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ACROSS TUNDRAS LYRICS
"Dark Songs of the Prairie" (2006)
1. Ramblin' In the Shadows
2. If God Cuts You Down
3. Western Wind
4. The Old Sexton
5. Ode to George, Parts 1 & 2
6. Dark Flower of the Prairie
7. Cosmic Retribution
8. Aura Lea, Maid of Golden Hair
1. Ramblin' In the Shadows
I'm just a wanderer to all who meet me, slip out the back door so discretely.
"Lady luck never shined on me" the old man sighed.
"I always walked under shades of midnight, dodging streetlights, livin in the shadows feels like home."
"But sometimes I feel so far from home."
I'm just a wanderer to all who meet me, slip out the back door so discretely, just rambling along.
"But once I knew true love and for her heart I still long."
"I once thought about heading back to the prairie, but this load on an old back is a bit too heavy to carry."
I don't know but never tried. But I know I never learned to smile 'cus I never learned to cry.
I was never grounded and it kept me from reaching for the sky.
"So now I sit here with more than a handful of regrets, and the damn things won't leave my chest."
"There's a tattoo for a lady, we'll call her Lisa Marie, and another from a friend who used to mean so much to me."
"They all faded with time."
"Those dirty street puddles I bathed myself in, never washed my hands clean of original sin."
"Don't mean to burden you with this story, lord knows I'm no preacher, teacher, or suit and tie."
"I don't know, but I never tried."
"Without being grounded you can never reach..." the old man said as he disappeared into the night sky.
2. If God Cuts You Down
You've been all the way to the borderline and past.
Finding all the answers your hometown couldn't crack.
When you found that ghost singing in the grooves, the sounds echoed through the canyon and the moon heard it too.
You learned not to cry 'cus the desert eyes know not a tear.
But when you fell to the ground out of the stratosphere...
You spoke not a word, and it made such a sound.
When you find your feet planted firmly on the ground.
And what you found couldn't be measured in miles or fear.
Got some words from a hard working man who knew nothing of the stratosphere.
He said "You'll find what you're looking for, and you may fail at that, but there's so much more."
"Where will you go?"
Where the cold winds blow.
"You don't want to go down..."
Where the cold winds blow.
3. Western Wind
Bird of ill omen's song is blowin' on in, blowin' on in, in the western wind.
Bird of ill omen's song is blowin' on in, singing about that dread and din.
Dread and din.
Crows may fly into heaven and doves may plummet into canyons.
4. The Old Sexton
Nigh to a grave that was newly made,
Leaned a Sexton old, on his earth worn spade,
His work was done, and he paused to wait,
The fun'ral train through the open gait;
A relic of bygone days was he,
And his locks were white as the foamy sea;
And these words came from his lips so thin,
"I gather them in, I gather them in,
Gather, gather, gather, I gather them in."
"I gather them in! For man and boy,
Year after year of grief and joy;
I've builded the houses that lie around,
In ev'ry nook of this burial ground,
Mother and daughter, father and son,
Come to my solitude, one by one,
But come they strangers, or come they kin,
I gather them in, I gather them in,
Gather, gather, gather, I gather them in."
Many are with me, but still I'm alone,
I'm king of the dead - and I make my throne,
On a monument slab of marble cold,
Any my sceptre of rule is the spade I hold;
Come they from cottage or come they from great hall,
Mankind are my subjects - all, all, all!
Let them loiter in pleasure, or toilfully spin,
I gather them in, I gather them in,
Gather, gather, gather, I gather them in.
"I gather them in - and their final rest
Is here, down here, in the earth's dark breast!
And the Sexton ceased - for the funeral train
Wound mutely o'er that solemn plain;
And I said to my heart of heart - when time is told,
A mightier voice than that Sexton's old,
Will sound o'ver the last tramp's dreadful din,
I gather them in, I gather them in,
Gather, gather, gather, I gather them in."
5. Ode to George, Parts 1 & 2
When your words are frozen on thin air and everything
reels right in front of you. You can laugh and breathe
without a care, everything real is right in front of you.
"Let it roll, for all it's worth."
"Find me where ye echo lays, lose ye bodies in the maze."
"Eyes that shine full of inner light,
let it roll into the night."
"Let it roll for all it's worth."
6. Dark Flower of the Prairie
If I were king of the Midwestern plain,
And had all things at my will,
I'd roam for solitude.
But I'd seek for comfort still.
The comfort I would ask for,
So that you may understand
Is to win the heart of Mary.
The Dark Flower of the Prairie.
7. Cosmic Retribution
Silver lining doesn't sell to a man in a broken shell.
Who was born to rise and fall with the best of them.
Silver lining has got to sell for you to walk from that broken shell.
You can see the light now don't you want to run?
Touch the sky and then to the ground, the grass below your feet, it's for real now.
You no longer give yourself away.
You just can't give yourself away.
Silver lining has got to sell.
8. Aura Lea, Maid of Golden Hair
When the blackbird in the spring,
On the willow tree,
Sat and rocked, I head him sing,
Singing Aura Lea
Aura Lea, Aura Lea,
Maid of golden hair;
Sunshine came along with thee,
And swallows in the air.
In thy blush the rose was born,
Music when you spake,
Through thine azure eye the morn,
Sparkling seemed to break,
Aura Lea, Aura Lea,
Bird of crimson wing,
Never song have sung to me,
In that sweet spring.
Aura Lea, Aura Lea,
Maid of golden hair;
Sunshine came along with thee,
And swallows in the air.
Aura Lea! The bird may flee,
The willows golden hair
Swing through winter fitfully,
On the stormy air.
Yet if thy blue eyes I see,
Gloom will soon depart;
For to me, sweet Aura Lea
Is sunshine through the heart.
When the mistletoe was green,
Midst the winter's snows,
Sunshine in thy face was seen,
Kissing lips of rose.
Aura Lea, Aura Lea,
Take my golden ring;
Love and light return with thee,
And swallows with the spring.
Aura Lea, Aura Lea,
Maid of golden hair;
Sunshine came along with thee,
And swallows in the air.
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