John & Mary - The Weedkiller's Daughter

The Weedkiller's Daughter

Two Worlds Parted
(John Lombardo/Mary Ramsey)

Dancing around the public square
Red stars shooting everywhere
No clouds to grey the morning sky
Our tears will find a way to dry

Once locked, now open over there
Two worlds once parted:
There, now sewn together
With the past behind us

Red guards pray will dissappear
All our long journeys ended here
Starlings can swarm back to the nest
Now all our minds can be at rest

Once locked, now open over there
Two worlds once parted:
There, now sewn together
With the past behind us

Woke up the day to something new
Hung in the sky Chautauqua moon
Box trees bloom from lifeless stone
Families that left are coming home

Once locked, now open over there
Two worlds once parted:
There, now sewn together
With the past behind us

Angels Of Stone
(John Lombardo / Mary Ramsey)

The silence underneath the snow
Footprints where the grass
Won't grow revealed
Promise I won't be too late
Through the dark the iron gate was sealed
Someone came to lock our path
'Boost me up, I'll lift the latch,' we kneeled
When night met day, day met night
There we stood beneath the sudden light

And did you listen?
It's like I've heard this still sound before
Sunlight prism wide awake
Birds rest on the frozen lake, I saw them
When day met night, night met day
Touch my hand, I think I know the way
There in the park where we used to play
Angels of stone, they would always pray

A yellow room by candleglow
Picnic snapshots long ago, just happy
And father's boat, his raging tales
The magic wind that filled its sails
Could last me
One chance, and it has passed me
When day met night, night met day
All this time, I thought that I could stay
There in the park where we used to play
Angels of stone, they would always pray

Silence underneath the snow
Footprints where the grass won't grow

Your Return
(John Lombardo/Mary Ramsey)

I'd wondered if you'd mind me
Sitting here along the step
I'd wondered if you'd mind me
Looking for your silhouette
I counted tiny lights through cracks in the wall
For a little while a solitary day passed by

I sat on the corner
A double rainbow in the sky,
I sat on the corner
Where yesterday we said goodbye
My drawings on the sidewalk now disappear
For a little while a solitary day passed by

You asked me the time and I said to you:
'Look at the clock over there...'
But then you went away, I had nothing to say
But I waited for your return

A voice whispers softly the written word
The hope you gave
A voice whispers softly
From penny poems always saved
Behind the church a heart of snow melts to tears
For a little while a solitary day passed by

You asked me the day and I said to you,
'Look at the wall over there...'
But then you went away, I had nothing to say
But I waited for your return
For your return

Clare's Scarf
(John Lombardo/Mary Ramsey)

Now she is living in the garret
From fear she never leaves her home
The neighbors sunning on their porches
The world enchanting down below
She knows them like they were a family
But it is she they never see

Ooh Clare wraps the scarf around her head
The one she loves, rubious red
Peers through the looking glass
Her heart sinks slowly

Clare spends time with books
Of fancy riddled rhymes
And she tries hard at learning new words
She's making lists of every vow
She'll never keep

Clare wraps the scarf around her head
The one she loves, rubious red
Peers through the looking glass
Her heart sinks slowly

When sorting through her mind
She finds it hard to find
A memory that is all her own
Ooh you took all I ever wanted,
As though your own

Clare wakes up, morning starts with a parade
The flags were snapping in the sun
She saw old soldiers on display
Bowed and greyed but not afraid

Clare wraps the scarf around her head
The one she loves, rubious red
Peers through the looking glass
She walks on slowly
Ooh you took all I ever wanted
As though your own

Cemetery Ridge
(John Lombardo/Mary Ramsey)

Late in the afternoon
Most every summer Sunday
Most every holiday with nothing
Much at all to do
As three o'clock came round
We knew where she'd be found
Sitting in the back seat with her
Wrinkled yellow photographs

Into the car we'd pile, off to the edge of town
It was a cemetery Sunday drive
Turned upside down

But times were different then
And she'd remember when
And tell us stories
That we'd both heard many times before
In unmarked graves they say
The children silent lay
The church a haven
For the families come from far away

Into the car we'd pile, off to the edge of town
It was a cemetery Sunday drive
Turned upside down

If only to remember one day
The line of tiny crosses that were washed away
The seasons change their colors
You might wake up accepting things
Are really gone
It's not so strange not to abandon hope
Of finding markings for her first three daughters
and a son

Into the car we'd pile, off to the edge of town
It was a cemetery Sunday drive
Turned upside down
Think of the children

A Nightfall
(John Lombardo/Mary Ramsey)

Late in the nighttime, met in a dream
I was only five in it and you
Were probably nineteen
You were playing in the capitol
Of Washington D.C.

I walked through corridors pale marble green
And then there you were playing
'The Streets of Baltimore' again
The fringe upon your coat sleeves
Shook like leaves upon a tree

Maybe it was all because I played
Your records just before
Maybe it was something in your voice
That called to me again
Just like a sweater that wraps around
So close to me
You stayed with me then

Must have been summer porcelain clean
The room spread out a dome above me
Line of figurines
You said it was a song for me,
Your lamb a wild goose scene

Maybe it was all because I played
Your records just before
Maybe it was something in your voice
That called to me again
Just like a sweater that wraps around
So close to me
You stayed with me then

I dreamed green darkness
Sound filled the room
You walked away from me strumming a guitar
I fell with you

Maybe it was all because I played
Your records just before
Maybe it was something in your voice
That called to me again
Just like a sweater that wraps around
So close to me
You stayed with me then, a nightfall

I Wanted You
(R. Hudson/J. Ford)

My mind was like a roller coaster
Shall I take a look or turn the other way?
You stood there like a day-glo poster
Hoping to catch my eye,
Then maybe I'd get excited

Oh I can only say, you made me in a funny way
You saved me, and later in the day
Was the time I knew I wanted you

I'm sure I found my way to heaven
When looking up at you
In that early morning light
Did it point the way to us forever?
'Cause I needed you then
But I want you even more now

Oh I can only say, you made me in a funny way
You saved me, and later in the day
Was the time I knew I wanted you

You say your love could feed a nation
That you're saving for me
If this is the thing you've kept me waiting for
I'll stand the segregation of the waiting for you
That's turned into a lifetime

Oh I can only say, you made me in a funny way
You saved me, and later in the day
Was the time I knew I wanted you

One Step Backward
(John Lombardo/Mary Ramsey)

Stars shining through buildings,
I never could see
When I saw you there talk to the world
I was thinking it was me
A foggy grey runaway, pushing into the crowd
Shutters bang in the night, in the wind
Swollen eyes in the dark open wide
Till they see flowers red
Hang with love from the railings,
Maybe fate all along
Flowers grey
Pressed in glass painted cases
One step backward, I never felt so wrong

Summer nights we would travel,
Neon cities aglow
When you'd tell me the music's too loud,
I would smile, 'yes I know...'
Kids would show off their cities,
Be they ever so proud
Just as a precaution at night
Hold your housekeys like penknives
And see through the dark flowers red
Hang with love from the railings,
Maybe fate all along
Flowers grey
Pressed in glass-painted cases
One step backward, I never felt so wrong
Drawing faces of landscapes
Driving home from afar
After calendar pages turned over
To find out where you are
There are times I still see you
Alone on the stairs
Had I known for the asking
When gods choose to punish
It's likely surprise how they answer our prayers

Fly Me To The North
(Marian Segal)

Fly me to the north
To where the gentle lilacs never bloom
To where their fragrance never once again
Will enter my room
To where the whiteness is the only thing
That I can see
I just don't want to have to feel
Your sadness all around me

Fly me to where the branches
Of the tall oak tree
Can't shield me
To where the butterfly will never
Again fly past me
To where the moonbeams
Cannot hide the sadness of your face
To where the cold will numb my heart
So that you cannot hurt me
But on the way I will stop
By the bluest of all seas
I will find me a sea-smooth shell
And I will listen to the softness as
I put it to my ear,
To my ear

Clouds Of Reason
(John Lombardo/Mary Ramsey)

The bells of the village ring
Only three times they sing for the boy who decided
Just where he'd go
Hearing a Galveston radio show
The clouds of reason at times
They rain mistakenly
On the young ones that never should die alone

And he'd been through the Maritimes
And he'd been through the summertime
And he'd been through the wintertime
And the time told him just where to go
From the Gulf to the Northern Sea
Twenty years just a memory
He had given the time of his life
But his time was so limited

After searching all year non-stop
Up in Natchez he got a job
Where they never asked him papers to show
Where all you been they don't wanna know
As the captain was sizing him up
Held out a big hand to wish him luck:
'The smaller the sailor
the bigger the catch will bring'

At 6 a.m. it is still dark
A lantern makes its way down to the sea
He thinks of nighttime when
He'll be again with her
Twin beds pushed together
Hear the ocean breeze

The boat rocked in a troubled sea
Waking dreams are not meant to be
The boy lost his balance and into the foam
Never again to return to his home
The hardest thing for the captain to do
Was meeting Ann when
The long day was through
When she saw the boat empty
She knew without hearing the words

In old days he never let trouble
Like this get to him
Hiring a boy and then learning
He could never swim
The harborlights dim in the morning
That circles the bay
And the bells of the village ring three times
To welcome the day

Maid Of The Mist
(Mary Ramsey)

Centuries ago, for protection and prosperity,
the Niagara Indians of western New York and
southern Ontario would annually sacrifice the
fairest maiden of the tribe to the Great Spirit.
The young 'maid of the mist', in a white canoe
filled with fruits and flowers, would proudly steer
her own course over the mighty Falls. Legend has
it that the ghostly apparition of a beautiful Indian
princess can still be seen in the mist below the
cascading waters.

The Poor Murdered Woman
(Traditional)

It was Yankee the squire
As I've heard the men say
Who rode out a 'huntin' on one Saturday
They hunted all day but nothing they found
But a poor murdered woman
Laid on the cold ground

About eight o'clock boys the dogs
They throwed off
On Leatherhead Common
And that was the spot
They tried all the bushes but nothing they found
But a poor murdered woman
Laid on the cold ground

They mounted their horses
And they rode off the ground
They rode to the village
And alarmed it all around
It is late in the evening I'm sorry to say
She cannot be removed until the next day

The next Sunday morning about eight o'clock
Some hundreds of people
To the spot they did flock
For to see the poor creature
Your hearts would have bled
Some cold-hearted violence
Came into their heads

She was took off the common
And down to some inn
And the man that has kept it,
His name is John Simms
The coroner was sent for, the jury they pined
And soon they concluded and settled their mind

Her coffin was brought, in it she was laid
And took to the churchyard
This cold winter day
No father, no mother, no long friend untold
Came to see the poor creature
Laid under the cold

So now I'll conclude and I'll finish my song
And those that have damage
Shall find themselves wrong
The last day of Judgement
The trumpet shall sound
And their souls not in heaven
I'm afraid won't be found

All words Theme Park Music (ASCAP)/GMMI, a division of Gerd Muller Music International
MCA Music Publishing, a division of MCA Inc. - Except where noted.

Conceived and produced by Joske&Deca