The Duke of Decline 

(2018)
The Devil's Got My Number   
Dust On Your Soul
Tell Me Where We're Going, Joe   
Pal O'Mine
The Duke Of Decline
So So Sorry Senorita
Smoking In The Dark   
The Morning Sun
What Good Would It Do ?
The Wee Wee Hours


"The Duke of Decline" was recorded live in the studio and produced by Vincent Cacchione. It features Martin Bonventre on keyboard and Jon "Catfish" Delorme (Psychic Ills) on pedal steel.

Cody's songs are always one-of-a-kind and here explore the realms of alienation and despair with true poetry.

Turner Cody came up in NYC's anti-folk scene and has been making records for nearly twenty years. He has toured Europe with Adam Green (The Moldy Peaches) and James Levy (Reputante, Blood Red Rose). His song "Corner Of My Room" appeared in the 2009 Oscar nominated film "Un Prophete" directed by Jacques Audiard. He lives in Queens, NY with his wife and son and delivers pizza.

LYRICS

The Devil's Got My Number
The Devil's got my number
He's a-ringing on my bell
He knows when I am low down
And he knows when I am well
He's the one who writes
All of the tales I die to tell
The Devil's got my number
The Devil's got my number.

You were out a-walking
On the bald dunes of the sea
Somebody was coming
And you saw that it was he
He told you he was waiting
For a passenger to be
But what he didn't tall you
Was that passenger was me.

The Devil's got my number
And a dagger to my throat
He picks apart the meanings
Of the sentences I wrote
He knows what I am singing
He hears every note
The Devil's got my number
The Devil's got my number.

And so when whatever myriad
Of deals I made are due
When the sentences are over
And the narratives are through
I'll leave a loving note
Up on the door addressed to you
But the Devil's got my number
The Devil's got my number.

Dust On You Soul

There is mud on my boots and soot on the wall
And the four o'clock church bells are ringing
There are ghosts in my hallways who whisper
And always a tear in my voice when I sing
And my mind it is scarred by barly
And I am grown sorrowfully crippled and old
There is rust in my joints and dust, dust on my soul. 

I was down on my luck and black and blue
And thinking it's not like it used to be
And you were all stuck on a blond ingenue
Who was wrapping you all around her pinkie
Then I got all beer-eyed and everyone realized it
Too late for me to control
The lust in my heart and the dust, the dust on my soul. 

There is mud on the jacket and crud on the blanket
And butts on your gold feather boa
And the eyes of the strangers drank in the cold
On the banks of the old Shenandoah
And my mind it was torn between blackness and form
And your warned that's how life takes its toll
You get must in your clothes and dust, dust on your soul.

Tell Me Where We're Going, Joe
Where we going? I don't know
Tell me where we're going, Joe
Where they're turning all the lamps down low?
Tell me where we're going Joseph tell me.
To the alley's where strange shadows lurk?
To the nuthouse where they go berserk?
Will the ones we meet be out of work or wealthy?
Will we be riding a downtown train
Through a pestilence or driving rain?
Will the angels gather to and fro?
Tell me where we're going, Joe.
Where we going? I don't know
Tell me where we're going, Joe
To the dark hills where the moon don't glow?
Tell me where we're going Joseph tell me.
Will we wander by a mouldrin' grave?
Will raise the dead and misbehave?
Will a demon take me for a slave and sell me?
Will I have to pawn off all I own?
Will we hitch our way to San Antone?
Will we watch the Mississippi flow?
Tell me where we're going, Joe.
Where we going? I don't know
Tell me where we're going, Joe
To the valley of cold sleet and snow?
Tell me where we're going Joseph tell me.
Will we crawl a hall of mirrors?
Or will we suffer slings and spears?
Will the ones they sent to stoke our fears come stealthily?
Will we play for stakes beyond our means?
Will we tempt the fates for illicit dreams?
Will watch them dance the midnight show?
Tell me where we're going Joe.
Where we going? I don't know
Tell me where we're going, Joe
Will they feed us good and bleed us slow?
Tell me where we're going Joseph tell me
Tell me where we're going Joseph tell me
Tell me where we're going Joseph tell me.

Pal O' Mine
My lost weekend lasted me six months
I drank the cup of poison all at once
There were brazen acts of cruelty
And a haze of crazy stunts
My lost weekend lasted me six months.
My last dollar got me home in time
To meet with my accomplice in the crime
And to ask whatever happened
To the life we left behind
How'd we go so wrong old pal o' mine
How'd we go so wrongs old pal o' mine.
My head is rolling back into the cave
My heart full of the wickedness I crave
My tongue a tale of secrets
I'll be taking to the grave
That hole for the soul they tried to save.
What happened to the life we left behind?
Is it somewhere out there pal o' mine?
Is there some lost highway back
To that last one way sign?
To get where we belong old pal o' mine?
How'd we go so wrong old pal' mine?

The Duke Of Decline


They're calling me the king of bad habits
Down on the street at 24th and Vine
They're calling me the rogue of acrobatics
And they're toasting to how I tow the line
I hold what they got locked up in their attics
I carry it with me all the time
They're calling me the king of bad habits
And they're calling me the duke of decline
They're calling me the duke of decline.
Now, all your women come and go like lighters
Some of them you never really know
Some of them are lovers and fighters
But most of them are there just for show
And all of the professors of desire
Keep us guessing yes or no
To keep us hanging on the wire
And to keep us basking in the glow
To keep us basking the glow.
And they're calling me the king of bad habits
And they're calling me the needle of the pine
They're calling me the rogue of acrobatics
And they're toasting to how I pay the fine
They're calling me the signal in the static
They call me the canary in the mine
They're calling me the kind of bad habits
And they're calling me the duke of decline
They're calling me the duke of decline.

So So Sorry Seniorita

I was sober and I didn't care who knew it
I was walking through a town that hurt and mocked
But it's all so long ago I can't remember
Because all the doors to those old days are locked

I was dreaming of a major Italian victory
I was hoping to find the girl from France
I was dead but I was still among the living
I was hung up on the tender hooks of chance.

And I'm so so sorry seniorita
I'm so so sorry that is all
You listen for my voice down in the theater
And you listen for my footsteps in the hall.

I road the donut boldly down to Lefferts
Like I was unattached and unadored
I was drunk but I was well paid for my efforts
But you were gone so I was misinformed

Love will make you stay out till the morning
And live like there's no night and no day
And now I'm passed out in the upper forties
And you are sad and in the family way.

And I'm so so sorry seniorita
I'm so so sorry that is all
You listen for my voice down in the theater
And you listen for my footsteps in the hall.

Smoking In The Dark
We're walking on the rue de Esperanza
We cut our hair and shaved for a lark
Nothing that we do seems to matter
We're chatting and smoking in the dark
Smoking in the dark.
The skeleton is stretched out on the shoreline
You can see the bow of the arc
The hull and the deck are still on fire
They're smoldering and smoking in the dark
Smoking in the dark.
And you talk about the dream world of your feelings
But your feelings are all ecstasy or dismay
I'm looking for the solitude of real things
But real things are a lifetime away.
And you can see our footprints in the pavement
You can see our cherries in the park
Call us up and ask us sometime alter
We'll be waiting here and smoking in the dark
Smoking in the dark.
Smoking in the dark.

The Morning Sun
The morning sun has yet to shine in my window
The honey bee has yet to visit my rose
Troubles, come in threes
And haunting memories
Are greeting me with open arms and bows.
I recall the day you left me on the shoulder
It was on the dark side of the road
I was somewhat bored and somewhat sober
You were somewhat worn and somewhat snowed.
I've got no hidden treasures in my rafters
I get no guilty pleasure from remorse
My life's and endless string of morning afters
But I don't plan for raptures or divorce.
She and I have had a lovers quarrel
She said I thought she thought I was a fool
I've heard that same line from others girls
But all of them were more wrong or more cruel.
The morning sun has yet to climb the horizon
And everybody here's still all alone
Even if the spark shines brighter in the dark
It still feels so much darker when it's gone.
Oh, the morning, morning sun.

What Good Would It Do?
We could walk the streets of Rome
And see the Colosseum too
Or we could just stay home
And watch the game and the late night news
We could sing in four part harmony
But what good would it do?
What good would it do?
We could talk about the past all night
And find out what is true
Who was wrong and who was right
And who did what to who
We could see things in a different light
But what good would it do?
What good would it do?
You looked into my eyes
And told me I should change my ways
Stop courting my demise
And join the human race
And I could say, "baby
I'll make it all up to you"
But what good would it do?
I used to need to keep my wits
About me on this street
Now every time I come here
There's another place to eat
Somewhere along the line
I wound up lost and incomplert
Cracked and black and blue.
And so we could go to Baltimore
Or Bayside Avenue
We could burn the midnight candle
With the last remaining few
We could go down to the liquor store
But what good would it do?
What good would it do?

The Wee Wee Hours
In the wee wee hours of morning you bear your soul
In the jet black places of midnight your heart is a coal
We are leaning towers
We are cruel and evil cowards
In the wee wee hours.

I was so low I was longing for just one fix
And the holy ghost was dangling all around your necks
We are wilting flowers
We are the gruel that fate devours
In the wee wee hours.

I am making peanuts
There's a wall between us
When we know nobody sees us it can free us.

I told you I was dying and you knew that I was
If I grow old I'll be defying all the natural laws
We are whiskey sours
We are rubes with see through powers
In the wee wee hours.

VIDEOS

The Wee Wee Hours The Devil's got my number




Mark