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City of Song

by The Battered Case

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    City of Song, by The Battered Case, in physical form!

    Includes unlimited streaming of City of Song via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Rip Van Winkle 03:40
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I dreamed I crossed a bridge above the Hudson Like Simon and Garfunkel might have built And I dreamed I drove up high on the Catskill Highway And slept with Rip Van Winkle in the hills There to wake A whole year distant Troubles over World renewed There to wake Our eyes a-blinking Like Rip van Winkle We slept right through And I dreamed I helped a man with a keg of liquor Who led me to a gathering in the glen Where the saddest souls that I had ever witnessed Made me play a game of ninepins without end We lay under clouds of thunder Close the casement bolt the door Tallyman called out the numbers I knelt and prayed there’d be no more
2.
Keep the Books 02:55
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There’s a cupboard in the corner no-one’s opened for years We got shelves full of ornaments and souvenirs Boxes full of papers that record our affairs And no-one knows what’s under the sink We’ve got chopping boards and paper plates and kilner jars Decorative vases from near and far Enough drinking glasses to open a bar Our friends don’t know what to think The time has come to empty all the crannies and nooks We’ve got a shed full of dibbers and hoses and hooks Going to the council dump But we can keep the books We’ve got boxes full of cables that will never connect DVI and VGA and Ethernet Computers that have fallen into disrespect Alexa’s on the shelf for good It may surprise you but I tell you no lie One day you’ll look up and look me in the eye I will still be here and that’s something you don’t read in a book Board games and bicycle pumps Rusty nails and cricket stumps Going to the council dump But we can keep the books
3.
Hollow 03:59
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It’s the wildest time To think about the one that never made it back in the evening For roses or wine A caption to a song that never rang true to a sibling But when I think of you in the hollow The way you turned out the light I pray that I will never follow I believe we all belong tonight It’s the wildest time To run into the grass and kick off your labels in the evening What’s yours is mine From the boy who cried wolf to the broken heart you left bleeding It’s the wildest time To stare into the dark at the sunlight fading in the evening You turn on a dime The hardest part is knowing what you’ve given up or started to believe in
4.
Part of You (Louka's Song) 04:02
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You may be short You may be tall You may be kind and thoughtful Or drive me up the wall I haven’t a clue Just that look in your eyes But I feel your fingers clutching And I'm torn Terrified You"ll feel joy You'll feel pain There is nothing that I can ever do To take that away You have the future I have the past But I share with you this precious present Knowing It won't last When it rains When it burns Remember me I gave you birth I am the arm that armours you I am the hand that pulls you through Always a part of you See how you stumble See how you fly When you’re calling out for comfort I will reply All down the years The rich and the lean I will be there behind you Watching and unseen
5.
All the Way to Istanbul 05:06
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3am: the milk train Comes rattling down the line Little Ada's head is spinning From too much Mosel wine A toast to Brigitte Bardot She's so fine She hangs on the washstand, cool and divine Robin’s stripping cables There are grooves cut in his teeth Liberty is sitting cross legged Sewing up her jeans Let's light another doobie Watch that Zippo flare Steely Dan are reeling in the years On and on the road goes Day by day and chance by chance We will buy a Bedford ambulance And drive to Paris, France Fit it out with cushions Take each day as it comes All the way to Istanbul Like the dharma bums Penny on the tonearm Keeps that needle down Bearsville record label The Runt is spinning round Someone cut the deck now We’ll hunt the Queen of Spades Steely Dan are doing it again The beer is free in Amsterdam You get all that you can drink We’ll drive the Champs Elysee, boys While Joni Mitchell sings And the bells of Paris ring
6.
Half Moon 04:56
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The skies are clearer here my friend We’re sailing on to the bitter end Leaving Manahatta to the trappers and the cackling geese There’s a passage to the North we’re told We go where Henry Hudson goes Amsterdam is dreaming of gold and the mystical East Land this good to cultivate Ought to make you happy to stop and pray Cut a little cabin, grow corn and pumpkin and bean I can see him standing there He’s a chief among the Delaware His eye on the river, hickory smoke on the breeze Half Moon A boat from the Zuider Zee Half Moon The day will come when she sets us free My name is Robert, I’m a Limehouse man My shipmates come from the Netherlands Excepting Mr Coleman - we buried him there on the shore He took an arrow to the throat For threatening the natives from a rowing boat And after that our company elected to stay safe on board We gave them pots and pans and seed They paid in venison and clamshell beads The free and mighty river shivering beneath our feet Sixteen men on a dead man’s trail Eyes in the forest as we set sail Sounding every fathom from the bay to the cold water sea The day will come when she sets us free The day will come when we set him free A little boat drifting on an open sea
7.
Cheesecake at Rocco's 04:37
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There’s an Uber on the corner got a fare that never showed And it’s a long long road from Brooklyn up to Queens Down in Coney Island Woody Guthrie’s ghost Is complaining that we don't know what he means The 59th Street bridge is just a few blocks over We can ride the MTA from 42nd Street And I'm standing at a stoplight watching truckers making potholes Thinking this is all I’ll ever need We'll walk arm in arm down the Avenue of the Americas Watch the old men playing chess, get lost in the Strand And I will buy you cheesecake at Rocco's The vagabond will lead you by the hand Through the city of song There are buskers by the fountain got a mountain of stomp boxes Their instruments have seen better times A man is blowing bubbles glowing pretty as a picture It puts me in an empire state of mind Fox is analyzing why the Mets have lost a pitcher For Syndergaard it has to be one base at a time And Bleecker and MacDougal is the centre of the world That’s the whole damn human race going by If you’re ever troubled If you ever tire Then take a ride from Track 29 Manhattan’s finest sirens Will be wailing in the brownstones Grass will be growing on the West Side Line
8.
Schmears on Sissel Rye 04:37
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I started up on Houston Street Selling herring from a barrel And every fish was a duty paid To the steamships and the sea How many months? How many years? The barrel became a wagon The linen girls come running When you rattle down the street Sable, sturgeon, carp and mackerel Chub and gefilte pike Almond covered halva bars Schmears on sissel rye I worked the canopies of Ludlow Street The headlong hunt for wealth I fed the firemen when the Shirtwaist burnt And all those people died Opened the store on Orchard Street Staffed it with my daughters Arithmetic became our guide We measure, we cut, we dry Every morning when the sun comes up We lay out our appetizers Off the street and out of the cold Come sample the merchandise These are the things we fear the most The sweater’s knife and the dark stairs The tailors and the hucksters Everybody knows my cry Sable, sturgeon, carp and mackerel Chub and gefilte pike Belly lox and blintzes Come near, come try, come buy Pumpernickel, bread or bagel Invite you to take a bite Almond covered halva bars California pistachios Charoset and matzo balls Schmears on sissel rye
9.
The Ocean 05:22
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No-one Gets out of here alive Comes a time When there isn’t any time Walk in the sunshine As long as there is light You’re not an afterthought Be stupid, be weird, be kind There are billions of stars up above Dark matter hides in the sky Raise a glass to the friends that have gone We’ll meet them again by and by So eat the delectable food Break this bread, sip this wine Speak the truth that you hold in your heart And swim in the ocean tonight Come sit with me Let me look at your face I see a story there Of the whole human race Everything you’ve done It’s a database Everything that was good and bad Has left it’s trace Under the cliff Where the water is blue That’s where we’ll dive The current is cool Watch the seabirds fly They’ll be calling to you Every shell you bring up from the depths Is a jewel Forget tomorrow It isn’t here And yesterday Is just smoke on the air Our table Boasts no silverware And every little thing we have We share
10.
Caribou 03:37
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I haven’t seen you since the spring A hundred days, or maybe two And I have felt this absence so, my dear These dreams I shed are all for you I haven’t touched a stranger’s hand Two hundred days, or three at most We keep our distance and our fears, my dear The mistletoe steals water from the host Tide keeps rolling in Salmon rest on gravel beds The Monarch flies to Mexico The swift sleeps on the wing Terra firms doesn’t mean a thing The caribou know where to roam The caribou know where to roam I haven’t gone about the town Three hundred days, perhaps a year I haven’t watched the setting sun, my love The wolf drives out the weakest deer I haven’t wandered in the woods A year at least, or maybe more We calculate the weight of risk, and fear The prettiest mushrooms, eaten raw

about

Everybody needs a side hustle. Especially in a time of lost time. There’s a lot that’s happened these past three years, and some songs that might ordinarily have found a place in the mainstream were left floating, in expectation of a project to gather them up.

City of Song, by The Battered Case, is that project. Ten new recordings, ten songs stretching back beyond lockdown. And that’s the last time we’ll have anything to say about that.

Think of the Battered Case as a spin-off from Thursday’s Band, with a studio focus and space to add musicians wherever the arrangements allow. Everything was made effortlessly beautiful by Matt Kelly’s glorious strings (and one banjo moment). Ali Cossor lent her lovely harmonies throughout, and David Cammish and Rhys Wilson, both of Thursday’s Band, contributed expert cameos. Everything was recorded at leisure in Mark’s converted garage or Matt’s attic. That’s the culture in the Case, and it appears to work.

All the songs on City of Song are by Mark Gamon. They don’t have to be, but that’s how this project evolved. Four tracks celebrate New York, one celebrates new life. One unpicks a memory, one a mystery. The rest are just about how to survive.

Songs are like that. It’s why we like them.

Select MERCH to order a physical copy, or go to www.clunkandrattle.com

credits

released November 6, 2023

Mark Gamon - guitars, bass, voice, virtuals
Matt Kelly - fiddles, violas, mandolin, banjo, kemençe, voice
Ali Cossor - voice
David Cammish - doghouse bass on 6 and 9
Rhys Wilson - guitar on 1, voice on 9

All songs © markgsongs 2023
Except track 3 © David Hardie, markgsongs 2023

Recorded and mixed by MarkG and Matt Kelly
Mastered by Andy Cross at www.zooaudio.co.uk
Vocal coaching: Liuba Doga
Design and artwork: whitebeardarts@gmail.com
Photography: www.markgamon.com

Apologies to Sir Anthony Hopkins (paraphrased on 9)

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The Battered Case Cambridge, UK

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