THOSE PICARESQUE DECEMBERISTS

Pssst...I had the luck of somehow getting the new Decemberists cd Picaresque the other day.  I cannot stop listening to this CD.  Apparently the cd doesn't come out until next year.  KRS has got the release date set at March 22.  I don't want to spill all the beans yet, just out of respect for this band that I love so much. A majority of songs have been played live and there are a multitude of bootlegs you can find online, but let me just tell you they don't compare to the studio versions of these songs. Not even close. For instance both The Sporting Life and 16 Military Wives both have these really huge horn parts on them that I haven't heard on bootlegs. 

I can let you know that Infanta, Eli the Barrow Boy, The Mariner's Revenge, The Sporting Life, We Both Go Down Together, 16 Military Wives and Engine are on there, in addition to four more songs.  Engine is so sappy and yet so beautiful, I think it's my new favorite song at the moment.  Pulling up a close second though, is The Mariner's Revenge Song.  It's an epic 8 minute, 46 second song, told in a way only the Decemberists can tell.    Instead of explaining it to you, I've transcribed the lyrics, as best as I could.  Please excuse all the random spacings, but html is not my friend today.  If you see a question mark there, that's only because I couldn't make out the words.

The Mariner's Revenge Song

We are two mariners

our ship’s sole survivors

In this belly of a whale

Its ribs our ceiling beams

Its guts our carpeting

I guess we have some time to kill

You may not remember me

I was a child of three

And you a lad of eighteen

But I remember you

And I will relate to you

How our histories interweave

At the time you were a rake and a roustabout

Spending all your money on the whores  and (?)

You had a charming air

All cheap and debonair

My widowed mother found so sweet

And so she took you in

Her sheets still warm with him

Now filled with filth and foul disease

As time wore on

You proved a dead ridden drunken mess

Leaving my mother a poor consumptive wretch

And then you disappeared

Your gambling a rears (?)

The only thing you left behind

And then the magistrate

Reclaimed our small estate

And my poor mother lost her mind

Then one day in spring

My dear sweet mother died

But before she did

I took her hand as she died and cried:

(female voice)

Find him

Bind him

Tie him to a pole

And break his fingers

To splinters

Throw him to a hole

Until he wakes up

naked

Prying at the ceiling

Of his grave

It took me fifteen years

To swallow all my tears

Among the urchins in the street

Until a priory

Took pity and hired me

To keep their vestry nice and neat

But never once in the employ of these holy men

Did I ever once turn my mind from the thought of revenge

One night I overheard

The prior exchanging words

With a penitent wailer from the sea

The captain of his ship

Who matched you toe to tip

Was known for wanton cruelty

The following day I shipped to sea with a privateer

And in the whistle of the wind I could almost hear

(female voice)

Find him

bind him

Tie him to a pole

And break his fingers

To splinters

Throw him to a hole

Until he wakes up

Naked

Clawing at the ceiling of his grave

There is one thing I must say to you

As you sail across the sea

Always your mother will watch over you

As you avenge this wicked deed

(thump, snap snap, thump snap snap…waltzy interlude)

And then that fateful night

We had you in our sight

After twenty months at sea

Your starboard flanked (?)

I was getting my muskets cleaned

When came this rumbling from beneath

The ocean shook

The sky went black

And the captain flailed (?)

And before us grew

The angry jaws of a giant whale

(screaming)

Don’t know how I survived

The crew was all chewed alive

I must have slipped between his teeth

But oh what providence

What divine intelligence

That you should survive as well as me

It gives my heart great joy

To see your eyes fill with fear

So lean in close

And I will whisper the last words you’ll hear

Comments

[Whit]

Could you PLEASE Share the tracks????

[gary]

sorry, but no.

[Tim]

As a fellow 'lucky one' who managed to get his hands on the tracks, I must agree. They are truely brilliant in an overpopulated sea of perpetual musical crap. Here here, adventerous vagabonds, here here.

-Tim

PS - Happy listening

[pinky]

I think it's "whores and hounds".

[Mitch]

I guess this is probably a little late, but here are the lyrics you're missing, in case you're curious:

Whores and HOUNDS

Gambling ARREARS

WITH your starboard flank ABEAM

The captain QUAILED

Also, I'm pretty sure it's "as she, dying, cried."

[Kate]

This and "The Bus Mall" are my two favorite songs on the new cd. This song sort of reminds me of "The Tain" in it's storytelling, epic quality. I can't wait to hear them perform it live.

[Colin]

"As time wore on, you proved a DEBT-ridden drunken mess

[gary]

thank you nerds of the internet for the corrections! i am forever in your debt!