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A Little Wisdom

by BLACK WING BIRD

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1.
Zana 04:37
Zana's only seventeen She thinks she's on the silver screen She has the most amazing dreams of all Her boyfriend's just a little older He loves her but he's never told her He thinks one arm is enough to hold her on Zana keeps the things that scar her Buried under black mascara But sometimes it'll trickle down her face And it doesn't take that much to know It happened many years ago And I'm never going to ask her what to place Still. She fills my folded arms Still. She fills my folded arms Zana thinks she's heaven sent And everything she says is meant She'll always kiss an argument away Perhaps it's cause she's so naive She wears her sadness on her sleeve And somehow thinks that we should be the same Gods and monsters never scare her Though she sees them everywhere She'll pass them like a ticker tape parade But if she thinks you're beautiful She'll push you up against a wall And watch your resolution fall away Still. She fills my folded arms Still. She fills my folded arms Still. She fills my folded arms Still. She fills my folded arms And you swear You can't repeat this It's just not fair It's human weakness But she's there In little pieces All the time And she fills my folded arms All the time And she fills my folded arms All the time And she fills my folded arms All the time And she fills my folded arms
2.
Something then suddenly changed Somewhere in the back of your mind Why'd you always have to waste Your worry all the time It's more than just a matter of taste It's sorer than a question of pride Almost like your love is laced With a superstitious side Look I don't want to wind up split in two I'd rather just be wound up next to you So why d'you always have to misconstrue All the vicious things I don't even know I do Feeling like a cock of the walk Looking like the end of the night You know how I love to talk Shit to strangers when I'm high I've never been ready for change So I might as well give it a try Cos I don't want to push you away I don't want to cross that line Step outside the daybreak's overhead The red eyed little monster has been fed You wouldn't be the first to be misled By all the vicious things I don't even know I've said Lying in the bedroom popping pills Yelling at the church for ringing bells No amount of comfort ever kills All the vicious things People do despite themselves To spite themsleves
3.
We lost our ancient gods but didn't miss them All told I guess it cost a little wisdom Leave us with Jesus and we'll bargain with him And yet you'd think we'd get a little wisdom Last month for fourteen nights the sky was burning Some cracked, some fled, some said he was returning I cast my eyes up to the far off mountains And hoped that Isaac's son came down without him They'll come and take my hate my folder anger To crucify my lies and let them hang there An armageddon's easy if you spin it Cos every generation thinks they're in it The dogs of war are nothing if you tame them And kings go mad when no one's left to shame them I thought that beauty was a single vision Not just a hopeless cause or secret mission But now I know why all my heroes stumbled And all my pedestals have long since crumbled These broken teeth can't bite the biggest apple That Eden grew to be too big to tackle And since I'm sick of wishing I was younger I might be right to try to live with hunger And find a simple place to chase my shadows Because a gaol is better than a gallows Then I might see a little wisdom Then I might see a little wisdom Then I might see a little wisdom Then I might see a little wisdom Then I might see a little wisdom Then I might see a little wisdom Then I might see a little wisdom Then I might see a little wisdom And if at night you feel your bones awaken Don't let it frighten you you should be shaken You have a duty to the long surrender That much at least I hope you will remember
4.
New Blood 04:00
I was sick for a year Self indulgently blue Trying to drag myself clear From the beast in the room Leave me my apathy It's all that settles me now Newspaper articles Blown out to show the world Wearing out It's the flat fattened carcass on the road It's the phone lines heaving with crows Metal buttons in the Hard won ground Where the first men drowned New blood new blood Should be coming up soon New blood new blood Should be coming up soon Take my hand now my dear Set these omens aside Loud voices soon disappear But little tokens abide Show me some joi de vivre It's all that setles me now Sleeps in your dirty hair Taste of your sudden breaths In and out It's the third best home I've ever found It's the only persona I'll allow When I see you in some future time With a kid who Isn’t mine New blood new blood Should be coming up soon New blood new blood Should be coming up soon It takes a lot of time to disenchant a dreamer A little less to dispossess a dream When everything you lose just makes you leaner And let’s you see the spaces in between Yes I’m tired, but I know what’s required To kill the pain New blood new blood New blood new blood New blood new blood New blood new blood
5.
What a way to fall apart In front of everybody I'm sick of waiting in the car I've got the engine running When you come crashing down the stairs In all your subtle glory And send the pigeons flying scared Across the multistories You pull your massive shades Over your eyes Cos six out of seven days There's nowhere to hide You curl your legs up on the seat And wind the windows open I turn the dial to get some heat Although I know it's broken And you make wider eyes at me With every town we go through Cos you can't wait to see the sea And I can't wait to show you Making our separate ways Down to the coast Strange how these better days Stung me the most And I've got your empty coat Warm in my hands Stood by the lines you wrote Tall in the sand You got it right You got it right You got it right You got it right You got it right You got it right You got it right You got it right You got it right
6.
Alabaster 03:33
I know that she's a pistol Cos she twists all of my Winning wit away And we're all into bitchin' Still it's never very Christian What we say That alabaster brow Even now Feels like a miracle to me You little porcelain doll On a roll Setting out the way the world should be I want to fix the broken connection To your affection to your affection I want to fix the broken connection To your affection to your affection In our culture clashes I'm a fibber I'm a fascist I'm a fake Clinging by the fingertips While all my vast opinion Chips away That alabaster brow Even now Feels like a miracle to me You little porcelain doll On a roll Setting out the way the world should be I want to fix the broken connection To your affection to your affection I want to fix the broken connection To your affection to your affection I want to reach the part Where the hero turns around And picks the plot apart Stops the story dead And finally finds the wherewithal To put this flimsy fairy tale to bed
7.
Damn the rivers I would drain the seven seas If I thought that I could stop you drowning in it But I'm only human And I cannot cure disease I can only help you feel less bound up in it Light a candle Well they used to tell the time Now they only seem to burn for sex and loss of life Or pray to fortune Inside the colloseum Where everybody knows what getting lucky means Sailors and their lovers Whistle at the stroms While the precious people shudder At the sadness of it all At the sadness of it all Fuck the ruins I would rather see the streets The places where the blood still flows a little The type of history That's written in defeat The kind that gets between your toes a little A solemn promise A broken piece of prose That little lease of life that poetry exposed Sailors and their lovers Batten down the time Looking for each other In their every absent mind Adolescently entwined "Don't fear when some nights rise up wild. Go walk in heather along a narrow path. Seagulls gilde and curlews cry. Reach up and gather all this world. Before dark or any other people should ever come. And find you sheltering. As all hearts are. Worried lonely. Your eyes quiet. By the waters cold. Where the sadness lurks so deep. It doth Make you Still." Sailors and their lovers Struggle through the years Torturing each other With the hopes of getting near Like a nibble at the ear.
8.
Can But Try 04:51
You the feeder of my appetite You the creature I was born to fight You the victor of my blackest war You the one that I was waiting for You can tell me was she pretty I don't care I don't care I just think that it's a pity You got there. You got there. And I might not be like Cleopatra staring down the Romans Joan of Arc in silver armour living out her omens But I'll try I will try Can but try You the cheapskate in the saddest sense You the ingrate I was warned against You the witness to this crooked farce You the vampire in the looking glass You can tell me was she pretty I don't care I don't care I just think that it's a pity You got there. You got there. And I might not be like Cleopatra staring down the Romans Joan of Arc in silver armour living out her omens But I’ll try I will try Can but try You can tell me was she pretty I don't care I don't care I just think that it's a pity You got there. You got there. And I might not be like Cleopatra staring down the Romans Joan of Arc in silver armour living out her omens How could you be so beautiful to me How could you be so beautiful to me How could you be so beautiful to me How could you be so beautiful to me
9.
Desdemona takes a bank note Rolls it on her naked thigh Tells her husband that her father is a joke And he makes her so embarassed she could die Out on the rooftop terrace Fierce breezy Fierecly defiant She moves among the remnants Of a party That has since gone quiet Did you call your wild archangels (My graceless child) Summon heaven to your feet (My graceless child) Show your softest side to strangers (My graceless child) Tiny figured in the street Or were you only just an inprint Like some half remembered line On the trembling lips of schoolboys Getting mangled over time Did you learn to curse the devil And his psychopathic schemes Or did you realise the darkest dangers lurk In the actions of well-meaning human beings You could have shown some muscle Chosen patience Thrown your gauntlet down But there's ten thousand other Illuminations In this sun stroked town Did you wear that dress I got you (My graceless child) Shower sequins through the air (My graceless child) Or did you buy yourself another (My graceless child) As a tonic for dispair (My graceless child) Either way I bet you sparkled Up against the shaking rails Showing how to look successful Even when all else has failed
10.
I was gonna get away I was gonna get away When that one bullet spun me round And I let my lover lay, I let my lover lay me down In that abandonned place Weary from the chase I sunk my face into the dirt And I felt my lover loose, I felt my lover loose my shirt Young and laden down with all my kit I crossed the oceans like my father did To kill another man To kill another man And rinse my hands in foreign ground Till I let my lover lay, I let my lover lay me down South Australia in the summer time When all the beaches felt like hers and mine I said I'd be home in a month or six And spun her hair around my fingertips She took me by the belt She took me by the belt With words that felt like sacred vows And I let my lover lay I let my lover lay I let my lover lay I let my lover lay me down

credits

released February 16, 2016

All tracks written, arranged and produced by James Walmsley apart from 'You Got It Right' written by James Walmsley and Richard Doran Sherlock.

James Walmsley - vocals, guitars, percussion.

Megan Riordan - vocals and piano on 'Zana', 'Vicious Things', 'A Little Wisdom', 'Alabaster', 'Can But Try' and 'Let My Lover Lay Me Down'.

Emma Garnett - vocals on 'You Got It Right' and 'Graceless Child'

Richard Doran Sherlock - bass guitar on 'You Got It Right'.

All tracks recorded at Westland Studios Dublin. Engineered by John O'Kelly.

Mastered by David Montuy at Cauldron Studios, Dublin.

Artwork by Ronan Healy.

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Black Wing Bird Dublin, Ireland

Black Wing Bird is the solo project of Dublin based singer, guitarist, busker and bandleader James Walmsley.

The self-produced debut album A Little Wisdom was recorded at Westland Studios and released in February 2016 as part of the Scene and Heard Festival in Smock Alley Theatre.
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