Quartering

from THE GOTHIC (songs written 1995-96, age 15-16) by Alex Reed

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about

Spring 1996, this song was inspired by (and describes) a dream: climbing a mountain I encountered an old man with a gun. I was writing whole concept albums of material, and this was from a six-song collection that I called Tender Destruction, whose tracks each addressed different ways of dying. Cheerful, no? (The EP length was probably inspired by my love of NIN's Broken.) Not 100% sure where this song was written, but I know I composed some of that EP when visiting my friends Melissa and Kassandra in Belgium.

lyrics

Quartering:

As we lie on the voodoo of kings and their lies
Like an acid outburst, worms empty your eyes
And it’s hot as an ulcer and it’s dry as my tongue
And I’m making a promise to let her die young

Can I stop this evolving, this my Hamlet Machine?
Falling coasting bleeding moaning writhing running dying
Into my hands, into my dream
And then the withered man draws out his gun
See his revolver twitch—we weren’t anyone

Here is the house where I live, he said
Why are you coming for me?
A mountain a bridge you’re splitting your life
The hail of the traveler, me
This is the hill with no summit, boy
Only the death of a fool
Strike your end and you'll be gone
The laughter was everything cruel

As we lie on the bodies of those whom we seek
We wonder the purpose of climbing up high
The peak always growing the wind always blowing
We see with a stone, we cry

Paranoia how I miss you
The pain of serenity?
But when you're lost, exhausted
Knock the door, you’ll know it’s me

credits

from THE GOTHIC (songs written 1995-96, age 15-16), released July 24, 2018

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Alex Reed New York, New York

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