The Decemberists Hazards of Love
1. Prelude 2. Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone) 3. A Bower Scene 4. Won’t Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga) 5. Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All) 6. The Queen’s Approach 7. Isn’t it a Lovely Night? 8. The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid 9. An Interlude 10.The Rake’s Song 11.The Abduction of Margaret 12.The Queen’s Rebuke / The Crossing 13.Annan Water 14.Margaret in Captivity 15.Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!) 16.The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise) 17.Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)
Prelude Jenny Conlee: Hammond organ, synthesizer Keiko Araki: Violin Greg Ewer: Violin Adam Hoornstra: Viola Collin Oldham: Cello Jim James: backing voice
Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone) First Voice: My true love went riding out In white and green and gray Past the pale of Offa’s Wall Where she was wont to stray
And there she came upon A white and wounded fawn Singing: oh, the hazards of love
She being full of charity A credit to her sex Sought to right the fawn’s hind legs When here her plans were vexed
The taiga shifted strange The beast began to change Singing: oh, the hazards of love Oh, the hazards of love You’ll learn soon enough The prettiest whistles won’t wrestle the thistles undone Undone
Fifteen lithesome maidens lay Along in their bower Fourteen occupations paid To pass the idle hour
But Margaret heaves a sigh Her hands clasped to her thigh Singing: oh, the hazards of love Oh the hazards of love You’ll learn soon enough The prettiest whistles won’t wrestle the thistles undone Undone Colin Meloy: voice, acoustic guitar Chris Funk: Tenor guitar John Moen: The drums, backing voice Jenny Conlee: Wurlitzer piano, synthesizer Nate Query: Upright bass
A Bower Scene Second Voice: “Thou unconsolable daughter,” said the sister, “When wilt thou trouble the water in the cistern? And what irascible blackguard is the father?”
And when young Margaret’s waistline grew wider The fruit of her amorous entwine inside her And so our heroine withdraws to the taiga
Colin Meloy: voice, electric guitar Chris Funk: electric guitar, piano, hammered dulcimer Jenny Conlee: Hammond organ Nate Query: bass guitar John Moen: the drums
Won’t Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga) Margaret: Gentle leaves, gentle leaves Please array a path for me The woods all growing thick and fast around
Columbine, columbine Please alert this love of mine Let him know his Margaret comes along
And all this stirring inside my belly Won’t quell my want for love And I may swoon from all this swelling But I won’t want for love
Mistle thrush, mistle thrush Lay me down in the underbrush My naked feet grow weary with the dusk
Willow boughs, willow boughs Make a bed to lay me down Let your branches bow to cradle us
Chorus William: O my own true love! O my own true love!
Can you hear me love? Can you hear me love?
Chorus
Becky Stark: voice Colin Meloy: electric guitar, 12 acoustic string guitar, voice Chris Funk: electric guitar Jenny Conlee: piano, Hammond organ Nate Query: electric bass John Moen: the drums, backing voice
Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All) William: And here I am softer than a shower And here I am to garland you with flowers To lay you down in a clover’d bed The stars a roof above our heads
And all my life I’ve never felt the tremor All my life – that now disturbs my fingers I’ll lay you down in a clover bed The stars a roof above our heads
And we’ll lie ‘til the corncrake crows Bereft the weight of our summer clothes And I’d wager all The hazards of love The hazards of love
Take my hand, cradle it in your hand Take my hand. Feel the pull. The quicksand. I’ll lay you down in a clover bed The stars a roof above our heads
Colin Meloy: voice, acoustic guitar, electric guitar Becky Stark: backing voice Chris Funk: electric guitar, percussion Jenny Conlee: piano, Hammond organ Nate Query: electric bass John Moen: the drums, percussion
Isn’t It a Lovely Night? Margaret: Isn’t it a lovely night? And so alive with fireflies providing us their holy light And here we made a bed of boughs And thistledown to lay us down up the dewy ground
And isn’t it a lovely way We got in from our play Isn’t it babe? A sweet little baby William: Wasn’t it a lovely breeze That swept the leaves of arbor eaves And bent to brush our blushing knees? M & W: And here we died our little deaths And we were left to catch our breaths So swiftly lifting from our chests
Becky Stark: voice Colin Meloy: voice, acoustic guitar Chris Funk: pedal steel guitar, synthesizer Jenny Conlee: accordion Nate Query: upright bass John Moen: the drums
The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid William: Mother I can hear your footfall now A soft disturbance in the deadfall how It precedes you like a black smoke pall Still the wanting comes in waves
And you delivered me from danger, then Pulled my cradle from the reedy glen Swore to save me from the world of men Still the wanting comes in waves
In waves, and waves And the wanting comes in waves And the wanting comes in waves And I want this night And I want this night Queen: How I made you I wrought you I pulled you
From ore I labored you From cancer I cradled you
And now: this is how I am repaid? This is how I am repaid?
Remember when I found you The miseries that hounded you
And I gave you motion Anointed with lotions
And now: this is how I am repaid? This is how I am repaid? William: Mother hear this proposition right Grant me freedom to enjoy this night And I’ll return to you at break of light For the wanting comes in waves
And waves, and waves Still the wanting comes in waves Still the wanting comes in waves Still the wanting comes in waves And you owe me life And you owe me life Queen: And if I grant you This favor to hand you
Your life for the evening I will re-take by morning
And so: consider it your debt repaid Consider it your debt repaid
Colin Meloy: voice, electric guitar, acoustic guitar Shara Worden: voice, backing voice Chris Funk: electric guitar, synthesizer Jenny Conlee: harpsichord, piano, Hammond organ John Moen: the drums, percussion Nate Query: electric bass, upright bass
An Interlude Colin Meloy: acoustic guitar Robyn Hitchcock: electric guitar Chris Funk: bouzouki
The Rake’s Song Rake: I had entered into a marriage In the summer of my twenty-first year And the bells rang for our wedding Only now do I remember it clear
All right, all right, all right!
No more a rake and no more a bachelor I was wedded and it whetted my thirst Until her womb started spilling out babies Only then did I reckon my curse
First came Isaiah with his crinkled little fingers Then came Charlotte and that wretched girl Dawn Ugly Myfanwy died on delivery Mercifully taking her mother along
What can one do when one is a widower Shamefully saddled with three little pests All that I wanted was the freedom of a new life So my burden I began to divest
Charlotte I buried after feeding her foxglove Dawn was easy: she was drowned in the bath Isaiah fought but was easily bested Burned his body for incurring my wrath
And that’s how I came your humble narrator To be living so easy and free I expect that you think that I should be haunted But it never really bothers me
Colin Meloy: voice, acoustic guitar Shara Worden: yelling Chris Funk: the drums, percussion, yelling Jenny Conlee: the drums Nate Query: electric bass John Moen: the drums, percussion, yelling
The Abduction of Margaret First Voice: And all the while whispering arbors provide cover What previous witnessed ardors of our lovers Our heroine here falls prey to her abductor!
All a’gallop with Margaret slung rude ‘cross withers Having clamped her innocent fingers in fetters This villain must calculate crossing the wild river!
Colin Meloy: voice, electric guitar Chris Funk: electric guitar, synthesizer, piano, hammered dulcimer Jenny Conlee: Hammond organ Nate Query: electric bass John Moen: the drums
The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing Queen: I’m made of bones of the branches, the boughs, and the brow-beating light While my feet are the trunks and my head is the canopy high And my fingers extend to the leaves and the eaves and the bright Brightest shine, it’s my shine
And he was a baby abandoned, entombed in a cradle of clay And I was the soul who took pity and stole him away And gave him the form of a fawn to inhabit by day Brightest day, it’s my day
And you have removed this temptation that’s troubled my innocent child To abduct and abuse and to render her rift and defiled But the river is deep to the banks and the water is wild But I will fly you the far side
Shara Worden: voice Colin Meloy: electric guitar Chris Funk: electric guitar, baritone guitar Jenny Conlee: Hammond organ Nate Query: bass guitar John Moen: the drums
Annan Water William: Annan water, you loom so deep and wide I would cross over if you would stem the tide Or build a boat that I might ford the other side To reach the farther shore where my true love lies in wait for me In wait for me
O gray river, your waters ramble wild The horses shiver and bite against the bridle But I will cross if mine own horse is pulled from me Though my mother cries that if I try I sure will drowned be Drowned be
But if you calm and let me pass You may render me a wreck when I come back
So calm your waves and slow the churn And you may have my precious bones on my return
Annan water, oh hear my true love call Hear her holler above your water’s pall God that I could, that my two arms could give me wing And I would cross your breadth and wrap my breast about her amber ring Her amber ring
So calm your waves and slow the churn And you may have my precious bones on my return And you may have my precious bones And I will call your depths my home And you may have my precious bones on my return
Colin Meloy: voice, acoustic guitar Chris Funk: mandolin, hurdy-gurdy, autoharp, synthesizer, marxophone, hammered dulcimer Jenny Conlee: accordion, Hammond organ Nate Query: upright bass John Moen: hand drum, percussion
Margaret in Captivity Rake: I have snipped your wingspan My precious captive swan Here all clipped of kickstand You spirit won’t last long
Don’t you lift a finger Don’t you snap and jaw Limber limbs akimbo Rest ‘til rubbing raw Margaret: O my own true love O my own true love
Can you hear me love Can you hear me love? Rake: Don’t hold out for rescue None can hear your call ‘Til I have wrest and wrecked you Behind these fortress walls Margaret: O my own true love O my own true love
Colin Meloy: voice, acoustic guitar, electric guitar Becky Stark: voice Chris Funk: electric guitar Jenny Conlee: piano, Hammond organ Nate Query: bowed bass, electric bass, synthesizer John Moen: the drums Jim James: backing voice Keiko Araki: violin Greg Ewer: violin Adam Hoornstra: viola Collin Oldham: cello
Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!) Charlotte: Father I’m not feeling well, the flowers me you fed Tasted spoiled for suddenly I find that I am dead But father don’t you fear Your children all are here Singing: O the hazards of love! Dawn: Papa turn the water down, the basin’s overflown The water covers everything and me left all alone But Papa here in death I have regained my breath To sing: O the hazards of love! Isaiah: Spare the rod, you’ll spoil the child but I’d prefer the lash My sisters drowned and poisoned, all, and me reduced to ash And buried in an urn But father, I return Singing: O the hazards of love
Natalie Briare: voice Clara Ell: voice Joseph Ell: voice Jenny Conlee: harpsichord Chris Funk: synthesizer Colin Meloy: percussion Keiko Araki: violin Greg Ewer: violin Adam Hoornstra: viola Collin Oldham: cello
The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)
William: Here come the waves! And the wanting comes in waves And the wanting comes in waves And the wanting comes in waves!
And I want this night
Colin Meloy: voice, acoustic guitar Jim James: backing voice Shara Worden: backing voice Chris Funk: electric guitar Jenny Conlee: piano, Hammond organ, harpsichord Nate Query: bass guitar John Moen: the drums Keiko Araki: violin Greg Ewer: violin Adam Hoornstra: viola Collin Oldham: cello Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) William: Margaret, array the rocks around the hole before we’re sinking A million stones, a million bones, a million holes within the chinking
And painting rings around your eyes, these peppered holes So filled with crying A whisper-weight upon the tattered down where you and I Were lying. So tell me now, O tell me this: a river’s son, a forest’s daughter A willow wand, a will-o-wisp, our ghosts will wander all of the water W & M: So let’s married here today, these rushing waves to bear our witness And we will lie like river stones, rolling only where it takes us
But I pulled you and I called you here (Didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I) And I caught you and I brought you here (Didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I) But these hazards of love Never more will trouble us
William: O Margaret the lapping waves are licking quietly at our ankles Another bow, another breath; this brilliant chill has come for the shackle
W & M: But with this long, last rush of air let’s speak our vows in starry whisper And when the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes And softly kissed her Chorus
Colin Meloy: voice, acoustic guitar, Nashville guitar Becky Stark: backing voice Rebecca Gates: backing voice Jim James: backing voice Chris Funk: pedal steel guitar, banjo Jenny Conlee: piano, Hammond organ, marxophone Nate Query: bass guitar John Moen: the drums Keiko Araki: violin Greg Ewer: violin Adam Hoornstra: viola Collin Oldham: cello
Individual Twitters KFOG Morning Show - Renee - Irish Greg