Two years ago, I did a demo recording of a concept album based on Hamlet. I was rereading the lyrics and decided to post them. So, here they are, all together: the lyrics to “Children of Denmark”
1. A Good Man
A good man was laid to rest today.
Thronged by dark-veiled ladies!
Esteemed by glistening eyes!
Before they lay you low they bear you shoulder high.
(A good man was laid to rest today! / A good man was laid to rest today!)
The mother-wife is wringing her hands.
At the clamor in the garden!
At the comfort in the knife!
Do you give a soul when you take a life?
(A good man was laid to rest today! / A good man was laid to rest today!)
CHORUS: The Prince is in the pulpit / The Devil’s in the wing / A choir of orphans, the people sing!
(A good man was laid to rest today! / A good man was laid to rest today!)
Green fields tremble for the coming rains.
Blades at attention!
Nine guns and a spade!
Beating wings of the Valkyrie, plying their trade.
(A good man was laid to rest today! / A good man was laid to rest today!)
CHORUS
2. Blackbirds
Four and twenty blackbirds / Perch upon a wire
Blood never boils / Only runs through my veins / Hotter than fire.
Black ink on my fingers / Fresh spilled from the well
Fountains of lies / Cloud over my eyes / Like a funeral veil.
Heartbeats countdown / Like gallows drums
Down by the yard / I dine with the crows / On what dreams may come.
Wardens of the shining secrets / Nestled in the grass
Three for revenge / Two make amends / The first shall be last.
Four and twenty blackbirds / Roosting in the eaves
Of this vulnerable mind / The Devil’s designs / On my sanity:
They come on the arms / Of Paupers and Queens
With relics and charms / To cure any disease /
Except my life! / Except my life! / Except my life!
They come dressed as Councilors / Players and Thieves
They give you amnesia; / They take what they please
Except my life! / Except my life! / Except my life!
3. Specialty
By the bank there is a girl
Green shoots twining through her hair
She gathers summer with a twirl
Colors drawn without a care
Do you want me to make you cry?
I can handle this and more;
It is a specialty of mine.
It is a specialty of mine.
These empty etchings on my bones
Are carving up a fleur de lis
Taming a heart’s like bending stone
These tendril poisons we release
Do you want me to make you cry?
I can handle this and more;
It is a specialty of mine.
It is a specialty of mine.
They say the calm follows the storm
But this life is not the sea
Although I set course for the shore
That angry goddess scuttles me
Do you want me to make you cry?
I can handle this and more;
It is a specialty of mine.
It is a specialty of mine.
I release you from the wrath
Of these bonds that bind our blood
I cut you up but you just laugh
You wouldn’t change it if you could
I want you to make me cry
I can handle this and more;
It is a specialty of mine.
It is a specialty of mine.
4. Hecuba
If Hell hath no fury like the woman scorned
Then what of the mother who has lost her first born
To the regimental wolves and their hard-hearted fists?
Hecuba cries in the Wilderness.
If Hector was noble, courtly and brave
Is the Unknown Soldier at peace in his grave?
The Elysian Fields are checkered with stains
Hecuba buries her children again.
Bang bang bang bang.
Bang bang bang bang.
Catch me the conscience of a King
Who sends sons into battle, launches ships on the sea
All for the love of Our Lady.
If the sky is pregnant with nothing but rain
Who blesses the pipe bombs and the troops upon the train?
No one sees the Savior rise up from His tomb
Hecuba’s sorrows are never exhumed.
If night is a wraith and the angels wear white,
There’s a fire-fight brewing in the city tonight.
In the crumbling cathedrals on the outskirts of town
Hecuba’s specter just shuffles around.
Hecuba’s specter just shuffles around.
Hecuba’s specter just shuffles around.
Bang bang bang bang.
Bang bang bang bang.
5. Le Saint Sanglante
Le Saint sanglante / Le Saint de Blanc / Patron du Jardin
Ne nous vous / s’il vous plait / avec notre chanson?
At The Feast of / Contradicting Saints / the gentle, unseen hand
Slid King and Pawn / across the lawn / in accordance with demand.
The sweet repentant / bow their heads / and hold their glasses high
Their lips stained red / with promises / but silent Brothers know:
The nightingale / is gay at heart / when her song is full of woe.
Le Saint sanglante / Le Saint de Blanc / Patron du Jardin
Ne nous vous / s’il vous plait / avec notre chanson?
7. Yes, Dear
Yes, dear
The violets have withered.
Now have a glass of water.
(Placate your teen-aged daughters / Placate your teen-aged daughters)
Yes, dear
The spindle pricks the finger.
False hopes disguise real monsters.
(Placate your teen-aged daughters / Placate your teen-aged daughters)
She don’t drink.
She don’t smoke.
(My love is a good girl / My love is a good girl)
Yes, dear
The looking glass has shattered.
Your face was made for pictures.
(Sedate your teen-aged daughters / Sedate your teen-aged daughters)
Mother! Mother! (Hold her hand!)
Mother! Mother! (See her land!)
Scatter petals on the sand.
(One good poisoning deserves another one / One good poisoning deserves another one)
Father! Father! (Stroke her brow!)
Father! Father! (Teach her how!)
What does your good book tell you now?
(One good poisoning deserves another one / One good poisoning deserves another one)
One good poisoning deserves another one.
One good poisoning deserves another one.
8. One Fist’s Worth
Three Kings once sat / Upon one throne.
Not one forgave; / No two atoned.
The beggar eats / Of their sweet dish:
A miracle / Of loaves and fish.
CHORUS:
Each scarlet spire / Is reaching higher;
Throw some kindling / On the pyre.
(Don’t you forget!)
One fist’s worth / Of fresh-turned earth
Is the right / Of your birth.
The gallant Huntsman / Stalks the fox;
The tender Lover / Spreads the pox.
Intentions masked / By smiling faces;
Their quarry knows / No hiding places.
The curtain falls / On brawls and plays;
Body and mind / Go separate ways.
The knife was mine / But still somehow
It’s not what I thought / Would happen now.
CHORUS
The expectation / Of the crowd
Is a marriage license / Or a funeral shroud.
What we want / Is what we get;
One certainty / Awaits us yet:
Battalions slink / Like single spies;
Sorrows are flowers / Whose seeds are lies.
Fame is the envy / Of the block;
Time gets betrayed / By ticking clocks.
We are betrayed / By ticking clocks.
9. Pirates
Steel dissects the fleece clouds / With cool geometry
Rising up to meet the future / High above reality
Though we pierce the gathered vapors
We are dwarfed beneath the past.
Time dissolves to starlight;
Gravity holds fast.
CHORUS:
They boarded us like pirates
They threw us to the sea
We dreamt of snakes and apples
Yet to be (or not to be)
We had plans, we heard the calling
We knelt our foreheads to the ground
We ran into the searchlight
And stood in awe of what we found:
Wax wings burning bright as lanterns
Moths like ashes flutter by
Shadows swirling in the vortex
As we fall into the sky.
CHORUS
They pray for holy intervention
To descend and set us free
Gods in boxes
Strength in numbers
Princes down on bended knee
I fought the bard and the bard won.
CHORUS
10. Outro (On the Pyre)
There’s a memory / Of the shore
These glass eyes / Keep looking for.
Nursery rhymes / And marriage oaths
Float away / Like shadow boats.
Children playing / On the waves;
Posies falling / On their graves.
Shades of battles / Lost and won;
Glorious Father. / Mercurial Son.
It’s too late now / To deny her;
Ashes smolder / On the pyre.
This is a song for Old King Hamlet / For all the games he used to play
For socialites and gentleman scholars / And expeditions to the grave
Expeditions to the grave
Expeditions to the grave!
11. A Good Man (Reprise)
I don’t want to be saved / But won’t somebody please rescue me?
I’m not ready to die / For this hot love on the wing.
(They’re ready to die / They’re ready to die)
On the boughs of the night / Rest the hopes of our countrymen.
Rifles raised to the sky / Soldiers fighting to be let in.
(Lift us up to the sky / We are ready to die)
All the flowers of the field!
(They can’t hold me! / They can’t hold me!)
Crushed like memory on the wheel.
All the willows of the stream!
(They can’t hold me! / They can’t hold me!)
Regret in slumber, slumber in dream.
Regret in slumber! / (Slumber in dream!)
The old King is dead! / (Long Live the King!)
When he comes knocking better let him in! / (So many good souls!)
They’re born ready to die / (So many good souls!)
They’re born ready to die.
12. Norway
Sacrament / In the orchard shade
Witnessed on high / By blackbird priests,
Eyes fixed on Norway.
Pale voices wail / With trumpets’ chords.
Sound, anguished notes; / Reverberate
In foreign Norway.
CHORUS: Who are our children? / These Danish Kings:
Their fathers’ fears writ on their brows; / Ghosts in their doorways?
Rose lips once warm / With quivering breath,
Now thin and grey; / Sweet fruits gone sour
In frosts come early.
And childhood glens / Now empty stand:
Bright-colored dreams / Sailed North like ships
To endless summer.
CHORUS: Who are our children? / These Danish Kings:
Their pallid cheeks and ashen brows; / Ghouls for attendants?
From flowering fields / And chalk-hued cliffs
The fallen fair / Ascend like Doves
Into the Morning.
The sky is fraught / With restless wings.
Soar, trembling birds, / Steal north like prayers
From here to Norway.
CHORUS: Who are our children? / These Danish Kings—
With laurel crowns upon their brows / Make thorns our mem’ries.
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bookcoversproject said:
all the thumbs up
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