1. |
FLOWER
02:28
|
|||
FLOWER
Please don’t let the failure
Failure of my quiet face and tongue
To arrive at what my thoughts
Thoughts have always wanted to have done
Discourage you
I have come with nothing
Except the fear of life
Which gives men the strength to die
And I’ve found a flower beautiful and young
|
||||
2. |
PREDICTABLE
06:14
|
|||
PREDICTABLE
(to America)
You are so predictable
I thought you were special, but now I know what you’re about
Even so, I know it’s my fault
My face won’t betray what I’d like to say even now
And you wouldn’t stay for just one day to hear me out
Still, everything’s my fault, I’m sorry for it all
Please don’t be so sure that I don’t want to have your …
You are so statistical
Like everyone else, without being offered you take
Even so, I know you are right
Of my inability to plainly see my mistake
Of wanting to be other than the me you would make
Still, everything’s my fault, I’m sorry for it all
Please don’t be so sure that I don’t want to have your …
You are so beautiful
I’d gladly give myself for sacrifice at your feet
Even so I’d like to say
I’m sorry my words fell down to the earth silently
And for what it’s worth I offer this birth up to thee
Still, everything’s my fault, I’m sorry for it all
Please don’t be so sure that I don’t want to have your …
Your thieves steal away every day
Ships sail away, how can they stay
They’re just like you, they’re just like me
Small on the water beneath the dark sky
Their course is fixed, they just don’t see
Hold on the water, black as the night
Look for the captain, nowhere in sight
|
||||
3. |
STONES
06:09
|
|||
4. |
RUSSIA
05:51
|
|||
RUSSIA
The branches cold
With snowfall thick
You were so impatient
To show me
The eyes of a child
Whose pride is stirred to the quick
When I touched you
I knew that you were sick
The smell of death
Ran through every vein
But you were sure to start again,
The next day become sane
The eyes of a child whose pride is stirred to the quick
When I touched you I knew you were sick
And when the clouds come over you
The child becomes assassin too
Matchless beauty
In a pure heart
Killed in the womb
Before it could start
Forced to tend a land so vast,
Heavy, it would hold you down
Your voice in the silence drowned
It curved the Earth, without making a sound,
Swallowed by the forest and the rocks in the ground
Innocent, you push your hands through the poisoned soil
That will one day bury you, there are so few who stay
|
||||
5. |
CHAINS
06:13
|
|||
CHAINS
(Vietnam, Cambodia, Bagdad, Fallujah, Lebanon, Gaza...)
Tendrils
Bring out some vague image to the light of day
And push back the curtains, another victory
We close our eyes to breathe
The warm sand from the desert there
Cut like the flesh around the prize
The master tethered to it where
His faithful servant lies
Constellations
Thrown like gems, are locking heads, as deaf and dumb
As tattoos lingering above the canopy
We watch it from beneath
The planes give through the severed air
Necklaces of fire from the sky
That fall down to our hands laid bare
To scatter them like grains
That grow to be so high
Everything’s pulling to break these chains
|
||||
6. |
INITIATION
05:04
|
|||
INITIATION
Like a ghost, I move through you
And I hover over the withered fields
I no longer remember the words that brought me here
They have, like me, disappeared
And left these empty shells to take their place
Scattered groundstars, mirrors to hold up to your face
Limbs have slowly dropped away
Detached from me, the things that would not stay
Peeled like wings or scissors to open the inside
Memories were rooted out
And knots undone to let dark ribbons fly -
A window pane, a blank slate that cracked beneath the fire,
I was broken to receive
The bitter lessons beauty could inspire
But I recall no visions, and nothing to believe
Mended in the brightness there,
The path was light, behind the shadows burn
The yawning bridges shattered, impossible return
|
||||
7. |
MON ETOILE
05:04
|
|||
MON ETOILE
Ô mon étoile
Tu as brillé si fort
Tu appelais le désastre
Précipitant ta mort
Ton rythme si rapide
Tournoyait dans un vide
Et à t’approcher
Nous nous sommes brûlés
Ô mon étoile
Tu as brillé trop fort
Tu as provoqué le désastre
Précédant ta mort
Ton rythme trop rapide
Tournoyait dans un vide
Et à t’approcher
Ils se sont brûlés
Une dernière grimace pour sauver ta face abusée
Tu as trop donné, pas assez pris
Ça passe ou ça casse, trop d’audace déchaînée
Un triste spectacle pour aujourd’hui
Ô mon étoile
Tu as défié ton sort
Tu appelais le désastre
Précipitant ta mort
Aussi vite que venue,
Tu es partie vaguer
Et de la tribu
Tu t’es séparée
|
||||
8. |
ARCHIPELS
06:41
|
|||
ARCHIPELS
(à M.)
Tu as placé avec soin ces îles
Pour que je découvre lentement,
Sans me lasser des charmes et prodiges
Et tous les temples t’appartenant
Et chaque fois je risquai la mer
Juste pour le plaisir de revenir
Me retourner guetter le danger
Auquel j’ai une fois encore échappé
Et voir tes yeux briller
Ô ma guide adorée
Ton flanc coupé pour révéler
Tes secrets à l’initié qui attendait,
Impatient de désir, de découvrir
Et sur ses terres transformées
J’ai trouvé mon pays véritable
Dont je serai à jamais partisan,
Même si disparu maintenant
Les messagers était en violet
Ardents, ils éclataient page et mot
Un été sans fin nous étouffait,
Blanchissait les rochers comme des os
J’ai vu la nature vers toi se tendre
Même l’eau nous jetait ses bouquets
Cette corde que j’ai crue incassable
A cédé à force de trop tirer
Mais ces terres-là étaient si instables
Et ces catastrophes si vite venus
Après les rites je suis remonté comme un diable
Retrouver un terrain inconnu
Où j’ai tout dévasté
Ô ma guide adorée
Ton flanc coupé pour révéler
Tes secrets à l’initié qui attendait,
Impatient de désir, de retrouver
Nôtre sommeil lié
En attendant l’heure redoutée
Et de ses terres transformées
J’ai fait mon pays véritable
Dont je serai à jamais partisan,
Même si disparu maintenant
|
||||
9. |
||||
10. |
PARIS, 2008
03:21
|
|||
PARIS, 2008
They were waiting
Flowers in their hands
But you said nothing
They’d understand
Just empty papers
It ruined your mouth
Now they move their lips, muted
And filth comes out
Surrounded by thieves,
A good man is a dead man,
So hard to find
So take up your blade
And thin the fields
They’re only waiting
To drink the blood
On tender footsteps
The nightmare becomes the day,
The rage inside
Will begin to fade
This bright red flower
Will wither unless
You pick it now
Another day gone,
Forfeit your resting eyes to
The masquerade
Of a thousand lies
Their suits and ties
Shed for the night as
They lay their heads
Gently sleeping
|
||||
11. |
||||
I WONDER AS I WANDER (trad./J. Niles/arr. Gehrke)
I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus our Saviour did come for to die
For poor orn’ry people like you and like I
I wonder as I wander out under the sky
When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cow stall
With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all
But high from the Heavens a star's light did fall
The promise of ages it then did recall
If Jesus had wanted of any wee thing
A star in the sky or a bird on the wing
Or all of God's Angels in Heav’n for to sing
He surely could have had it, 'cause he was the king
|
||||
12. |
Streaming and Download help
Rob Gehrke recommends:
If you like Rob Gehrke, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp