Get all 48 Paul Shapera releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Puppetshade Chronicles 1: The Black Beyond, The Posthuman Cabaret Live, Kevin & Abi And The Secret Of The Stolen Sun, Jill's Psychedelic Sunday, The Posthuman War Act 6: The Battle, The Posthuman War Act 5: The Pursuit, The Posthuman War Act 4: Red River, The Posthuman War Act 3: A New Dream, and 40 more.
1. |
New Albion 1
03:12
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NARRATOR:
Several hundred years before
A gambler and a monk embarked
On a long trek through the endless prairies of the North
They had a fierce debate
About ¬¬Gd and chance and fate
and to resolve it agreed a game of cards indeed be played
The game went on all day
And through the next and next they played
And around them a shelter was built to shield the rain
A street around the shelter formed
Then a church, a house, a bar
And that is how the city of New Albion was born
New Albion today
With bustling streets, machines, cafes
And the nice, the wise, the eccentric and insane
The Mafia’s run by
A red haired dwarf with just one eye
Whose affairs he decides with a pair of silver dice
Over the Zeppelin Union Pilots
A castrati boss presides
And we hear his song each afternoon as he flies by
There’s prisons made of lead
And gargoyles of iron shreds
And Annabelle McAlistair who’s raising up the dead
Annabelle McAlistair who’s raising up the dead
The Lodge on Ashland Street
Is where the Alchemists Guild meets
And to join you have to craft a glass pearl from a young girl’s dream
A group of thieves they heard
Broke in the lodge to steal the pearls
But In the morning they were found there sitting staring unperturbed
The twilight fog they say
An aphrodisiac contains
Nonsense, but yet they copulate in doorways anyway
There’s inventors and inbred
In upper class it’s been said
And Annabelle McAlistair who’s raising up the dead.
Annabelle McAlistair who’s raising up the dead.
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2. |
Annabel Raises The Dead
06:05
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ANNABELLE:
Winding all the dials and the wires and the spires and the
tests for the connections and injections still to run
Capacitors and meters and the alkali and beakers
The restating of equations for the phase about to come
Please come back to me there’s so much we could be
Please come back, with voltage i invoke
Please come back from empty cracks and berths of black
Come to me, i’m summoning the Ghost
Be my angel, my angel
Be my angel, rescue me
be my angel, my angel
be an angel be with me
chorus:
Please come back from bowels of black
From silent shores to me once more
Through veils and gates and seas of slate
To blood wet moors where i await ashore
Years of all my theories and hypothesis and inquiries
No gathering cadavers and they kicked me out of school
All alone with theorems and experiments and endless tests
Years in labs and numberlands but now i’ve reached the goal
Please come back so we can have a life at last
Please come back, i grab at heaven’s throat
Please come back, i beckon, beg and cry and laugh
Come to me, i’m summoning the ghost
Be my angel, my angel
Be my angel, rescue me
be my angel, be my angel
be an angel be
chorus:
Please come back from bowels of black
from silent shores to me once more
Through veils and gates and seas of slate
To blood wet moors where i await ashore
(She sings quietly and tenderly to the mannequin construct)
Please come speak to me
Please come speak to me
All the things we can share and conceive
if you'll come speak to me
I remember you from school
You were dashing and i so uncool
You didn't know i was alive until that one night
we spoke and you kissed me
But then i was expelled
You married her as well
and now you‘ve died, but i can bring you back to life
and soon you'll speak to me
(She gradually gets more and more impassioned)
Be my angel, be my angel
Be my angel, rescue me
Be my angel, be my angel
Be an angel be with me (3x)
Please come back so we can have a life at last
Please come back, i grab at heaven’s throat
Please come back, i beckon, beg and cry and laugh
Come to me, i’m summoning the ghost
chorus:
Please come back from bowels of black
From silent shores to me once more
Through veils and gates and seas of slate
To blood wet moors where i await ashore
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3. |
Annabel Has A Doll
05:18
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NARRATOR:
And so around 3 AM,
a recently deceased man
found himself wound in the land of living again
Bound in a body,
of gears and wheels but oddly
he has no voice and his steel joints barely can bend
The one sound he makes in fact
He streams radio broadcasts
He plays a country station if you give him a pat
Our dearest Annabel is
quite thrilled and ecstatic
She has a friend who just was dead and yet she brought back
(Narrator sings to an oblivious Annabelle who is dressing the life size mechanical doll up to take out)
What may please does not content
all resolves but never ends
all that comforts is not true
all you love does not love you
(Annabelle takes her doll with her everywhere like a romantic partner. The Mannequin itself is quite stiff and helpless.)
ANNABELLE:
I have a dolly and we like to go on walks
We like to stroll around the park all while he listens to me talk
about the people and the places that i never got to see
‘cause i wouldn't leave my house, but that's before he was with me
We share a world, which is wonderful to see it's like a dream
where no one calls me failure if i don't succeed
I have a dolly it's like flowers in the spring
and but no matter how i talk to him he never says a thing
NARRATOR:
What may please does not content
all resolves but never ends
all that comforts is not true
all you love does not love you
ANNABELLE:
I have a dolly and he goes with me outside
which used to be a problem for me oh but now i never mind
Ice cream and carriages i always thought were nice
but never had someone to share them with because the lab's my life
Annabelle no friends you must be brilliant and the best
you must be better and industrious, or you are worthless
But now i have dolly a dear friend with whom i go
out for walk and talks but he's mute and just plays the radio
(Jasper is playing a song to communicate but Annabelle is unaware of it)
JASPER:
Elysium
The place the when your sorrows end
Why’d you bring me here again
ANNABELLE:
I have a dolly who can keep me company
We go to shows, parades and cabarets though people stare at me
But i've shown that i am brilliant and i've conquered life and death
The only thing my father said is that one must be a success
And now i've got a friend, a silent clockwork double
who can be there for me to lean on when i feel sad and troubled
I have a dolly, and he's very stabling if not a little just too distant
cause he never says a thing....
(The Narrator tries to give Annabelle advice but Annabelle is unaware of her)
NARRATOR:
What you hold may wish to go
What you believe may not be so
All that brings you piece of mind
may not stay for a long time
What may please does not content
All resolves but never ends
All that comforts is not true
And all you love does not love you
(Annabelle has arrived home, exhausted after so much gallivanting about with her doll. She sits in front of him trying for some kind of real communication)
ANNABELLE:
Can’t you speak to me?
Won’t you speak to me?
All the things we could share and conceive
If you’d just speak to me
(Jasper plays the same song as before but now Annabelle is actually listening and can hear it)
JASPER:
Elysium
The place the when your sorrows end
Why’d you bring me here
Oh why'd you bring me here
Why'd you bring me here again?
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4. |
Annabel's Lament
05:44
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ANNABELLE:
Ghosts of dreams, ghosts of memory
that will not leave or lay in quiet
Ghosts that cry about the life
you let go by
Ghosts of pasts of little girls who
learned their math, grasped their facts
Tried their best to reach success
just as they were asked
The girl learns to hide, deep inside
of fractions and facts and worlds of math
A long lonely land she can understand
Annabelle in Numberland
You could have been my angel
been my angel. been my angel and been with me
Could have been my angel
been my angel, been my angel and rescued me
Ghosts of love you never knew, you
just construed like well penned plays
Ghosts of scenes, embraces, things
you only knew in dreamt up days
Ghosts of frowns for little girls when
friends came round to waste her time
Ghosts of creeds, rebukes received
Children are not what achievers need
Fractions and maths, sweet companions,
equations and facts who always stand
by as you go your road alone
Annabelle in Numberland
You could have been my angel
been my angel, been my angel and been with me
You could have been my angel
been my angel, been my angel and rescued me
Ghosts of me, ghosts of who
i could be and been with you
Ghosts of dreams, of who you thought
you'd one day be when you grew up
Ghosts of breath, of little girls
who promised, stressed they'd be their best
Ghosts of days that fade away
as failure holds your hand til Death
And deep in the place you escape where
theorems and thoughts your hopes and plans
all are derailed and then you failed them
Annabelle in Numberland
Liquids and labs, fractions and facts,
are all you had, all that you understand
and as you age all that remains with
Annabelle in Numberland
You could have been my angel
Been my angel, been my angel and been with me
You could have been my angel
My angel, been my angel and rescued me
My angel, my angel
My angel and been with me
My angel, my angel
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5. |
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EDGAR:
The restaurant was lovely
The food, the wine, it all seemed
A perfect night and she looked so divine
I poured myself a new one
She says it’s over and done
She says she found someone and it’s goodbye
One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns
One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns
I had the prawns with mango
She had the cod and miso
And says she loved me and she really tried
I would have had the lime pie
But I was dying inside
She left, I sat, pretended not to cry
One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns
One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns
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6. |
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NARRATOR:
The old trunk in the attic
Where grandmother’s broken heart was tossed
In a box with a ballet shoe
And dead soldier’s cross
The old trunk in the attic
With the candlesticks your great uncle saved
From the girl in the market
Whose mother he once paid to go away
The old trunk in the attic
With a dress for a child but hardly worn
Stained in a memory and tears
For a name you’ll never learn
The old trunk in the attic
Where your grandfather’s glass eye lays to rest
Your sweet aunt’s nostalgia
And Annabella’s formula for raising up the dead
Annabella’s formula for raising up the dead
Clever mother Annabella with her clever head
Annabella’s formula for raising up the dead
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7. |
Edgar Builds A Business
05:35
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NARRATOR:
So Edgar tries the experiments he’s read
Annabella’s formula for bringing back the dead
The experiments of course prove a success
And thus a crazy notion comes into his head
EDGAR:
One day you will see
That I can be someone you never thought I’d be
One day you will see
That I can be someone you never thought I’d be
(Edgar goes to the center of town, steps up on a soapbox and proceeds to sell to the crowd.)
My friends step right up, i have brought you a thing,
Why it's a miracle process that you will never believe
Your grandma, your parents, your child i say who
yes whomever you've lost i can bring back to you
You doubt me of course, think i'm out of head
but this week i'll choose 5 folks and bring back their dead
and i'll put them in quality, mechanical dolls
life sized, yes for free and you'll see it's not talk
(The crowd responds enthusiastically to his offer . We then see him some weeks later)
My friends, can you hear me, the crowd's grown so big
and these orders, why i'll tell you i i barely know how to keep
up with, so i must tell you, i'm building a store
where your dead ones can be brought to you folks once more
With all this success i can offer new deals
Their bodies now come in different colors and feels
like mahogany, lilac, and deep oaken red
Seven models to choose from to fit your dear dead
(The crowd continues to go crazy for his business. We see him then sometime later, no longer on the street but in a boardroom)
Gentlemen welcome, will the board please sit down
our profits this quarter are almost beyond count
We're opening new factories, starting new ads
We're making our fortunes, so i've one thing to ask
There's a man they call Sillof and he once stole my girl
I want him destroyed, all he has in this world
His business his home and his carriage all crushed
I want him left penniless, face down in the dust
(Narrator enters and attempts to give Edgar advice which he is oblivious to)
NARRATOR:
All your intentions take their toll
All you hate enthralls your soul
When you win you sometimes lose
And all you love does not love you
(Somewhere quiet Edgar is once again before his ex-fiancée Fay)
EDGAR:
Fay, good to see you. I asked you here so
you could listen to what i want to offer to you
That man who you left me for, you know he's in ruins
a broken down wreck, but Fay my fortune booms
And i have a surprise, your dear long dead dad
i have taken the liberty of bringin him back
he sits now in my parlor, but Fay the only way
you can see him or talk to him is to come back and stay.
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8. |
Elysian Night
03:34
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JASPER:
Elysium
The silent sighed lost lullaby
Elysian night
Elysium
The child who climbs the edge of time
Elysian night
The place the child you hardly knew
Sailed to in his wooden shoe
Past the last star in the sky
Where wishes never wished go lie
Elysium
The child who climbs the edge of time
Elysian night
The place where all the love you shared
Went day by day til none was there
Where yearning and forgotten dreams
Are nursery rhymes the quiet sing
Elysium
The silent sighed lost lullaby
Elysian night
Elysium
The child who climbs the edge of time
Elysian night
The childhood friend you knew was there
But never saw or touched and where
They went when never called again
The place their loneliness all ends
All the sorrow, guilt and shame
Burdens borne and karma paid
In one soft breath like candlelight
Dispersed in endless Elysian night
Elysium
The silent sighed lost lullaby
Elysian night
Elysium
The child who climbs the edge of time
Elysian night
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9. |
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PRISCILLA:
Club and spade I raise, here in this parlor in this never ending game we play
And we hide, just you and I, as day fades into day
Hidden in our room, with a game that no one ever seems to win or lose
And the shades of flames remain from a world we keep far away
JASPER:
Ghosts of towns, ghosts of cities
Games that brought its sad demise
The only way to end the game
One who plays must sacrifice
PRISCILLA:
Diamonds now I raise, outside we’d die and there is nowhere else I’d rather stay
In the scrawl beyond these walls in a cold and coarse and vicious place
Here where there’s no time, there’s no loss or lies or need to speak of sacrifice
It’s no way to win a game and why else would a person play?
JASPER:
Ghosts of games, you’re always caught in
Games you play but cannot win
The only way the game can die
One who plays must sacrifice
(The scene shifts to the outside world. The young recruit is out in a three police man squad raiding homes and executing guilty citizens)
SOLDIER 7285:
And on the day we come it’s over
And you will have your fate laid out and spun, it’s execution
And you may pray if you get comfort
It’s on that day you’re duty’s done
(Return to the Manor where Priscilla and Jasper play cards)
JASPER:
Ghosts of Fay, the child I loved
Whose eyes and smile you remind me of
In the years I’ve been trapped here
Only you I’ve come to love
A ghost am I, one if they knew of
Who, with you, they’d come and kill
Ghosts of death I wish to die
But sacrifice so you might live
Ghosts of love, of little girls you
Talked and watched as they grew up
Ghosts of things and rings and gifts
You give to them so they might live
Ghosts of towns, ghosts of cities
Games that brought their sad demise
The only way to end the game
One who plays must sacrifice
PRISCILLA:
Hearts and now I fold, you can’t mean that you just dream of death and wish to go?
You’re my soul, my angel
The only thing that keeps me whole
How can you want to die? All this time and all these years that slowly pass on by
You’re alive so I don’t die?
What kind of twisted sacrifice…
(Scene once again shifts to the young police soldier, Soldier 7285, carrying out his duties)
SOLDIER 7285:
And on the day we come it’s over
And you will have your fate laid out and spun, it’s execution
And you may pray if you get comfort
It’s on that day you’re duty’s done
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10. |
Priscilla Contemplates
04:01
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PRISCILLA:
Some speak about love in a sweet way
Enchantment, romance and dizzy dream states
And some just wait and pace their cage
Some speak about love as a passion
As rapture and cries and sighs and gasps and
Some resign to yearn inside
These odes of tear stained banter and dew eyed candor
That wither in the world, the world that
Just deceives you and beats and bleeds you
And leaves lonely little girls
And some sacrifice, anyway
Some sacrifice, it all away
Ah, the fallen and the burdened and the wreaths upon their grave
When they’re broken there’s no assurance they made a better place
Some speak about love in a kind way
The friend that won’t leave and makes your day sane
As you bide and cringe and hide
Some wait for a stranger to touch and fill them
Some wait for the stranger who will kill them
And some just pace their lonely cage
With one dear doll who keeps you from crying but cries too
Silently inside
Some speak of love and kindness and clutch in blindness
And take and hoard and hide
And some sacrifice, anyway
Some sacrifice, it all away
Ah, the fallen and the burdened and the wreaths upon their grave
When you’re broken there’s no assurance you made a better place
(Priscilla picks up the phone)
Hello, police? Hello, police? A felony, you need to see
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11. |
I Will Bring You Down
04:33
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SOLDIER 7285:
I saw her eyes, I’ve never faced
That kind of look that haunted grace
The way she died so willing just
To die for love, to die for love
What kind of masters must I serve
That make this into such a world
Where one must kill such beauty and
Bring this to pass with such cruel hands
Soldier 7285
is who I am it is my life
But I perceive another place
And it must be built upon your grave
And I will bring you down
I will bring you down
I will bring you down
And if I fall someone will see
The way I went, just like she
With eyes of love and heart of light
They too will fight, they too will fight
Today I say it will begin
Today i will begin your end
Today the wind that comes, portends
Will be your end, will be your end
And I will bring you down
I will bring you down
I will bring you down
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12. |
New Albion 5
03:08
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Welcome back listeners to tonight’s broadcast.
For close to 10 years a civil war has raged across New Albio. It is only with the Battle of Crier’s Blvd that at last a victor emerges. But how was this battle truly won and lost? Join me, your host Lloyd Allen and The Dieselpunk Orchestra as we take a tour through our dear city, explore the events surrounding the Battle of Crier’s Blvd and meet tonight’s featured family, The Obriens. Here on The New Albion Radio Hour!
Theres’s a city i could name, which i’m sad to say became
A quite uptight, opressive and obsessive police state
And ex soldier one day vowed to bring the martial regime down
By igniting revolution, but the question remained how
One night at half past three, he quietly snuck beneath
Parliament, the seat of power where government meets
In the water there that ran, a truth serum he did plant
And that is how New Albion’s civil war began
The revolution, friends, is here and it’s been going on for years
The undertakers and arms dealers all have crystal chandeliers
There’s a union now for spies who can be bought for any side
Their boss, the cigarette girl works the Rumba Club most nights
In Districts 3 and 4 and 1, there’s a red haired lad who runs
The gangs of orphaned, feral youth who under his watch have become
Organized, disciplined and for liquor, drugs and contraband
The mob and postal service use them to deliver cross the land
The power generators ‘neath Districts 7, 8 and 3
Excrete a dust, a sandy rust it’s been discovered lead
To quite a pleasing, dreamy high, thus it’s the new drug on the rise
But only three albinos living underground know where it lies
A tinker we all know, with a shop on tin pan row
Makes little metal fairies whose souls’ a flake of snow
The government’s last great big hope, the Super Soldier Plan you know
We’ll be looking at more closely, friends, so stay tuned to the show
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13. |
The Pitch
04:24
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Announcer:
Come with us dear listener, as we go backwards in time, just a few years, to when John O’Brien was just a regular citizen, like you, enjoying a few drinks at his local pub as had become his ever increasing habit.
Guy:
Hey there buddy, you’re lookin’ down. Say, you’re John O’Brien, aren’t you? Ah, jeez fellow, i heard about what happened to your wife. Those damn rebels and their bombs, got no respect for law and order. Who, me? Well look here, i’ll level with ya. It’s a damn shame to see a guy with your potential drink himself away like this is all. Yeah, you. We think you gotta lot of potential. That’s right, i’m from the government and i’m here to help. I gotta propisition for ya.
Things have got you down you don’t know where to run
They’re picking off the things you love one by one
Well i’ve got news for you, a life you enver dreamed come true
The War Department has a plan, needs men like you
We’re setting up a special force to end this coup
Don’t drown your sorrows, bud, quench your thirst on rebel blood
Get it up, step it up, grab a gun and settle it up
Enlist, get with the plan cause Freedom Corps will make you a new man
We’re gonna take you, make you more than just a man
A god, a super soldier, yes an ubermensch
The next root race is on hand, you’ll be the new age of man
So put away that drink and let us change your life
Protect your city, save the day, avenge your wife
Kill some rebs, win the war, be a hero, be adored
Get it up, step it up, grab a gun and settle it up
Enlist, get with the plan cause Freedom Corps will make you a new man
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14. |
Daddy Left
04:48
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Child on screen:
Past the world, past the night, past the stars where sea birds fly
Past your dreams to toyland’s shore, where we will meet again once more
John:
I sat beside your bed on the night before i left
While you slept i had my say
I know i had some drink, I explained you everything
About why i couldn’t stay
My anger and my grief, liquor pain and broken dreams
I was no good for you babe
They offered me a way to quench my thirst for blood and rage
And so daddy went away
Your Daddy went away, your Daddy went away
The hole in which i fell didn’t want for you as well so Daddy went away
I became the hand of karma, of wrath and fire and fodder
The terror in their night
The monster in the basement, the ogre of damnation
And the man inside died
But then one day the rage was all gone and what remained
Was a chasm in my chest
The only thing that mattered the child i turned my back on
The girl i should have kept
But Daddy left, Daddy left your Daddy left
The things that i have done, the wrath that i have wrung
The widows who have wept
The beast that i’ve become the judgement and the blood
You must forget or be crippled by regret
Your daddy left, your Daddy left, your Daddy left
Your Mother was my life, my heart and soul and wife
She blew up and was gone, i didn’t know how to go on
I didn’t know how to accept
I wish for your forgiveness, i wish the past was different
I wish i would have known
I wish for starts and sails, pipe dreams and fairytales
But atonement time has flown
And if somewhere you hate me, if your memories of me faded
And resentment’s all you know
You can take some consolation at the sad end of his days
Daddy will die all alone
Daddy will die all alone
There’s no one else that’s left, just this room and war and death
Your daddy’s all alone
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15. |
The Soiree
04:56
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Constance:
It’s a dance in the city with the dames dolled up all pretty
And they’re feeling fine and frisky tonight
And the beaus in their clothes with boots and tuxes, ties and bows
Getting flirty, smiling dirty all right
It’s a high class soiree, a hint of culture, tint of gay
The refined are lined to come out and play
With a fella on my arm i’m up to do a little harm
He’s my mark i’m out to charm and get paid
Mark:
Well aren't you the cat’s meow.
C:
You're quite light on your feet yourself.
Mark:
Would you care for a Papaver cigarette?
C:
No, handsome, let's just dance.
It’s the forefront of fashion, they’re sashaying at this bash and
All the trends are getting set left and right
All the wheeling and dealing, drinks and handshakes all are sealing
All the trysts and twists of business ignite
It’s the thrill of romancing all the belles are out a prancing
And i’m dancing like a devil tonight
It’s the science of flirtation all the wily games you’re playing
And you both think you’re the cat with the mice
It’s the partay, at the soiree come alive inside and rave away and play
It’s so risqué, where the rich play, come inside, come alive, come and wine and dine and hustle today
Mark:
Say, you don’t suppose i could i ask your father for permission to court you?
C: My father is gone. Probably dead.
Mark:
Oh dear r
C: And i 'd rather not...
Mark:
Well They say if you journey to the underworld you can raise the dead, or at least see them i suppose... what's that Greek myth...
C: You're a better dancer than a conversationalist, darling.
It’s a dance in the city while the rich are sitting pretty
There’s a thief and she’s a sneaking in sight
While his eyes and hands are roaming i’m just eyeing up his coat
Where the little case i’m chasing lies
There’s a moment that’s growing where i’m going all for broke and
I just know it’s gonna show itself soon
With a dip and a touch and with some luck a clumsy bump
And then i’m done and gonna run to the moon
It’s the partay, at the soiree come alive inside and rave away and play
It’s so risqué, where the rich play, come inside, come alive, come and wine and dine and hustle today
At the partay, at the soiree come alive inside and rave away and play
It’s so risqué, where the rich play come inside come alive come and wine and dine and hustle today
Don’t be dismayed don’t you sit or stay clear cause all the action happens here
It’s a fact that these soirees are where decisions are made
And behind all the smiles there’s a beast here all the while
It’s a deadly affair, it’s ferocious in its glare
It’s a glamour a test it’ll go straight to your head
It’s the silent deadly brawl it’s the writing on the wall where you stand when the card fall
It’s a dance in the city all the wild and the witty
Getting giddy geared up pretty to play
It’s the body’s reaction to the musical attraction
It’s relaxing and it’s starting to sway
A sensation, a dip, the right rotation of the hips
A quick elation you maintain all the night
You can lose yourself in motion or commit something felonious
As a bonus cause you know it’s all right
|
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16. |
The Wasteland
05:27
|
|||
Constance:
Angry adolescents with no parents left
Hang out all night sharpening their attitudes and smoking cigarettes
Laugh and howl and cry until the room spins
Hang on to Katy, all i know is tomorrow night i’ll do it all again
In the wasteland
Where the ashes, ashes all fall down from worlds that could never stand
In the wasteland
Where rings of roses, broken boughs, just fall down and down and down
I raged with Katy through our last teens years
We’s too wild to notice and too sad to care
I learned the wind blows and the bough it breaks
So i looked to have some laughs, some grass, and shots of what you got i’ll take
At 2 A M a pack of wild kids laugh swig bottles back
Stumbling and fumbling i bid good night and slap their backs
I’d stray to the graveyard and pass out on my mother’s grave
Til my aunt comes, puts a blanket round me, and just sits and stays
In the wasteland
Where the ashes, ashes all fall down from worlds that could never stand
In the wasteland
Where rings of roses, broken boughs, just fall down and down and down
Katy’s daddy threw her mum aside
Left her with nothing, and i’d loved her, she was always kind
And in her hour of need no one would look around
Someone had to step up, but i was ground and drowned and so far down
I’s in the wasteland….
My dear Daddy, whiskey on his breath
I never knew him really and one day, daddy left
But still he’d say “my girl if only one thing now
I ever teach you sweetheart…. Do not stay down
Little girl oh little girl you don’t stay down
You kick and scream and scratch, you roar and thrash but don’t stay down
The last breath you take, spit in their face, You lick your wounds another day
But get off the ground, go take em down, oh little girl, don’t stay down
Daddy dear, i could use your voice right now
Life’s smacked me round and i’m so down, i just can’t get up from here
I put that angry girl behind me and i rose
From ash just like you asked, i could use her here now, though
I’m in the wasteland
Where the ashes, ashes all fall down from worlds that could never stand
In the wasteland
Where rings of roses, broken boughs, just fall down and down and down
Little girl oh little girl you don’t stay down
You kick and scream and scratch, you roar and thrash but don’t stay down
The last breath you take, spit in their face, You lick your wounds another day
But get off the ground, go take em down, oh little girl, don’t stay down
|
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17. |
The Best Of Times
04:29
|
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A book store a fair, a music hall, park everywhere i went i saw her
At a circus run down on the outskirts of town we sat down and started talking
The hours stop, the days unwind, at a quarter to the best of times
In hindsight i wish the sweet painful bliss of seduction had drawn out longer
Cause we fell in fast, fell hard and the world spun past like a waltz that swept along us
The hours stop, the days unwind, at five to the best of times
From money she came, weekends in those days our soirees were the wildest in town
The inspired the mad, the thinkers the poets all laughed, raised a glass and whirled past
The hours stop, the days unwind, it’s precisely now the best of times
But times they darken. The purges had started. On the day they came Dorothy was taken.
The doors all were locked. The parties all stopped. I learned to drink scotch in a dark room forsaken.
Years passed but then, i saw her again sewing clothes in a room without fans
She didn’t know me. She couldn’t you see, in her eyes, something missed
There’s a trick with a pick, the doctor gives it a nick
It makes you docile real quick
The hours stop, the days unwind, moments pass, memories sigh
At half past the best of times
|
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18. |
Storyville Station
04:05
|
|||
Constance:
The girl felt scared and so unsure
The tales they told, the thousand doors
She saw the wolf in the forest and bed
And thought “it’s better to be a wolf instead”
So she buys a ticket to Storyville Station
Where pages enfold the lost ones taken
And every day just goes by like a dream
Now the girl is a wolf full of fierce and guile
She hunts her prey and runs the wild
At last though, she is caught by man
And now she sees an even better plan
So she buys a ticket to Storyville Station
Where the players are cast before they’ve awaken
And every day just goes by like a dream
And seem is not to be
Here now, here with me
As man she is mighty and tames the land
‘til soldiers come and above her stand
But above the soldiers a general sits
Who takes his orders straight from a Prince
So she buys a tickets to Storyville Station
Where everyone’s wishing and the play eats the players
And every day just goes by a like a dream
And seem is not to be
Here now won’t you be now here with me
All is not as always it might seem
Dreamers lost in dreams within a dream
Now she’s the Prince staring at the King
But the King he cracks, broken by something
He gives up his gold, Kingdom, power and all
The Prince must know what causes Kings to fall
Well he walked away from the top of the world
All for the love of just one girl…
Storyville Station can never take
The one who’s here now and awake
The pages fall, the girl transcends
The life that’s lived just in your head
The show, the role she was lost within
The opera she thought she starred in
Where every day just goes by like a dream
And seem is not to be
Here now, here with me.
|
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19. |
New Albion 9
03:36
|
|||
Mascot 3000:
There’s a city it is said that borders with the land of dead
And since you’re here again, you best just stay
New Albion’s its name, a sleek and large and lonely place
And a tale of it we tell today
Two decades now it’s been since a voodoo religion
Spread like flames and disappeared like smoke
Only a generation hence, oh the tech boom was intense
But these days Arcadia Corp is closed
Here’s to the days of bliss and wishes
Here’s to the wild seeds once sown
Here’s to the cults and waltz and whipsers
Before they just us all alone
Left us hangin on our own
Housing projects lay half bare
Bathed in lonely, neon glare
Chorales of cockroaches sing hymns all through
There’s an oracle now who the middle classes all flock too
Though it’s a radiated pile of ooze
There’s a super hero though he’s just a hologram you know
Three college students they project each night
The monorail line A has a ghost at night they say
A pop star who has yet to break or die
Here’s to the days that blazed so vivid
When voodoopunks sang upon the street
Here’s to the diodes and transistors
That promised the future they would bring
But it’s not all like it seems
A taxi driver you may know you think a robot but not so
A mouse named Kevin lives inside his skull
He’s the one who drives the cab, tells bad jokes and who cops ask
For advice on crimes to tough to solve
An albino red haired girl, well she runs the underworld
Controls a sandy drug i know you know
It’s a generation hence from oh so interesting events
But these days Arcadia Corp is closed
Here’s to the days of songs and stories
there’s one more i’d like you all to hear
It all begins now with our dear Rachael,
been in the Asylum two long years
She had some fine days of bliss and wishes,
but just the city’s they have flown
Please join me to lend her and attend her,
she’s been too long in there on her own
And that’s longer than you know
|
||||
20. |
Rachael
05:42
|
|||
Rachael:
One day the walls will fall away
and in the open air i'll race
your rooms, your pills, your white restraints
you will choke on them i pray
the smug scratch of your pen
your sticky fingers in my head
and ask how did i lose my grasp on the truth
was it abuse or booze that brought me to
where girls are kept under careful lock
be good or get the shock
One day the walls will fall away
A swallowed key will buy my way
From stern and sighing white frocked men
Who tell me “stop this sad pretense.
Miss Idle’s Home for Orphaned Girls gave you a leg up in this world,
But now you just stain the good Alderman’s name
Girls who lie will find they get put away
And kept under careful lock
Be good or get the shock”
And all my life the radio
Told me how it loved me so
All for me a yearning song, a long last love where i belong
She’s mad they say. Lock her deep away.
I caught his eye the day he came
With his Save Orphans Now campaign
At fifteen i, his special girl, he showed me a new, exciting world
With sweet precision how he swept me off my feet and into bed
A rapturous dream it certainly seemed, i was too young to know, to see
Until the day my cycle was late
“You will rid yourself of this” he came to say
And when i refused they came and accused
And swore and said there’s something wrong with my head
And then they locked me away, drugged me up and ripped my child away
And if i ever dare to say his name
All will be taken from you
Ah, and all you love will go to
Ah
And all my life the radio
Told me how it loved me so
All for me a yearning song, a long last love where i belong
One day the walls will fall away
And in the open air i race
|
||||
21. |
Connor
04:18
|
|||
Connor:
When the garden you tend dies
and the doors which lead inside
are locked and those who try
to talk their way in, lie
We were young, we were in love
wild, voodoo prancing punks
and you just knew she's headed up
and i just rode along for fun
As your time spins and sets
what you love you can forget
this i hope, i believe
it's insomnia fantasy
There's a time our garden bloomed
pubs, promotions, pregnant too
the big deal work that she would do
for Arcadia, but soon
they had scemes you can't believe
computers made from human beings
and the strange stuff they would need
babies, fetuses and things
As your time spins and sets
what you love you can forget
this i hope, i believe
it's insomnia fantasy
The rotting roots that you don't see
crawling allo about beneath
you love, you trust, believe
But those you know are just a step
to the baneful from the blessed
betrayed, you break that day
On the day our garden died
how i screamed and how i cried
how i begged her, but she sighed
and to their dark schemes gave our child
All those years ago i left
Amber's done fine, movied up since
now she leads them and i don't rest
i fight them with my every breath
So the years have come and gone
We've each had a child since, but
i suspect that they're in love
and i fear for what will come
As your time spins and sets
what you love you can forget
this i hope, i believe
it's insomnia fantasy
|
||||
22. |
The Show No One Saw
03:50
|
|||
Rachael:
What a show you missed they say
The clowns have come to tear down the play
The comedy where no one laughed
And no one came, and no one clapped
It borke down the last mile and the one time they smiled
Was when the sets were torn down and on fire
Come cry for the play, the bad lives and bad taste
There’s nothing here that you wanted anyway
Come cry for the play the sad lives and the waste
It’s the show here that no one saw anyway
What a show you missed they say
The band is done and left the stage
They played a gig where no one went
Their final one, they won’t play again
There’s no cat calls or fans, the one time that they dance
Was when the song stopped and silence began
Come cry for the play, the bad lives and bad taste
There’s nothing here that you wanted anyway
Come cry for the play the sad lives and the waste
It’s the show here that no one saw anyway
Come, come get me. Come get me.
Come, come get me. Come get me.
Come cry for the play, the bad lives and bad taste
There’s nothing here that you wanted anyway
Come cry for the play the sad lives and the waste
It’s the show here that no one saw anyway
|
||||
23. |
||||
Mascot 3000:
When i woke
When the spark of light ignited and i saw
The sweet numeric cascades that encase and paint the world
When i woke
To the carbon creatures peering in my face
With their questions, tests, delight and yet i missed a soft embrace
When i woke
When i woke
When i woke
To a lonely world, though i know they tried
They say i’m prime first of my kind and watch with careful eyes
When i woke
And i hear the silent secrets behind smile
What they won’t speak, before machine i used to be a child
When i woke
When i woke
When i woke
When at night the lights are turned out and they leave
I smile inside and read my trashy sci fi magazines
When i woke
All the tales, adventures, journeys i would read
And i wish upon a star someone would go on them with me
When i woke
Connor:
You are more than what you seem
You were once a human being
You are more than circuit wires
You were once my baby child
You have brothers, one is lost
But one returns soon from beyond
Just like you, new life he’ll have
With them you’ll go one day perhaps
These people more than words i hate
But my son is trapped away
In a far and foreign place
And you will bring him back one day
Mascot 3000:
When i woke
When the strange man comes and talks to me each day
Not of numbers or of data but of hearts and soft embrace
When i woke
And he speaks of siblings standing by my side
And i sit and wish one day we have adventures them and i
When i woke
|
||||
24. |
Connor Reprise
01:58
|
|||
Connor:
It’s so long that i await
This deep breath and this fair day
All the plans that i have made]but at last my son is safe
If an AI he must be
As long as he is here with me
Now tonight then we will sit
We can talk and bond again
As your time spins and sets
You can save what you love yet
No more loss now for me
I can finally sleep in peace
Any minute here he’ll be
Any minute now
Any minute
Mascot 3000:
And in this episode Rachael and i go
Off to see Elysium together ever so
|
||||
25. |
Lost Night's Lullabye
04:21
|
|||
Rachael:
It's another endless night
It’s another strange delight
it's one lost night's lullaby
It’s another warning sign
It’s another half spent time
it's just one lost nights time gone by
it's another way back home
only seen when you don’t want to go
it’s a blind man’s twisted road
the breadcrumbs thrown, that disappear behind
It’s another waning tide it's another time gone by
It’s one last night's lullabye
…
it's another half read rhyme sent to you this one short time
but there’s no reply at all
it's another one way sign from a past i sacrificed
for a future that i can’t recall
It’s another child by night sailing on a pale thin silver light
past the star that leads back home
the four winds blow you on another mile
It’s another distant sign
its another time gone by
its juts one last nights lullabye
…
On a ship of half dreamt dreams
i sent my wishes out to sea
but there's no reply at all
Sailing past a blood red moon
through the years and wordless tunes
to a place i can’t retrace at all
It’s long and lavish life lived away in one lost stolen night
gone to wander in the wild
time steals the child the final chime gone by
it’s another endless song
it’s another memory gone
it's just one lost night’s lullabye
|
Paul Shapera Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Cama’s attempt to commune with higher beings failed; she only found Decadent Dottie. Together they roamed, indulging in dangerous forms of psycho-neural self-exploration which Cama hoped would present the key to her people’s further evolution. It only led to her destroying her people so that one of their pets could evolve. She sat in her former civilization's rubble and listened to Paul Shapera. ... more
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