Bells of Morning
Stephen Fearing 1989 © Mummy Dust / Fearing and Loathing Music
Tonight I am speechless, my head is filled with pouring rain
As the darkness falls on Montreal
When violence is shrieking, the city streets will run with pain
Until the moon can shed no light at all
And I believe that we have fallen in the middle of an old highway
And the past is rolling over us
As men begin to understand what women say
They see history reaching out to smother all of us
So ring the bells of morning for sorrow and for shame
And let the deep well inside each of us swell with outrage
For those of us who know what went before can come again
Must ring the bells, we must ring the bells of morning.
I met a man once, he held himself tighter than a fist
He was hard and fast in his inflexibility
He was threatened by the future, a product of the past
He was terrified by his own femininity
We must ring the bells of morning, we have everything to gain
And may those of us who comprehend, commit our lives to change
And though you swear you can’t let yourself be vulnerable again
Ring the bells, the bells of morning
For if we can’t face ourselves, we will never understand
We can learn to make a cradle with these stubborn hands
And we will hear the echo from this shattered land
When we ring the bells of morning
I met a woman once she told me we might never see the day
When the violence was overcome
She said silence is the fuel, fear and ignorance the roaring flames
That burn the freedom out of everyone
She said ring the bells of morning and let none of us pretend
For if you walk the path of silence, you might never reach the end
And those of us who know what went before can come again
Must ring the bells, the bells of morning
Oh ring the bells of morning, ring them loud and ring them long
Let the mother tongue of strength be the peaceful language of this song
And let those ancient voices led us all into the dawn
Ring the bells, the bells of morning
Ring the bells, the bells of morning
Ring the bells, we must ring the bells of morning
Our Father and The Big Wheel of Fortune
Stephen Fearing – 1986 © Mummy Dust / Fearing and Loathing Music
Who are you knocking at my door?
I’ve seen that face a thousand times
Another old man from the old man’s chair
Fat ring fingers in your grey streaked hair
When I was a child, I was taught one thing
Listen to your elders and the wisdom they bring
But wisdom and age aren’t the same in my eyes
And trust is not based upon wrinkles
You built your platform on shallow words
All mind and thought and the heart was never heard
Bone yards are filled with the things you’ve done
Ain’t it hard to silence those that will not scatter
Our Father of the golden rule
You can shape the lesson if you shape the school
Tradition is your biggest tool
When you ride the big wheel of fortune
You left your mark on history books
The lies you told and the lives you took
And you could count on us to never really look
At the sacrificial slaughter
Ah but even lambs must open their eyes
Peel back the lids and scrutinize
Words and bullets and smoking guns
Cheap slogans for the kingdom come
Our Father of the Propaganda shop
Fast talk is so hard to stop
For rhetoric always rises to the top
And our cup runneth over
Our Father of the golden rule
You can shape the lesson if you shape the school
Tradition is your biggest tool
When you ride the big wheel of fortune
Oh Father Father tell me true, why do women laugh at you?
If a sharp mind bursts your big balloon will the carnival be over?
Father, Father are they real, these prejudices that I feel?
Who was it taught me how to steal hearts and minds and power?
Our Father of the Propaganda shop
Fast talk is so hard to stop
For rhetoric always rises to the top
And our cup runneth over
Our Father of the golden rule
You can shape the lesson if you shape the school
Tradition is your biggest tool
When you ride the big wheel of fortune
Sarah’s Song
Stephen Fearing – 1986 © Mummy Dust / Fearing and Loathing Music
Sarah call your mother June
Tell her she’ll be a grandmother soon
Hang your head and pack your bags in the shelter of your room
Sarah you and I alone
Will travel far from your family home
Make our bed and lay our heads with a family of our own
Sarah we were not to blame
Other people feel the same
Morals just refuse to change
Refuse to fit the day.
When our child has cleared her eyes
Caught her first glimpse of the horizon
She will see shapes in the clouds that we would never find
Sarah can’t you see?
Life is what your mind conceives
And responsibility
Is what your heart believes
When our child has cleared her eyes
Caught her first glimpse of the horizon
She will see shapes in the clouds that we would never find
Race of Fractions
Stephen Fearing – 1986 © Mummy Dust / Fearing and Loathing Music
We are a race of fractions, we are numbers torn apart
Division and subtraction take the body from the heart
Take the mind from the emotion and the woman from the man
We have studied this equation but we still don’t understand
Bisected by our gender and the pigments in our skin
We condone and we condemn each other’s eagerness to win
We are students of indifference, disdainful and aloof
But if you study with the cynics you don’t have to learn the truth
Chorus
Oh, I’m empty
I am lost inside this song
Dreams and dark visions
Have been whispering to us now for so long
We teach our little girls submission as the best way to survive
And the measurement of beauty becomes the ruler of their lives
And the little boys are marched away, everything is fine
‘Til they fall hard upon the road, their emotions far behind
Chorus
And still we deny it
We erase the calculations of our own pain
We watch each other’s faces, see the weaknesses so well
But when we stand in front of mirrors we do not see ourselves
We do not see ourselves
There are moments when I lie awake and I’m never quite sure why
I imagine I see figures from the corners of my eyes
Angry and forsaken, they have long been pushed aside
They’re the storms I never shouted and the rain I never cried
They’re the waves of the subconscious, the voices of the sea
They’re the mariners of memory come a-sailing back to me
They are all the apparitions I have never given names
Though I put them far behind me, they will haunt me just the same
Chorus
Little Child Eyes
Stephen Fearing – 1986 © Mummy Dust / Fearing and Loathing Music
Many the road that we walk on
And many will stumble and fall
Tilting our heads to the dark scudding clouds
We are pulled to the earth and we crawl
And I spent thirty-odd years at war with myself
And I wore my drink like a disguise
‘Til the silence exploded on white sheets of gin
The room filled with hideous lies
Chorus
And in the end it’s just you
You and your courage
It comes down to you
You and your pride
For the soul is a bird in a bony blue egg
When you splinter the shell it will fly
Down to you and your little child eyes
I saw my life written in thirty sad letters
Each year on a page in my hand
And the paper was sharp and it cut me
As I carried those letters back to the land
And I stood in a forest and read them
They seemed like someone else’s words
For though they were drawn in the hand of a middle-aged man
You know it was a child’s voice that I heard
Chorus
For though the past falls like a shadow
A darkness that walks in your dreams
Even midnight dissolves when the effortless stare of the moon
Pulls the sun from the sea
And when today turns into tomorrow
When the runaway images heal
Those old letter will burn in the dawn’s cold fire
Watch the cinders settle and wheel
Chorus
Blind Horse
Stephen Fearing – 1985 © Mummy Dust / Fearing and Loathing Music
Jesse and Frank James are time-tested anti-heroes
Outlaws with a vicious sense of bloody-minded style
Figures that could stand for either anarchy or order
And they could have robbed the devil if they’d tried
So let me tell this story, one short tale among so many
It was told to me one evening, as the moon floated down
And the tale went on to tell how the gang was caught and slaughtered
Trying to steal the earnings of a northern town
As the gang rode through the streets, the air around them filled with murder
Frank and Jesse were the only two to crawl away
Running for their lives they came upon two old white horses
And they stole these beasts of burden for their getaway
But the horses would not gallop, they stumbled into ditches
And the length of that dark night, those outlaws rode a crooked line
When the morning found them, not twenty miles from town
You know they realized in horror that their stolen mounts were blind
They’re riding blind horses, stone-blind horses
Beasts put out to pasture a long time ago
Blind horses, stone-blind horses
Too blind to see the edges of the road
Now when my friend had finished with this tale that she was telling
The both of us just laughed until we cried
At the thought of these two outlaws
Full of arrogance and swagger
Riding bareback through the night
On two blind horses
And this story ahs stayed with me, for that image is so strong
The metaphor too good to eave behind
As a race, we rip this planet off and lick the barrel dry
And we put our faith in God; we put our faith in gods
We put our faith in God and old white horses that are blind
All the politicians with their visions for the future
And all the burning bridges left behind
As the flames light up their face and we look into their eyes
Can anybody tell me that these horses are not blind?
I tell you they’re blind horses, stone-blind horses
We rode them off the pathway a long time ago
Blind horses, stone-blind horses
Too blind to see the edges of the road
Blue Line
Stephen Fearing – 1986 © Mummy Dust / Fearing and Loathing Music
I must write you now; we’re out of time
All the clocks have wiped their faces clean
And while I slept, a thin blue line
Emerged in dreams of urgency
I saw words that came from rotten lungs
Eagles twitch in toxic sand
A loaf of bread a withered tongue
A pocket filled with empty hands
Every day enough food to feed us
Every day enough light to heal us
Every day, someone who needs us
Every day, every day
Some rock and roller bought the far,
Endorsements at the backstage door
A wad of bills to keep you warm
A soldier for the soda wars
And I dreamed I saw the rockets flying
Shotguns in a purple sky
The books of law flew up to greet them
Iron bars and butterflies
Every day may your joy protect you
Every day sweet love respect
Heart and mind in rhythm every day, every day
Every day a destination
Every day, friends and relations
A life we only dream of every day, every day
A woman melting in the rain
A man whose eyes were raw and sore
A childish cry of sorrow
The world had heard this sound before
I saw bankers sit on crates of guns
Refugees by railroad tracks
There were towns and cities on the run
Bullet holes in broken backs
Too wrong to ever make it right
So the big boys screw the lid on tight
See vague shapes blocking out the light
And coming on, coming on
Every day, good grace surround us
Luck and love and life dumbfound us
Beauty right up in your face
Every day, every day
Every day, a destination
Every day, train at the station
Room for courage, room for change
Every day, every day
Born in a Story
Stephen Fearing – 1987 © Mummy Dust / Fearing and Loathing Music
A dweller of cities I was raised beneath steel
Born in a story of ratchets and wheels
Bread dressed in plastic and milk from a can
Clothed in fashion with pockets too small for your hand
I arrived uncivilized and I’ll leave in my time
Remembering nothing but animal rhymes
For when the wild birds of creation have flown
The soul and the music go wandering home
We tear through our lives like thorns ripping cotton
Like dogs on the highway the reckless ones roam
But dreaming in slumbers, we walk with the dead
When the soul and the music go wandering home
Big cities grow small when the sun rolls away
When the dark is alive ‘neath the moon and her children
The planets and stars will lie in your bones
Like night birds, singing like night birds
Hunters and goddesses high overhead
Set in deep diamond darkness the artist unknown
Dreaming in slumbers, we walk with the dead
When the soul and the music go wandering home
We arrive uncivilized and we leave in our time
Remembering nothing but animal rhymes
For when the wild birds of creation have flown
The soul and the music go wandering home
And only the reckless ones take it for granted
This fine thread of life that we’re dangling from
The ripe smell of fields when the morning breaks over them
Insects collide in the heat of the sun
And I am flying the prairies amber and gold
Reptiles and train coil like bullwhips below
And the rhyme of the land voiced by rivers and wind
Is winding up to me and calling
Land the world over, land the sea under
Footsteps on mountain tops, feathers in stone
Oh long gone flesh from the bone
When the soul and the music go wandering home
Turn Out The Lights
Stephen Fearing – 1987 © Mummy Dust / Fearing and Loathing Music
Ten long years I’ve lived within this town
Ten years since I put my suitcase down
Ten years since I stopped my endless roaming
And roots began to grow beneath my heels
Now my shadow’s finally come around
It blew in from the northeast on a boiling thundercloud
It took me ten long years to recognize the face that holds me down
And suffocates my body in my darkest hour
Chorus
Just a baby, and my father knew it well
My Father always taught me that good kids never tell
And no one dared to ask me why I lay awake at night
My arms so still beside me as he turned out the lights
Turn out the lights
I have kept this secret far too long
Buried with my childhood as the years have come and gone
And though I’ve stopped my running now so far away from home
It’s only coming clear to me what I was running from
And I still cannot believe it to this day
For I have kept this secret and denied my youth away
And my family is too frightened now to look into my eyes
There’s a child behind the adult they would surely recognize
Chorus
They tell you time will wash away the tears
They say time will tied you over ‘til the horror disappears
But time has tricked me deeply and caused me to believe
That out of sight is out of mind
And out of mind is healed
Now I will forgive myself for shame
Forgive myself for being small and helpless in my pain
For forgiveness is the only road to lead the spirit home
And I will be a child forever more
Yes and we will be children forever more |
