Honi Soit

All along the riverbank nobody seems to know
They heard nothing, saw even less of the hunger in their souls
Safety first or safety last i wish i could have helped
Those poor unfortunate widows standing waiting for their sailor boys

Madame nhu, yes madame knew
Down they came to look around that riverbank
For names or numbers or anything they could find written there
On the wall

Cause somebody seemed to know but no one was prepared to tell
Anything they'd learnt to love about long ago
And the cold people getting colder
Like babysitters in their graves

Satisfying heretic vicars passing on
Send them running on ahead picking up the wendy trash instead
Like foulmouth people openheart surgery creatures
Crawling back inside of you

All along the riverbank nobody will ever know
What fools and their monies sailors and their honeys
Got stung one evening there
Cause the stones around their necks are the stones on the riverbank

the cowboy's lament or streets of laredo (1876)
By francis henry maynard



As i walked out in the streets of laredo,
As i walked out in laredo one day,
I spied a young cowboy wrapped up in white linen,
Wrapped up in white linen and cold as the clay.
"o beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly;
Play the dead march as you carry me along.
Take me to the green valley and lay the sod o're me,
For i'm a young cowboy and i know i done wrong."

"i see by your outfit that your are a cowboy."
These words he did say as i boldly stepped by.
"come sit down beside me and hear my sad story;
I'm shot in the breast and i know i must die."

"my friends and relations they live in the nation:
They know not where their dear boy has gone.
I first came to texas and hired to a ranchman,
O i'm a young cowboy and i know i've done wrong."

"it was once in the saddle i used to go dashing:
It was once in the saddle i used to go gay.
First to the dram house and then to the card house,
Got shot in the breast and i'm dying today."

"get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin;
Get six pretty maidens to sing me a song.
Put bunches of roses all over my coffin,
Put roses to deaden the cods as they fall."

"go gather around you a group of young cowboys,
And tell them the story of this my sad fate.
Tell one and the other before they go further,
To stop their wild roving before it's too late."

"go bring me a cup, a cup of cold water
To cool my parched lips," the young cowboy said.
Before i returned the spirit had left him
And gone to its maker--the cowboy was dead.

We beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly,
And bitterly wept as we bore him along.
For awe all loved our comrade, so brave, young, and handsome,
We all loved our comrade although he'd done wrong.

Strange times in casablanca when people pull down their shades
And its easy enough for us to look at each other and wonder why
We were to blame
Blame comes remorselessly transfixed
Like the sound of slamming doors
And doors have doors have doors have doors have doors
Like companions have pets they sleep in each other's mattresses
Like maggots in despair
And bleed in each other's nests and make a mess of each other's snares
Strange times in casablanca
Strange times
They make some striking couples
They make some frustration of the call
And only those who are satisfied by friendship would even pay
Attention to it all
It comes like mail or telegrams
It comes expectant as a widow in heat as a widow in the searing heat
And that contentment of depression that delivers most of the time
But cannot help the styling of the horns in the shape of gargoyle
Broken prints savage fingers
Undertaken catamaran
Strange times in casablanca
We've turned our back on it once before
And we can hear from across the waters what damage it will cause us
And you can smash once more
And they can smash once more
But i don't think anybody wants to smash anymore