Quarter Century

(2005)

Suzannah
My Lady Went Away
I'll Be Home
Quarter Century
Final Time For Leaving
Abaraxis Foyer
Forever, Forever
The Great Migration
The Steel Drum
Ida Blue
You're My Lady
Ancient Alley
Sail Away

David Herman Düne: bass, lead / Sam Grossman: Lead guitar / Aaron Conte: drums, Percussion / Spencer Chakedis: Electric Guitar, Mandolin / Jon Natchez: saxophone, Flute / Benjamin Ickies: Accordion / Diane Cluck: Backing Vocals / Maximilia Lukacs: Wrist Bells and Chimes

Produced by Spencer Chakedis and TC / Mixed by Mark Ephraim / Recorded at Balloon Heaven - 2005 / Artwork by TC and Jiri Seger / Photo Courtesy of Bernard King

LYRICS

︎Suzzannah
Listen to me brother and I'll tell you what to do,
I've studied cruel bastards and I know a thing or two,
They'll hook you up with shining stuff and get you things for free,
Then laugh at you and cast you to the sea.

Last night you were knealing in the avocado groves,
The Mayans and the Sirens were singing far below,
Please untie the ribbons that are given for your sight,
Sacrifice your appetite and bring Suzzannah home tonight.

Every sawyer's busy splitting redwoods for the prow,
And lawyer's parlaying in sentences now,
And every fate is tide to hate the one sunspotted cow,
And breed in the seed of the sow.

Let them be believing there are reasons they should die,
What good is it that they should know what fortunes they supply,
"I want the king of England, Charlie, get him on the phone,
Say we've got to foil the plot to bring Suzzannah home."

The throng of calm is falling,
To a cold wet spot on the ground,
And the minor song is calling,
And the awning is coming down.

But Jengo's in the mangroves with a banjo in the breeze,
And the man who knows the canto is recalling it for me,
And I am with Suzzannah and the dam is on my right,
And I'm enjoying that ignoring it is willing us to wither in the light.

︎My Lady Went Away

My lady went away,
My lady went away,
I do my best to stick out my chest and say "ok."

She's walking on the street,
She's walking to the bay,
She's looking at the other men who say "hey, hey, hey, hey".

My lady went away,
My lade went away,
I do my best to stick out my chest and say "ok."

Good morning Mr. Salt,
You're looking on the ball,
The flaggons on the wagon hold the rations for us all.

My lady went away,
My lady went away,
Ahead of us and edifice of Oedipus is plain, an impediment in sediment and clay.

My lady went away,
My lady went away,
I do my best to stick out my chest and say "ok."

︎I'll Be Home

I don't know what I knew before the smoke was in my uniform,
The devil's tail, the whale of York, the brown saloons and candy whores,
I'm glad I've got your quills in me, that open road was killing me,
Some master's voice was willing me to roam.

My one, my only,
My one, my only,
My one only love I'll be home.

I don't know what He grew before the giants and the unicorns,
But the trumpets and the gallop horns are blowing in a minor chord,
So let your tear drops fall away, the open road is calling me,
And I am bound for Albany and Rome.

CHORUS

And he'll be in the suden land, the day that great Gibralter falls,
The fusselliers of Arlemagne, the warriors and clones,
But I'll keep that in my memory, and I'll give you the rest of me,
And I will do my best to leave the foreign girls alone.

CHORUS

︎Quarter Century

Nearly a quarter of a century in,
Clogged by the swaddling model of man,
The vain hierarchy of malarchy and gin.

Oh, Seniorita your love is queen,
The land is grand and the rule is mean,
But the reign is dated on a grave where the robbin will sing.

In her own special way,
And with her old fashined grace,
She's a new batch of lady,
With a doe-bashful face.

In steps the in debt natural boy,
Joined by loins to a Helen of Troy,
She jacks his will and fills the void.

In her own special way,
And with her old fashioned grace,
She's a new batch of lady,
With a doe-bashful face.

I am lashed to the chasm,
Like a goat to a tree,
I'm exposed by the ghosts,
I have seen.

Nearly a quarter of a century past,
Fooling by the dueling, ruling class,
My heart is open to your potion at last.

So let fall the warbling wailings of pain,
On the all night disco bingo game,
A quarter of a century lost or gained.

︎Final Time for Leaving

I know when the sun light hits the sky we will be leaving here,
I know when the gaslight starts to shine we will be there,
'Cause there's a final time for weeping and a final time for fear,
And a final time for leaving here, my dear.

I've been in the cauldron of sweaty metropolitan,
I'll tell you the city isn't pretty in July,
We should spend 'em while we got 'em and return again in autumn,
When the awful months in Gotham subside.

I know when the sunlight hits the sky we will be gone,
I know when the gaslight starts to shine we will be home,
'Cause there's a final time for weeping and a final time for fear,
And a final time for leaving here, my dear.

'Cause there's a final time for weeping and a final time for fear,
And a final time for leaving here, my dear.

A final time for leaving here, my dear.

︎Abaraxis Foyer

I have got an abaraxis foyer in my home,
Taxadermist goyam putting salt into my wounds,
I know that nothing's ever just the way that it is told,
And I don't want to sink, but I don't want to row no more.

Don't follow me my enemies are waiting up the road,
With mandala messages and cameras in their clokes,
Seraphim candalabras, heroin and gold,
For sure.

Now step into the day light,
Out of the stage light of your lie,
And salute the bells of longing,
And the chariot that bent when the world didn't end.

I have got two caribou a-crowded on my boat,
One to get me scared of you and one to get me roped,
I know their brand of justice serves the mantra of their souls,
And I don't want to think, 'cause I don't want to know.

I have got an abaraxis foyer in my home.

A morning and a meat hook,
Are swimming on the sea,
They're warning of an evil sun,
That's rising in the east and thats got a hold on me.

I have got an abaraxis foyer in my home,
Battle axes and torries putting sugar in my oil,
I know that nothing's ever just the way that it is told,
And I don't want to sink, But I don't want to row no more.

︎You're My Lady

You're my lady and I know it's true,
Because when I'm broken down I dream of you,
And it's a long and dusty dawn we wander through,
But you're my lady and I know it's true.

Down by the pilings, down on the dock,
There I did lay back in the day I lost the flock,
But then the sun shone in the heavens up above,
And it was you and it is you I love.

And by and by the arrows fly,
Higher and higher to the horizon,
And I was the one who sent them to the sky,
But you were the one who made me try.

'Cause you're my lady and I know its true,
I am proclaiming in the name of you,
And its a long and dusty dawn we wander through,
But you're my lady and I know it's true.

Yes you're my lady and I know it's true.

︎Song Of Your Dreams

When once you dreamed, the streets and mountains leaned against your eyes,
And you did see them as yourself turned out from what did team inside you,
The stream that carried you so swiftly through that granite wall of dreams,
You drank from like an infant and it filled you in the instant,
And some kind of law of instinct did propel you, so it seemed,
And in that realm your thoughts and senses you were fixed between,
And you did not believe,
You did not need to be believed,
When once you dreamed.

And it was not for this that it did be before your mettle,
'Cause your elbow was just resting and you wore no kind of armor,
You were thinking of pirates who were docking in the harbor,
You were farming for the elements that were sprouting in the pasture.
When once you dreamed you needed not to leer or faces read,
And concealed no hidden feeling was of you or your esteem,
You did not wheel (you did not dare) you did not deal for the dollar,
Like a sullen passerby without a saddle or a lover,
Or a ladder to the altitudes of prayer,
Where the water is not swimming with the semen,
And the weavils like the river of your squallor.

Here now dropped and the gun's gone off,
And you're hoofing but your lopsided lope is chopped,
And your looks are not of your age,
And your locks are frayed,
And your hopes do stray from your heart,
To dance and to dart by the old grave yard,
On the hill where the swell of the wind is still,
In the air and it hangs like the drape on a frame,
Whose lace is waning and whose crack is strange,
Like a bell whose ball is wasted away,
Whose toll won't tell the remains of the day.

And your face betrays your answer in the motion of your glances,
In the final lonely moments of mercy in the manger,
When the dangerous man is tallying his chances,
And rallying his captains who are carrying his lances,
To take the virgin field and the throng advances,
And it hurts me 'cause I feel that the song he chants,
Is wrong because it cancels the words that I cant,
And I try to sing but I can't and I paw,
And I pant and I rant and I rave and I fall,
To my death in a grave of the camp in the thaw.

What muse could you attempt to use today my lonely one?
Does your chosen motive stray, is your courage overcome?
Are you done in by strange numbers that do redirect your palm?
Do you crumble on the inside when you stumble through the dawn?
Are you stumbling on the ramparts in the umbridge of G-d?
Are you weary in your stomach are you lonely in your heart?
Does the numbing of your tongue leave you mumbling the tone?
Of the hundreds all around you who confound you with their drone,
What muse could you attempt to use today, my lonely one?
What muse could you attempt to use today to make you whole?
What must could you attempt to use today when there are none?
They are fleeing from the bombs and they are flying to the sun,
They are climbing to their homes in the highest mountain haunt,
Like a scattering of fishes and a gathering of fawns,
To the keys and the calls that will be in alms,
And the arms of the song of your dreams.

︎Ancient Alley

Take me down to the ancient alley,
You know me you showed me before,
I was weighted down and hooked but now I'm running,
To your door.

What became for you to wade in honey?
You're woozy now on that touted shore,
With a frog on your oar, and a crow in tow,
On your Ford.

I'm old enough to notice what's above me,
And I see you dare to wear the robes you hoard,
But I'll leave you there and see you where you stumbling,
On your sword.

Glory be, glory be the heartache,
And glory be, glory be the Word,
In the hue of gray, in the stew and the melee,
And the horror.

Take me down to the anciet alley,
Where the strangers of the world get their applause,
And where odds and earthly charms are not becoming,
Their gods.

︎Dolly

We're all thinking Dolly is on the mend,
We're all drinking like an Indian,
Someone saide that you came by,
But I know better than to ask him why,
The grad school kids all say that it's the end,
But we're all thinking Dolly is on the mend.

Buster Brown's got mad kids on his lot,
He looks like G-d but someone said he's not,
His black skin shines like a naked spear,
His cracked hands make his face appear,
Like G-d's because he's holding something grand,
And we're all thinking Dolly is on the mend.

Galaxies of crisco dicso fries,
Shut the fat land's whinning grimy eyes,
We'll take our case to the only place,
Where the fruit's still good and the juice is chaste,
A million assholes on two-million seats,
Two for every five-grand place of yeast,
Two for every greased up sneering beast and crazy trend,
Getting sick while Dolly is on the mend.

︎Sail Away

Don't look me up, my darling,
Don't look me up I say,
It is time I sailed away.

The hurricane warning,
Is blowing through my brain,
And it's time I sailed away.

I know what it's like,
I know what it's like to stray,
And I know what it's like,
I know what it's like to pray,
(And I pray),

But I long to see the morning,
Dawn in another place,
And it's time I sailed away.

The mirror is holding a tear that roles on my face,
And that is a vision I cannot erase,
Or betray.

The mariners and paramours,
Are there upon the bay,
And it's time I sailed away.

I know what it's like,
I know what it's like to stay,
And I know what it's like,
I know what it's like to pray,
(And I pray),

That though I'll be free-wheelin',
I will return someday,
But it's time I sailed away.

It is time I sailed away.