Random Thinking

Here’s the song of the week from my iPod. As I mentioned last week, I would be putting up Mikey’s number one favorite song and here it is…

The Decemberists already had a song of the week so I don’t need to go into detail about them. Instead we will discuss this week’s song and the album it came from. We (Michel, Beth, and I) saw the Decemberists perform in concert at Radio City Music Hall and it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. They performed this entire album (and, after a break, some additional songs) and it was amazing.

The album, The Hazard’s of Love, tells the story of a young woman named Margaret who goes into the forest for a stroll and finds an injured fawn. She helps the fawn who then turns into a young man named William. The two fall desperately in love but in the morning, William has disappeared. Later Margaret goes back to the forest to find William because she carries their child. William, we discover, had been abandoned by his mother in the forest as an infant but had been rescued by the Queen of the Forest. She doesn’t want William to marry Margaret so she hands Margaret over to the Rake who intends to have his way with her and then dispose of her. William goes off to rescue her.

The Rake’s Song is Mikey’s favorite song. It is sung by the Rake and he tells us of his past. What we learn is that the Rake had married at the age of 21 but quickly learned, as his wife had children, that he didn’t want to be married but wished to be a bachelor and enjoy the pleasures of having many women. After his wife died in childbirth, the Rake is stuck with several children who he decides to murder so that he can live a life of debauchery. So yes, Mikey’s favorite song is about a father who kills his children! But not to worry, the Rake gets his in the end as his children get their revenge.

The Rake’s Song
I had entered into a marriage
In the summer of my twenty-first year
And the bells rang for our wedding
Only now do I remember it clear
Alright, alright, alright

No more a rake and no more a bachelor
I was wedded and it whetted my thirst
Until her womb start spilling out babies
Only then did I reckon my curse
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

First came Eziah with his crinkled little fingers
Then came Charlotte and that wretched girl Dawn
Ugly Myfanwy died on delivery
Mercifully taking her mother along
Alright, alright, alright

What can one do when one is widower
Shamefully saddled with three little pests
All that I wanted was the freedom of a new life
So my burden I began to divest
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

Charlotte I buried after feeding her foxglove
Dawn was easy, she was drowned in the bath
Eziah fought but was easily bested
Burned his body for incurring my wrath
Alright, alright, alright

And that’s how I came your humble narrator
To be living so easy and free
Expect you think that I should be haunted
But it never really bothers me
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright