News
The Decemberists: "Everything actually is awful, and it's not that funny"
Colin Meloy chats with Dork about getting out of old habits, branching out into literature and what’s next for The Decemberists.
About This Track
"The Mariner's Revenge Song" is a track by The Decemberists, from the album Picaresque, released 22nd March 2005. Full lyrics are available below. Dork has published 1 article about The Decemberists.
About the Artist
Lyrics
[Verse 1] We are two mariners, our ships' sole survivors In this belly of a whale Its ribs our ceiling beams, its guts our carpeting I guess we have some time to kill You may not remember me, I was a child of three And you, a lad of eighteen But I remember you, and I will relate to you How our histories interweave At the time you were a rake and a roustabout Spending all your money on the whores and hounds Oh-ohhhhh [Verse 2] You had a charming air, all cheap and debonair My widowed mother found so sweet And so she took you in, her sheets still warm with him Now filled with filth and foul disease As time wore on, you proved a debt-ridden drunken mess Leaving my mother a poor consumptive wretch Oh-ohhhhh [Verse 3] And then you disappeared, your gambling arrears The only thing you left behind And then the magistrate reclaimed our small estate And my poor mother lost her mind Then, one day in Spring, my dear sweet mother died But before she did, I took her hand as she, dying, cried: Oh-ohhhhh [Chorus] "Find him, bind him Tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters Drag him to a hole until he wakes up, naked Clawing at the ceiling of his grave" *Death rattle* [Verse 4] It took me fifteen years to swallow all my tears Among the urchins in the street Until a priory took pity and hired me To keep their vestry nice and neat But never once in the employ of these holy men Did I ever once turn my mind from the thought of revenge Oh-ohhhhh [Verse 5] One night I overheard the Prior exchanging words With a penitent whaler from the sea The captain of his ship, who matched you toe to tip Was known for wanton cruelty The following day, I shipped to sea with a privateer And in the whistle of the wind I could almost hear... Oh-ohhhhh [Chorus] "Find him, bind him Tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters Drag him to a hole until he wakes up, naked Clawing at the ceiling of his grave" [Bridge] "There is one thing I must say to you As you sail across the sea Always, your mother will watch over you As you avenge this wicked deed" [Instrumental Interlude] [Verse 6] And then that fateful night, we had you in our sight After twenty months at sea Your starboard flank abeam, I was getting my muskets clean When came this rumbling from beneath The ocean shook, the sky went black, and the captain quailed As before us grew the angry jaws of a giant whale Oh, oh (Screaming) Oh (Screaming) [Verse 7] Don't know how I survived, the crew all was chewed alive I must have slipped between his teeth But, oh, what providence, what divine intelligence! That you should survive as well as me It gives my heart great joy to see your eyes fill with fear So lean in close and I will whisper the last words you'll hear Oh, oh [Instrumental Outro]
Lyrics provided by LRCLIB
View full lyrics page →Track details
More from The Decemberists
Explore
Showing 10 of 231
READ MORE ABOUT THE DECEMBERISTSREAD MORE ABOUT THE DECEMBERISTSREAD MORE ABOUT THE DECEMBERISTSREAD MORE ABOUT THE DECEMBERISTSREAD MORE ABOUT THE DECEMBERISTSREAD MORE ABOUT THE DECEMBERISTS