Running Heads

One of the upsides of working on your duff all day long, often doing relatively tedious things like editing footnotes and bibliographies, is having the opportunity to listen to music. In the age of Spotify, this means having the opportunity to sample an incredible array of songs, new and old.

Two songs I’ve discovered recently have stood out from the others. I find both songs powerful, both musically and lyrically, and so I thought I’d share them on a day when I have nothing more profound to offer. The first is “Song for Zula,” by Phosphorescent, dubbed by Russ Borris of NPR as “one of the songs of the year, no question.” The second is “The Woodpile,” by the Scottish band Frightened Rabbit. I’ll post lyrics and embed videos of live performances of each. (Both are about rather painful songs about love and loneliness, and just for the record, my marriage is better than ever!)

Song for Zula, by Phosphorescent, off of their album Muchacho.

Some say love is a burning thing
That it makes a fiery ring
Oh but I know love as a fading thing
Just as fickle as a feather in a stream
See, honey, I saw love. You see, it came to me
It put its face up to my face so I could see
Yeah then I saw love disfigure me
Into something I am not recognizing

See, the cage, it called. I said, “Come on in”
I will not open myself up this way again
Nor lay my face to the soil, nor my teeth to the sand
I will not lay like this for days now upon end
You will not see me fall, nor see me struggle to stand
To be acknowledge by some touch from his gnarled hands
You see, the cage, it called. I said, “Come on in”
I will not open myself up this way again

You see, the moon is bright in that treetop night
I see the shadows that we cast in the cold, clean light
My feet are gold. My heart is white
And we race out on the desert plains all night
See, honey, I am not some broken thing
I do not lay here in the dark waiting for thee
No my heart is gold. My feet are light
And I am racing out on the desert plains all night

So some say love is a burning thing
That it makes a fiery ring
Oh but I know love as a caging thing
Just a killer come to call from some awful dream
O and all you folks, you come to see
You just stand there in the glass looking at me
But my heart is wild. And my bones are steam
And I could kill you with my bare hands if I was free

“The Woodpile,” by Frightened Rabbit, from their Pedestrian Verses album.

Far from the electric floor,
removed from the red meat market
I look for a fire door,
an escaped from the drums and barking
Bereft of all social charms,
I’m struck dumb by the hand of fear
I fall intro corner’s arms,
the same way that I’ve done for years.

I’m trapped in a collapsing building
Come find me now, where I hide and,
We’ll speak in our secret tongues.
Will you come back to my corner?
Spent too long alone tonight
Would you come and Brighten my corner
A Lit torch to the woodpile, aye

Dead wood needs to ignite
There’s no spark on a dampened floor
A snapped limb and an unlit pyre
Would you come and break down this door
I’m trapped in an abandoned building
Come find me now, we’ll hide out
We’ll speak in our secret tongues
Will you come back to my corner?
Spent too long alone tonight
Would you come and Brighten my corner
A Lit torch to the woodpile, aye

Will you come back to my corner?
Spent too long alone tonight
Would you come and Brighten my corner
A Lit torch to the woodṗile, aye
We come back to my corner
Spent too long alone tonight
With you coming back to my corner
Lit torch to the woodpile
Come find me now, we’ll hide out
We’ll speak in our secret tongues

And I can’t resist the temptation to link to this impressive acoustic version of “The Woodpile”: