1. |
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2. |
Nibble Nibble (live)
05:05
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The moon is risen, I can see your pebble path
Leading brightly through the trees
Stepping stones to safety
Or at least to what is known
But tonight there is nothing left to guide you
Lose your way, my little children
Build your fire higher
May it keep you from the wolves
Never fear, I will be your salvation
Come near, eat your fill of my elation
Nibble, nibble, like a mouse
Who is nibbling at my house?
Be ye friend or be ye foe
Now you’ve come you’ll never go
In the sunlight rosy windows sugar-spun
Frosted eaves and ginger shingles
Candy-petal gardens
In the bright and dappled glade
Come inside, oh, my poor diminished darlings
Let me warm you by the hearth-flame
Trust me, you’ll feel better
When you’ve had a good night’s sleep
While you’re sleeping I will weave for you a spell
You are bound to my command, you will serve me well
Never will you wander for this castle is a cage
You can’t escape an orphaned fate and you’ve reached the final page
You mistook the spider’s web for one last safety net
Never fear, I will be your salvation
Come near, eat your fill of my elation
Nibble, nibble, like a mouse
Who is nibbling at my house?
Be ye friend or be ye foe
Now you’ve come you’ll never go
Nibble, nibble like a mouse
Nibble, nibble like a mouse
Nibble, nibble, like a mouse
Who is nibbling at my house?
Be ye friend or be ye foe
Now you’ve come you’ll never go
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3. |
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4. |
Tantalized (live)
03:39
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Nine hundred years ago living in Spain
I married a man for his wealth and his name
I worried his relatives, frightened his friends
I angered his servants and made no amends
I gossiped with neighbours, delighting in spite
And never let on what I did every night
They thought me a witch or a wandering waif
But I kept my secret unbidden and safe
I am ageless
By the power of my skin
I am seduction
I can draw a lover in
I am beauty
So look deep into my eyes
I’m your destruction
But I will keep you tantalized
My fury was potent and flattened my head
My eyes they grew narrow and terror was spread
Condemned if you crossed me, much worse than my bite
Embrace me, my love, and I’ll wrap you up tight
I am ageless
By the power of my skin
I am seduction
I can draw a lover in
I am beauty
So look deep into my eyes
I’m your destruction
But I will keep you tantalized
Don’t you want to play?
Side to side I’ll sway
I will haunt you night and day
There is nothing you can do or say
I am here to stay
A woman by daylight, a snake in the dark
As long as my skin doesn’t meet with a spark
For all you would need to break free from my spell
Is fire: a secret I never will tell
I am ageless
By the power of my skin
I am seduction
I can draw a lover in
I am beauty
So look deep into my eyes
I’m your destruction
But I will keep you tantalized
I am ageless
I am beauty
I am seduction
And I’m your destruction
Look in my eyes
I will keep you tantalized
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5. |
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6. |
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The Morrigan, in woman’s form
Came looking for Cuchulainn
To offer him her favour
As a lover and a guardian
“Be off with you, I do not need
Your comp’ny or distraction
It isn’t for a woman’s sake
I fight as Ulster’s champion!”
“Be careful what you say to me
For I am no mere maiden
And you will suffer greatly
When you’re most in need of saving
I’ll come against you thrice, I will
Around your feet entangling
To trip and trample, bite and tear
Your entrails all a-dangling”
Eel in the water
And she-wolf I’ll be
And hornless red heifer
These shapes three
For I am the Morrigan
And you’re just a man
Whose body will feed
My corvid clan
“I’ll be in the water when
You’re fighting at the ford”
Cuchulainn said, “I’ll crack your ribs
And I won’t need my sword”
“Then I’ll become a wolf and
I will drive the beasts against you”
He said, “I’ll sling a stone and blind
Your eye, until I bless you”
“Then I will be a blood-red cow
To bring the herd stampeding
Your enemy will fall upon you
Broken there and bleeding”
“I’ll throw a stone to break your leg”
The bold Cuchulainn claimed
“Until my blessing you receive
You’ll be a woman maimed”
Eel in the water
And she-wolf I’ll be
And hornless red heifer
These shapes three
For I am the Morrigan
And you’re just a man
Whose body will feed
My corvid clan
Yes, your body will feed
My corvid clan
All they promised came to pass
The champion was spent
He found a woman milking who was
Squint-eyed, lame and bent
“Woman, give me milk!” he cried
Without a word she did
“Good health to you” – a wound was healed
As smiling face she hid
Another drink, another blessing
Then again, a third
Whole at last the woman rose
And then Cuchulainn heard:
“You said you’d never heal me”
As the Morrigan turned ‘round
“If I’d known it was you,” he said
“I’d not have made a sound!”
Eel in the water
And she-wolf I’ll be
And hornless red heifer
These shapes three
For I am the Morrigan
And you’re just a man
Whose body will feed
My corvid clan
Yes, your body will feed
My corvid clan
For I am a raven
And you’re just a man
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7. |
On drinking for applause
00:14
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8. |
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9. |
Sedna of the Sea (live)
04:54
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Long ago, when the sea was void of life, a vacant swell
When the people hunted only on the land, the stories tell
I was raised in an igloo by my father on the shore
And refused to marry any of the hunters who implored me
Kayak-borne, came a man to me one day who promised more
And I sailed off with my chosen one beyond familiar shores
But alas, he was a spirit-bird and not a man at all
Island-bound and living lonely as the loon’s elusive call
Oh, the sea she is churning
Down where the medicine men go
To comb out her long hair
They comb out her long hair
Her long, tangled black hair
And soften her so
So I prayed that my father would deliver me from there
And he came and took me home from that cold place of my despair
But the sea became a black and angry boiling underneath
As our boat was tossed upon the waves that rose and fell beneath our feet
All at once I felt my father push me hard and in I fell
Overboard into the frigid Arctic waters of the swell
“Father, please!” I screamed in terror as the sea-ice sucked me down
But in his eyes I saw his fear and knew he’d rather let me drown
Clawing, I clung to the edge of his kayak
The storm would not be quelled
Swinging his paddle he cut off my fingers
In agony I yelled
But the sea took me under
To the dark ocean floor
And I started to wonder
What dying was for
Surviving on rage
I remember the pain
For this water’s my cage
And these animals stained
They are pieces of me
That were severed and bled
All the creatures you see
Are now my companions instead
Oh, the sea she is churning
Down where the medicine men go
To comb out her long hair
They comb out her long hair
Her long, tangled black hair
And soften her so
They soften Sedna so
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10. |
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11. |
Carving Knife (live)
04:54
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We were written like a villain into story
Notoriety, little glory
We the victims of an evil allegory
Impropriety, never sorry
As the servant who would be a queen
The unrequited lover
The barren bride abandoned
Or the secondary mother
We are damned because it’s our fault
That you never stop to think
The way we do when we see weakness
And she stops to take a drink
I am bitter (I am bitter)
I am bitterness as cold as ice
I am jealous (I am jealous)
I am jealousy as old as night
I want better
I want better than your charming life
I am other (I am other)
I am otherwise a carving knife
We were written to be foils and to be foiling
Ever burning, ever boiling
We the reason for your necessary toiling
Needful learning and recoiling
As the succubus who drains and draws
The faery who entices
The witch who weaves in darkness
Or the demoness of crisis
We are terrifying spectres
There beneath the milky sheen
Of our flawless imperfection
You have never really seen
I am bitter (I am bitter)
I am bitterness as cold as ice
I am jealous (I am jealous)
I am jealousy as old as night
I want better
I want better than your charming life
I am other (I am other)
I am otherwise a carving knife
You use me to draw a line
Pay attention, little heroine
It matters more this time
You abuse me, break me down
In an endless sea of back story
I never make a sound
I am bitter (I am bitter)
I am bitterness as cold as ice
I am jealous (I am jealous)
I am jealousy as old as night
I want better
I want better than your charming life
I am other (I am other)
I am otherwise a carving knife
I am other (I am other)
I am otherwise a carving knife
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12. |
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13. |
Abandon This (live)
04:00
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I fell in love with an ideal
But I believed with all my heart that it was real
And when we met he felt the same
There in the light of love, true lovers we became
Our other lives melted away
We had no care but for ourselves from day to day
We were consumed by our desire
Of our embrace we promised never we would tire
Until the moment she reminded you
Who you had first been promised to
Farewell, my love
You have turned your back
Without you, love
I am painted black
My greatest loss
I am torn from bliss
You’ve chosen, love
Abandon this
I will embrace oblivion
The only place where you and I can be undone
And when the veil between us falls
We will be deaf to one another’s calls
I could only say, “It will always be this way”
I could only hope against inevitable slope
I could only live with giving all I had to give
I could only show the love I wanted you to know
A line that’s permanent divides us now
Yet life goes on, some way, somehow
Farewell, my love
You have turned your back
Without you, love
I am painted black
My greatest loss
I am torn from bliss
You’ve chosen, love
Abandon this
Be happy, love
As you forget me
We may be broken, love
But we are free
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14. |
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15. |
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16. |
Falling Down (live)
05:00
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Child of summer
Flower-born
Winter is coming
You’re weary and worn
Come share my hearth
It’s safe underground
And the leaves are falling down, my child
The leaves are falling down
Tell me about your adventures, child
How did you come to this field?
You must be hungry, you’re wasting away
After your many ordeals
Sit by the fire, tell me how does that feel?
You won’t survive in this weather, child
Stay here with me, earn your keep
I have been gathering all summer long
Close your eyes and go to sleep
You nevermore will have cause to weep
Child of summer
Flower-born
Winter is coming
You’re weary and worn
Come share my hearth
It’s safe underground
And the leaves are falling down, my child
The leaves are falling down
What a help you have been, child
There is someone you should meet
He’d make a wonderful husband
As wealthy as you are sweet
Go prepare dinner, you’re in for a treat
Why do you bitterly cry, child?
You’ll be a bride in the spring
Life in the tunnels is safer
You’ll never want for a thing
All of our days will grow brighter when you sing
Down in the darkness, you will sing
Down in the darkness, you will sing
Down in the depths of the darkness
You’re the most beautiful sound
Stay with us here, deep underground
Child of summer
Flower-born
Winter is coming
You’re weary and worn
Come share my hearth
It’s safe underground
And the leaves are falling down, my child
The leaves are falling down
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17. |
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18. |
Seafoam (live)
04:36
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Underneath and below
And caught in the undertow
Water-weighed
My seaweed hair long
My voice like a siren song
Underplayed
Trade it in for a chance
At a doomed romance
My soul for a dance on the shore
Take me, I’ve laid it all out at your feet
And sold who I was for this moment
I am walking on the points of swords
Wrapped in a silent heat
It’s too late to retreat from the wave line
Far from home, on my own
I am seafoam
Look in my eyes
I am living this pretty lie
Masquerading
Thinking you would see through it
And know that I knew it
Mutely fading
Sister, your salvation is at hand
Spill out his blood on the sand
Leave him to die and recover your life
Look, we have brought you the knife
Leave me, I’ve laid it all out at his feet
And lost who I was for this moment
I am walking on the points of swords
Wrapped in a silken sheet
It’s too late to retreat from the wave line
I will throw myself out beyond the wave line
My sisters, won’t you go on home
Leave me alone
I am seafoam
Oh, I am seafoam
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Leslie Hudson Stratford, Ontario
Leslie Hudson is a Canadian singer songwriter and pianist. Their albums range from storytelling styles to bluesy bar rock to dialed-up, full-band homages to pop culture. With lyrical piano skills and a voice that cuts through the crowd, their songs dive deep into archetype and folklore, modernizing ancient voices & shining a spotlight on the shadowy paths we walk through life, myth and media. ... more
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