Paroles

A WINTER TALE


I'm pale I've brought it back to Winter Tale,
So spare the ghosts around my neck
the winds against the sails,
I'm shivering up a storm of roadside pines,
Thirst shreds the ballast cold
and shows the olden times


I'm bold and sorrow thrown into the day,
Into the barrels of the sun I turned and found a way,
The naked branches cut the empty air,
The river birds have fled away
from all their wear and tear


The covered surface hugs the board
but keeps in the sky,
A childhood glimpse that keeps you warm
but hangs you to dry,
The shameful dream, the shameful face
that pulls on your heart,
Those brittle winds will keep the dawn
from you at the start


So bring me choirs to ease me on my way,
So bring me screams of organs for the day,
So bring me choirs to brighten all the gales,
So bring me screams of organs and the wails,
of winter tales


I heard a lonely voice cut through the rain,
"So take away my conscious mind and
take away my fame,"
To embrace the day to cut through my only soul,
I'd starch my love of all its parts
to the blackness of burnt coal.




WHO HAVE YOU BEEN LOVING


When the world holds out its flag
the sun will fall across the plain,
I will hold out my hands and take the blame
And when the the weather falls too cold,
the frost ravages the lanes,
I will bow down my head in shame


"But who have you, who have you been loving?"


If someone isn't hurt then it's gonna be me,
But the tears they taint your heart
you're so happy that you're free
If you're no better now than you've ever been,
You owe me an apology


Before the dusk falls to dark
I'll have you banished from my mind
I just need a moment's rest to make it mine
Before the moment turns to cold
with our last drawn line
Beyond the rusted sin of gloat you had your time


I said you owe me an apology
You owe me an apology




THE BOUNTY OF MARY JANE


Now I will run you like a threat
Because my wounded eyes will see again,
Make peace with the sky its rainmay give you hope,
But no siren will call, braceyour love for the fall


Now I will fall upon this town to call your name,
My sweet suffragette
I will fall upon this town to call your name,
My sweet suffragette, my sweet Mary Jane,
My sweet Mary Jane


She's weighted down with loss at her side,
She's on board a ship of ghost and lost pride,
Now say hello to fate, my dear, wreck this story told,
And if you dress my wounds, I'll feel your cold.
I'll feel your cold




IN THE FROST


He cut his sorrow from the flesh and banned it
from his love, she said,
"I hope that it kills you,"
He said he'd give her answers when his blood
dripped to the ground,
And from the kill he knew he'd need to


And the wind it didn't dim to the fire overhead,
and the world is still mourning from your loss,
Your love, she's speaking empties
to the death parade in the frost,
In the frost


"So please bury him deep, keep that man from me,
In the rubble and the soil, he hold the key to all my toil,
Until the day I can no longer hide,
And I lay down by his side,
By his side,"


The rain it chokes the mourners
as they pray for a stray tear, down comes the storm,
Drowning his old faithfuls,
And they sing a thousand songs from the depths of
bloddy hell to take his soul from their handfulls


Her heart it skips a beat as her senses take
its leave, and the world turns so slowly to a creep,
And the faithful kiss their crosses,
but their hate still spreads the disease,
The disease


"So go soft into the night, far beyond your fear and fright,
I lay here before you, this is what you need to do,
So go soft into the night, far beyond your fear,
your fear and fright,
and I lay here before you, this is what you need to do"




SICK MAN BLUES


The darkness hides your eyes, though it's not
for me to tell, you never treat me kind, you think
that I'm unwell, it's such a shame,
You tried to give me up and flirted with my time,
I guess you broke the promise you made
somewhere down the line, oh you're a struggle.
oh you're a struggle.


You paid for all my pills that left me in the past
you were a good girl honey,
you just couldn't make it last,


And your love carries the rhinestone of a plague
so bear in mind the lives you could save,


'Cause I'm bound to walk the darkness again,


I know i'm not that easy to live with day to day
If you painted your own picture then I'd let you
have your say, yes I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner


But my love it sits untainted to the rigours
of your stare, there ain't anybody like you
and the fairness of your hair, leaves me stranded,
it leaves me stranded,


This life it's too long, too long for me to keep, you
should bear that in mind and try the pain you reap.




PENANCE FIRE BLUES


And I see papers and papers
Stacked up in formation
Which mean much before
They're line-ing the fire


As a bottomless heat goes
To harness your anger
Your blood and
Your deepest desire


Because there's no truth stolen
That's been ever brought forward
From the minds of the writers
Looking face down on the gutter


'Cause this world's full of thinkers
And suffragette speakers
who deny that they ever wear a dress
Oh this god forsaken town's in a mess


And all the truths been let out loose
Is desperate to amuse
As it grabs you by the throat
And strings out all the times you've used


But now you don't belong you
Whisper when you speak
You turn yourself to nighttime
Trying to find your feet


Oh let me run
Lord, let me run,
So let me run
Lord, let me run


But as the mornng awakens
That light sends a shudder
The twist of hope that helps you down
Is left to rest and stir


You back down a hallway
To flourish the darkness
And you fool yourself
You did it all for her
And him, and her


But I've seen your face before
Rich boy playing poor
Ravaging the whores
Ignoring constant calls


Now you don't belong
You whisper when you speak
You turn yourself to nighttime
Trying to find your feet




A PASSING TALE


My day is death
My night is dark
My love won't answer the call
With the rain like steel upon my face
My heart is certain to fall


Now I'm tired of sins corrupting me
And the fever turning me in
I don't know where I am headed to
But at least I know where I've been


'Cause my mouth is dry and I cannot speak
I've lost all faith in you
I admit I've lost a few
It's like my words against the wind


So I'm heading down to that long lost space
Where the light won't bounce off the floor
As the world turns to stare at me
My footsteps head straight to the door


So I'm alone again in this lonely place
With no shadow at my side
And my head is littered with your lust
And it's cold and it's rancid outside


I can't take this love and it's pulling me in,
I'm tied to the floor and cut at the seams,
I'm crazy in love and crazy to die I'm lost to this
world and I don't know why


And I've been down for twelve half-days
And I've kinda hit the floor
I'm reaching for something more
It's like my word against the wind




DEAD AND DONE


Heaven is a place where people die pretty
Skies don't lie and there's cash in the kitty
Running from the rocks, there's wanter for the lips
To ease your mouth and bathe your fist


There's no need for trouble when the roads are down
Nobody's out of work cause the mine's in town
The circus has been twice already
Ny throwing arm is good and my heart is steady


I'm dead and done by the heat of the sun
I'll rest my hat in an Autumn field
I'll hang my hat in an Autumn field


Tell my momma not to worry
The food is sweet and the weather's been sunny
And I'm well known here round-a-bout
The local pick pocket is a lay-about


Tell my daddio there's no need for washing
They do it in your sleep when you're not watching
I've already had the neighbors here
Johnny Cash came around and we split a beet


The girls up here sure look swell
They swing like birds, I hear it's nothing like hell
The local priest says there's no need for cheatin'
The local wags call it meetin' and a-greetin'




BEING A MOCKINGBIRD


And the night it rests like a hammer blow
And breaks the morning it brings
The mad men are down on the crypt floor
Sleeping through their favors and sins
And I trained myself to be hardened
And greet the bird like the day
And I soared to greet lusty gamblings
And I drenched myself in the dusk where they lay


And though I exchanged the dark for the darkness
And I hung the belt from the wing
So the traitors may part with their malice
But I'll remember everything


And I gave up myself to the heckles
And I planted the leaf from the book
And I admit I love my romances
The blackbird, the wren, the rook


The church house won't harbor the coffins
But the docks they whittle their ships
And To the pleasure the feast
And the memory and soar of kissing her lips


And I gave myself to the dawning
Of the morning bird in first flight
When I'm sure I ran the road of the pauper
I lost it all in the night




TWO YEARS OLD


I lost my British soul
Pulling out the corpse
Sheltering in the trenches again
Crying for remorse
I laid my arms down
Walked away in a trance
There's parts of me laid out
All over France


So I took my last waltz
Got caught up on the wire
Wrote a letter for my love
As I hid from the fire


An old soldier carried me
Away to the coast
Bathed my wounds in the sea
I'm in the hands of a ghost


And so their boats came on in
And I tried to run away
And I got taken high by the throat
In the burning light of day


And I was sent down by the iron punch
So broken and alone
I left my blood on the beach
For the tide to take me home


See my girl she gave up
She had taken me for dead
She forgot all her promises
And everything she said


And I'm living in the darkest dream
I rose up in the cold
And this scar that i wear outside
It's two years old


Living by the past
And living by the mile
I took the same walk down
That I did as a child


The flags flew full mast
Unaware of the fade
No one saw me walk down
At my very own parade


So watching thoughts turn into dust
'Cause I headed for the mount
I strayed off the path
Waiitng for the count


The shook those steel clad gates
And filled me up with cold
This scar that I wear inside is more
than two years old
These scars that I wear inside are more
than two years old


It's more than two years old




A STRANGER SONG


For you my love, for you my love


So barricade the dors and stop the heart
that you've been holding
And throw the words you hold so dear
from the letter you've been softly folding
When they finish boarding up the house
there'll be nothing left to see,
Just a stranger taking his last breath
upon the guillotine


Your neighbors they were fighters,
but they hung the man you killed
Before the sins had left their hands their
bodies were fulfilled
Where the wings that sting the borderline,
words fall softly to the floor
A woman's love can cause a man
to spill his every flaw
On you my love, on you my love


Does your heart beat so softly without warning,
And does it beat out to the slow pace
of the morning
When you close your eyes after all that you see,
Will you let the strangers be


The train it hits the railroad
and it cowers under flies
It's painted by a man itself so it doesn't creep it cries
You have seen the passageway
but you trembled at the start
You have always seen the strangers play
and let them frolic with your heart


And it's another chance to make amends
but they dabble with your code
You're lost without a wolf or beast
to stop you in the road
And he's sitting quietly in his cell and
counting down its stones
Well a woman with your kind of heart
will always be alone


With him my love, with my love
For your my love, always for you my love