell asleep at the pealing of the steeple bell
I'm on track and keeping

But oh, if I could only get you ocean side
To lay your muscles wide
It'd be heavenly

Oh, if I could only coax you overboard
To leave these rolling shores
To get you oceanside

Oceanside, oceanside

At rising tide, you're looking fresher than a July bride
We're picking up what our mothers always stigmatized
The field is right for reaping

Oh, well, I guess I'm something of a neer-do-well
Even though that's something I could never do well
I'm on track and keeping

But oh, if I could only get you ocean side
To lay your muscles wide
It'd be heavenly

Oh, if I could only coax you overboard
To leave these rolling shores
To get you oceanside

Oceanside, oceanside


5.The Crane Wife 3

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

And under the boughs unbowed
All clothed in the snowy shroud
She had no heart so hardened
All under the boughs unbowed

Each feather, it fell from skin
'Til thread bare while she grew thin
How were my eyes so blinded？
Each feather, it fell from skin

And I will hang my head
Hang my head low
And I will hang my head
Hang my head low

A gray sky, a bitter sting
A rain cloud, a crane on wing
All out beyond horizon
A gray sky, a bitter sting

And I will hang my head
Hang my head low
And I will hang my head
Hang my head low

And I will hang my head
Hang my head low
And I will hang my head
Hang my head low

And I will hang my head
Hang my head low
And I will hang my head
Hang my head low, low, low


6.California One ／ Youth and Beauty Brigade

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

Take a long drive with me
On California One, on California One
Take a long drive with me
On California One, on California One

And the road a-winding goes
From Golden Gate to roaring Cliffside
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, of California wine
Take a long drown with me
Of California wine, 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, oh it's in your head
On this sea drift sun, what can you do？

We're calling all bed wetters and ambulance chasers
Poor pickpockets, bring 'em in
Come join the youth and beauty brigade
Come join the youth and beauty brigade

We're lining up the light loafered and the bored bench warmers
Castaways and cutouts, fill it up
Come join the youth and beauty brigade
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 Multnomah County Library
At the library
They said, 'Son, go join up'

Go join the youth and beauty brigade
Come join the youth and beauty brigade
Come join the youth and beauty brigade
Come join the youth and beauty brigade

Nothing will stand in our way


7.Leslie Anne Levine

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

My name is Leslie Ann Levine
My mother birthed me down a dry ravine
My mother birthed me far too soon
Born at nine and dead at noon

Fifteen years gone now
I still wander this parapet
And shake my rattle bone
Fifteen years gone now
I still cling to the petticoats
Of the girl who died with me

On the roof above the streets
The only love I've known's a chimney sweep
Lost and lodged inside a flue
Back in 1842

Fifteen years gone now
I still wail from these catacombs
And curse my mother's name
Fifteen years gone now
Still a wastrel mesallied
Has brought this fate on me

My name is Leslie Ann Levine
I've got no one left to mourn for me
My body lies inside its grave
In a ditch not far away

Fifteen years gone now
I still wander this parapet
And shake my rattle bone
Fifteen years gone now
I still cling to the petticoats
Of the girl who died with me


8.A Cautionary Song

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

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
Till 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 she's 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
Till at last she's satisfied the lot 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 dirty dollars
And return her to the habor where she goes to bed

And this is how you're 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


9.Odalisque

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

They've come to find you, Odalisque
As the light dies horribly
On a fire escape you walk
All rare and resolved to drop

And when they find you, Odalisque
They will rend you, terribly
Stitch from stitch 'til all
Your linen limbs will fall

Lazy lady had a baby girl
And a sweet it made
Raised on pradies, peanut shells and dirt
In a railroad cul-de-sac

And what do we do with ten baby shoes
A kit bag full of marbles
And a broken billiard cue？
What do we do？ What do we do？

Fifteen stitches will mend those britches right
And them rip them down again
Sapling switches will rend those rags alright
What a sweet sound it makes

And what we do with ten dirty Jews
A thirty-ought full of rock salt
And a warm afternoon？
What do we do？ What do we do？

Lay your belly under mine
Naked under me, under me
Such a filthy dimming shine
The way you kick and scream, kick and scream

And what do we with ten baby shoes
A kit bag full of marbles
And broken billiard cue？
What do we do？ What do we do？


10.Cocoon

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

This cocoon, caught in Vesuvius' shadow
Only the ashes remain
And I waited there for you
Why couldn't you？

Here we lie waiting for something to startle
To shake us from gravity's pull
And so the sleeping hours are through
What can we do？

The tainted election, the low dirty war
It happened before you came to
But this is solution and this is amends
The joke always tends to come true

But there on your windowsill
Over the unmoving platoon
Written in paperback, the key to the quarterback's room
Under waning moon

This quiet serves only to hide you
Provide you
What I knew, it'd come back to you

Take this palm, follow the lines here are written
And script out the rest of your life
And feel your fingers falling slack and all folding back

The sorry conclusion, the hole in the sky
Command what is tried, what is true
But without solution, with feet on the ground
It won't make a sound 'til you're through

So loosen your shoulder blades
This is your hour to make due
Because there on the timberline
Deep cold November shines through
Soft and absolute


11.Shankhill Butchers

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

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

'Cuz everybody knows if you don't mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers wanna 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

'Cuz everybody knows if you don't mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers wanna catch you awake

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

'Cuz everybody knows if you don't mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers wanna catch you
The Shankill Butchers wanna cut you
The Shankill Butchers wanna catch you awake
Awake, awake, awake


12.When The War Came

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

With all the grain of Babylon
To cultivate, to make us strong
And hidden here behind the walls
Are shoulders wide and timber on

'Til the war came
'Til the war came

A terrible autonomy
Has grafted onto 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

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

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

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


13.O Valencia!

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

You belong to the gang and you say you can't break away
But I'm here with my hands on my heart
And our families can't agree, I'm your brother's sworn enemy
But I'll shout out my love to the stars

So wait for the stone on your window, your window
Wait 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
Well, how soon we were betrayed, your sister gave us away
And your father came all unhinged

So wait for the stone on your window, your window
Wait by the car and we'll go, we'll go

My 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 a 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

So wait for the stone on your window, your window
Wait by the car and we'll, go we'll go

My O Valencia
With your blood still warm on the ground
Valencia
And I'll burn this whole city down

Valencia
With your blood gettin' cold on the ground
Valencia
And I swear to the stars, I'll burn this whole city down


14.Summersong

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Ramblin', where to begin
I taste the summer on your peppery skin
Been saved the warmer 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 lights
And summer blows away
And quietly gets swallowed by a wave
It gets swallowed by a wave

Waylay, 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

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 lights
And summer blows away
And quietly gets swallowed by a wave
It gets swallowed by a wave
It gets swallowed by a wave
It gets swallowed by a wave


15.The Crane Wife 1 and 2

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

It was a cold night
And the snow lay low
I pulled my coat tight
Against the falling down

And the sun was all
And the sun was all down
And the sun was all
And 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
And the winter's so long
And the winter's so
And the winter's so long

And all the stars were crashing 'round
As I laid eyes on what I'd found

It was a white crane
It was a helpless thing
Upon a red stain
With an arrow, its wing

And it called and cried
And it called and cried so
And it called and cried
And it called and cried so

And all the stars were crashing 'round
As I laid eyes on what I'd found

My crane wife, my crane wife
My crane wife, my crane wife

Now I helped her
And I dressed her wounds
And how I held her
Beneath the rising moon

And she stood to fly
And she stood to fly away
And she stood to fly
She stood to fly away

And all the stars crashing 'round
As I laid eyes on what I'd found

My crane wife, my crane wife
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

The sound of the keening bell
To see its pain erect
Soft as fontanel, the feathers and the thread
When all I ever meant to do was to keep you

My crane wife
My crane wife
My crane wife

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

But I was greedy, I was vain
And I forced her to weaving
On a cold loom, in a closed room
Down the hall

The sound of the keening bell
To see its pain erect
Soft as fontanel, the feathers and a thread
When all I ever meant to do was to keep you

My crane wife
My crane wife
My crane wife

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, heart
Heart, heart

Heart, heart
Heart, heart
Heart, heart

My crane wife


16.Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind
Far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas
That's where my true love lies

Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
But you are in the ground with the voles and the weevils
All a'chew on your bones so dry

But when the sun breaks
To no more bulletin battle-cry
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then

I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
Then

When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin

But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas
All the bellies and the bones and the bile
Though I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with a child

But when the sun breaks
To no more bulletin battle-cry
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then

I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then

Stems and bones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you
Scaly skin is all too few
To keep me from you

But oh, 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


17.The Island-Come ＆ See／The Landlord's Daughter／You'll Not Feel The
Drowning

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

There's an island hidden in the sound
Lapping currents lay your boat to ground
Affix your barb and bayonet, the curlews carve their Arabesques
And sorrow fills the silence all around, you come and see

There's a harbor lost within the reeds
A jetty caught in over-hanging trees
Among the bones of cormorants, no boot mark here nor finger
prints
The rivers roll down to a soundless sea, you come and see
Come and see

The tides will come and go witnessed by no waking eye
Who rose like the wind
Though we know for sure amidst this fading light
We'll not go home again, come and see
Come and see

In the lowlands, nestled in the heat
A brier cradle rocks its babe to sleep
Its contents watched by Sycorax and patagon in paralax
A foretold rumbling sounds below the deep, you come and see
Come and see

The tides will come and go witnessed by no waking eye
Who rose like the wind
Though we know for sure amidst this fading light
We'll not go home again, come and see
Come and see

As I was rambled
Down by the water
I spied in sable
The landlord's daughter

Produced my pistol
Then my saber
To make no whistle
Or thou will be murdered

Lord
Lord

She cursed, she shivered
She cried for mercy
'My gold and silver
If thou will release me'

Lord
Lord
Lord

I'll take no gold miss
I'll take no silver
I'll take those sweet lips
And I'll deliver

Lord
Lord

I will dress your eyelids
With dimes upon your eyes
Laying 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

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

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

Hear you now the captain
Heed his sorrowed cry
Weight upon your eyelids
Is dimes laid on your eyes


18.Sons and Daughters

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

When we arrive, sons and daughters
We
We
We

These currents pull us
Steady your boats, arms to shoulder

Making this cold harbor now home

Take up your arm, sons and daughters
We will arise from the bunkers
By land, by sea, by Dirigible
We

When we arrive, sons and daughters
We
We
We
We

When we arrive, sons and daughters
We
We
We
We

When we arrive, sons and daughters
We
We
We
We

When we arrive, sons and daughters
We
We
We
We

Here all the bombs fade away
Here all the bombs fade away
Here all the bombs fade away
...


19.The Bachelor and the Bride

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

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, I will box your ears
And leave you here stripped bare
Stripped bare

Hear the corncrakes and the deer hooves
And the sleet rain on the slate roof
A medallion locked inside her hands
In her hands

And his fingers, are they telling
Of the barren of her belly？
Do his calluses cure her furrowed brow
Even now？

But I, said the bachelor to the bride
Am not waiting for tonight
No, I, I will box your ears
And leave you here stripped bare
Stripped bare
Stripped bare
Stripped bare

But I, said the bachelor to the bride
Am not waiting for tonight
No, I, I will box your ears
And take your tears
And leave you, leave you here stripped bare


20.Shanty for the Arethusa

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

We set to sail on a packet full of spice, rum and tea-leaves
We've emptied out all the bars and the bowery hotels
Tell your daughters do not walk the streets alone tonight
Tell your daughters do not walk the streets alone tonight

To tell the tale of the jewess and the mandarin chinese boy
He led her down from her gilded canopy of cloth
And through her blindfold she could make out the figures there
before her
And how the air was thick with incense, cardamom and myrrh

So goodnight, boys, goodnight
Say goodnight, boys, goodnight

We set to sail on the clipper that's bound for South Australia
The weather's warm there, the natives are dark and nubile
But if you listen, quiet, you can hear the footsteps on the
cross-trees
The ghosts of sailors passed, their spectral bodies clinging to
the shrouds

So goodnight, boys, goodnight
Say goodnight, boys, goodnight


21.The Legionnaire's Lament

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

I'm a legionnaire
Camel in disrepair
Hoping for a Frigidaire
To come passing by

I am on reprieve
Lacking my joie de vive
Missing my gay Paris
In this desert dry

And I wrote my girl
Told her I would not return
Terribly taken a turn
For the worse, now I fear

It's been a year or more
Since they shipped me to this foreign shore
Fighting in a foreign war
So far away from my home

If only summer rain would fall
On the houses and the boulevards
And the side walk bagatelles
It's like a dream

With the roar of cars
And the lulling of the cafe bars
The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine
Lord, I don't know if I'll ever be back again

Medicating in the sun
Pinched doses of laudanum
Longing for the old fecundity
Of my homeland

Curses to this mirage
A bottle of ancient Chiraz
A smattering of distant applause
Is ringing in my poor ears

On the old left bank
My baby in a charabanc
Riding up the width and length
Of the Champs Elysees

If only summer rain would fall
On the houses and the boulevard
And the side walk bagatelles
It's like a dream

With the roar of cars
And the lulling of the cafe bars
The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine
Lord, I don't know if I'll ever be back again

If only summer rain would fall
On the houses and the boulevard
And the side walk bagatelles '
It's like a dream

With the roar of cars
And the lulling of the cafe bars
The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine
Lord, I don't know if I'll ever be back again

Be back again
Be back again
I'll be back again


22.Come And See

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

There's an island hidden in the sound
Lapping currents lay your boat to ground
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 over-hanging trees
Among the bones of cormorants
No boot mark here, nor finger prints

The rivers roll down to a soundless sea
Come and see
Come and see

The tides will come and go
With this bare waking eye
Who rose like the wind
Though we know for sure

Amidst this fading light
We'll not go home again
Come and see
Come and see

In the lowlands, nestled in the heat
A brier cradle rocks its babe to sleep
Its contents watched by sycorax

A foretold rumbling sounds below the deep
Come and see
Come and see

The tides will come and go
Witnessed by no waking eye
Who rose like the wind
Though we know for sure

Amidst this fading light
We'll not go home again
Come and see
Come and see

As I was rambled down by the water
I spied in sable, the landlord's daughter
Produced my pistol, then my saber
To 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
I'll take those sweet lips, and I'll deliver

I will dress your eyelids
With dimes upon your eyes
Laying close to water
Green your grave will rise

Go to sleep, little ugly
Go to sleep 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

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

Go to sleep little ugly
Go to sleep little fool
Forty-winking in the belfry
You'll not feel the drowning
You'll not feel the drowning

Hear you now, the captain
Heed his sorrowed cry
Weight upon your eyelids
As dimes laid on your eyes


23.The Perfect Crime #2

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Sing news with passion of the pistol
Sing news of the warning by the whistle
A night so dark in the waning
A dawn obscured by slight sky raining

Five and twenty burglars by the reservoir
A teenage lookout on the signal tower
The Moguls daughter in hard time
The mogul fingers a one guy, one guy

It was the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, the perfect, the perfect, perfect crime
It was the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
It was the perfect crime

The bagman's quaking at the fingers
The hand-off glance a little lingers
A well-dressed man in the cross hairs
A shot ring's out from somewhere upstairs

It was the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
It was the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, the perfect, the perfect, it's the perfect crime
It was the perfect crime

It was like a ticker-tape parade
When the plastic unsafe was blown away
And we all gaze from eye to eye
As we mouth our silent goodbyes

The valley's sleeping like a bastard
It stinks of slumber and disaster
Two words are spoken with tap wire
The agent's pull finds a surefire backfire

It was the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, the perfect, the perfect, perfect crime
It was the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime

It was the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
Perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect
The perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect
Perfect, perfect, perfect, the perfect crime


24.The Soldiering Life

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Ambling madly all over the town
The call to arms you likened to a whisper
I likened to a radio

You were a brick bat, a Bowery tough, so rough
They called you from a cartoon
Pulled out of your pantaloons

But you, my brother in arms
I'd rather I'd lose my limbs
Than let you come to harm

But you, my bombazine doll
The bullets may singe your skin
And the mortars may fall

But I, I never felt so much life
Than tonight huddled in the trenches
Gazing on the battlefield
Our rifles blaze away, we blaze away

Corporal Bradley of regiment five
In proud array standing by the bathing
Soldiers and the stevedores

We laid on the mattress and tumbled to sleep
Our eyes aligned, swaddled in our civvies
Cradled in our dungarees

But you, my brother in arms
I'd rather I'd lose my limbs
Than let you come to harm

But you, my bombazine doll
The bullets may singe your skin
And the mortars may fall

But I, I never felt so much life
Than tonight, huddled in the trenches
Gazing on the battle field
Our rifles blaze away, we blaze away
We blaze away, we blaze away


25.The Gymnast, High Above the Ground

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

The gymnast, high above the ground
Limbers up and falls, tender 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
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

And here, as we're coming down
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
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

April marches on
April marches on
April marches on
April marches on


26.The Bagman's Gambit

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

On the lam from the law, on the steps of the capitol
You shot a plain clothes cop on the ten o'clock
And I saw momentarily
They flashed with photograph, it couldn't be you

You'd been abused so horribly
But you were there in some anonymous room
And I recall that fall, I was working for the government
And in a bathroom stall off the National Mall

How we kissed so sweetly
How could I refuse a favor or two
And for a tryst in the greenery
I gave you documents and microfilm too

And from my ten floor tenement
Where once our bodies lay
How I long to hear you say

No, they'll never catch me now
No, they'll never catch me
No, they cannot catch me now
We will escape somehow, somehow

It was late one night, I was awoken by the telephone
I heard a strangled cry on the end of the line
Purloined in Petrograd, they were suspicious
Of where your loyalties lay, so I paid off a bureaucrat
To convince your captors, they're to secret you away

And at the gate of the embassy
Our hands met through the bars
As your whisper stilled my heart

No, they'll never catch me now
No, they'll never catch me
No, they cannot catch me now
We will escape somehow, somehow

And I dreamt one night
You were there in force
Head held high in uniform

It was ten years on
When you resurfaced in a motorcar
And with the wave of an arm
You were there and gone


27.The Engine Driver

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

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 county 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


28.Here I Dreamt I was an Architect

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

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
Oh 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


29.Billy Liar

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Billy Liar's got his hands in his pockets
Staring over at the neighbors' knickers down
He's got his knickers down

So the summer is eternity for you？
Sleeping in until your father's shaking you down
He's shaking you down

And the mail room shift gets a real short shrift
As you dole out the packages
No one seems to want you around
All skulking around

Let your legs lure on the lino
'Til your sinews spoil
Will you stay here for a while, dear
'Til the radio plays something familiar？
Plays something familiar

All a drifting, he's a no good boyo
Sent a fishing for a whalebone corset frame
His only catch all day

So he sits and lets the current take him
A gentle breeze will leave his pants in disarray
And at his ankles laid

As he drifts to sleep with a moan and a weep
He is decked by a Japanese
Geisha with a garland of pearls
How she twists and twirls

Let your legs lure on the lino
'Til your sinews spoil
Will you stay here for a while, dear
'Til the radio plays something familiar？
Plays something familiar
Plays something familiar
Plays something familiar


30.Bandit Queen

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

As the sun is sinking low
And the evening's tucked in tow
On the horizon, my true love I see
She ain't fancy, she ain't fine
While her fingers number only nine
She's the belle of the ball of the insurgency

She's my Bandit Queen, laying beneath the moon
In a bandit cave, a blanket laid for two
If I could find a way to your hideaway by the sea
O Bandit Queen, steal away to me

Somewhere in a mountain, by a starry water fountain
In an alcove hid by some trees
Amidst a pile of treasure, reclining at her leisure
My ladylove sniffs as the breeze

And sitting up, she adjusts her turban
And takes another swig from a bottle of bourbon
And listening to the whistling of a train in station
Odds are it will never reach its destination

'Cause the Bandit Queen, astride her steed will ride
O let me be the one to lay within your theivin' arms tonight

She's my Bandit Queen, laying beneath the moon
In a bandit cave, there's a blanket laid for two
If I could find a way to your hideaway by the sea
O Bandit Queen, steal away to me
O Bandit Queen, steal away to me


31.Sunshine

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

On the lawn before the bouquet fell
Long before we heard the ringing bell
When all I want is a good look at your underside

Reading trash like it was Judy Blume
Your paperbacks are strewn about the room
Awaiting their instructions to be mobilized

And everybody knows how it shakes and how it glows
Everybody knows and so it goes

That everybody wants their shoes in the sunshine now

Lazy Rayna had a million bucks
Changed into pennies on a hundred trucks
'Cause linen's legal tender for a layabout

Why hold your breath until your face turns blue
A stretch of rope you know can do that too
The truth be told no one likes a gadabout

And everybody knows how it shakes and how it glows
Everybody knows and so it goes

That everybody wants their shoes in the sunshine now
Everybody wants their shoes in the sunshine now


32.16 Military Wives

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Sixteen military wives
Thirty-two softly-focused, brightly-colored eyes
Staring at the natural tan
Of thirty-two gently clenching wrinkled little hands

Seventeen company men
Out of which only twelve will make it back again
Sergeant sends a letter to five military wives
His tears drip down from ten little eyes

Cheer them on to their rivals 'cause America can
And America can't say 'No'
And America does if America says,'It's so, it's so'
And the anchorperson on TV goes
La-di-da-di-da

Fifteen celebrity minds
Leading their fifteen sordid, wretched checkered lives
Will they find their solution in time？
Using fifteen pristine moderate liberal minds

Eighteen academy chairs
Out of which only seven really even care
Doling out a garland to five
Celebrity minds, they're humbly taken by surprise

Cheer them on to their rivals 'cause America can
And America can't say 'No'
And America does if America says,'It's so, it's so'
And the anchorperson on TV goes
La-di-da-di-da-didi-didi-da
La-di-da-di-da-didi-didi-da

Fourteen cannibal kings
Wondering blithely what the dinner bell will bring
Fifteen celebrity minds
Served in a leafy bed of sixteen military wives

Cheer them on to their rivals 'cause America can
And America can't say 'No'
And America does if America says,'It's so, it's so'
And the anchorperson on TV goes
La-di-da-di-da-didi-didi-da
La-di-da-di-da-didi-didi-da

La-di-da-di-da-didi-didi-da
La-di-da-di-da-didi-didi-da
La-di-da-di-da-didi-didi-da


33.We Both Go Down Together

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

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 labor camps
I laid you down in the grass of the 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, my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together


34.Think About Me

Lyricist：Christine Mcvie

All it took was a special look
And I found you before
I didn't mean to lie and
You didn't think it would work out

But I knew we would be together
And I couldn't wait for more
What can I say？
It's not against the law

I don't hold you down
And maybe that's why you're around
But if I'm one you love
Think about me

I believe that you really want me
But it's not easy just to give in
So let yourself go
And let love begin, let's go

I don't hold you down
And maybe that's why you're around
But if I'm one you love
Think about me

I don't hold you down
And maybe that's why you're around
But if I'm one you love
Think about me

Baby, once in a while
Think about me
Yeah, baby, once in a while
Think about me

Come on, come on, come on
Come on, come on, come on
Think about me
Think about me


35.The Infanta

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Here she comes in her palanquin
On the back of an elephant
On a bed made of linen and sequins and silk

All astride on her father's line
With the king and his concubines
And her nurse with her pitchers of liquors and milk

And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

Among five score pachyderm
Each canopied and passengered
Sit the Duke and the Duchess' luscious young girls

Within sight of the baroness
Seething spite for this live largesse
By her side sits the baron, her barrenness barbs her

And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

A phalanx on camel back
Thirty ranks on a forward tack
Followed close, their shiny bright standards waving

While behind in their coach in fours
Ride the wives of the king of moors
And the veiled young virgin, the prince's betrothed

And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

And as she sits upon her place
Her innocence laid on her face
From all atop the parapets blow a multitude of coronets

Melodies rhapsodical and fair
And all our hearts afire, the sky ablaze with cannon fire
We all raise our voices to the air, to the air

And above all this falderal
On a bed made of chaparral
She is laid, a coronal placed on her brow

And the babe, all in slumber dreams
Of a place filled with quiet streams
And the lake where her cradle was pulled from the water

And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta


36.The Mariner's Revenge Song

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

We are two mariners
Our ship's sole survivors
In this belly of a whale
It's ribs our ceiling beams
It's guts our carpeting
I guess we have some time to kill

You may not remember me
I was a child of three
And you, a lad of eighteen
But, I remember you
And I will relate to you
How our histories interweave

At the time you were
A rake and a roustabout
Spending all your money
On the whores and hounds
Oh oh

You had a charming air
All cheap and debonair
My widowed mother found so sweet
And so she took you in
Her sheets still warm with him
Now filled with filth and foul disease

As time wore on you proved
A debt-ridden drunken mess
Leaving my mother
A poor consumptive wretch
Oh oh

And then you disappeared
Your gambling arrears
The only thing you left behind
And then the magistrate
Reclaimed our small estate
And my poor mother lost her mind

Then, one day in spring
My dear sweet mother died
But, before she did
I took her hand as she, dying, cried
Oh oh

Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave

It took me fifteen years
To swallow all my tears
Among the urchins in the street
Until a priory
Took pity and hired me
To keep their vestry nice and neat

But, never once in the employ
Of these holy men
Did I ever, once turn my mind
From the thought of revenge
Oh oh

One night I overheard
The prior exchanging words
With a penitent whaler from the sea
The captain of his ship
Who matched you toe to tip
Was known for wanton cruelty

The following day, I shipped to sea
With a privateer
And in the whistle of the wind
I could almost hear
Oh oh

Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave

There is one thing I must say to you
As you sail across the sea
Always, your mother will watch over you
As you avenge this wicked deed

And then, that fateful night
We had you in our sight
After twenty months at sea
Your starboard flank abeam
I was getting my muskets clean
When came this rumbling from beneath

The ocean shook
The sky went black and the captain quailed
And before us grew
The angry jaws of a giant whale
Oh oh
Oh

Don't know how I survived
The crew all was chewed alive
I must have slipped between his teeth
But, oh! What providence
What divine intelligence
That you should survive as well as me

It gives my heart great joy
To see your eyes fill with fear
To lean in close and I will whisper
The last words you'll hear
Oh oh


37.On the Bus Mall

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

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
Till 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


38.Eli, the Barrow Boy

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Eli, the barrow boy of the old town
Sells coal and marigolds and he cries out all down the day
Below the tamaracks he is crying
Corn cobs and candle wax for the buying all down the day

'Would I could afford to buy my love a fine robe？
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread
She is dead and gone and lying in a pine grove
And I must push my barrow all the day
And I must push my barrow all the dayâ

Eli, the barrow boy when they found him
Dressed all in corduroy he had drowned in the river down the way
They laid his body down in a church yard
But still when the moon is out with his push cart he calls down
the day

â½Would I could afford to buy my love a fine gown？
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread
But, I am dead and gone and lying in a church ground
And still I push my barrow all the day
Still I push my barrow all the dayâ


39.I Was Meant For The Stage

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

I was meant for the stage
I was meant for the curtain
I was meant to tread these boards
Of this much I am certain

I was meant for the crowd
I was meant for the shouting
I was meant to raise these hands
With quiet all about me, oh, oh

Mother, please be proud
Father, be forgiving
Even though you told me
'Son, you'll never make a living', oh, oh

From the floorboards to the flys
Here I was fated to reside
And as I take my final bow
Was there ever any doubt？

And as the spotlights fade away
And you're escorted through the foyer
You will resume your callow ways
But I was meant for the stage

The heavens at my birth
Intended me for stardom
Rays of light shone down on me
And all my sins were pardoned

I was meant for applause
I was meant for derision
Nothing short of fate itself
Has affected my decision, oh, oh

And from the floorboards to the flys
Here I was fated to reside
And as I take my final bow
Was there ever any doubt？

And as the spotlights fade away
And you're escorted through the foyer
You will resume your callow ways
But I was meant for the stage


40.Los Angeles, I'm Yours

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

There is a city by the sea, a gentle company
I don't suppose you want to
And as it tells its sorry tale in harrowing detail
Its hollowness will haunt you

It streets and boulevards, orphans and oligarchs are here
A plaintive melody, truncated symphony
An ocean's garbled vomit on the shore
Los Angeles, I'm yours

Old ladies pleasant and demure, sallow cheeked and sure
I can see your undies
And all the boys you drag about an empty fellow found
From Saturdays to Mondays

You hill and valley crowd, hanging your trousers down at here
This is the realest thing, as ancient choirs sing
A dozen blushing cherubs wheel about
Los Angeles, my love

Oh, what a rush of ripe elan, languor on divans
Dallyiant and dainty
But oh, the smell of burnt cocaine, the dollor and decay
It only makes me cranky

A great calamity, ditch of inequity it's here
How I abhor this place, its sweet and bitter taste
Has left me wretched retching on all fours
Los Angeles, I'm yours
Los Angeles, I'm yours
Los Angeles, I'm yours


41.Of Angels and Angles

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

There are angels in your angles
There's a low moon caught in your tangles
There's a ticking at the sill
There's a purr of a pigeon to break the still of day

As on we go drowning
Down we go away
And darling, we go drowning
Down we go away, away

There's a tough word on your crossword
There's a bed bug nipping a finger
There's a swallow, there's a calm
Here's a hand to lay on your open palm today

As on we go drowning
Down we go away
And darling, we go drowning
Down we go away, away

There are angels in your angles
There's a low moon caught in your tangles


42.From My Own True Love (Lost at Sea)

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Four score years
Living down in this rain swept town
Sea salt tears
Swimming round as the rain comes down

Mr. Postman, do you have a letter for me？
Mr. Postman, do you have a letter for me？
A letter for me

From my own true love
Lost at sea
Lost at sea

Mr. Postman, do you have a letter for me？
Mr. Postman, do you have a letter for me？
A letter for me

From my own true love
Lost at sea
Lost at sea


43.Red Right Ankle

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

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 laid 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


44.The Sporting Life

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

I fell on the playing field, the work of an errant heel
The din of the crowd and the loud commotion
Went deafening silence and stopped emotion
The season was almost done, we managed it 12 to 1
So far I had known no humiliation
In front of my friends and close relations

There's my father looking on
And there's my girlfriend arm in arm
With the captain of the other team
And all of this is clear to me
They condescend and fix on me a frown
How they love the sporting life

And father, it had such hopes for a son who would take the ropes
And fulfill all his old athletic aspirations
But apparently now there's some complications
But while I am lying here trying to fight the tears
I'll prove to the crowd that I come out stronger
Though I think I might lie here a little longer

There's my coach, he's looking down
The disappointment in his knitted brow
I should've known, he thinks again
I never should have put him in
He turns and loads the lemonade away
And breathes in deep the sporting life
The sporting life, the sporting life, how he loves

There's my father looking on
And there's my girlfriend arm in arm
With the captain of the other team
And all of this is clear to me
They condescend to fix on me a frown
How they love the sporting life
The sporting life, the sporting life, how they love


45.Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

The film was a bust
But we stayed till the ending
Hair all a mussed but your clothes
Didn't look so bad

And back on the street, the rain was descending
In cold dirty sheets, so under the awning we sat
And then you hailed yourself a yellow cab

And I sat for a time by the valets in line
And I read what you wrote on the card
Above a cowboy you drew a big dark balloon
Saying, 'Try not to take it so hard'

But there's this nagging suspicion
That won't leave me alone tonight
It's just that everything I try to do
Nothing seems to turn out right

We laid on our backs
And stared at the ceiling
Messed with your slacks
But ended up just holding your hand

The rain will remain, the TV was telling
A drip of the drain as your legs lifted brilliantly bent
And fall to resting on the ottoman

So we turned off the tube and we crawled to your room
Leaving discarded clothes in our wake
And we both had some fun, though I twice bit my tongue
And it lasted too long for my taste

And there's this nagging suspicion
That won't leave me alone tonight
It's just that everything I try to do
Nothing seems to turn out right

And there's this nagging suspicion
That won't leave me alone tonight
Its just that everything I try to do
Nothing seems to turn out right

A wink and a wave and your off to your family's
I sit and watch as the taxi lights distantly fade
I guess, I always thought it'd end this way


46.July, July!

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

There is a road that meets the road that goes to my house
And how it green grows there
And we've got special boots to beat the path to my house
And it's careful and it's careful when I'm there

And I say your uncle was a crooked French Canadian
And he was gut-shot runnin' gin
And how his guts were all suspended in his fingers
And how he held 'em, how he held 'em, held 'em in

And the water rolls down the drain
(Water rolls down the drain)
The water rolls down the drain
(Water rolls down the drain)
Oh, what a lonely thing in a lonely drain

July, July, July, it never seemed so strange
July, July, July, it never seemed so
It never seemed so strange

This is the story of the road that goes to my house
And what goes there do remain
And all the troughs that run the length and breadth of my house
And the chickens how they rattle chicken chains

And we'll remember this when we are old and ancient
Though the specifics might be vague
And I'll say your camisole was sprightly light magenta
When in fact it was a nappy blueish grey

And the water rolls down the drain
(Water rolls down the drain)
The blood rolls down the drain
(Water rolls down the drain)
Oh, what a lonely thing in a blood red drain

July, July, July, it never seemed so strange
July, July, July, it never seemed so
It never seemed so strange, it never seemed so strange
It never seemed so strange, it never seemed so strange


47.Angel, Won't You Call Me？

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Angel won't you call me？
Could I be the only
Though I am a lost cause
Angel won't you call me？

Waiting for a sweet breeze
Read it in the tea-leaves
Saw them crown you may queen
Heard you sing the sweetest thing

But I've been so unbridled
I fled at the face of my rival
When I felt his breath
At the back of my neck
Angel won't you call？

So here I am in corduroy
Catch it in your Polaroid
Thought it was an off night
Caught in such a warm light

So angel won't you call me？
Could I be the only
Though I am a lost cause
Angel won't you call me？

'Cause I've been so unbridled
I fled at the face of my rival
When I felt his breath
At the back of my neck
Angel won't you call？


48.The Chimbley Sweep

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

I am a chimbley, a chimbley sweep
No bed to lie, no shoes to hold my feet
On a rooftop, in dead of night
You'll hear me cry, I'll shake you from your sleep

To hear me weep, your day will come indeed
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep

I am an orphan, an orphan boy
I've known no love, I've seen no mother's joy
A dirty doorstep, my cradle lay
My fortunes made, I'll shake you from your sleep

To hear me weep, your day will come indeed
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep

'Oh, lonely urchin,' the widow cries
'I've not been swept since the day my husband died'
Her cheeks are blushing, her legs lay bare
And shipwrecked there, I'll shake you from your sleep

To hear me weep, your day will come indeed
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep


49.Apology Song

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

I'm really sorry, Steven
But your bicycle's been stolen
I was watchin' it for you 'til you came back in the fall
I guess I didn't do such a good job after all

I was feelin' really sorry Steven
And I spent all morning grievin'
And everybody's saying that you'll take the news gracefully
Somehow I don't think I'll be gettin' off that easily

I meant her no harm
When I left her unlocked
Outside the Orange Street food farm
I was just runnin' in, didn't think I'd be that long

I came out, she was gone
And all that was there was some bored old dog
Leashed up to the place where your bicycle had been
Guess we'll never see poor Madeleine again

Let this be consolation, Steven
That all the while you were in England
I treated her with care and respect and gave her lots of love
And I was usually pretty good 'bout locking her up

And where has she gone？
Well, I bet she's on the bottom
Of a Frenchtown pond
Rudely abused on some hescher's joyride

So I wrote you this song
In the hopes that you'd forgive me even though it was wrong
Being so careless with a thing so great


50.The Landlords Daughter

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

There's an island hidden in the sound
Lapping currents lay your boat to ground
Fix 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 over-hanging trees
Among the bones of cormorants
No boot mark here, nor finger prints
The rivers roll down to a soundless sea
Won't you come and see, come and see

The tides will come and go witnessed by no waking eye
Who rose like the wind
Though we know for sure amidst this fading light
We'll not go home again
You come and see, come and see

In the lowlands nestled in the heat
A brier cradle rocks it's babe to sleep
Its contents watched by Sycorax
And paragon in parallax
A foretold rumbling sounds below the deep
You come and see, come and see

The tides will come and go witnessed by no waking eye
Who rose like the wind
Though we know for sure amidst this fading light
We'll not go home again
Come and see, come and see

As I was rambled down by the water
I spied in sable the landlord's daughter
Produced my pistol, then my saber
So make no whistle or thou will be murdered
Love, love

She cursed, she shivered, she cried for mercy
'My gold and silver if thou will release me'
Oh, love, love

I'll take no gold miss, I'll take no silver
I'll take those sweet lips, and thou will deliver
Oh, love, love

I will dress your eyelids with dimes upon your eyes
Laying close to water, green your grave will rise

Go to sleep little ugly, go to sleep 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

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

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

Hear you now the captain, heed his sorrowed cry
'Weight upon your eyelids is dimes laid on your eyesâ


51.Song for the Myla Goldberg

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Myla Goldberg
Sets a steady hand upon her brow
Myla Goldberg
Hangs a crooked foor all upside down

It comes around, it comes around
It comes around, it comes around
It comes around, it comes around
It comes around, it comes around

Pretty hands do pretty things
When pretty times arise
Seraphim in seaweed swim
Where stick-limbed Myla lies

It comes around, it comes around
It comes around, it comes around
It comes around, it comes around
It comes around, it comes around

Still now you're waiting to grow
Inside you're old
Sew wings to your pigeon toes
Put paper to pen and spell out Eliza

We begin with sticky shins
Make sticky then our shoes
Shoes beget to clothes
And hat 'til sticky's sticking too

Finiculi, finicula, finiculi, finicula
Finiculi, finicula, finiculi, finicula

Listen in as shin-kicked Jim
Relates his story sad
'Bout a boy who kicked
Until his shins were all but rubber bands

But now I know New York, I need New York
I know I need unique New York
I know New York, I need New York
I know I need unique New York

Still now you're waiting to grow
Inside you're old
Sew wings to your pigeon toes
Put paper to pen and spell out Eliza

Eliza, Eliza
It comes around, it comes around
It comes around


52.Culling Of The Fold

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

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

You take him by the teeth
Get him down on his knees
With your hands all shaking
That'll teach him how to take it

You got to 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 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

You got to cut him up, girl
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

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 him up, boy
And cut him up, girl

Buy 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
Oh, the culling of the fold ha, ha, ha, ha


53.I Don't Mind

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

Truly with his thorn in your side
And you don't know why
Julie dips her toe in the tide
And you don't know why

No, she don't know why
She got all dolled up for a suicide
And when the stage lights dimmed on the fading scrim
It was morning before the cheering died
Is it too late to tell you that I don't mind？

King George in imperial robe and a lazy eye
knelt down as the semaphore
Broke on his tawdry bride
But we don't know why

He got all stressed out on the motherland
With his TV sets and his fighter jets
And the royal ubiquitous handycam
Is it too late to tell you that I don't mind？

So, here's you with your mom on your back
Going into the woods
She's so proud that you're staying on track
Like a good son should

But you don't know why you got
All choked up when you said goodbye
And you can hear her still when the nights are still
All crying out for calamine
Is it too late to tell you that I don't mind？
Is it too late to tell you that I don't mind？


54.My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

My mother was a Chinese trapeze artist
In pre-war Paris
Smuggling bombs for the underground
And she met my father

At a fete in Aix-en-Provence
He was disguised as a Russian cadet
In the employ of the Axis
And there in the half-light
Of the provincial midnight

To a lone concertina
They drank in cantinas
And toasted to Edith Piaf
And the fall of the Reich

My sister was born in a hovel in Burgundy
And left for the cattle
But later was found by a communist
Who'd deserted his ranks

To follow his dream
To start up a punk rock band in South Carolina
I get letters sometimes
They bought a plantation

She weeds the tobacco
He offends the nation
And they write, 'Don't be a stranger, y'hear
Sincerely, your sister'

So my parents had me
To the disgust of the prostitutes
On a bed in a brothel
Surprisingly raised with tender care

Till the money got tight
And they bet me away
To a blind Brigadier in a game
Of high stakes canasta

But he made me a sailor
On his Brigadier ship fleet
I know every yardarm
From main mast to jib sheet

But sometimes I long to be landlocked
And to work in a bakery


55.As I Rise

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

I have come a few miles
I got blisters on my slippered feet
As I rise
As I rise

California's okay
But I think I might stay in the shade
For a while
For a while

Ladybird, ladybird
You're the prettiest song I heard
In a while
In a while


56.The Soldering Life

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Ambling madly all over the town
The call to arms you liken to a whisper, I liken to a radio
You were a brickbat, a Bowery tuff, so rough
They culled you from a cartoon, pulled out of your pantaloons

But you, my brother in arms
I'd rather I'd lose my limbs
Than let you come to harm
But you, my bombazine doll
The bullets may singe your skin
And the mortars may fall

But I, I never felt so much life than tonight
Huddled in the trenches gazing on the battle field
Our rifles blaze away, we blaze away

Corporal Bradley of regiment five
In proud array standing by the bathing
Soldiers and the stevedores
We laid on the mattress and tumbled to sleep
Our eyes aligned, swaddled in our civvies
Cradled in our dungarees

But you, my brother in arms
I'd rather I'd lose my limbs
Than let you come to harm
But you, my bombazine doll
The bullets may singe your skin
And the mortars may fall

But I, I never felt so much life than tonight
Huddled in the trenches gazing on the battle field
Our rifles blaze away, we blaze away
We blaze away, we blaze away, we blaze away


57.Eli, the Barrowboy

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

Eli, the barrow boy, you're the old town
Sells coal and marigolds and he cries out
All down the day

Below the tamarac she is crying
Corn cobs and candle wax for the buying
All down the day

Would I could afford to buy my love a fine robe
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread？
She is dead and gone and lying in a pine grove
And I must push my barrow all the day
And I must push my barrow all the day

Eli, the barrow boy, when they found him
Dressed all in corduroy, he had drowned
In the river down the way

They laid his body down in a churchyard
But still when the moon is out, with his pushcart
He calls down the day

Would I could afford to buy my love a fine gown
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread？
But I am dead and gone and lying in a church ground
But still I push my barrow all the day
Still I push my barrow all the day


58.Sons ＆ Daughters

Lyricist：Colin Patrick Meloy

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 now

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

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

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 cinnamon now

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

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 cinnamon now

When we arrive sons and daughters
We'll make our homes on the water
We'll build our walls aluminum
We'll fill our mouths cinnamon now

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


59.Record Year

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

I read in the paper today
It's been a record year for rainfall
And you were leaning against the bathroom wall
In your lonely dress, was your only dress

Stand accusing across
I got a temper set for tender
And you were shrugging it off like a feather
Saying, 'Oh, would you look at this weather？'

What's the use of all of this？
It's to remember you in the entire 'cause I'm watching it slip
away
And in the annals of the Empire
Did it look this gray before the fall, before the fall？

So rake your thumbnail across
The stretch of the patina
Revealing a Proserpina
In a low recline, in a steep decline

What's the use of all of this？
It's to remember you in the entire 'cause I'm watching it slip
away
And in the annals of the Empire
Did it look this gray, does it look so gray？
Does it always look so gray before the fall, before the fall？


60.Raincoat Song

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

Caroline you're angry 'cause you sleep like a spinster
And you're twenty-eight
You've been thinking late, you couldn't catch a cold

Bend your head double in the goose down
Piling all the pillows high
Heave your fiercest sigh and see if that'll work

And the raincoat that you wore when it rained today
And the raincoat that you wore when it rained today
I think it only made it rain more
I think it only made it rain the more

And if the water's all wicking up your pant leg
Better wear your britches tight
I should teach you right, to be so down at heel

Going off half-cocked
Night shot full of arrows from the cherubim
Oh, the nerve of them to not draw their bows

And the raincoat that you wore when it rained today
And the raincoat that you wore when it rained today
I think it only made it rain more
I think it only made it rain the more


61.I'm Sticking With You

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

I'm sticking with you
'Cause I'm made out of glue
And anything that you might do
I'm gonna do too

You held up a stagecoach in the rain
And I'm doing the same
I saw you hanging from a tree
And I made believe it was me

'Cause I'm sticking with you
'Cause I'm made out of glue
And anything that you might do
I'm gonna do too

We could go into the stratosphere
Soldiers fighting with the con
But with you by my side I can do anything
When we swing, we hang past right and wrong

I'll do anything for you
Anything you want me to
I'll do anything for you

Well, well, I'm sticking with you
Well, well, I'm sticking with you
Well, well, I'm sticking with you
...


62.Constantinople

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

O the minarets of Constantinople
Are plated gold, ivory and opal
Their cupolas all onion domed and light

And the magistrate of Constantinople
Has made a match, his family was hopeful
Their daughter would be promised a wedding night

But the Sultan's weary bride, she won't be wed tonight
Nor fall beneath a canopy to lie
For far across the town her lover's lying drowned
And painted by the Bosporus in blue
And there's nothing for a broken heart to do

Down the dirty streets of Constantinople
The beggars weep, their hands all wide open
Their severed leper limbs all swing and sway

At a windowsill in Constantinople
Our Hero sighs to melodies noteful
And gazes on the walls that hold his love

But the Sultan's weary bride, she won't be wed tonight
Nor fall beneath a canopy to lie
For far across the town her lover now is drowned
And painted by the Bosporus in blue
And there's nothing for a broken heart to do

No, there's nothing for a broken heart to do
Except cry


63.The Kingdom Of Spain

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

In the kingdom of Spain
There are such colors
They defy any name
Like drab and dolor

But oh the King and the Queen of Spain
With their long unpronounceable names
Grace the table at the
Long lost Kingdom of Spain

In the Kingdom of Light
A lithe young lawyer
Tries a case for her
Unjustly arrested brother

But oh the King and the Queen of Light
Rule with unbendable might
So it's to the gallows
For the long lost Kingdom of Light, oh

In the Kingdom of Love
We're all just fodder
As the cannonades drub
Our sons and daughters

But oh the King and the Queen of Love
In their long white fingerless gloves
Bang the gavel for the
Long lost Kingdom of Love, oh

Of love
Of love


64.Days Of Elaine

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

Those were the days of Elaine
That was the phrase that she used
To describe to her son
All the fun she had had

Long before he went away
Long before days of the dole
And the draze and the lull
But the call never came

To say, oh, oh, oh

Loitering lavender park
Laying about in the day
And the dark of a room
While the noon passes by

Always on verge of collapse
Mother would quit and then suffer
A lapse from the drink
You would think she was dead

What to say, oh, oh, oh
She say, oh, oh, oh, oh

And the time that it takes, will it go so slow？
She laid on the brakes and she dulled her glow
Now, doesn't it go so slow when you build it up to tear it town？
You're tearing it down, you tear it down

Those were the days
Those were the days of Elaine
The days of Elaine
The days of Elaine

A lover like Allen Dallon
She followed him blind from salon to salon
From the hills to the pills he would take

Her father had died in the mines
Her brother had shown no remorse for his crimes
When they strung him up
He got all hung up on the scaffolding

But he say, oh, oh, oh
He say, oh, oh, oh, oh

And the time that it takes, will it go so slow？
And she laid on the brakes and she dulled her glow
Now doesn't it go so slow when you build it up to tear it down？
You're tearing it down, you tear it down

Those were the days
Those were the days of Elaine
The days of Elaine
The days of Elaine, yeah


65.O New England

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

We'd come seven hours down
Took the blue line to see where we hopped out
And I was only joking and I was only joking
And I was only trying to get a laugh

You say this was the furthest that we had come
And traveled so far to watch it fall undone
And I had lost my token, you were looking bent and broken
Staring sideways with the rain coming down
But I am so enthralled

O New England
La da dum da
O New England
La da dum da

This here is the fable of a failed attempt
Fable, failed attempt now
Find new life in a love in the seat of its origin
Failed attempt now

From Long to Coney Island
From Mid to West to Upper Highland
And all I got is a silk full colored souvenir
The new millennium in New York

And all of New England
La da dum dum
O New England
La da dum dum

O New England in the face of your empire
I think I'd rather just wait in the car
And return to the turnpike watching New England skyline
Sinking below, sinking below

We'd come seven hours down
We'd come seven hours down
We'd come seven hours down, down
We'd come seven hours down

We'd come seven hours down
We'd come seven hours down
We'd come seven hours down, down
We'd come seven hours down


66.Please Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas) (Connect Set)

Lyricist：William Danoff, Taffy Nivert

Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Momma cry
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Momma cry

Just last year when I was only seven
And now I'm almost eight, as you can see
You came in at quarter past eleven
Fell down underneath the Christmas tree

Say, please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Momma cry
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Momma cry

Momma smiled, looked outside the window
She told me, 'Son, you better go upstairs'
Then you laughed and hollered, 'Merry Christmas'
I turned around to see my Momma's tears

I said, please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Momma cry
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Momma cry

Said, I don't wanna see my Momma cry


67.Valerie Plame

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

Oh, Valerie Plame if that really is your name
I would just shout the same to the world
Dear Valerie Plame so they made a wreck of you
But give me the rest of you and I'll give the world

But you were just some silly girl
Taking in the sights of your empire's colony
So I took you into my confidence
Without a thought of consequence to my heart or to my mind

But Valerie Plame if that really is your name
I would just shout the same to the world

Oh, Valerie Plame if that really is your name
I would just shout the same from up high
Dear Valerie Plame I'll look for that long exchange
Outside of the Bureau Change in Shanghai

But I was just some stupid boy on a bus
When your nom de guerre was Codename Caroline
And so my Vespa became your chariot
From the Green Zone Marriott to be etched upon my mind

But Valerie Plame if that really is your name
I would just shout the same to the world

And when they flashed your picture 'cross the screen
How my heart seemed to leap out of me
And they attached a list of your identities
But the one you'll always be

Is Valerie Plame if that really is your name
I would just shout the same to the world
Dear Valerie Plame if that really is your name
I would just shout the same to the world

Hey, hey, Valerie Plame
Hey, hey, Valerie Plame
Hey, hey, Valerie Plame
Hey, hey, Valerie Plame
Hey, hey, Valerie Plame
Hey, hey, Valerie Plame


68.The Wanting Comes In Waves ／ Repaid

Colin：

Mother I can hear your footfall now
soft disturbance in the dead fall how
it precedes you like a black smoke oh
still the wanting comes in waves

You delivered me from danger then
pulled my cradle from the reedy glen
swore to save me from the world of men
still the wanting comes in waves
and the wanting comes in waves
and I want this night
and I want this night, ah, oh

Shara：

How I made you, I wrought you, I pulled you
from ore I labored you
from cancer I cradled you
And now, this is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid

Remember when I found you
the miseries that hounded you
and I gave you motion, anointed you with lotions
and now, this is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid

Colin：

Mother hear this proposition right
grant me freedom to enjoy this night
and I'll return to you at break of light
For the wanting comes in waves, in waves, in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
And you owe me life
And you owe me life, ah, oh

Shara：

And if I grant you this favor, to hand you
your life for the evening I will retake by morning
and so consider it your debt repaid
Consider it your debt repaid, repaid, repaid


69.The Wanting Comes In Waves

Colin：

Mother I can hear your foot-fall now
Soft disturbance in the dead-fall how
It proceeds you like a black smoke pall
Still the wanting comes in waves
And you delivered me from danger then
Pulled my cradle from the reedy glen
Swore to save me from the world of men

Still the wanting comes in waves
In waves
And waves
And the wanting comes in waves
And the wanting comes in waves

And I want this night
And I want this night
Oh

Shara：

How I made you
I wrought you, I pulled you
From war I labored you
From cancer I cradled you
And now

This is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid

Remember when I found you
The miseries that hounded you
And I gave you motion
Anointed with lotions
And now

This is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid

Colin：

Mother hear this proposition right
Grant me freedom to enjoy this night
And I'll return to you at break of light
For the wanting comes in waves
And waves
And waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
And you owe me life
And you owe me life

Shara：

And if I grant you this favor to hand you
Your life for the evening
I will retake by morning
And so
Consider it your debt repaid
Consider it your debt repaid
Repaid
Repaid


70.Won't Want For Love

Gentle leaves, gentle leaves
Please array a path for me
The wood's all growing thick and fast around

Columbine, Columbine,
Please alert this love of mine
Let him know his Margaret comes along

And all this stirring inside my belly won't quell my want for
love
And I may swoon from all this swelling but I won't want for love

Mistle thrush, mistle thrush
Lay me down in the underbrush
My naked feet grow weary with the dusk

Columbine, Columbine,
Please alert this love of mine
Let him know his Margaret comes along

And I may swoon from all this swelling but I won't want for love
And I may swoon from all this swelling but I won't want for love


71.Isn't It A Lovely Night？

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

Isn't a lovely night？
And so alight with fireflies providing us their holy light
And here we made a bed of boughs
And thistle down that we had found to lay upon the dewy ground

And isn't it a lovely way？
We got in from our play
Isn't it, babe？ A sweet little baby

Wasn't it a lovely breeze
That swept the leaves of arbor eaves and bent to brush our
blushing knees？
And here we died our little deaths
And we were left to catch our breaths so swiftly lifting from
our chests？

And isn't it a lovely way？
We got in from our play
Isn't it babe？ A sweet little baby


72.The Queen's Rebuke

I'm made of bones of the branches the boughs and the
brow-beating light
While my feet are the trunks and my head is the canopy high
And my fingers extend to the leaves in the eves, and the bright

Brighter shine
It's my shine

And he
Was a baby abandoned
Entombed in a cradle of clay
And I was a soul who took pity and stole him away
And gave him the form of a faun to inhabit by day

Brightest day
It's my day

And you
Have removed this temptation that's troubled my innocent child
To abduct and abuse
And to render her rift and defiled
But the river is deep to the banks and the water is wild

I will fly you
To the far side


73.The Queen's Rebuke ／ The Crossing

Lyricist：Colin Meloy

I'm made of bones of the branches, the boughs and the
browbeating light
Oh, my feet are the trunks and my head is the canopy high
And my fingers extend to the leaves and the eaves and the bright
Bright as shine, it's my shine

And he was a baby abandoned, entombed in a cradle of clay
And I was the soul that took pity and stole him away
And gave him the form of a fawn to inhabit by day
Bright as day, it's my day

And you have removed this temptation that's troubled my innocent
child
To abduct and abuse and to render a rift and defiled
But the river is deep to the bends and the water is wild
I will fly you to the far side


74.The Wanting Comes In Waves／Repaid

Colin：
Mother, I can hear your footfall now
Soft disturbance in the dead fall
How it precedes you like a black smoke, oh
Still the wanting comes in waves

You delivered me from danger then
Pulled my cradle from the reedy glen
Swore to save me from the world of men
Still the wanting comes in waves
And the wanting comes in waves
And I want this night
And I want this night, ah, oh

Shara：
How I made you, I wrought you, I pulled you
From ore I labored you
From cancer I cradled you
And now, this is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid

Remember when I found you
The miseries that hounded you
And I gave you motion, anointed you with lotions
And now, this is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid

Colin：
Mother hear this proposition right
Grant me freedom to enjoy this night
And I'll return to you at break of light
For the wanting comes in waves, in waves, in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
And you owe me life
And you owe me life, ah, oh

Shara：
And if I grant you this favor, to hand you
Your life for the evening I will retake by morning
And so consider it your debt repaid
Consider it your debt repaid, repaid, repaid