Starsailor


"Come Here Woman"

You caught me staring so gently
You tease me and turn away
Unlike the young ones
Your movements you savor
Like a tango
My hideaways are longing for you
You shyly conjure
These moments surrounding
Keep me tonight
All your practiced ways you secretly entice me
Come here woman! 

Like an old window
I need a little shade
Like an old tomcat
Lord I love to parade
Like a broken old man
Lord I need sun 

Ah, I need you darlin'
Cause I just ain't done 

While wheel waters set
Now my blood yearns
Your mouth opens woman
Give me broken lies
When you don't feel pain
Let me smell your thighs, mama
Let me drink down a little rain, man
While we're drifting cold
Out beyond the seas
We wither time into a coil of fear 


"I Woke Up"

Now the sun sits on my hand
O where are you ?
Walking the wind I fly above the shore of the town
To the hills where I can hear
The harbor bells ring slavery
Where the fortune teller sighs to me
O I see your woman in the raw
Ride a mare of stone and howl 

I woke up
While morning built
The world with light, 
Crossing their hearts,
Twelve sailor boys all stood in a ring
Round our bed,
And from the grass a dancer rose,
Shivering,
Oh the sailors pointing
Out to sea
And the dancer diving
Up the sky
'Til we forgot the day 


"Monterey"
( Larry Beckett )

Under a loop of stars in the vulgar cold
The dead airport lay
By the pebbles of the highway
Through the snail clouds
You soared to your lover
I hurried away my darling
With a howl in my throat. 

Hiding inside the weeds
In the orange grove,
The black rooster crowed
Through the hollow of the midnight. 

With my shot blood,
With stains on my fingers,
I run with the damned, my darling:
They have taught me to laugh. 


"Moulin Rouge"
( Larry Beckett )

"Comme la chanson est belle"
Chantez la Mademoiselle
Dansant dans le Moulin Rouge 

"Love is a leap" she sighed
"Someday I'll be your bride,
When I leave the Moulin Rouge"
Je vais marier ma fille de danse
Et habiter en France 

"Comme la chanson est belle"
Chantez la Mademoiselle
Dansant dans le Moulin Rouge
Dansant dans le Moulin Rouge
Dansant dans le Moulin Rouge 

"Oh la la la" she sang
Spinning till midnight swang,
Dancing in the Moulin Rouge 

I love her love I do,
All of her children too,
Oh I thank you, Moulin Rouge!
Je vais marier ma fille de danse
Et habiter en France 

"Comme la chanson est belle"
Chantez la Mademoiselle
Dansant dans le Moulin Rouge
Dansant dans le Moulin Rouge 
Dansant dans le Moulin Rouge 


"Song To The Siren"
( Larry Beckett )

Long afloat on shipless oceans
I did all my best to smile
'Til your singing eyes and fingers
Drew me loving to your isle
And you sang
Sail to me
Sail to me
Let me enfold you
Here I am 
Here I am
Waiting to hold you 

Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you hare when I was fox?
Now my foolish boat is leaning 
Broken lovelorn on your rocks,
For you sing, "Touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow:
O my heart, O my heart shies from the sorrow" 

I am puzzled as the newborn child
I am troubled at the tide:
Should I stand amid the breakers?
Should I lie with Death my bride?
Hear me sing, "Swim to me, Swim to me, Let me enfold you:
Here I am, Here I am, Waiting to hold you" 


"Jungle Fire"

Somewhere old memories
Echoed from the street in a
Crying hole
Just a song from long ago
When I lost my easy gods to the Harlem insect laws
I heard your baited moans and the passing cars and the swirling
songs and the black man's bones
Through the walls and the stalls and the cackling calls
You were there
You were an island behind the sun
Yes an island
Where my love could live and life breathes
From deep inside
Deep deep deep deep inside
Mama Lie, I love you like a jungle fire 


"Starsailor"

I am a bee out in the fields of winter
And though I memorized the slope of water,
Oblivion carries me on his shoulder:
Beyond the suns I speak and circuits shiver,
But though I shout the wisdom of the maps,
I am a salmon in the ring shape river. 

Composer's Notes. Harmonic structure: a set of horizontal vocal lines
is improvised in at least three ranges, the vertical effect
of which is atonal tone clusters and arhythmic counterpoint. 

Performance: the written melody is to be sung, after which
the lines of lyric are to be reordered at will and sung
to improvised melody, taking advantage of the opportunity
for quartertones, third note lengths, and flexible tempo. 


"The Healing Festival"

Black tan brown and white
Repeat the order and we've tried
All the lovely little steps
That hope turn the eyes
And footsteps of you
Friend to lend for once
Behold that healing festival
Complete for an instant
The dance figure pure constellation


"Down By The Borderline"

Way down on the borderline
Down where white folks tread easy
That sun beats so hot sun beats so hot
When a little girl pass by
You can smell the way she walks
You can smell, you can smell the way she walks
In late afternoon
Ah, in late
Little girl little girl little girl
Smile so brightly
Come on boy come on boy
Oh Take a walk with me