Kudos to a great new band based in Chattanooga, Concerning Lions. This isn’t a great video, but the song is cool and, I believe, will be in an upcoming album. I wish I could point you to the lyric, but if you’re in a place where you can crank the volume, then you’ll be able to hear the words yourself, which is, like, better.
Concerning Lions – Young Curmudgeon – TBP from Concerning Lions on Vimeo.
yeah! what a song.
Young Curmudgeon
I cannot break a tree with my bare hands
Or undo all the damage that your land
has suffered in the months since your favorite son left his bed
Every door of your house has a bolt
that you slide into place against the cold
But I will let the winter rinse the walls and lift your head
I won’t raise my voice
or hand against your choice
to stand and watch for the son you lost
I will love your earth
and beg it to bring worth
to what I have and what he has not
A leaf may fall to water and sail off
Or wait atop a building for the frost
But it will not return to the great branch that was its start
Underneath the rule of sun and cloud
you keep your wishes buried in the ground
And I have found the spot and set my heart beside your heart
I won’t raise my voice
or hand against your choice
to stand and watch for the son you lost
But I will love your earth
and beg it to bring worth
to what I have and what he has not
Run to him like a boy running to the sea
and weigh his gentle hand down with your ring
The one I’ve often seen and hoped you might one day make mine
You listen to my long withheld complaint
that I deserve your love and he your hate
you say before you go though he was dead now he’s alive
I won’t raise my voice
or hand against your choice
to set your arm round the son you lost
But I will love your earth
and grow to see the worth
of who he is and who I am not
Now the season turns
our eyes up to the sun
to change, the air, the earth and me
I know your love outweighs
my pride in his disgrace
the fields are high and the boy goes free
Wow. Thanks, Lyric Man. Are you with the band?
just your friendly neighborhood lyric man. Actually I don’t think I got them all right. I think the first line is “kill a tree”, not “break a tree”, though I’m not sure why you’d want to do either.
PS: was the stop in the middle of the song planned?
I’m going to listen to the song carefully in a few minutes and may have something for you on the tree part. The stop in the song is part of it, but I believe the guitarist on the right fumbled it. He was to carry the music for several bars then be joined by the banjo player.
I think I said it wrong. The banjoist runs with the music for a short bit and the guitarist is supposed to pick up several measures before he does in this video. He appears to be concerned about a passing train, as if that means they should start the video over. He’s probably right.
I think the first line is “Can I kill a tree …?”
i think you’re right about that pause. looked almost like they planned it. There’s another video of them doing this song, but it skips the beginning. so that’s no help with that first line.
I should have said that I heard this song live at the concert shown in that other video, so that was the main reason I said the stop was planned.