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Rating: Hic sunt leones.
Listening to this immense album means getting lost in the no man's land of ancient cartographers: bass clattering, hyperkinetic drums, the voice of Jeffrey Lee Pierce that never stops but seems to almost take the form of the ghosts he evokes. His vocal cords strangle the lyrics, sob, suck, swallow... all accompanied by extremely high doses of sulfurous rock.
Pierce, with his companions of the time Ward Dotson Terry Graham and Rob Ritter, signs his masterpiece here: post punk which, like a spoon, dips into the Delta blues cauldron, giving us a sonic mixture on the verge of exploding and that will rarely be equaled. The same Lee Pierce will remain a martyr of rock, dark and sepulchral, with his voice a worthy heir to Jim Morrison and a perpetually sullen face... a man who always seemed dirty, always on the verge of causing a commotion, and who inspired numerous artists to come: consider, for example, Mark Lanegan, who in the album "I'll Take Care Of You" revisits the solemn "Carry home" in an unusual way, a cornerstone of this album.
The ritual of this dance covers typical scenarios of black folk music: you can enjoy the preparations for a voodoo mass, as you can remain suffocated by the heat and insects that "Watermelon Man" evokes. This is blacker-than-black music, reviewed and corrected by the drugged and destabilizing mind of a white boy, son of punk and its ephemeral revolution, who not satisfied with his brothers' rock sins and wanders into a red-light district echoing with forbidden music, the oldest and most fragrant, like the bosom of a beautiful mulatta. Finally, a nightmare full of broken branches and mud transported into the city by a luxurious and polished taxi where our heroes, wasted and dirty, snort cocaine while caressing the glossy thighs of four black and semi-nude ladies, while the radio screams like a fury: "Like Calling Up Thunder".
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Carry Home (03:18)
Come down to the willow garden
with me
come go with me
come go and see
Although I've howled across fields and my eyes
turned grey
are yours still the same?
are you still the same?
Carry Home
I have returned
through so many highways
and so many tears
Your letter never survived the heat of
my hand
my burning hand
my sweating hand
Your love never survived the heat of
my heart
my violent heart
in the dark
Carry Home
I have returned
through so many highways
and so many tears
Carry Home to where I am from
carry to the place that I have come
carry to the dust and flies behind me
carry to the cracks and caves on the face of me
Oh, but I didn't change, I just had to work
Yeah, but I didn't change, I just had to work
and now I'm home, and now I'm home
do you still want me?
Now, that I'm home
Come down to the willow garden with me
come go with me
come go and see
03 Brother and Sister (03:02)
Why do you keep me
way underground?
My sight is dying
as was the sound.
Why do you paint me
and cover me with jewels?
Where are we going?
What are we going to do?
you used to say, you'd take me home
but, I keep falling to the sister
brother falls unto the sister
keep getting pushed further and further
away
The sins of me
they buzz and hiss in the trees
their little skeletons
will harm no one
Why do you always
bring them back to me
they're kingdom come
and earth will be done
on heaven and earth and me
you used to say, you'd take me home
but, I keep falling to the sister
brother falls unto the sister
keep getting pushed further and further
away
And who is that there
always beside you
when I count us together
together we are only two
I had a dream
and there was foxfire in your hair
I am your brother, your lover
I give you my blood
I will follow you anywhere
you used to say, but, you never know
but, I keep falling to the sister
brother falls unto the sister
keep getting pushed further and further
away
07 Watermelon Man (04:11)
See the Watermelon Man ah' come
see the Watermelon Man ah' come
see the Watermelon Man ah' come
see the Watermelon Man ah' come
Haiyo! Haiyo yah!
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
Haiyo! Haiyo yah!
He no dead, he no dead he dea' yah!
See the Watermelon Man ah' come
See the Watermelon Man ah' come
See the Watermelon Man ah' come
See the Watermelon Man ah' come
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
See the man put on a smiley face
Haiyo! Haiyo yah!
He no dead, he no dead he dea' yah!
Haiyo! Haiyo yah!
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Other reviews
By supersoul
Jeffrey Lee Pierce, the classic American loser, with that voice too big for his small stature.
This man calms you down and gives you chills at the same time.
By preachinblues
The blues is like a cruel chill that makes you shiver, so preachin’ blues, uh uh uh, preachin blues now......
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