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Orpheus & Swan

by David Breslin

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1.
I find it hard to believe Just how lovely you are I stayed awake all last night To wait for the morning star Have to say, I’ve seen better Have to say, you’re the Brighter star by far. And I’m down here on all fours Too ashamed to take your fair hand In one of my hairy paws I’m the Beast to your Beauty Your loyal servant as well ‘Cos you see You make a dog out of me. You’ve got me bringing you sticks Got me jumping through hoops My heart is a fighter jet Doing multiple loop-the-loops If I don’t get to kiss you soon I’ll wake the neighborhood Howling at the moon. You leave me dazzled and drunk I’ve waited my whole life For someone like you And the waiting stank I’ve no choice but to love you I’ll never say to you “Please, please set me free” You make a dog, you make a dog out of me You make a dog, you make a dog out of me You make a dog out of me, baby. And no matter how long I have to wait I’m going nowhere I’m going nowhere without you I don’t care what I have to o For you to feel the same I’ll do anything a dog can do Except drool on your knee Or beg for a bone And bury it under the chestnut tree ‘Cos a man must have limits Yes, a man must Preserve his dignity. So, no more soppy verse That proclaims you The brightest, most heavenly Star in the Universe I must woo you and win you Like a man, though I know To some degree You always will make a dog out of me You always will make a dog out of me You always will make a dog out of me, baby, You always will make a dog out of me You always will make a stupid dog out of me You always will make a dog out of me, baby, You make a dog out of me.
2.
You caught me one evening as I was just leaving And tore out half my heart. The blood in the snow showed me where I must go To retrieve the missing part. At times I regret that I followed you, Still, I’m content to toast by your fire And the touch of your bare foot caressing my back Helps remind me the one thing that you’ll never lack Is desire. And when you grew restless, I told you to “Stay!” In that voice I’d just acquired But a friend did a bad turn, and you came to learn How my instincts are hardwired You chewed off my head and declared me dead But by then you were captured too. Now you’ll have to unlearn all those lessons of love All the craft of the claw in the thin velvet glove That you taught. I can feel your heart slowing now I can feel your heart beating slower I can feel your heart slowing now And your long, tangled hair Seems to cling to my fingers and fasten them there Don’t mind me, just adoring you Just adoring your Wolfskin boots. The winter feels warmer when we are together It’s not so hard to bear But we both crave a cold wind to slice through this stupor And fresh smells in the air. Our love is a rope that you’re whirling Your heart is the center around which I spin. If either of us could decide to let go Would I fly off and free you, or would I fall Straight back in? I need you, and I need you now And I need you here And I need you like a well-hung man Needs a noose to hang well from. But one day I suspect you will fall out of love Like a burning aeroplane With some special effect proving that to select Me to love you was insane. Till then we’re rehearsing our paces, reversing The dance for a change every day. And a new sign outside on the theatre boards Says “Two lovers are at it like knives, guns and swords Just for play.” I can feel your heart slowing now I can feel your heart beating slower I can feel your heart slowing now And your long, tangled hair Seems to cling to my fingers and fasten them there Don’t mind me, just adoring you, just adoring you Don’t mind me, just adoring you, just adoring you Don’t mind me, just adoring you Just adoring your Wolfskin boots.
3.
Orbiting You 04:59
Yeah, I know this is stupid and pointless And to you it must quickly get old There’s plenty more firesides where I’d find a welcome Why shiver out here in the cold? But my stupid old heart keeps defying The will of my rational mind Take a scan through your skies with those bushbaby eyes And you’ll find I’m still orbiting you like a moth Round a candle Though I know you’ve got more than enough Love to handle You’re mixed up with two guys and you’re doubtful As to which you could stomach to lose I’d offer myself as the compromise choice But I’m pretty damn sure you’d refuse. From this small representative sample I’ve decided I’m just not your sort I’m a fish of the wrong kind been snagged on your long line And caught And I’m orbiting you like a moth Round a candle Though I know you’ve got more than enough Love to handle When you see me around and I stare at the ground Or I chatter and grin like a fool You handle it gracefully, act like you don’t know How I long for you Only you Only you. I’m a cold and a distant admirer A pocked icy moon in the night Your attraction has slowed my rotation right down, So I always face into your light. But I never will dare to move closer To your breathtaking beauty below. In five billion more years, when the Sun swells and sears us, I know I’ll be orbiting you like a moth Round a candle Though I know you’ve got more than enough Love to handle Without mine.
4.
Well, you wake up and it’s sunny But the news just isn’t funny On the radio. It’s a lovely day outside The things you do should give you pride And yet it isn’t so. And you try to drown that feeling In Co-op Fairtrade Darjeeling But surrender looks appealing When you recollect your daily bread Comes wrapped in evil plastic And John Lennon’s dead And no-one but the birds Believed a word he said. The news is just a token That the human world’s been broken All along. CHORUS: ‘Cos it’s all just broken biscuits Broken biscuits ever since you heard the call But you do love broken biscuits Don’t we all, don’t we all? Oh, it’s all just broken biscuits Broken biscuits, catch the pieces as they fall But you do love broken biscuits Don’t we all? So you study Adam Smith The entire capitalist myth To know your enemy And your self-loathing is intense When parts of it start to make sense You wish you couldn’t see. But there’s always some new cause Some despot digging in the claws Amid the demonstration’s roars You can feel glad that you feel troubled That your Western life, though modest Is quite comfortable Compared to folks in Bangladesh Your struggle’s dull. You hope you’re really helping Not just gesturing and yelping In the dark. CHORUS So I’m begging you, keep fighting Arguing, protesting, writing All the things you do. You are really quite sublime I speak as someone quite supine Who thinks the world of you. And your doubting, though dramatic Means you’re not just some dogmatic Trotskyite on automatic, You’re a thinking, feeling person Who can rally to the flag But gives a damn what’s true. Your motive is compassion Not red versus blue. When you get that sinking feeling Please come drink Fairtrade Darjeeling Tea with me. CHORUS
5.
Another Sunday afternoon slides away And the streets are empty, no-one left alive today. Sunday survivor in my lonely cell Am I the only one? It’s kind of hard to tell I’m asking you to CHORUS Pick up the phone and say The Undead haven’t claimed you yet Killer zombie days, killer zombie days. I’m all alone, but don’t you know I never blamed you yet Killer zombie days, killer zombie days. Unanswered emails let me know who’s died. By the waters of the River Ouse I sat down and cried. I’m not out playing with my friends today Rotting zombie slaves have dragged them all away I’m asking you to CHORUS …killer zombie days. I’m sorry I could never I’m sorry I could never I’m sorry I could never answer you. Let’s talk about the weather Let’s talk about the weather Cloud-cover charts perhaps will pull us through. This waking world is but a dream Of lurch and mumble, flee and scream First I chase you, then you chase me I’m afraid it’s just cold brains for tea. I’m sorry I could never answer you. Worst of all, let me confess I was a zombie too. This curse that’s struck the entire human race Could be broken if we just met face-to-face I’m asking you to CHORUS Pick up the phone, pick up the phone Pick up the phone and dial my number You’re not getting through. We walk in the shadow of the valley of Death And we always will For all our killer zombie days In all our killer zombie ways. All our killer zombie days In all our killer zombie ways.
6.
Since I got your call Think I’ve hardly slept at all Waiting for your sweet Funny-looking face To look in at my door. I’d been feeling down Since your circus act left town But now Spring is green Bursting on the scene It’s a hard one to ignore. Only told one good friend of mine He’s promised me his lips are sealed. CHORUS And the green leafy vegetables Are singing in the field. Singing in the field Singing in the field. It’s been quite a while I’ve learned how to fake a smile But I swear that I’ll Never use that crocodile Smile on you. There’s good news and bad But I wouldn’t want to make you sad So let’s take a walk Laughing as we talk About people we knew. Telling tall tales of shocking things That time and circumstance revealed CHORUS Since you left, this old town’s altered New friends have come and old friends bolted. Half our favorite drinking spots Have turned into souvenir shops Where I walked these streets with you Where I walked these streets with you. Life does funny things, Sometimes butterflies have stings Sometimes great big snakes Sing to sooth our aches In a pleasing soprano. We just have to dance Away our existential angst Sometimes cheek to cheek Buddhist, Jew and Sikh, Sometimes mano-á-mano. Till the day when the laws of Man And Nature all shall be repealed. CHORUS Since you left, this old town’s altered Many times my feet have faltered When I saw a house I used to know Seen out shoots and start to grow Where I walked these streets with you Where I walked these streets with you. Walked these streets with you Walked these streets with you Since I got your call Think I’ve hardly slept at all. We’re green leafy vegetables Perched upon the edge Of the Creator’s great Gravy-sticky plate Oh, he won’t eat us just yet. Some of us may wilt Like a moth-infested quilt While we hold the line Weather turned out fine There’s no need to adjust it. And the hand that we’ll play is not The scabby hand that we were dealed. CHORUS
7.
I have no more use for my shoulder-braid and shiny buttons I have no more use for a feather in my cap. Weapon for the weather is a rifle, not a rapier Stringing up a snare as I’m sitting in a trap. I am not afraid of the wailing wolf so wild and wicked I am not afraid of the witches in the wood. Yes, I am afraid of the malice of my fellow man I am so afraid, and it’s no more than I should. Seven black swans in the sky today Saw them in the marsh where the corpse-lights play Seven black swans and I heard them say “Hey ho, freedom.” Saw them as I lingered by the lake to shoot myself some supper Something from a story I once heard as a child: Seven royal brothers had a wizard for an enemy Turned them into waterfowl to wander through the wild. Tell me, was I free as a bird before they sent me here? Tell me, was I free when I was an officer? Tell me, is it not so that those enchanted Russian princes Baffled all attempts to put them back the way they were? CHORUS Seven black swans in the sky today Saw them in the marsh where the corpse-lights play Seven black swans and I heard them say “Hey ho, freedom.” Seven black swans by the setting sun Seven Russian princes a long time gone Passing through my gunsight one by one Hey ho, freedom. I am better off than the convicts in the labour camp, Have a certain freedom, although I cannot leave. Hunting not for fun, but for flesh and fur to eat and barter Writing to my parents, who prematurely grieve. If I could survive an infinity of frozen forest If I could survive, and I do not think I could I would strike my camp, like the Nennetsye who herd the reindeer Leave the human world to be a creature of the wood. CHORUS
8.
He loves to hear her talking But he can’t really understand yet. He’s just a baby crying in the night. Like Orpheus in the underlay Singing songs to tame the dust-mites She talks until the dawning of the light. The East Coast wears a sheet and chains, The North Pole comes from Warsaw, Indoors it’s impolite to wear a hat And if you rub your eyes, you’ll only Make them even more sore. A draught is an uncanny kind of bat. And of all the curious hybrids Between animal and vegetable The Holly Bears must surely bear the crown. The polite way to address a policeman Isn’t “Pig,” it’s “Constable.” Though pigs are great, their mention makes him frown. Sometimes she’s shocked to notice She’s been babbling like a baby. She’s forming her own company in him. And if their mutual babbling Ran dry some sorry day, she Fears silence would divide them, cold and grim. So grab your toe and listen As she slyly misinforms you About the secret history of mice And Orpheus fights Pluto In his lair beneath the carpet To save an astronaut called Yuri Dice.
9.
The Dead 02:43
The dead are at peace now Are at peace now, are at peace. Reprieved and released now, All released now and at peace. With no need to rattle at your window Or scrabble at your door As you’ve heard them do before And no need to whisper when the wind blows Or with a finger score Words across the dusty floor The dead are at peace now Though at first, they would not budge. They wanted to stay and watch you To watch over you, watch and judge. For under the new life you have built Memory lies soft as silt Full of grubbiness and guilt Where all your misdeeds lie fossilising From them, there’s no disguising, No scales upon their eyes. The dead are at peace now. Like I said, my fee is flat. Reprieved and released now, Trust me, I’ve seen, seen to that I’ve seen to that.
10.
Sometimes I can not protect myself From being badly beaten by a shelf ‘Cos I’m the dreaming sort And I’m often caught Off guard. Living this way has its consolations: Flat upon your face you get good vibrations Watching sunlight shimmer In a broken mirror Shard. CHORUS ‘Cos I don’t need your LSD Your mushrooms are no use to me I get all my kicks for free, just Tripping over everything. Half-grown apples on the tree The smell of spices fried in ghee Look around and soon you’ll be just Tripping over everything like me, Tripping over everything you see. Passers-by who infect you with a song Compliments that somehow come out wrong Planet Venus smile Ninety million miles Away. No need to stop if you want to get ahead Rivals to be stabbed and left for dead If it’s all the same I’ve a different game To play. CHORUS
11.
Sloth Moth 02:50
Sloth moth, sloth moth Sloth moth, sloth moth Well, you’ve been living on a sloth Who is living in a tree. You make your home on the road In the slow lane crawling free. Though your sloth is laid back and lazy All the other moths call you crazy They call you Sloth moth, sloth moth Sloth moth, sloth moth No point in living in the past Give no thought to where you’ve been, Not when the world is rolling past In a blaze of brown and green. Wouldn’t swap it for a wardrobe, would you, Or hitting on a traffic light? No, it’s good to Be a Sloth moth, sloth moth Sloth moth, sloth moth For this is home Where the mold is growing green On fuzzy fur so coarse and warm, Where friendly fleas Are leaping here and everywhere. This is your front-row seat Your hideout from the storm You lucky sloth moth. Sloth moth, sloth moth Sloth moth, sloth moth Well, you’ve been living on a sloth And your friends all live there too. You fly down to lay your eggs When the sloth climbs down to Use the facilities. Though I wouldn’t try it if I could, me, Your life is everything it really should be You lucky Sloth moth, sloth moth Sloth moth, sloth moth
12.
You do what you do I’ll be here when You come down at last Lean in to me. I know how to give You peace when you’re Living hard and fast Lean in to me. And who did he And why did I And how did they know? It’s all right, you Can stop here I love you. You do what you do. These moments are Few but oh, so fine Lean in to me. So let’s watch the sun Depleted and done Sink out of mind Lean in to me. And who did he And why did I And how did they know? It’s all right, you Can stop here I love you. Lean in to me Lean in to me Lean in to me.
13.
I’m not a gambler, I’ve Just got one life to gamble with, One me. I do not leap, I amble, Select my options from the sieve Of certainty But I’m on a sci-fi binge, With Gibson, Egan, Stross and Vinge Their books suggest some possibilities: There must be ways to have it all To take the risk and take the fall While safer paths are trod by other me’s. I want to Explore the country of the Possible Future All of the paths into the Possible Future. I could upload my whole brain Onto the Internet, not once, But many times, Or synthesise some clones with All of my memories ensconced Inside their minds And then there’s quantumness, The Many-Worlds kind is a mess Of branching Universes with us all in. If we could only get in touch, then Some could not do very much, while Others could be dashing or appalling I want to Explore the country of the Possible Future All of the paths into the Possible Future. This little piggy went to market This little piggy stayed at home This little piggy runs a start-up This little piggy is a Cardinal in Rome. This piggy eats roast beef often This piggy is a vegan monk. This piggy is lying in a coffin This little piggy is a sailor on a junk. And there’d be times When we’d all reunite To say “This worked out fine” Or “This just wasn’t right.” We’d swap our memories, Swap our mad ideas, Salute the ones who’d died Then always without fear Go forth and Explore the country of the Possible Future All of the paths into the Possible Future.
14.
Alligator underground Won’t you tell me what you’ve found Riding in the sewer’s flow Must be secrets that you know. Down to you the secrets seep Some are terrible And some are so, so, so deep Shielded by eternal smell Smile so widely, but you never tell. CHORUS Alligator underground When you spin these questions round Are there answers that astound Beyond belief? Are you subtle as the asp? Does your reach exceed your grasp? Are there truths you strive to clasp With tender teeth? With tender teeth. Traveling through depths profound On the Alligator Underground Carriages all skinned with scales Half the passengers have bristly tails Window show us stranger scenes Brutal truths are hard to tell From fevered daydreams Racing through the realm below Where the roots of our experience grow CHORUS Alligator underground Won’t you tell me what you’ve found? Alligator, alligator, Alligator underground CHORUS
15.
Lean with me a while and watch the rafts Of branches drifting by. All around the river rises up To meet the velvet sky. I hear you sigh. Can’t pretend I know the pain you feel I’ll take all you can share. Do whatever I can do to help you Bounce back from despair And this I swear: CHORUS Never let you go alone Never let you take that road alone Never let you go alone Never let you take that road alone Less guardian angel, more your guardian gnome I try to raise a smile We’ll strut and fret our merry hour across This stage of tilting tile In fine old style CHORUS I’ll be your fellow traveler We all need our fellow travelers ‘Cos it’s a tough old world out there. Stick with me and maybe we shall float Not sink beneath the flood. Hands are made for holding other hands A raft of flesh and blood I know you would Never let me go alone Never let me take that road alone Never let me go alone Never let me take that road alone
16.
You were there on the morning That smashed and went everywhere Piece of it went in your wine. You downed it in one And through some kind of alchemy Found out you’re yours and not mine. And who would have thought, Who’d have pictured you smiling So wide, With nothing to lose And nothing, oh nothing To hide? Where I saw disaster, You saw opportunity. Must have a different-shaped brain. When air turns to water, Then you’re in your element. Kick off your high heels and dance Like a frog in the rain. Did I tell you I grew up In thunderstorm territory? May meant a black sky at noon. We sweated and swore And we rolled up our sleeves And we prayed for the rain to hit soon. And when it cut loose, When the ocean flashed down On the lawn, The frogs on the patio Sang like bullfinches At dawn, Leaping on high For sheer animal happiness. Strange, but you strike me the same. When air turns to water, Then you’re in your element. Kick off your high heels and dance Like a frog in the rain. Well, the die has been cast And the Rubicon crossed Though your friends think you’re lost And you’re raving. But I won’t say go slow Just ‘cos I would go slow When for you, there’s a world Still worth saving. And I cannot hold on With one leap you are gone. It’s to swim in dark waters You’re craving. As you waved from the window The wheels started turning, Wheels of a Stanstead-bound train. When air turns to water, Then you’re in your element. Kick off your high heels and dance Like a frog in the rain Like a frog in the rain Like a frog in the rain.

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A re-release of selected tracks from "Seven Black Swans" (2011) and "Orpheus in the Underlay" (2014)

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released December 3, 2020

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David Breslin UK

Singer-songwriter based in York, UK.

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