Lyrics

Courting the Queen Manor

I got angels hiding I’ve got heavenly hairs
I’ve got money, and babe I’ve got the rent
and troubles, like leaves, will fade away

Well the landlord’s sticking like a fly to the wall
his pant legs are stained with ruby paint
and his son’s drunk with love, I’ve seen him look

At night I hear your piano in the room
spoken melodies from down the hall
and your ghost wrapped lightly in linen garbs and green
your hair in a swollen ball

Well I got in trouble, I got debts to pay
I got money never stowed away
and you say I’ve got it made, the hell I do

Well those goddamned lawyers and that goddamned court
they got me in small-time law affairs
with the ladies and the gents
of the manor hall

At night I hear your piano in the room
spoken melodies from down the hall
and your ghost wrapped lightly in linen garbs and green
your hair in a swollen ball

And you say I got it made
the hell I do

Doves & Drums

I remember when there was love
kissing in the river when we were young
so young and restless, young and restless

There were doves and there were drums
there was family in Wisconsin there was sadness in the sun
we hoped for better days, we prayed for better days

When it’s all said and done, there are roses in our songs

There are lovers, there is family
we plant a seed and pray for rain

Goathawk

Red corn on the mighty Mississippi as the children scream in the back of a church yard, O Lord, I watch the sun rising

Your hand, wrapped up in a wedding ring sweating in the summertime sweating for amphetamines, dip goes the goathawk, dip goes the goathawk

Our hairs, pressed up on a windowsill looking for a void to fill looking for her husband dead, drowned in Wisconsin

As two moths glide towards the window light looking for a place to hide hunting in the summertime, dip goes the goathawk, dip goes the goathawk

And as the belt relaxes, a fine new cherry on her skin
So we head to the grasses, fall on our knees and love

My life is told beneath my fingernails look towards my nightingale holding a gun in the pale Lake Michigan light

And I know, I should’ve somehow told her I was killing him, told her I was killing him, but dip goes the goathawk, dip goes the goathawk

And as my life explodes, five new cherries on my back
So I head to the grasses, fall on my knees and die

There I feel her hand upon my shoulder blade, moonlight on the wedding ring, the hot-cold color of her bloodstained dress

And as the sun breaks across Lake Michigan I can feel the heat again I can feel the breeze of the goathawks dipping, the goathawks dipping

Harelip

A shoulder wrapped in a sunbeam
The ash-blond of his meat cut with a river vein
The worn taste of an American August
A blood-cut from a harelip, pink burnt and whittled

A pocket of light through a sycamore tree spreads its grinning on the ear of a dead fawn
To the tune of a mistral man’s piccolo
The carnival children hold up the harelip

And they’ll parade him like Christ on a black cross
Burnt red with feathers and the blood of a wolf’s hair
How bizarre and queer in his makeup
Look how he’s crying, just like a real boy

And if the bible is right with the lord, why ain’t I?
The harelip is the center of my being, it is all I will be remembered by

Judas Horse

O my hand reach out, grab its weight, kicking horse reservoir
strawberry hair, strawberry hair
her eyes like diamond coals, diamond coals, don’t you worry boy
I am alone, I am alone

The fire it rages on, rages on, sapphire avenue
the hips and the sweat, the hips and the sweat
skinny won’t do me well when the rains come singing on a thunderstorm
this is not my home, this is not my home

You’ll do well with her, my Judas horse

Honey you worry me, why don’t you cry, when I’m hitting you
she tears at the seat, tears at the seat
so I candle my sins away, my sins away, at Xavier’s cathedral
where I am not alone, I am not alone

You’ll do well with her, my Judas horse

The sun it rises now, rises now, and she is not alone
her hips and his sweat, her hips and his sweat
on a Judas horse she’ll ride, a horse she’ll ride to the tower of babylon
where she is now alone, where she is now alone

You’ll do well with her, my Judas horse

Memorial Day, 1968

Here’s a story ’bout a town where the girls all lost their papas in Vietnam and their mothers cry on Memorial Day

Where they grew up tall and they grew up fast, fed on a hatred of Mao Zedong and the communists and the Beatles too

Where they married their heroes and the rodeo stars and the back-alley fighters with their real fast cars, and they prayed, O Lord they prayed

They cried on Memorial Day, 1968
All the girls of Vietnam
They held their hands together as the church burned down
All the girls of Vietnam

Lacie bought some brand new clothes at a double-wide supersized Target store, making love in a beige Hanes bra

And her husband said, “Won’t you do it like that, missionary, throw your hair back,” moan softly into his shoulder

And they prayed, O Lord they prayed

White flares burning danced across the water, soldier writes to his daughter. He’s fighting for the flag upon his shoulder, not for Johnson, Nixon or Ford

Bombs burst in the air on the Fourth of July, send the boys back bleeding to the jungle, and their wives, their ladies, their honey bees, well they just don’t understand

They cried on Memorial Day, 1968
All the girls of Vietnam
They held their hands together as the church burned down
All the girls of Vietnam

Post-||

The levee’s fallen in New Orleans tonight
the worker, his hands tied, can’t pull that black flag down
in Jena the beast writhes with the flames of Birmingham on its back

And how can you explain, darling, times like these?

Killeen’s eyes are open, and she can’t keep from crying
while in Washington the addict looks for a fix
my Father wakes up in Wisconsin where he sold his soul

And how can you explain, darling, times like these?

The bastard chic on Ryman care for nothing but themselves
rolled sleeves the emperor’s drunk on the wine I gave him
our backs were to the Egyptians, but the Red Sea wouldn’t part

And how can you explain, darling, times like these?

Robert Ford & Jesse James

Robert Ford and Jesse James were like brothers
together they robbed the Glendale train
wasting time and sipping moonshine whiskey
like Cain and Abel in the night

Robert Ford earned his cash in dime-store photos
as the man who killed poor Jesse James
late at night he’d hear the Glendale roaring
like a shivering ghost alone his back

On the stage Bob read his lines like a hero
to whispers of “Brutus” in the back
packed up shop and moved to Colorado
felt the free snow drift across his face

And it was young Bob Ford who killed the outlaw Jesse James
while he hung his portrait in the Missouri sun
and in the blood that spilled Bob saw a young man’s face
wondered if his gun was the kiss of Jude

Bob lay dead in a pool of blood and whiskey
face down in a street of swirling mud
bullet holes that pocked his deerskin jacket
O’Kelley’s sawed-off on the floor

They buried Bob in a plot outside Creede City
just a priest and graveman to see him go
late at night he’d hear the Glendale roaring
like a shivering ghost along his back

And it was young Bob Ford who killed the outlaw Jesse James
while he hung his portrait in the Missouri sun
and in the blood that spilled Bob saw a young man’s face
wondered if his gun was the kiss of Jude

Saul Whitewater

Hello, hello my name is Saul Whitewater
I work nights at the superstation
I got a wife, three daughters, three mouths to feed
that’s why I do it, why I deal with my supervisor

They call me last son of the automobile
Papa was a big-shot dealer whose shop went broke
we haven’t spoken in ten long years
since the army and the argument about serving

Hello, hello my name is Saul Whitewater
I go to methodist church on Sundays
my youngest daughter won’t learn how to walk
and my oldest just rejected Pastor Stevens

But I got a wife that I love
Anna’s thirty-three but looks eighteen in my eyes
every year we’ll visit her stillborn son
brush the leaves and graffiti from his grave

Oh Anna it’s a perfect day
I ain’t that smart but I know that you love me
and I ain’t worried ’bout Tony from bingo
I know you’re friends and you see him every Monday

Hello, hello my name is Saul Whitewater
and I call this town my life

Hello, hello my name is Saul Whitewater
lets shake hands, Anna, we’ll be friends

Sugarhill Thump

O my Sugarhill mountain
let it sweat down your shoulders and your back
sunset better bloody spent I’ll kiss you
kiss you ‘tween your knees

Maybe the lives will all collide when you do the Sugarhill Thump

A ruddy scab, a bloody gash
but still you moan, stir and shake awake
the girls elating all the lovelies stating I’ll slip it in
slip it dark and dead

Maybe the lives will all collide when you do the Sugarhill Thump

I am not afraid to love you once again

Flowers bloom lovely, iron and ore

Tie your rope around your neck and let it rock, let it roll

Wind Me Up

I heard you think I hate you and you wonder why I do
you come to my friends with a frown and say “pity me I’m the fool”
days getting shorter, we’re getting older
but still you wonder why

All I wanted from you was a version of the truth
but you held back, wrapped legs, and screwed out your blues
days getting shorter, we’re getting older
and this how it ends…

Wind me up
take me out driving
hold me close
look into my eyes
don’t make it slow
don’t make it easy
let it hurt
let me down hard, girl

You owe me $3.50 for that tonic and gin
you owe me five bucks for letting you in free to my shows
and I don’t want you around my bars anymore
but still you wonder why

Here it is you’re a little girl that’s what I’ve chalked you up to
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” was a tribute to you
you can put strawberries in your hair at night
but this is how it ends…

Wind me up
take me out driving
hold me close
look into my eyes
don’t make it slow
don’t make it easy
let it hurt
let me down hard, girl

Youth

We came as soldiers for the dawn
with rusted trumpets, Am. Spir. cigarettes, and untuned drums
the dogs were barking and the women all sang us solemn hymns
while the general rested his eyes under that wet winter sun

We got so tired of that scene
mountains of gold, plates of silver, and gasoline
so we headed west to New Barcelona for a real good time
ended up on metal park benches all covered in lye

We came as soldiers for the dawn
rag-tag all chasing the same sun
a little moon that would guide our voices
hung out of the windows of burned-out basements

We swore we’d never get so old
long nights make a hot revolution cold
our bodies lie between our promises
send in the soldiers

All songs written by Nate Hegyi, copyrighted, etc.