For space is wide and good friends are too few.
We used to sail to R’lyeh; that’s where we put ashore
We used to sail to R’lyeh; we did but we don’t anymore
A lass there wanted an Elder Thing; we had some of those on board
Cthulu, she wanted? A Deep One she got!
That’s why we don’t sail there no more…
Check out the Misbehavin’ Maidens on Bandcamp
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Don’t Sail There No More
Step out your door
When darkness falls
Don’t ask what for
Don’t ask who calls
“Go Forth By Night” by Ben Newman, downloaded from his website, with lyrics and chords available here. A little bit eerie, in the most inspiring way possible.
I am the flame that sparks the ember
I am the thunder in the deep
I am a broken tree upon a far hill
a song to make minstrels weep
“Naming,” by Beth Kinderman and the Player Characters, about Kvothe, from Patrick Rothfuss’ trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle
so I’ll see you across the water
still the one & still my daughter
still you grow
& your list is getting shorter
& it’s you who gave the order for you know
all men must die
“Across the Water,” a song for Arya Stark by Beth Kinderman & the Player Characters. I got to hear this live last year at a hotel room party (the way it’s meant to be heard), and let me tell you, the outro is a very good time if you’ve got a receptive audience.
Braw and bold, he went a-raiding;
stout and strong, he went to war.
Long his lady will be waiting;
Gilbert’s greatsword strikes no more.
Apparently, there was an SCA contest for best elegy, so Leigh Ann Hussey wrote a song for the “death” of a player in “Steal the Sheep” earlier that day, a game where teams compete to move a stuffed sheepskin across a field.
“Gilbert’s Greatsword,” or “Elegy for Gilbert de Langspee,” by Annwn. The percussion on this is tabla, played by Aditya Gurajada.
“Come away to the hills:
come away where the wine of life distills,
to the healing of your heart’s ills
come away, come away.”
“The Bard’s Exhortation to the Salaryman,” by Annwn, which sounds like a serious song, but apparently, the singer wrote this to make fun of banjo player, because he had a real job and she didn’t.
This album, for a long time only available from a website with low-quality downloads, is now back in print! It’s available on Spotify, YouTube, and iTunes, and all profits will go towards making more of Annwn’s music available.
We’re raucous, rude, and rowdy
And ask us if we care!
We have our boisterous buddies
And food that we don’t share
We’re foremost at a party
And rearmost in a fight
And if you think you’re tougher
We’ll just say that you are right
A tribute to crows, the birds with the best life philosophy. “Raucous, Rude, and Rowdy,” lyrics by Mercedes Lackey, sung by Paul Espinoza (I think)
Never think a servant cannot
Have his own free will
Never think that those who serve
Do not know how to kill
Owlflight: Song Of The Hertasi Water Killers – Mercedes LackeyDamn, I loved these books. And the hertasi were flipping awesome.
When the Dark comes rising, Six shall turn it back.
Three from the Circle, three from the Track.
Wood, bronze, iron, water, fire, stone –
Five will return, and one go alone.
“The Dark Is Rising,” adapted by Julia Ecklar from poetry scattered throughout the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper.
Lyrics available from Prometheus Music.
“Wind in the Pipes” by Meg Davis.
Davis comments in the liner notes of her Captain Jack and the Mermaid album:
My summer haunt is a beautiful, old (circ.1940’s) house on a lovely, cool lake (well away from the humidity of a Cincinnati summer). The folks who tend the house, and get it ready each year, have no idea how they have inspired me over the years. They get into their hip-waders each frosty May to put the dock in and, depending upon the placement of the metal poles, I end up with a very haunting sound all season that comes from the wind blowing across the holes in the posts. Some summers it’s a brighter tune, sometimes a rather spooky chord, but whenever it happens I tell myself, it’s only the wind in the pipes.
It’s hard to find the lyrics to this one, but I was able to transcribe them – they’re not very long, and they repeat a few times. I’ve included them after the cut.
Welcome to a moon-filled night
Of strange and wondrous tales,
Of ancient kings and mystic rings
And ships with painted sails;
Of how I came to be here
And where I wish to go,
And all my deepest secrets
Which you will come to know.
Settle back and dream awhile
And come along with me,
We will walk the ancient forests
And sail the deepest seas;
O let your heart go rambling,
There’s much we have to see,
From what we are this moment
To what we hope to be.