This is the third of four in-depth blog posts for Folk Radio UK about songs from my new album “Esteesee”, an album inspired by the life and work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).
Track 3: The Curse of a Dead Man’s Eye
I’m writing these blog posts from my kitchen table, the place where most of my songs are written. This is Track 3 “The Curse of a Dead Man’s Eye.
I could have written an entire album based on the Ancient Mariner but in the interests of variety I limited myself to writing a contrasting pair: track 2 ‘My Captain’ and track 3 ‘The Curse of a Dead Man’s Eye’.
If you’re not familiar with The Rime of The Ancient Mariner it’s essentially a poem about a boat full of zombies… so think of it as being the 18th Century inspiration for the Pirates of The Caribbean films (that’s a grotesque over simplification but it helps to set the scene, and I’m sure it’s the reason this is one of my 12 year old daughters favourite songs on the album!).
Even if you’re not familiar with the poem you’ll probably still recognise some of the opening verse of this song. David Milton, who reads it on the album, is not only a fantastic local shanty singer but he is also the town crier for Watchet. The small harbour town of Watchet is a 5-minute drive from where I live now and allegedly inspired Coleridge to write The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
Day after day, day after day
We stuck, nor breath nor motion
As idle as a painted ship
upon a painted ocean
Water, Water, every where
And all the boards did shrink
Water, Water, every where
Nor any drop to drink
This is one of the songs on the album that draws very heavily on the original text that Coleridge wrote, in fact the second half of the chorus is word for word from the poem:
The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.
I always wanted this to be a dark song. It’s the song about the slimy things, and has that horrific vision of men so parched that they have to drink their own blood just to be able to cry out loud.
The “water, water” that runs through the background and the drum that imitates the cadence of the oars and the imagery of a slave master keeping time were two of the first elements that came together. They also led to one of my favourite studio moments as a producer, when I got to direct Steve Knightley in all seriousness to “be more zombie”.
The decision to open this song with spoken word was a difficult one at first. It was the moment that I realised I wanted to create an album that hung together perhaps more as a whole than necessarily as individual songs. Of course it matters that the songs stand alone, and I think they do, but the introduction and placement of spoken word elements was a risk that I took to help the whole album stand together.
Lyrics:
Four times fifty men did lie
With heavy thump nor groan nor sigh,
I can’t look away, Lord knows I’ve tried,
From the curse of a dead man’s eye.All in a hot and a copper sky
Parched only dust in my lungs so dry,
I drink of the blood from my arms to cry
for the curse of a dead man’s eye.All at my feet did the dead men lie
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
Alone, all alone, yet I could not die
for the curse of a dead man’s eye.The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.All but the dead men rot and blight
The rotting flesh did reek awry,
And all but the souls of the dead men lie
for the curse of a dead man’s eye.All at my feet did the dead men lie
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
Alone, all alone, yet I could not die
for the curse of a dead man’s eye.The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.Four times fifty men did lie
With heavy thump nor groan nor sigh,
I can’t look away, Lord knows I’ve tried,
From the curse of a dead man’s eye.
By: Ange Hardy
Esteesee is released on 24th September 2015 via Story Records (pre-order it here)
‘Esteeesee’ Album Tour & Launch
Along The Coleridge Way
OCTOBER
3rd: Nether Stowey
4th: Halsway Manor – ALBUM LAUNCH!
6th: Holford & District
7th: Bicknoller
8th: East Quantoxhead
9th: Sampford Brett
10th: Stogumber
11th: Wheddon Cross
12th: Roadwater
14th: Luxborough
15th: Luccombe
16th: Porlock
17th: Brendon & Countisbury
18th: Lynmouth Pavilion Project
For details of all of Ange Hardy’s upcoming gig dates please click here.
Read all of Ange’s Posts here.