1. |
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BEFORE I GO BACK TO THE WHALES
Some come from the desert
Some come from the woods
Some going to the lizard
Some going to the wolves
The quiet pull you can’t explain
The quiet pull that knows your name
Says this is where you come from and where you’re going to
Mine’s been coming from the water
Long as I remember
I feel the arm around my waist pull me back to that embrace
This is where I come from and where I’m going to
But before I go back to the whales
I’ll do the things that humans do
I’ll smile for real, I’ll smile real fake
My heart will heal, my heart will break
Before I go back to the whales
I only believe in God when I’m on an airplane
Taking off or touching down
Or when we’re bouncing all around
Then I say: I know I’m not one for prayer
But if you keep us in the air
I’ll be more pious
Just don’t let us die, just don’t let us die
But if we are going down
Let it be off the coast of Provincetown
Where the summer people go to see the whales blow
Where the summer people beach and the humpbacks breach
But before I go back to the whales
I’ll flail the way that humans flail
I’ll hit my stride then I’ll hit a wall
I’ll learn to glide then I’ll damn it all
I’ll take a lover, forsake a friend
I’ll wake and shutter from dreams that won’t end
I’ll have songs to sing but I usually won’t bother
I’ll clip my own wings but I’ll blame it on my father
I’ll give you my bed
We will throb and burn
Then I’ll tell you I love you just to hear it in return
Before I go back to the whales
We all knew it from the start
One day soon we all will part
Some will howl and some will fly
Some will swim and I’m the swimming kind
I’m looking forward to being a whale
Give me back my flukes, give me back my baleen
I think when I become a whale
I’ll only say the things I mean
I’ll only say what I mean
I’ll only say the things I mean
I won’t look for meaning
I’ll just do what I’m meaning
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2. |
Songs Are Ghosts
03:50
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I will keep you close
Songs will be your ghost
I won’t stop inviting you
Don’t you float so far
Ordinary stars don’t need you
Don’t know you like I do
When you start to slip away
You start to slip away
I play the music, I play the music
When you start to slip away
You start to slip, I play
‘Cause when there’s music
I feel you most
And songs are ghosts
Songs are ghosts
I will keep you near
Whisper in my ear
Remind me, remind me what is true
And if you go unbound
I will be your sound
Come find me, come find a passage through
And when I start to slip away
I start to slip away
You say “there’s music, there’s always music”
When I start to slip away
I start to slip, you say,
“I’ll be the music, you be the host”
“The song’s the ghost
The song is my ghost”
Songs are ghosts
Ooo, songs are ghosts
Let me keep you young
Curl inside my lungs
I’ll bring you, I’ll bring you back to earth
Don’t you float so far
Ordinary stars don’t need you
Don’t know how much you’re worth
I will keep you close
Songs will be your ghost
I’ll be your ghost
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3. |
Lovers of Valdaro
04:26
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LOVERS OF VALDARO
Long after the ice has melted, long after the flood
Long after the meteors, the virus in the blood
They will come here digging, yeah, they’ll take a look around
They will dig and when they dig they’ll find us in the ground
This used to be a city sitting in a country sitting on a continent
This used to be a river, used to be a high school, used to be a monument
There used to be two people living in a house here, one of many little homes
What will they know from the positions of our bones?
Will they think we were happy together?
Will they think we had something good?
Will they think we didn’t know we were dying
Cuz the music said we never would?
Will they think we held on to each other
When we knew that the end was near?
Or will they think we held on to each other
Will they think we held on like that for years?
Long before the moon was settled, long before the bombs
This was California and the wind was in the palms
I was brewing coffee, you were rinsing out your hair
The dogs were eating breakfast, here was jasmine in the air
This used to be a country wrapped around a city wrapped around a parking lot
Where every Sunday morning they would have a market—radishes and apricots
These used to be our mouths, used to be our hands, used to be our microphones
What will they discover in what used to be our bones?
Will they think we were happy together?
Will they think we’d made up our minds?
Will they think we were the life of the party?
Will they think we were the quiet kinds?
Will they think we held on to each other
When we knew that the end was near?
Or will they think we held on to each other
Will they think we held on like that for years?
Don’t forget the world was full of light
Don’t forget the world the world was full was full of light of light
I was brewing coffee, you were rinsing out your hair
The dogs were eating breakfast, there was jasmine in the air
Do you think we were happy together?
Do you think we’d made up our minds?
Do you think we were the life of the party?
I kinda think we were the quiet kind
Do you think we held on to each other
When we knew that the end was near?
Or do you think we held on to each other
Do you think we held on like that for years?
Do you think we were happy together?
Do you think we had something good?
Do you think we ever knew we were dying
The music say we never would
Yeah, I don’t think we ever knew we were dying
The music said we never would
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4. |
When the Deer Come
04:39
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WHEN THE DEER COME
I hold my breath whenever the deer come
Don’t move the air, don’t wanna scare ‘em
Whether in twilight, whether in dawn
The stag or the mother and her fawn
When I breathe again they are gone
Wish I were younger, wish I were stronger
Wish pain would go quicker and love would last longer
But just when I’m sure nothin’ is true
No one hurts half as much as I do
The trees move, they’re comin’ through
Oh, don’t it make you feel awfully safe and sound?
Yeah, it sure does make me feel like what’s lost could be found
The seeds are in the ground
The sun comes up and down
The deer are all around
We hold our breath whenever the deer come
Winter or spring summer or autumn
Nothin’ so quiet, nothin’ so good
As their eyes at the edge of the wood
We’d follow if we could
Oh, let us disappear for a long warm hour (Let us disappear)
Turn us into moss, turn us into wild flowers
So they won’t know we’re here
And we can just be near the deer being deer
Oh, don’t it make you feel awfully safe and sound?
It sure does make me feel like what’s lost will be found
The seeds are in the ground
The sun comes up and down
The deer are all around
Though they run away, though they never stay
They’ll come another day
We hold our breath
We hold our breath
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5. |
Snow Fox
05:29
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SNOW FOX
Last time that we met your coat was cinder
Now you’ve changed to match the winter
I wish I had fur like you
Come out, beauty, show your face
Queen of all the quiet space
Will I ever learn to blur like you?
Show me how you hide in the wide open
Snow Fox
How you go lost
How you go
Every step that you erase
I still follow, still retrace
Will I ever stand a chance with you?
Was that you or was that just my breath?
I swear I’m gonna catch my death out here
to catch a glance from you
Show me how you hide in the wide open
Snow fox
How you go lost
How…
Show me how you blend in
How to begin and end in snow
Snow fox
Snow fox
How you go lost
In the white wide open
In the wild wide open
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6. |
Firewood
04:30
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FIREWOOD
Have I always been an old man?
Has it always been a winter day?
Another cardinal at the window
Another cup of Earl Grey
Spent the morning listening
For the snow on the forest floor
I could hear your boots coming
Miles before they reached my door
Boy, is it firewood you’re looking for, you’re looking for?
Or did you come round here wanting more, something more?
Sure, I got firewood
I cut enough to share
Are you gonna come closer
Or should I come over there?
Tell me do you see an old man?
Has the rest of me all disappeared?
Silver in the birches
Silver in my beard
No, I was never beautiful
But I knew to use my skin
And when the lonely came knocking
I knew how to let ‘em in
Boy, is it firewood you’re looking for to kiss the storm?
Or was there something else you thought could keep you warm?
Sure, I got firewood
Been sitting for two years or so
You gotta let it season if you want it to burn steady and slow
Green wood sure smells good
But it’s all smoke and smolder
Light the dry wood, man
You’re safer with something older
Soft wood crackles, yeah
Oh, but it burns it burns it burns too hot and fast
I’ll give you hard wood
For a fire that’s built to last
Silver in the birches
Silver in my beard
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7. |
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FLOWERS THAT BLOOM AT NIGHT
My father looked at me when I was young
Said you won't show your bloom to everyone
Don't give your nectar to the honey bee
We spend the sunlight waiting patiently
But when the yellow rush of day is through
When spider web is jeweled with dew
When the crocus and hibiscus and the lotus close
The sacred lotus and the moss rose
The bats come, and the beetles
And the moths hum
When the man puts out his light
Then you open
Take your freedom
You're a flower that blooms at night
Goodnight Gazania and sweet White Water Lily
The Poppy Mallow shuts her blossom
And with the falling of the fleeting Morning Glory
Arrive the fox and the opossum
Hidden crickets start the nocturne
Now it's our turn
When the Great Grey Owl takes flight
She's beholding
The unfolding
Of the flowers that bloom at night
Soon flower, soon flower
Wait for the sigh of dusk
Moon flower, moon flower
Trust in the time for us
I know you're tired of being tired
I know you want to wake
It's true it's part of you, the quiet ache
A little sorrow only makes us grow more ravishing
A little sorrow is a blessing
We're for lovers and new mothers
For the wakeful
For the ballads that they write
And our patience sweetens the fragrance
Of the flowers that bloom
When the bats come, and the beetles
When the moths hum
And the man puts out his light
Now we open
It's our freedom
We're the flowers that bloom at night
Patience, darling
Patience
Patience, darling
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8. |
Pangaea
04:14
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PANGAEA
Pangaea took her clothes off
One piece at a time
She threw her sweater northward
And kicked her shoes behind
And her skirt billowed far into the east
And her gloves fell to the other side
And all her jewels snapped and scattered
And spread the whole world wide
Spread the whole world wide
Pangaea undressed slowly
And when she felt all free
She held her breath like a child
And sank into the sea
Now she’s lying there
Naked dreamer
Eyes wide open
Through the deep
With the memory of her clothing
Drifting in and out of sleep
In and out of peace
And I’ve just been sailing
Admiring her topography
She really did dress well
She really did have style
When Pangaea took her clothes off
She did it very slow
Two hundred million
Two hundred million
Two hundred million
Years ago
Oooo
Two hundred million
Years ago
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9. |
Snails
04:05
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Daniel Zaitchik
Daniel Zaitchik is a singer-songwriter, theatre maker, and other-things maker.
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