From the recording The Gospel According to a Mariner
The first single from the new album "Motherland!" The rest of the songs will be released one by one over the early months of 2024.
I originally started writing this song for my buddy mandolin player/boat pilot/fellow city-phobe Spud Siegel, but in the recorded version (for brevity) I had to leave out the verse about "a sailing man should always keep steady company". Recorded it with Spud's beautiful mandola, but then I got to Ecuador to make the music video in my neighborhood in Puengasi (in Quito) and realized that's where the song really comes from. Subtle references abound both lyrically and visually in the video, but whether or not you believe Genghis Khan ever set foot in these parts, Manuela Saenz's hacienda is seen in the distance in the video, there inbetween my cello and Cotopaxi volcano. Check out the video! https://youtu.be/ombtQMgNmno
Shay on guitars, cello, mandola, voice, whisltin'.
Mix by Miguel Angel Espinosa de los Monteros
Lyrics
Living on the edge of town, oh living on the edge of town
One foot up and one foot down, living on the edge of town
Living oil the brink of doom, oh living on the brink of doom
Hand me up no hand me down living on the brink of doom
See the wheels run round oh see the wheels run round
Up the hill and down again see all the wheels run round
Everybody thinks you can get away, you can’t get away
Everybody thinks you can fly away, you can’t fly today
The dinosaurs were reading the bible in the fields where they lay on the moon
Head and tails above the rest, staring at a blue balloon
One said to the other, “hey what’s this about a snake?”
Other said “I hope i never find out…legless dinosaur fake!”
Everybody thinks you can get away, you can’t get away
Everybody thinks you can fly away, you can’t fly today
Reading the old love letters between Manuela Saenz and Ghengis Khan
Saying “is this how the dream will end, or will it go on and on, and on, and on?”
Finnegan died for your sinister plan, and the harlequins jump for your joy
Be a dark day in hell my dear, if you ever say goodbye to your boy