1. |
Winter Song
02:56
|
|||
|
A winter morning, I am waiting for the sun.
The wind outside reminds me what we all were told.
It calls and laughs to say it has already won.
So little stands between me and the deadly cold.
No beings have come out to stand and call its bluff.
No motors run, no birds sing out, and no dogs bark.
As I look outside, I do not feel strong enough
When I hear shaking branches in the noisy dark.
Out past the roads, the deer all look for ways to hide
In places sheltered from the wind and thick with trees.
Enough survive, though many weak ones will have died
Before the springtime says they will no longer freeze.
Here as I sit behind my walls, still not quite warm,
I know how little stands between me and the chill,
How easily I might be in the dark and storm,
Rememb'ring winter hasn't lost the power to kill.
Once others on this land had only open fire
And, like the wolves and deer, they paid a heavy price.
When they were ill prepared, the outcome could be dire,
As morning left their bodies lying cold as ice.
The wind alone is moving in this deadly night,
Till finally its dark and lonely time is done.
Now in the east at last I see a hint of light
Above the trees, as I await the rising sun.
|
||||
2. |
Wandrers Nachtlied
02:11
|
|||
|
Über allen Gipfeln
Ist Ruh',
In allen Wipfeln
Spürest Du
Kaum einen Hauch;
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.
Warte nur! Balde
Ruhest du auch.
My translation:
Over all the hilltops is rest.
In all the treetops you hardly feel a breath.
The little birds are silent in the woods.
Only wait, soon you too will rest.
|
||||
3. |
Monster
04:05
|
|||
|
I opened my eyes to a world that was new.
I woke to confusion, and where, man, were you?
You fled when you saw me, a coward, afraid
Of viewing the being whose life you had made.
You never came back. I was left all alone
To find my way through this strange world on my own.
I get only hatred; a kind word is rare.
Yet you call me monster. I ask, is that fair?
I have just one fault, and I don’t bear the guilt.
My face and my body are hideously built.
What’s ugly is evil, or so people say,
And so they attack me and drive me away.
You had taught me nothing, to read or to write
Or deal with the people who hated my sight.
You left me untutored, and you didn’t care.
Now you call me monster. I ask, is that fair?
I learned watching people from deep in the wood.
I read books that told of both evil and good.
At last I discovered a man who was kind,
If only because to my face he was blind.
But then came his family, and they drove me out
When they saw my looks, with a blow and a shout.
I could just have killed them, but I ran from there
When they called me monster. I ask, is that fair?
Now I have returned, look upon what you’ve made.
You gave me a life, but your debt is unpaid.
Would any good father abandon his son?
But that, Victor Frankenstein, is what you’ve done.
Now you will reap what your creature has lost.
Now you will pay every cent of the cost.
And when I am done, you will live in despair,
For you are the monster. I think it’s just fair.
|
||||
4. |
The Beta Reader's Lament
02:13
|
|||
|
You've trusted me to give you
Advice about your book.
What's best and worth retaining,
What needs another look.
My aim is to be helpful,
And not to cause distress.
But just how can I tell you
Your tale's a total mess?
You've got a great idea,
The background's pretty neat.
The hero is all-powerful
And never sees defeat.
His enemies attack him
But they are always thrashed.
Now just how can I tell you
That concept should be trashed?
The love int'rest is pretty,
Although her only role
Is to admire his prowess
And cheer him to his goal.
She's from a noble family,
Her manner is refined.
But just how can I tell you
She ought to have a mind?
The villain's really evil,
His one goal's to destroy
Whatever makes life worthwhile
Or gives somebody joy.
He works each waking moment
To spread distress and fear,
But just how can I tell you
His motive isn't clear?
The sidekick is the best part.
He's got some clever lines.
He does investigations
And finds suspicious signs.
When there's a tricky problem
He's never at a loss,
So just how can I tell you
He's smarter than his boss?
I've read each page in detail,
Don't want to cause you pain.
It would be wrong to tell you
You did your work in vain.
I hope you can improve it
And don't want you to stop.
The best thing I can tell you
Is "Take it from the top."
|
||||
5. |
The Elemental Town
01:57
|
|||
|
I'd love to visit Ytterby,
Nevermore would I bitter be.
Home of atomic chemistry,
So many elements there.
There's yttrium, numbered as Element thirty-nine.
Found in a heavy black rock in a Swedish mine.
It's put to use in a CRT product line.
One of the elements there.
The terbium atom has use economic,
With semiconductors in things electronic,
And in naval systems that use pulses sonic.
It's one of the elements there.
Chorus
Erbium compounds have proved to be nice as
A part in creating some laser devices,
And in plastic surgery it gets high prices.
It's one of the elements there.
Ytterbium isotopes have application
When X-rays and other things use radiation
And in fiber lasers provides oscillation.
It's one of the elements there.
Chorus
|
||||
6. |
Astrology Challenger
04:37
|
|||
|
You say life's a puzzle you never can solve.
It's loaded with questions you try to resolve.
You've looked to philosophy, spoken to God,
And studied the tracks on the roads you have trod.
But here's how you'll understand Heaven and Earth:
It's all where the stars were the day of your birth.
The secret was found back in cent'ries B.C.
By science advanced as a science can be.
They didn't need telescopes, they didn't wish
For instruments dull as a radio dish.
Their knowledge of space had no limits or dearth.
They knew what stars do on the day of your birth.
You say that Earth's axis has shifted today.
The Zodiac's different. It works anyway.
I've got mathematics, equations, and charts,
Which make me an expert on these arcane arts.
Now why are you laughing? Please stifle your mirth.
The stars shaped your life on the day of your birth.
So what if those stars are all light years away?
Those scientists never saw Neptune, you say?
Such details don't matter when you can devise
A system by waving your hands at the skies.
You might be from Babylon, New York, or Perth;
What counts is the stars on the day of your birth.
Stop looking at me like I'm some kind of fool.
I've got a degree from astrology school.
I've got testimonials brimming with praise
And written a book that is sure to amaze.
For no other system has nearly the worth
Of charting the stars on the day of your birth.
|
||||
7. |
Unfinished Symphonist
02:13
|
|||
|
Franz Schubert lived, Franz Schubert died short of the highest fame.
Though loved by people in the know, he was no household name.
For music old Vienna was the greatest place by far,
But only one who took the stage could truly be a star.
He sang with friends, he worked with friends, his songs were widely known,
But for the rights the publishers would barely throw a bone.
His symphonies and string quartets and piano music fine
Were sometimes not performed at all, although they were divine.
In writing wondrous melodies no one could match his skill.
He took the greatest poetry and made it greater still.
But when it came to opera, he met with no success.
He lacked the right theatric touch, the art of sheer excess.
Franz Schubert lived, Franz Schubert died when he was thirty-one.
If he'd lived out a normal life, what might he then have done?
So many of his greatest works were poorly stored away,
And only through some lucky breaks can they be heard today.
|
||||
8. |
The Cats of Memory
03:16
|
|||
|
The cats of memory are never truly gone.
For each one has a place where always they live on.
And each one's special style — a move, a look, a meow —
Gives each of them a place, and they are with me now.
The cats of memory each had a special role,
I learned to understand the shape of each one's soul.
The habits that they had, annoying, strange, or sweet,
Set each of them apart, made each of them complete.
The cats of memory all had a bitter cost.
The world seemed at an end with each time one was lost.
I knew it from the start that there would be an end,
That after many years I'd have to lose a friend.
There is no rainbow bridge. Don't tell me such a tale.
And yet they still remain, beyond the shadow vale.
Though many years have passed, they always are with me.
They live while I recall the cats of memory.
|
||||
9. |
The Empty Cages
05:26
|
|||
|
The shelter is a place where cats arrive and then they go.
Whenever they’re adopted, what comes next I rarely know.
Where they’re now living, what it’s like, or who their people are,
And whether they live down the street or somewhere very far.
I get a glimpse or two. The new adopters sometimes write.
Sometimes they send us pictures of the cat’s new dwelling site.
And once a pair went out to friends. They still are doing fine.
But mostly it’s a mystery, without a trace or sign.
Chorus:
See the empty cages,
Hear the silent meow,
Look around and wonder
Where the cats are now.
We never euthanize, except from strict necessity,
Some felines stay a long time here, some find homes rapidly.
The hardest are the ones who are repeatedly returned.
But there’s a home for almost every one, as we have learned.
The ones who are the best, the cutest, go within a week.
I hope that they have found the kind of family that they seek.
The older ones take longer, but when someone picks them out
I’m sure the choice is thoughtful, and I don’t feel there’s a doubt.
Chorus
I rarely know a cat for long, but I do not forget
Each one who passes through our place and then is someone’s pet.
I have three hundred pictures and as many memories
May all of them be safe and never left outside to freeze.
But life remains uncertain, for the human and the cat.
If most of them have happy lives, I stay content with that.
If all I do is clean the cage, I help the journey on
And wish them all good health and joy, wherever they have gone.
Chorus
|
||||
10. |
Whack!
01:33
|
|||
|
There's a cat down in the shelter, she's all black and white,
She is curious and lively, she's clever and bright.
You might think you want to keep her, if a kitty you lack,
But if you get too close to her, she will go WHACK!
You would think that she is friendly. she won’t hiss or growl,
And she looks so calm and easy when out on the prowl.
But to win her trust and friendship, you will need quite a knack.
Just when you think she’s fine with you, she will go WHACK!
She will lure the unsuspecting by looking so cute.
They will think she wants to play with them, she is such a hoot.
They all want to rub her belly as she lies on her back,
But anyone dares to try gets quite a WHACK!
When a visitor came looking, we made sure to say
That this kitty’s temperamental, he’d best stay away.
But he went to pet the cat and he was taken aback
When she did just what we said she would, gave him a WHACK!
Now if you have got the patience and don’t mind a scratch,
She might turn out to be right for you, you’ll make a great match.
All she wants is one companion in her own private shack.
And now and then a visitor who she can WHACK!
|
||||
11. |
Song for the Bogeyman
02:55
|
|||
|
There are people with no purpose
But to play the bogeyman.
Scrawling signs and vandalizing
To scare people if they can.
Softly snarling, madly growling,
Hiding in the dark, they jeer.
Cowards posing as hobgoblins
Thinking they can make us fear.
They pretend to be superior,
Claiming they're the master race.
Telling us that they will conquer
While we're laughing in their face.
Not a thing can they accomplish
But to make us do repairs.
Cowards posing as hobgoblins
Putting on their stupid airs.
"Unity and right and freedom":
These words Germans sing today,
The old words of lies and murder
They have firmly thrown away.
Only in a few dark corners
Paint and insults vandals fling.
Cowards posing as hobgoblins
Showing they aren't worth a thing.
|
||||
12. |
Prince of Darkness
02:48
|
|||
|
You people call me the destroyer of good.
If that's what you think, then you've misunderstood.
I work to distinguish the wrong from the right.
For people can never achieve what is best
Unless they are put to a strenuous test,
Unless there's adversity that they must fight.
Do you think I want to lure people to Hell?
What purpose would that plan accomplish, pray tell?
You're welcome to tell me that I should go there.
My aim's not to damn, but to show and reveal
The truth behind people whose virtues aren't real.
Pretense and hypocrisy I will lay bare.
The price of your soul isn't paid down below
In pits full of brimstone where you'll someday go,
When you start to cheat, then you've already lost.
The toll that's extracted from you is the sum
Of the person you were and the one you've become.
The rest of your life you'll be paying the cost.
Unless there is darkness, you can't know the light.
Unless there's temptation, you can't choose the right.
Unless there's a choice, you can't shun what is wrong.
When you have been tested, when you have withstood
The foolish excuses that lead to no good
And stay on the true path, I know you are strong!
My station is firm in the great order, since
It must have the darkness, and I am its prince.
The tester of souls, I sing out my proud song!
|
||||
13. |
The One
02:04
|
|||
|
A giant black hole in the multiverse,
At first compact, low entropy, and hot,
Had come to being as a living thing,
A single entity that felt and thought.
It slowly came to understand itself,
Though it could never know from where it came.
It told itself, "I think, therefore I am."
Its self and universe were both the same.
In looking back to find its origin
It saw there'd been a singularity.
In looking far ahead at what would come,
It saw that it would face mortality.
Its universe, itself, was growing vast,
And at the same time it was growing cold.
It still would have a long lifetime ahead,
But in the end, its fate was to grow old.
An era passed and then it was in shreds,
A single mind it could no longer be.
A quarter second's life, and it was gone,
And nothing but its ghosts today are we.
|
||||
14. |
Greek Gigue
01:55
|
|||
Gary McGath recommends:
Courting My Muse
by Mary Crowell
Anything Mary records is worth hearing.
go to album
Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers
by Marc Gunn
Cat songs. Irish songs. Filk songs. What more could you want?
go to album
Our Kind of Strange
by The Faithful Sidekicks
Geeky songs about fandom, the Internet, and (of course) faithful sidekicks!
go to albumIf you like Gary McGath, you may also like:
The Space Between Us
by Daniel Kelly
supported by 6 fans who also own “FAWM 2023”
go to album
2020 Songs Rough Cuts
by Cat Faber
supported by 6 fans who also own “FAWM 2023”
go to album
Sorry I'm So Sensitive
by Bea Stewart
The second EP from Northern Irish singer-songwriter Bea Stewart runs from gentle folk to pillowy pop ballads, all perfectly executed.
go to album
