Lyrics

1. The Angel of Death (feels pity for the world)

Poor Azrael has a lousy job
Stealing breath from the angry mob
It's a choice a choice to make or leave
Between the devil and the deep blue sea

The devil warns of Circe, of lemmings, he frowns
The Pied Piper of Hamelin town
That Angel leads towards the ocean
Promises you'll walk on dry ground
Promises a Moses-parting
Shrouded though by clouds a-sparking

Cruel cruel, hard tack and gruel
To make the unaware dig their own graves
They had no quarrel with you, did he? Did she?
"To Hell! You didn't know me."

Of what type,
Angelic, satanic
Carnal, spiritual
Is this song?
Let's put it this way:
Who has the best tunes?

2. Into the Desert

Bread and water, bread and water
Would that I had borne a daughter!
So you wouldn't send me away

Sent us to parch in the desert sun
Now after all that you have done
Do you think I would take you back?

I'm not a poet but I'll deal in metaphor
You are the lamest of asses
Not two but five faces

Run to the hills for my life and my child
To think, to think you smiled and smiled!
To me you are forever a villain

If there's no water, if there's no well
I will have no story to tell
I'll die before I watch my son die!

I'm awake but not really awake
The angel stopped my knife to say
"If you suicide, no one will take you seriously."

3. Tandava/Lasya

I get down so down 'cause my parents can be cruel
Then, then an endless duel
'Tween Self and the Other

My husband is intangible, ascetic four-armed
Does not meet approval with my father or my mother

My father is angry and anger's a hell of a drug!
The fire like an oil lamp, the stranger in my head
The colour of space, the colour of dread oh!
If I am dead to youI truly will be...

4. Here Is How

I weave as well as the gods
Don't tell me otherwise
Arachne has nothing on me
And I am already a spider

I have your flax-golden tales to spin
And webs of deception to weave
I brought them from Nyame
My lies make you seem uncanny

Here is how, here is how
Here is how, here is how

Judge for yourself if I'm potent or im
I made the masks for the things you have been
I'll whisper my plans in your spider-ear
I'll have your children and answers, my dear

And here is how, here is how
Here is how to create the inconceivable
If you know what I mean

5. Do You Miss the Sea?

Handsome as sin and twice as virtuous
Bad breath, good heart, full of sorrows
Took my skin and my breath away
Did away with all my tomorrows

Do you do you do you do you miss the sea?

What can I say?
My heart is here
But there I'm free

Do you do you do you do you miss the sea?

Where can I flee?
I've seven on land, seven in the sea
You'd be lucky oh my love
But I would never return

I stir my tears
Into spicy soup
And give it to
My children to drink
They too shall miss the sea the sea the sea the sea

6. Psyche's Sister

Why must holy place be dark places, the
air is sweet away from holiness

Arrows and arrows and arrows and arrows and...

Everything's dark about the gods
They hint and draw near in dreams
If he loves you he'll let you see

Arrows and arrows and arrows and arrows and...

You can't look on him without light
He only comes in the night
You can't see him face-to-face
Is this supposed to be grace?

Arrows and arrows and arrows and arrows and...

All I can do is say I'm sorry

Arrows and arrows and arrows and arrows and...

Sort seeds
Herd sheep
Lose sleep

Mark the cruelty of gods to men:
We love
And lose love
And love again!

Arrows and arrows and arrows and arrows and...

7. Clementine

In a canyon, in a cavern

Sang Clementine, sang forty-nine
Sang me sandals made of boxes
And eighteen karat golden thread
You told me I was beautiful
You came into my bed

Oh my darling, oh my darling

I saw your eyes on her face
Thought so, but I didn't say so
I drank myself into slo-mo
And then, oh and then oh
You bereft me of house and home
Left me in a canyon in a cavern alone

Oh where oh where does your soul reside
Drove her ducklings to the water
Is it in your eyes or between your thighs
Every morning just at nine
I told you I loved you but you didn't hear
Hit her foot against a splinter
If I fell in, I could disappear!
Fell into the foaming brine
How I missed her, how I missed her
How I missed my Clementine
But I kissed her little sister
I forgot my Clementine

Oh my darling, oh my darling
Oh my darling Clementine
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine

Dreadful sorry Clementine
Oh my darlin' Clementine
8. Dunyazade

I sit at the foot of the bed
While she tells her four-hundred-ninety-first tale
Sinbad, Aladdin, Genies, and old gods
And plies him with drink

I flinch when she mistakes a phrase
When recitation falters
They are my stories
But I get the glory
No one looks at a plain girl
At the foot of the bed

She can tell a thousand-and-one tales
Keep him in her bed
But I have many more tales
They live in my head

Ximena and the Cid
Barbarossa in his cave
Bran the Blessed
His sister brave
Popeye and Yahweh
I yam what I AM
Swashbuckles bawdiness
Tea and jam
Wandjina underground take their ease
The Argo sails for the golden fleece
And I will lay me down to sleep

9. Song of the Drekavac

Violets are blue
Roses are red
Remember me
When I am dead, dead, dead

When I was young
I breathed Heaven
But they left me
Left me alone

I'll keep on growing, growing, growing
But I'll never grow up
But I'll never be a man

Hear me weep
Hear my cry
I am an owl,
A dog,
A wisp of smoke

I know nothing
But I dream of everything
They don't tell you what comes after death
I am a child, and like a child
I fear the things in the dark