Lyrics
Deep Cabaret songs are adaptations and mash-ups of words Steve comes across in novels, poetry, journalism, science, philosophy, bleach bottles.
Here are the lyrics to the songs on MATCHLESS with some of the even newer ones in our
current set.
1. DRONEGEESE (Mary Oliver from 'Wild Geese')
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles repenting, repenting, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
2. WEDDING WISH (Jonathan Safran Foer from 'Here I Am')
In sickness and in sickness that is what I wish for you.
Don't expect miracles. There are no miracles. Not any more.
There are no cures. Not for the hurt that hurts most.
There is only the medicine of believing each other's pain and being present for it.
3. SAMBOO (from Lonsdale Magazine and Kendal Repository 31/5/1822 via Alan Rice's
'Creating Memorials, Building Identities')
He was placed at the inn till the vessel was ready.
Supposing himself deserted and not knowing why
he fell into a state of complete stupefaction.
Secreting himself in the loft and stretching out on the boards
he refused all sustenance.
Within a few days in this state death terminated his sufferings.
They excevated him in a lonely grave in a rabbit warren
twenty yards from the sea.
Whither they conveyed his remains without coffin or bier
covered only with the clothes in which he died.
4. LILA (Marilynne Robinson from 'Lila')
What use is there in
calling a day a name
or thinking of it as anything anything
anything but weather?
One more day of it....
You know what time of year it is
when the timothy blooms. You know its morning when the sun comes up.
What more is there to know.....
You can say to yourself
I'm just a body,
a body that thinks and talks
and seems to want its life.
One more day of it .....
Not even knowing what
what you're waiting for.
Not even knowing that,
that you're waiting at all.
If she'd only known then comfort was coming, in the moonlight licking tears.
5. REAL REALITY (Cesar Aria : The Literary Conference. Chris Robertson & Richard
Wainwright. Ian McGilchrist The Psychotherapist 63)
Language has shaped our expectations so extensively that real reality has become the most
detached and incomprehensible one of all.
Banality. Life threatening banality.
The world we live in stands in relation to reality like a map to the territory it is mapping. It lacks
the the complexity and the livelieness of the actual world.
Banality. Life threatening banality.
We see a world there for our use rather than a home in which we live and from which we
cannotintrinsically be separate.
The political and cultural context stifles our potential through the ubiquitous anaesthetising
agency of life threatening banality.
6. The Blue (Wassily Kandinsky)
The inclination of blue to deepen
is so strong
that it's inner appeal is stronger
when it's shade is deeper.
The brighter the blue
the more it turns into
silent stillness
becoming white.
The deeper the blue the more
it beckons us into the infinite.
7. MATCHLESS (from Simon Williams 'The Matchless Tragedy' via Louise Annn Wilson and Sap
Dance's 'Jack Scout')
Oh the Matchless had 4 & 30 souls on board.
All was calm as the souls sang hymns.
Till a gusty bluff blew and the ship it did dip
like a whirlwind.
And Jack Scout looked down as the Burnley wakes drowned.
The Other songs in our 2020 set
Queen's Guide (from interview with Cedric Robinson in Westmoreland Gazette 22/5/18)
I went out last Friday to plan the route and test the sand.
We got to the river towards Humphrey Head, tried to find a crossing.
I read the sands as I go along. Vast vast changes.
Vast changes stopped us in our tracks, gulleys with very soft sand.
We tried to find a crossing, prodding our sticks in the sand.......
Five hours we looked, couldn't find a crossing.
We had to run, couldn't walk across. Could not find a route.
I read the sands as I go along. Vast vast changes.
The rivers take so much water down into the bay
and the run off from the marshes has increased.
There is more rainfall, more power in the water. It is a totally different bay.......
If anyone else had gone out in those conditions
they would still be out there, under the sand.
That's how dangerous it can be. It is a simple fact.
I read the sands as I go along. Vast vast changes.
No Baby Knows (Jonathan Safran Foer from 'Here I Am')
That's your circulatory system you hear
with that shell against your ear.
That ocean is your own blood echo.
With a voice like a window that knows it's about to be broken, she said....
I'm always tired, always exhausted.
What if the whole time I've not been tired at all?
What if my tiredness is just a hiding place?
With a voice like a window that knows it's about to be broken, she said....
No baby knows when
the nipple is pulled from her mouth
for the very last time.
With a voice like a window that knows it's about to be broken, she said....
Light Falls ( Robert Macfarlane from 'The Wild Places')
Here the air has a remarkable transparency, almost free of particulate matter.
Little loose dust rises from the wet land, and the wind blows prevailingly off the sea.
Through such air photons can proceed without obstacle.
The light falls with candour.
Standing within such a light feel thankful for its openness,for something freely given, without its
store being diminished.
Through such air photons can proceed without obstacle.
The light falls with candour.
Toast (Piet Hien, Carl Jung, William Blake)
There is an art of knowing when.
Never try to guess.
Toast until smokes
and then twenty seconds less.
Whatever we do not bring to conciousness
appears in our lives as fate.
Scum, scale, mould and mildew
The road of excess
leads to the palace of wisdom;
we never know what is enough
until we know
what is more than enough.
Whatever we do not bring to conciousness
appears in our lives as fate.
Scum, scale, mould and mildew
Here are the lyrics to the songs on MATCHLESS with some of the even newer ones in our
current set.
1. DRONEGEESE (Mary Oliver from 'Wild Geese')
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles repenting, repenting, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
2. WEDDING WISH (Jonathan Safran Foer from 'Here I Am')
In sickness and in sickness that is what I wish for you.
Don't expect miracles. There are no miracles. Not any more.
There are no cures. Not for the hurt that hurts most.
There is only the medicine of believing each other's pain and being present for it.
3. SAMBOO (from Lonsdale Magazine and Kendal Repository 31/5/1822 via Alan Rice's
'Creating Memorials, Building Identities')
He was placed at the inn till the vessel was ready.
Supposing himself deserted and not knowing why
he fell into a state of complete stupefaction.
Secreting himself in the loft and stretching out on the boards
he refused all sustenance.
Within a few days in this state death terminated his sufferings.
They excevated him in a lonely grave in a rabbit warren
twenty yards from the sea.
Whither they conveyed his remains without coffin or bier
covered only with the clothes in which he died.
4. LILA (Marilynne Robinson from 'Lila')
What use is there in
calling a day a name
or thinking of it as anything anything
anything but weather?
One more day of it....
You know what time of year it is
when the timothy blooms. You know its morning when the sun comes up.
What more is there to know.....
You can say to yourself
I'm just a body,
a body that thinks and talks
and seems to want its life.
One more day of it .....
Not even knowing what
what you're waiting for.
Not even knowing that,
that you're waiting at all.
If she'd only known then comfort was coming, in the moonlight licking tears.
5. REAL REALITY (Cesar Aria : The Literary Conference. Chris Robertson & Richard
Wainwright. Ian McGilchrist The Psychotherapist 63)
Language has shaped our expectations so extensively that real reality has become the most
detached and incomprehensible one of all.
Banality. Life threatening banality.
The world we live in stands in relation to reality like a map to the territory it is mapping. It lacks
the the complexity and the livelieness of the actual world.
Banality. Life threatening banality.
We see a world there for our use rather than a home in which we live and from which we
cannotintrinsically be separate.
The political and cultural context stifles our potential through the ubiquitous anaesthetising
agency of life threatening banality.
6. The Blue (Wassily Kandinsky)
The inclination of blue to deepen
is so strong
that it's inner appeal is stronger
when it's shade is deeper.
The brighter the blue
the more it turns into
silent stillness
becoming white.
The deeper the blue the more
it beckons us into the infinite.
7. MATCHLESS (from Simon Williams 'The Matchless Tragedy' via Louise Annn Wilson and Sap
Dance's 'Jack Scout')
Oh the Matchless had 4 & 30 souls on board.
All was calm as the souls sang hymns.
Till a gusty bluff blew and the ship it did dip
like a whirlwind.
And Jack Scout looked down as the Burnley wakes drowned.
The Other songs in our 2020 set
Queen's Guide (from interview with Cedric Robinson in Westmoreland Gazette 22/5/18)
I went out last Friday to plan the route and test the sand.
We got to the river towards Humphrey Head, tried to find a crossing.
I read the sands as I go along. Vast vast changes.
Vast changes stopped us in our tracks, gulleys with very soft sand.
We tried to find a crossing, prodding our sticks in the sand.......
Five hours we looked, couldn't find a crossing.
We had to run, couldn't walk across. Could not find a route.
I read the sands as I go along. Vast vast changes.
The rivers take so much water down into the bay
and the run off from the marshes has increased.
There is more rainfall, more power in the water. It is a totally different bay.......
If anyone else had gone out in those conditions
they would still be out there, under the sand.
That's how dangerous it can be. It is a simple fact.
I read the sands as I go along. Vast vast changes.
No Baby Knows (Jonathan Safran Foer from 'Here I Am')
That's your circulatory system you hear
with that shell against your ear.
That ocean is your own blood echo.
With a voice like a window that knows it's about to be broken, she said....
I'm always tired, always exhausted.
What if the whole time I've not been tired at all?
What if my tiredness is just a hiding place?
With a voice like a window that knows it's about to be broken, she said....
No baby knows when
the nipple is pulled from her mouth
for the very last time.
With a voice like a window that knows it's about to be broken, she said....
Light Falls ( Robert Macfarlane from 'The Wild Places')
Here the air has a remarkable transparency, almost free of particulate matter.
Little loose dust rises from the wet land, and the wind blows prevailingly off the sea.
Through such air photons can proceed without obstacle.
The light falls with candour.
Standing within such a light feel thankful for its openness,for something freely given, without its
store being diminished.
Through such air photons can proceed without obstacle.
The light falls with candour.
Toast (Piet Hien, Carl Jung, William Blake)
There is an art of knowing when.
Never try to guess.
Toast until smokes
and then twenty seconds less.
Whatever we do not bring to conciousness
appears in our lives as fate.
Scum, scale, mould and mildew
The road of excess
leads to the palace of wisdom;
we never know what is enough
until we know
what is more than enough.
Whatever we do not bring to conciousness
appears in our lives as fate.
Scum, scale, mould and mildew
