MOTHER NIGHT 1
No longer at ease with the way things are. No longer aligned with the old loadstars. You bear the markings, you’re showing the signs, you’ve had your visitations from Mother Night.
Now you’re high enough to see the great arc of time, beyond the curve of the horizon line. Flying high above the gardens of earthly delights on your way back home to see Mother Night.
Something there is that doesn’t want us to be up here. Something there is that doesn’t want us to go on. At the crux of all this is gravity. The pacific ocean has no memory. You wake up falling. Wake up. Wake up. Down in flames. What’s that just now brushing past us? Was it the death of a feeling? Presently the sea is growing larger. The ocean is filling up our view. The ocean is coming at us. The ocean, in ever more detail. Then, it reaches us.
THE DANCING PLAGUE
It was just a rumor at first, then unmistakable, moving up the coastline, hypnotic and un-shak-able. Don’t know how it started, clap your hands and move your feet. Under the sway of a power we just can’t seem to name.
Our feet were attracted, the attacks reenacted there’s no blocking it out. Low-down ecstatic, the contagion broadcasted there’s no stopping it now.
The more the rhythms change the more they stay the same, and the beat, it never begins, because the beat it never ends.
You got the symptoms you’re showing the signs, deep in the heart, of the garden of earthly delights. Like I’m shadow banned, I’m running out of platforms, I’m running on empty, in the blindness of a moonless night.
The wave it got past us while we were distracted, ashes to ashes we all fall down. The movement commanded, it was fun while it lasted but there’s no stopping us now.
In the darkest timeline, in the darkness.
MY SWEETHEART THE NIHILIST
(I said) Loving you, it ain’t easy, it ain’t easy, but I’m happy just to be stung. My sweetheart the nihilist, breaks psychiatrists, all practices will be undone.
In her mind there’s no exit but her heart is an open road. In her mind there is no exit but her heart is an open code — in dark mode.
(She says we’re) All alone in our bodies beautiful bodies stuck on self-destruct. My sweetheart the nihilist, whose lips I kissed forever, but never enough.
In the dark yard she’s watching the falling stars smoking like a lonesome queen. In the dark summer night backyard with the stars smoking like a lonesome queen — like a lonesome queen
She says to be happy, truly happy, you must have a bad memory. My sweetheart the nihilist, on the blacklist, born on Halloween.
(She says) everybody’s gotta ride the carousel and one day we all get off. You and me, everyday, ride the carousel and one day we all get off — we get off.
She says: we’ll burn that bridge, when I get up to it.
NEVER LET YOU GO
1Leave me because you gotta leave me, with the marching band of time once again playing St. James Infirmary. We’re all carrying such impossible loads. I’ll keep buried my sorrows and not make tonight about tomorrow. (or: I’ll keep dragging my anchors and not making tonight about tomorrow.) And I’ll ne-ver let you go.
It’s easy, to see that death has got a hand on you. His grip it is strong but I’m not tough enough to not take one last stand for you. Believe me, like January I will keep my hold. I will barter and bargain with the states of your body now in open revolt. And I’ll ne-ver let you go.
I’m still here and you’re all gone. You left me back here to reinvent my strategies for carrying on. OR You left me back here to invent strategies for carrying on. No one can stay, this much we know and when it’s our time we can take nothing with us into that undertow. But I’ll ne-ver let you go.
JACQUES LACAN
1That buzz kill psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan had a theory of love, but he got it wrong. Or maybe he never had his heart be haunted or heard the chains rattling but never knew what caused it. (He said) love is giving, what you don’t even got, to someone — who doesn’t even want it, who doesn’t even want it.
Jacques Lacan was hiding behind his verbal arts, but even a fool’s arrow will sometimes hit its mark. (Trying to tell us) the heavens die in daylight because we can’t see the stars or the walls don’t cause us pain when we hit them in the dark. (But) too much of suffering, can make a stone of the heart. And you can’t measure it, but it drive us apart. it drives us apart.
That old French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan said that love was just another myth we wish upon. Maybe he was once heart broken and couldn’t get beyond it, or he got off on his grief and wanted to flaunt it. (He said) love is giving, what you don’t even got, to someone — who doesn’t even want it, who doesn’t even want it.
AD INFINITUM
1Hey, sometimes I high-key can’t take this realness. All this joy comes with all this pain, do we come out ahead, it’s impossible to measure it. Watch me now as I try so hard to find the pure source of the mother trend. Apocalypse always, down blue-green hallways, over and over again and it never ends …
… it only begins despite the power you expend and there’s a pox upon the land but everyone’s happy on insta-gram
The more I hear, the less I speak and the less I speak the more that I comprehend. Now I’m back once more to lie on the floor and pick at this wound that never mends. Against, against, again, the three furies, blowing madly, we now contend. You and me trying hard to keep lit the pilot light of love, but the wind it whispers hey man, it never ends …
… it only begins despite the power you expend and there’s a pox upon the land but everyone’s happy on instagram and we’ve seen this show before in a dark house full of war I said “hello darkness my old friend” at the point where the colors blend when you’re never able to transcend on the flanks you can’t defend over extended on the bleeding edge once alive and then it’s dead again and whatever comes together must fall apart but you knew this from the start. You knew it from the start.
The flames, they burn me, but I am the fire.
All this joy comes with all this pain, do we come out ahead, it’s impossible to measure it All this joy comes with all this pain, do we come out ahead, it’s impossible and it never ends.
BLACK IS THE COLOR
Black, black, black is the color of my true love's hair her lips are something wondrous fair and if my love, no more she will stay my life will surely fade away. Fade away.
Black, black, black is the color of my true love's hair my heart is lost when she’s not there. But still I hope for the time to come when she and I will be as one, will be as one.
ELECTRIC SHEEP
NO ONE CAN STAY
1When first you’re hanging in dark, we were awoken with a spark, with no warning we disembark. Off to the stately pleasure dome, over the galleries we float above the dioramas and laser shows. We get in line at the house of names, we’re given faces for the games, given hungers that we can’t explain.
In the garden of delights we’re drunk on the milk of paradise. But as much as we delay they lock the gates at close of day. ‘Cause no one can stay, one by one we just drift away. And no one can stay, all that’s beautiful just drifts away.
(Off to the) dance pavilion for the young and the damned, the broken hearted watch from the grandstands, We’re making moves that are beyond our command. And every day the culling of the herd, every day another face is blurred, the keepers of the lottery passing down the word.
We’re all just renters here this stately pleasure dome is not our home. But as much as we delay at close of day they lock the gates. ‘Cause no one can stay, one by one we just drift away. And no one can stay, all that’s beautiful must drift away.
On the great wheel we spin going down and coming back up again, coming back up again, back to where we’ve been, back to where we begin. And we can give all the rivers names but everything flows and nothing remains, yeah nothing remains, nothing stays the same, we go back from where we came.
You must change your mind whispered Mother Night.
YOU COULD BE MY DESTROYER
The winter wind lets itself in and cuts right through you and the hungry ghosts they’re coming up close to whisper the truth to you. They will never be satisfied, don’t go easy into that black night— rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Everyone knows where we all gotta go there’s no coming back. Drag your feet through the dirt but you’re on the earth and there’s no cure for that. Every time we say goodbye, I say don’t go easy into that black night — rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Well, some will object, that life is but a defect, in the purity of the abyss. Or we hung in the dark until existence was sparked by a supernatural kiss. Or the gods were making beauty just to watch it die, I say don’t go easy into that black night — rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Moving through space and time never to be satisfied angels we have heard on high he who caught the sun in flight going to see mother night you must, you must change your life forward through space and time it’s never gonna be alright sages say that dark is right every time we say goodbye the moment when the lighting strikes caught from the corner of your eye never to be satisfied it has always been your time fight the dying of the light going to see mother night. Moving through space and time never to be satisfied angels we have heard on high he who caught the sun in flight … That same force that through the green fuse drives the flower, it is my destroyer forever drawing closer hour by hour. And loving you, it ain’t easy, but sometimes it feels good just to be stung. And loving you, oh it ain’t easy, but there’s no version of the future where you are not the one.
KAFKA’s MOUSETRACK
Alas, said the mouse …
"The whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I am running into.
"You only need to change your direction," said the cat, and ate it up.
And it’s hunting you—from the shadows.
And it’s haunting you—from the shadows.
And it’s watching you—from the shadows.
ICARUS
Something there is that doesn’t want us to be up here. Something there is that doesn’t want us to go on. From this maze, from this maze we thought we could escape. We thought we could escape but we were wrong.
Something there is that doesn’t like our ambitions. Something there is that made us shoot for the stars. Every second the waves gain a higher definition. Somewhere there is a future, but it ain’t ours.
Ah, and here it is, the big ascension now rising, ecstatic joy madness, piercing clouds — but we’re coming down now. Thunder music to greet my arrival
Wise men say only fools rush in. Wise men say to prepare for impact. Now the sun and the moon do nothing to save you. Now the earth, she is calling calling you back.
Yeah, here’s the big ascension now rising, ecstatic joy madness, piercing the clouds — but we’re coming down now. The flames they burn me but I am the fire.
And with your heart, hiding its plans, from your head again. You’re trying—to find the thread again but you found no trace of it there no matter what wings you wear (and) it leaves you on the precipice with no time to prepare and then it’s gone into thin air. And then it’s gone into thin air. While you’re unaware, no one is spared. The sea of entropy is hungry no one will find you there.
LET’S COMPARE MYTHOLOGIES
April is the cruelest month, Brother D is gone, and the magnolias have gone crazy again. I guess the ending wasn’t the end. Mother nature doing her thing, making all this beauty just to let it drop, then making more beauty, just to watch it rot. Winter had kept us warm, out of body, out of mind, and frozen, hiding the dead earth below, under a cloak of forgetful snow. Now the dead is rising again crocus shoots, green fingers, clawing through the dirt at night, like a demon that was buried alive. Now the young in each other’s arms, new birdsongs in the dawn, everybody’s starting over and moving on but you’re still gone. And whatever comes together must fall apart, why didn’t anybody tell us this from the start, by the time we could give it a name it was already dead in our hearts. And our wings are on fire and the captain can not be found, and all the bad karma we collected, it’s coming on back around. Come on, come on, yeah, let’s dig this death weather. Ah, if we gotta go out, at least we’ll go out together.
Oh, we all riding this hysterical bird, yes, it’s true what you have heard. Yeah, we’re going down just like a lead zeppelin we’re dropping just like the Hindenburg.
Bad news, big blues, no clues, lost muse and I’m not even close to being ok anymore. It’s getting hard to ignore. Ghost riders of the before times, please deliver us from evil, through this brutalist cathedral, through the eye of the needle. Oh, this age of anxiety, I don’t know what it’s doing to me but it’s doing it all the time, like a black fog spreading through the palaces of my mind. The past is never dead, it’s not even past, it’s never where you left it last, you can’t find it on any maps. But learning how to leave is a skill I’ve yet to master, searching the skies of black for wings that beat faster, looking for a bigger disaster. Come on, come on, yeah, let’s dig this death weather. Ah, if we gotta go out, at least we’ll go out together.
Oh, we all riding this hysterical bird, yes, it’s true what you have heard. Yeah, we’re going down just like a lead zeppelin we’re dropping just like the Hindenburg.
Come on come on yeah. (Oh what it’s) doing to me, this age of anxiety, I contain multitudes, I seek the truth.I see it, I feel it, I reach it, I lose it.
PRECIPICE
PHASE TRANSITION
The world is in bloom, windows open, cherry blossoms turn the air into perfume. The sun moves across the room. It’s not dark yet but it will be soon. And sincerity is in this year, it’s coming back in style, I’ll tell you exactly what I believe but it’s gonna take awhile, to sing about all my trials.
Oh, learning how to leave it is a skill that has eluded me, we inch apart by degrees, you want to set yourself free. But everyone’s on their way out, we just start at different times returning to my doorstep with your empire in decline, you’ve been showing all the signs.
Oh, heading down at last, every restless spirit needs a mask, a diving bell for the outcasts, to push the dark waters back. Call it a phase transition, the truth and it’s tidal zones, when we’re down we attacked by fears we thought we conquered long ago, now they’re all coming back home.
Caught in the undertow, when you’re in the desperate mode, and the cracks are starting to show, they can lay you out low. Was it a temporary blindness, or some obscure kind of flex? We lived through the divergence but we’re still feeling the effects, trying to make it all make sense.
Watching from afar, I’ve become in tune with the clockworks of the stars, the universe spilling out of its jar, I’ll sing it to you on this Brazilian guitar. And sincerity is in this year, everyone’s saying what they mean,but no one told us that being alive means losing everything. I expected more from these wings.
MOTHER NIGHT 2
The dark watchers in the lobby greet the witches and the misfits the spirits that feed off trauma and the goth girls in black lipstick. There’s the colossus of Lullaby Avenue and Mephisto with his pliers [or Mephisto in his red tights] (behind the) keeper of the nocturnes and all the minor gods of twilight. And someone was singing that old dance song song about staying alive while we’re killing time, waiting in line waiting to go see Mother Night. Oh, you must change your life whispered Mother Night.
There’s nowhere you can go where she can’t see you there’s no past or future where the shadows don’t free you. And some pilgrims take the freeway others get here with their mind some people are just born on the dark side, sometimes it takes a whole lifetime. And someone was singing that old dance song about staying alive while we’re killing time, waiting in moonlight, on our way back to Mother Night.
She’s at one with the dark in the clockworks of stars there before the spark. She’s a part of the part that once was everything.
She’s there when we start and when we depart never not in your heart. She’s a part of the part that once was everything.
You must change your life whispered Mother Night.
Credits
Vox: James NugentGuitars: Eric Piippo, James NugentKeys: Ben EricksonSynths: Ben Erickson, James NugentDrums & Percussion: Mike WattPercussion: Mike WattSamples & Loops: James Nugent, Ben Erickson, Mike WattBass: James NugentProduced by Berkeley PitSongwriting by James NugentMixed by Erik BloodMastered by Adam Straney at BreakPoint Mastering