We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

A Candle For Durruti

by Al Grierson

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 3 Al Grierson releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Petals, A Candle For Durruti, and Things That Never Added Up To Me. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $24 USD or more (20% OFF)

     

1.
THE RESURRECTION There was something heavy coming down like Easter in the air He woke up Sunday morning with a flower in his hair Lookin like the face of Jesus in his final agony They found on that old winding sheet way off in Italy He was gone home, he was whole when they rolled away the stone There was something come-a shinin' through that smoky little room It was like a million candles in a Middle Eastern tomb While the Angel on the matress spoke of history and death Through the perfume in her lingerie and the whiskey on her breath He was gone home, he was whole when they rolled away the stone And they found him in the desert picking flowers for the Muse Sometimes he’s the fire, sometimes he’s the fuse He’s a-loadin up his saddle bags out on the edge of wonder One is filled with music and the other’s full of thunder He was gone home, he was whole when they rolled away the stone Well I never thought to ask him, but the chance seemed pretty slim Did he ever much believed in God or God believed in him But they both believed in beauty and the truth could set him free To win her love and celebrate their lives in poetry He was gone home, he was whole when they rolled away the stone Well they say somebody’s comin but they don’t say who it is The judgement could be yours or mine, the voices could be his It might be William Bonney, Mescalito or El Cid It might be Hangin Johnny and it might be Captain Kidd But he’ll be gone home, he’ll be whole when they roll away the stone And they’ll find him in the desert pickin flowers for the Muse Sometimes he’ll be the fire, sometimes he’ll be the fuse He’ll be loadin up his saddlebags out on the edge of wonder One be full of music and the other full of thunder He’ll be gone home, he’ll be whole when they roll away the stone He’ll be gone home, he’ll be whole when they roll away the stone He’ll be gone home, he’ll be whole when they roll away the stone
2.
RICK BLAINE RETIRES TO LUCKENBACH TO CULTIVATE THE MIDDLE WAY Silly little people, silly little world Silly little globe where silly boy meets silly girl Silly little appetites and silly little scene None of it amounting to a silly hill of beans O golly gee, why don’t we act our age We’re only bloody actors on a silly cosmic stage Just hangin out at Sardi’s while we wait for our reviews Too trivial for tragedy and too big for the blues Silly old gestapo, going to extremes Gonna do the mess around in everybody’s dreams Just a woogie-boogie man, he’s reallly nothing clear Move out to Sedona if it ever happens here O mercy me, what’s become of us? The last plane left for Lisbon and there’s no room on the bus Just a world so doggone weary it can barely tie its shoes Too trivial for tragedy and too big for the blues Nothin to get up for, that’s the way it goes Lie around and contemplate the stardust on my toes Leave it to the fat man, he can settle my affairs Send a car from Brazzaville to anyone who cares O glory be, son of a gun The human race is over and I plumb forgot to run Now I’ll never get my picture in the Sunday Sporting News Too trivial for tragedy and too big for the blues Silly little people, silly little world Silly little globe where silly boy meets silly girl Silly little appetites and silly little scene None of it amounting to a silly hill of beans
3.
A CANDLE FOR DURRUTI Well the headline on the paper said the good guys won the war And the red star won't be shinin' over Moscow anymore My heart fell like a sparrow in the depth of my despair When I saw La Pasionaria with a flower in her hair In a postcard by Picasso, so defiant and serene With the mercy of a mother and as grand as any queen She had gathered all her children under many different drums In the power of her promise when the revolution comes In the darkness and disorder, in the fire of our fears She had bound our broken bodies in the rainbow of her tears In the hour of our triumph, with a promise to prevail And another for the future in the hour that we failed And so my friend and comrade, as you go across the sea I ask no shining souvenirs, but only send to me The finest rum of Cuba from the finest sugar cane And a postcard by Picasso when you reach the coast of Spain And remember 'til tomorrow as we leave our banners furled That it only took six days to make, and ten to shake the world Light a candle for Dorruti and we'll honor all the brave With a rollcall of the fallen in the dust on Franco's grave
4.
THIS LITTLE HEART This little heart went home to mother, This little heart was left alone This little heart has found another This little heart ain’t got no home This little heart out on the highway is like a dustbowl refugee This little heart ain’t really sorry even though it wants to be This little heart is like the swallow This little heart is like the sky This heart is full and this one’s hollow This little heart just said goodbye This little heart was made for dancing This little heart has one good shoe This little heart just wants somebody to come along and make it two This little heart was once a poem This little heart is just a word This little heart once said I love you This little heart just never heard This little heart is made of silver This little heart is made of gold This little heart is made of money hard as ice and just as cold This little heart went home to mother This little heart was left alone This little heart has found another This little heart ain’t got no home
5.
THE ROSE OF NEWFOUNDLAND Come you lads and come you lasses You who love from faraway Gather round and fill your glasses Listen to the words I say It was in another country I, a traveler on my way Saw her once and fell forever Lost my heart but failed to stay Will she bide or will she go Will she love me? I don’t know Foreign flower among my heather Honey sweet and wild as weather For I let our duty bind me And I did not tarry there Only left my heart behind me Tangled in her falling hair For love is death and fond desire As the arrow loves the lark Even as the heart of fire Brings its gladness to the dark Will she bide or will she go Will she love me? I don’t know Foreign flower among my heather Honey sweet and wild as weather So may health betide her I will give up all I own Just to lay me down beside her Though the bed be hard as stone For like the sky with no horizon Like the sea without the strand While I live I’ll long forever For the Rose of Newfoundland Will she bide or will she go Will she love me? I don’t know Foreign flower among my heather Honey sweet and wild as weather – ohh
6.
THE MIDSHIPMAN AND THE MAID As I went a-walkin down by the seaside I spied a young couple all alone hand in hand One was a midshipman in a tunic of blue And the other was a young maid and fresh as the dew Oh the waters run high and the waters run low I’ll think of my darlin wherever I go For the waters run cloudy and ever so clear At the end of the world, at the turn of the year There was music and song in the sway of her hips And the hint of a tremble along her sweet lips For he pulled out a wild rose from a fold in his cloak And a tear fell upon it with the words that he spoke Oh the waters run high and the waters run low I’ll think of my darlin wherever I go For the waters run cloudy and ever so clear At the end of the world, at the turn of the year Then says he "Lovely Nancy, I’m called to the war That has been the misfortune of many before And the gift of your love now will not be remiss It’ll gently be taken and sealed with a kiss" Oh the waters run high and the waters run low I’ll think of my darlin wherever I go For the waters run cloudy and ever so clear At the end of the world, at the turn of the year And she answered him “Willie, say not a word more I’ve none of your roses and less of your war And I love when you take it, you’ll seal with a ring That’ll shine like the shilling you took from the King” Oh the waters run high and the waters run low I’ll think of my darlin wherever I go For the waters run cloudy and ever so clear At the end of the world, at the turn of the year "For if danger awaits you on far distant shores It’s of perfumes and petticoats, harlots and whores But I’ll love and I’ll trust and I know you’ll be true For my brother, the Captain, will see that you do” And the waters run high and the waters run low I’ll think of my darlin wherever I go For the waters run cloudy and ever so clear At the end of the world, at the turn of the year
7.
OLD JACK OF HEARTS It’s time for us to leave her, Johnny, leave her Unwind your aching body from the sea O, Jack of Hearts, you’re every inch a sailor Just waiting for the wind to set you free It’s taken over twenty years to roll the woodpile down Now we’re headed for the harbour and the houses in the town Singin haul away the moon until tomorrow The wind’s in love and lucky like a prayer That gambles all its grace to be closer to her face And tangle up its fingers in her hair They never would’ve called you Jack, the dandy The man who taught a foxtrot to the whales But still, Old Jack, you’re every inch a tailor In dungarees that used to be your sails There’s fire in the fo’c’sle and the old man doesn’t know There’s fire in the belly and fire down below Singin haul away the moon until tomorrow Too far away from heaven much to care Since heaven found a home in the fingers of a comb That hide away so homely in her hair Then cast your awful eyes across the harbour Wonder if it rains in Zanzibar Remembering how forty years a whaler Were empty as a wish without a star Now all the lovesick mermaids on the coast of Labrador Say “Throw your arms around her, Jack, and go to sea no more” And we’ll haul away the moon until tomorrow Tonight the stars are falling everywhere There’s such a pretty stain on the fingers of the rain That hang in tiny ribbons in her hair It’s time for us to leave her, Johnny, leave her Unwind your aching body from the sea O, Jack of Hearts, you’re every inch a sailor Be grateful to the love that sets you free O, Jack of Hearts, you’re every inch a sailor Be grateful to the love that sets you free
8.
OUR LADY, THE BUDDHA Though the Valley of the Shadow may be bleak and hard to view It’s the Alleys of the Living I have trouble walking through At times I lose the fire, I can barely find a spark Though I dream of you as angels dream of honey in the dark And there you are – shining through the madness Like a star cooling every bruise And every star Hanging like your mother’s only pearl Pouring out your mercy on the world I see hours when I wonder if you see me on my knees When your favours fall on others and you leave me here to freeze While I hunger like a bridegroom for the body of the bride Never filled but not forsaken, all alone and mystified And there you are – shining through the madness Like a star cooling every bruise And every star Hanging like your mother’s only pearl Pouring out your mercy on the world And like a rebel in the outland when the revolution fails Like a ship out on the ocean with no shiver in the sails Like the ailing eyes of Noah looking seaward to the dove Like an answer in the silence I will rise again to love And there you are – shining through the madness Like a star cooling every bruise And every star Hanging like your mother’s only pearl Pouring out your mercy on the world And when the world resigns and withers and the time has come to go With an invitation written like a fire in the snow As the hours of my exile dance away into the past With my cares among the lilies I’ll be going home at last And there you are – shining through the madness Like a star cooling every bruise And every star Hanging like your mother’s only pearl Pouring out your mercy on the world And like a rebel in the outland when the revolution fails Like a ship out on the ocean with no shiver in the sails Like the ailing eyes of Noah looking seaward to the dove Like an answer in the silence I will rise again to love And there you are – shining through the madness Like a star cooling every bruise And every star Hanging like your mother’s only pearl Pouring out your mercy on the world
9.
HIGH NOON IN THE WASTELAND Hey what you doin here, girl How’d you get to my heart? Have you got some business you ain’t finished Or some you want to start? Come a little bit closer Have I got something you want? Are you just some fallen angel Looking for a place to haunt Or are you just passing through, girl Or are you planning to stay? Did you have some clear intention When you took my breath away? I could wait for the answers But that could take a long time And I’d only end up wanting you and that’d be some kind of crime Because the hands on my wristwatch And the clock on the wall Say it’s high noon in the wasteland Push is coming down to shove Get out of here before I fall in love Are you the man in the moon, girl Or did you come from a star? I could figure out just what I’m feeling If I knew just what you are Cause anything that I call you Ain’t always all that it seems I know you ain’t no girl, you ain’t no baby You’re the woman in my dreams And I’ve been dreaming all day, girl I’ve been dreaming all year But I never dreamed I’d wake up dreaming And I’d see you sitting here But every dream is a tangle And there’s no way to romance When the band’s all done rehearsing And they’re calling off the dance We’re heading out for the border We’re going over the wall And it’s high noon in the wasteland Push is coming down to shove Get out of here before I fall in love Am I awake or asleep, girl Am I dreaming your smile? First I’m lookin at the Mona Lisa then the Empress of the Nile There’s a beautiful daughter And some heavenly queen There’s this scarlet whore of Babylon And every woman in between They’ve come to sweeten my sorrow They come to wash it away But I’ve heard the mermaids singing And they sound like Lady Day So don’t you make it all shine, girl Don’t you make it complete Cause the mob outside is howlin They want gunsmoke in the streets And now the cop on the corner And the clock in the hall Say it’s high noon in the wasteland Push is coming down to shove Get out of here before I fall in love Come here and tell me again, girl I guess I kinda forget Was it just last week Or in some other lifetime that we met? It’s been a mighty long time, girl Since we were innocent teens But you can still put on your high heeled sneakers And your rolled up Levi jeans And call me boy if you want to And I’ll be calling you girl And at dancetime you can be my baby And I’ll be your Duke of Earl But something’s going all wrong, girl I feel alone and aloof Cause the sky is clear, there ain’t no thunder But there’s rain upon the roof It’s coming down for the deluge And coming after the fall And it’s high noon in the wasteland Push is coming down to shove Get out of here before I fall in love Get out of here before I fall in love
10.
BURGUNDY CIDER A Pocahontas trembled and she flew like a bee And the Nina and the Pinta and the Sault St Marie Sailed into the harbour from over the sea So she went and told her daddy and the neighbourhood chief Take the Chamber of Commerce off of relief There’s a wagonload of thirsty sailors out on Marie Fill em up with burgundy cider And we’ll all have a ball Hold a big reception in the new City Hall Sell a load of totem poles and cheap souvenirs For the biggest heap of profits in 70 years Get busy with the banners and the buttons that say: Welcome Christopher Columbus to the beautiful town of Bombay Oh, old Uncle Charlie got a terrible fright Couldn’t get religion on a Saturday night He went to the whiskey but he couldn’t get tight So the family doctor said put him to bed Cause a sinner when he’s sober is better off dead But he went off to Texas, got married instead Now he’s drinking burgundy cider from a glass through a straw Doesn’t hate his neighbour or his mother in law A month from next Sunday, he’s a hundred and four And his twenty-seven children on the living room floor You gotta give the credit where the credit is due Talk civil to the Indians, maybe they’ll give it to you And Luther’s cousin, Junior, was-a ballin the jack With a load of White Lightnin ridin high in the back He met the county sheriff at the end of the track Well Junior got nervous and started to run The sheriff said “Hold it!” and went for his gun He said “Something smells suspicious, I think we’d better look at it, son” But it changed to burgundy cider to the sheriff’s surprise Bubblin and a-sparklin right in front of his eyes Junior went a running on back to the farm Like a spotted dalmatian to a fire alarm Mama said “Junior, it’s the work of the Lord, But just in case it isn’t, son, you’d better get rid of that board.” Archimedes and Aristotle went on a spree, Hitting every bar in Brooklyn til a quarter to three But the friendship nearly ended when they couldn’t agree On where to find the water for the Fountain of Youth Or a proper definition for the ultimate truth Then they found the answer written in a telephone booth Archie hollered “Burgundy Cider, Aristotle come quick When he started drawing diagrammes and waving his stick They bought some copper tubing and they built them a still Stuck it in their old jalopy and moved to the hills They built a little cabin where they live all alone And they make a little moonshine They call the Philosopher’s Stone
11.
JESUS LOVES THE WORKING FOLK He was just a guy who had a job that needed to be done Come to rob us with a briefcase but he should’ve used a gun Cause Jesus loves the working folks and all their girls and boys He never let em take away the baby’s Christmas toys Daddy always found a way to smile when times were tough He had a lot of promise, he just never had enough And he never let the hard work or the hard times get him down Never let us kids go short when Christmas came around Then one year a stranger came, a man we didn’t know And a chill got even colder than the January snow He said “Your payment’s overdue, it all belongs to me” He took the wishbone from the turkey and the tinsel from the tree He took all our Christmas presents, Daddy’s suit and Mama’s shawl The upholstery from the pickup truck and the paper from the wall We just stood there in silence as he shook poor Daddy’s hand He said “It’s nothing personal I hope you’ll understand” He was just a guy who had a job that needed to be done Come to rob us with a briefcase but he should’ve used a gun Cause Jesus loves the working folks and all their girls and boys He never let em take away the baby’s Christmas toys Y’see Daddy had a hound dog by the name of Dan’l Boone He must’ve took that stranger for a possum or a coon He lit out a running when he heard that fellow sneeze And left him with a puncture in his satin BVDs Now Dan’l Boone never did that kind of thing before That stranger never even stopped to open up the door Just took off like Santa’s reindeer in a signifying bound Came down in an outhouse on the other side of town Scared the livin hell out of poor ol Joe Bob Denton Who was quietly waiting the imminent revival of the Confederacy While keeping company with a quart bottle of Christmas whiskey And contemplating the aesthetic subtleties of the lingerie section Of the Fall and Winter 1956 edition Of the Sears and Roebuck mail order catalog may it rest in peace They say that stranger passed away back in 1962 Just as ornery as he ever was and, if it’s really true Cause the Devil keeps those special jobs for those he really hates Now he’s repossessing bibles outside the Pearly Gates He was just a guy who had a job that needed to be done Come to rob us with a briefcase but he should’ve used a gun Cause Jesus loves the working folks and all their girls and boys He never let em take away the baby’s Christmas toys Yeah, Jesus loves the working folks and all their girls and boys He never let em take away the baby’s Christmas toys
12.
SINGING THROUGH THE SLAUGHTER Stranger at my open door, Such a shabby troubadour In your clothes that smell of war, other lands and ocean water, Is there news of any cheer? Well there’s some been awful queer In the wind that brought you here singing through the slaughter Silly exile, don’t you know Foreign winds don’t have to blow Why’d you think you had to go read the dreams of Pharoah’s daughter? Some day soon she’ll be a queen She’ll quit asking what they mean And about the things you’ve seen singing through the slaughter Beat the Devil, roll the dice There’s a bridge in Paradise You don’t get to cross it twice and see her face again When my lover goes to sleep Angels at her floral feet All her sorrows in a heap, all the pleasures love has brought her And a song of simple prayer She can use to bless the air Til the morning finds her there singing through the slaughter Beat the Devil, roll the dice There’s a bridge in Paradise You don’t get to cross it twice and see her face again Then the kings come out to play In their coats of blue and grey Watch 'em slingin, see them sway, hear them teeter, see them totter One for Abel, two for Cain in the gently falling rain Nothing but the stars remain singing through the slaughter One for Abel, two for Cain in the gently falling rain Nothing but the stars remain singing through the slaughter
13.
SISTERS OF THE ROAD As I lay me down to sleep here among your broken sheep Crying out for love to keep the beaten and the bowed Lying here with rogues and thieves someone comes who still believes Tender arms in folded sleeves sisters of the road Nothing here is guaranteed joy or sorrow, love or greed, Live the life you're meant to lead you'll reap the one you’ve sow'd Heaven helps what heaven heals and the morning sun reveals Humble hearts in heaven's wheels sisters of the road Though at times you'll stand alone and your soul grow hard as bone Still there's water in that stone as fine as ever flowed Wish it may and wish it might lead us kindly through the night Daily closer to the light our heroes ever showed With all that love and grace intend mile to mile and friend to friend From Delano to the rainbow's end sisters of the road So praised be love and thanks be said for the roses and the bread and the sky above our heads sweet nature has bestowed For the crazy world's designing clever clouds with silver lining and your presence ever shining Sisters of the Road

about

All songs, word and music ©1999 by Al Grierson (SOCAN) and A.G. Publishing BMI

credits

released January 1, 1999

Al Grierson - vocals, guitar, harmonica. Recorded, mixed and mastered at Acme Arts, Jacksonville, OR. Engineered by Mark Nelson. Produced by Al Grierson. Cover photo by Christopher Briscoe.

Al's liner note: "The album title, Candle For Durruti, comes from Dave Van Ronk who told me once about a friend of his who would never pass a Catholic Cathedral without stopping to light a candle in memory of Buenaventura Durruti, leader of the Anarchist Militia during the Spanish Civil War."

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Al Grierson

contact / help

Contact Al Grierson

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Al Grierson, you may also like: