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1. |
Crazy Man Michael
05:08
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2. |
The False Lady
04:10
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Abide, abide true love, she said,
Beg and stay all night -
You shall have pleasure in my bed
By coal and candlelight.
I won't abide, you false lady,
Beg and stay all night
For I have a better love waiting
When I get home tonight.
He stooped over saddle bow
To kiss her lips so sweet;
With a dagger in her hand,
She wounded him full deep.
Why woundest me, you false lady?
Why woundest me so sore?
There's not a doctor in all the land
My mortal wound can cure.
She woke her maids in the morning,
Just at the break of day,
There's a dead man in my bed -
I wish he was away.
Some took him by the lily white hands
And others by the feet -
They threw him in an old dark well;
It was so cold and deep.
Lie there, lie there, you false young man.
Lie there, lie there alone
And let the one you love so well
Think you're long coming home.
Up and spoke a pretty little bird
Sitting in a tree,
An ill death may you die lady
For he had no love but thee.
Come down, come down, my pretty bird,
And sit upon my knee,
For I have a golden cage at home
That I would give to thee.
I won't come down, you false lady,
And sit upon your knee,
For you have slain your own true love,
I'm sure you would slay me.
I wish I had my bow to bend;
My arrow and my string;
I'd shoot you through the very heart,
Among the leaves so green.
If you had your bow to bend,
Your arrows and your string,
I'd take my wings and fly away.
You'd never see me again.
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3. |
The Unquiet Grave
05:04
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Cold blows the wind tonight, my love,
Cold are the drops of rain.
I never had but one true love,
In green wood she lies slain.
I'll do as much for my true love
As any young man may.
I'll sit and mourn all at her grave
For twelve months and a day.
The twelve months and a day being up,
The ghost began to grieve -
Your salten tears they trickle down
And wet my winding sheet.
It's I my love, sits on your grave
And will not let you sleep,
For I crave one kiss from your clay cold lips
And that is all I seek.
O lily, lily, are my lips.
My breath is earthy strong.
If you have one kiss from my clay cold lips
Your time will not be long.
'Twas down in yonder garden, love,
Where we used to walk,
The fairest flower that ever was seen
Is withered to a stalk.
The stalk is withered dry my love,
So must our hearts decay.
So rest yourself content my love
'Til Death calls you away.
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4. |
Mad Song
04:43
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The wild winds weep,
And the night is a-cold;
Come hither, Sleep,
And my griefs enfold!...
But lo! the morning peeps
Over the eastern steeps,
And the rustling beds of dawn
The earth do scorn.
Lo! to the vault
Of paved heaven,
With sorrow fraught,
My notes driven:
They strike the ear of Night,
Make weak the eyes of Day;
They make the roaring winds,
And with the tempests play,
Like a fiend in a cloud,
With howling woe
After night I do crowd
And with night will go;
I turn my back to the east
From whence comforts have increased;
For light doth seize my brain
With frantic pain.
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5. |
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How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff
And his sandal shoon.
He is dead and gone, lady.
He is dead and gone.
At his head a grass green turf.
At his heels a stone.
White his shroud as the mountain snow,
Larded with sweet flowers,
Which bewept to the grave did go,
With true-love showers.
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6. |
A Maid in Bedlam
04:21
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Abroad as I was walking,
One evening in the spring,
I heard a maid in Bedlam
So sweetly for to sing.
Her chain she rattled in her hand,
and thus replied she:
I love my love, because I know
My love loves me.
O, my cruel parents
Have been too unkind,
For they drove and punished me
And troubled my mind.
And though I'm ruined for his love,
Contented will I be.
I love my love, because I know
My love loves me.
Would I become a swallow,
Ascend into the air,
And if I lost my lover
And could not find him there -
I quickly would become a fish
And search the flowing sea.
I love my love, because I know
My love loves me.
With straw I'll make a garland
And dress it very fine.
I'll fix the same with roses,
Lily pink, and tine.
I will preserve it for my love
When he returns from sea.
I love my love, because I know
My love loves me.
As she sat sadly weeping,
Her love came on the land.
Hearing she was in Bedlam,
He ran straight out of hand
And as he entered into the gates
He heard her sigh and say:
I love my love, because I know
My love loves me.
He stood and gazed on her,
Hearing his love complain.
He could not stand any longer -
He bled in every vein.
He flew into her snowy white arms
And thus replied he:
I love my love, because I know
My love loves me.
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7. |
Tom of Bedlam's Song
10:48
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For to see mad Tom of Bedlam
Ten thousand miles I've traveled.
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes
To keep her shoes from gravel.
I went down to Satan's kitchen
To break my fast one morning,
And there I got souls piping hot
All on the spit a-turning.
My staff has murdered giants.
My bag a long knife carries -
To cut mince pies from children's thighs,
With which to feed the fairies.
From hag or hungry goblin
That into rags would rend ye,
All the sprites stand by the naked man -
In the Book of Moons defend ye.
I know more than Apollo knows,
For oft' when he lies sleeping
I see the stars at mortal wars
In the wounded welkin weeping.
The moon's my constant mistress.
The lonely owl my marrow.
The flaming drake and the night crow make
The music to my sorrows.
Spirits white as lightning
Shall on my travels guide me.
The stars would shake and the moon would quake
Whenever they espied me.
It's then that I'll be murdering
The Man in the Moon to a powder.
His staff I'll break, his dog I'll shake
And there'll howl no demon louder.
By a host of furious fancies,
Whereof I am commander;
With a burning spear and a horse of air,
To the wilderness I wander.
By a knight of ghosts and shadows,
I summoned am to tourney,
Ten leagues beyond the wide world's end -
Methinks it is no journey.
So drink to Tom of Bedlam -
Go fill the seas in barrels -
I'll drink it all, well brewed with gall
And maudlin drunk I'll quarrel.
And still I sing bonny boys,
Bonny mad boys,
Bedlam boys are bonny,
For they all go bare,
And they live by the air,
And they want no drink or money.
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Stone Breath Red Lion, Pennsylvania
Stone Breath is not new. It is cracked. Broken. Imperfect. Hidden. Weathered by the seasons.
We sing of ghosts and of forgotten paths through forest and fallow field.
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