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

Could you PLEASE Share the tracks????
Posted by: Whit | Saturday, December 18, 2004 at 11:29 PM
sorry, but no.
Posted by: gary | Sunday, December 19, 2004 at 03:43 AM
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
Posted by: Tim | Monday, January 03, 2005 at 06:13 PM
I think it's "whores and hounds".
Posted by: pinky | Tuesday, January 18, 2005 at 03:44 PM
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."
Posted by: Mitch | Wednesday, January 26, 2005 at 12:57 PM
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.
Posted by: Kate | Friday, February 04, 2005 at 01:54 PM
"As time wore on, you proved a DEBT-ridden drunken mess
Posted by: Colin | Thursday, February 17, 2005 at 09:03 AM
thank you nerds of the internet for the corrections! i am forever in your debt!
Posted by: gary | Thursday, February 17, 2005 at 10:10 AM