Lungs (Townes Van Zandt Cover) Live

Holly

Practice makes perfect, it's said. When I had another listen to the previous version of this song, which I uploaded about a week ago, I noticed that it had a couple of flaws that I knew could correct, and I was pretty annoyed with myself that I had been so eager to upload.  Anyway, here's my new attempt to render "Lungs" into a trap arrangement.

Some time ago now, I got the idea to make a cover of this song by Townes Van Zandt, whom I have admired for a long time. I started out making a rather conventional track, with guitar, vocals and drum machine (I called this the Campfire Remix), but since I'm not very good at playing the guitar, the result wasn't all that exciting. Reading about trap music in the book Interactive Composition, I decided instead to try to use the audio files as building blocks for something new; this song is the result of that. I also recently discovered the music of 6lack, which turned out to be a big influence, at least when it comes to the atmosphere of the song.

The photo is taken by Tom Swinnen and used under a CC0 license.

Lungs, Townes Van Zandt Cover (Better Trap Remix)

FISH DRUNK
Sticks and stones will bust your nose
It’s true that death wont hurt you
When the ship gets split 
By the ice burgs tip
Just watch them all desert you

I woke up in the belly of a whale
With 10 dead fish drunk sailors
Came ashore on a busted door
To the caravan park of failures
17 hogs and a bucket of swill
We torch the bridge at midnight
Left my home for the great unknown
Got to be somewhere I can feel all right

I took my gun and shot my own hat
Raised my tent in the rolling river
Vladimir’s dead from a hole in his head
Or the vodka that drank his liver

18 dogs on the carcass of love
Man ! that ship is sinking
I drove that nail right through my head
To stop this painful thinking



John, John the King’s done gone
The Queen’s run away with a chambermaid
The rigs on fire, around the Russian choir
And we got to get back before the license expires

Hoist the skull and both its bones
Black water cold and freezing
As we go down we’ll ask out loud
Who is this god were pleasing?

That big black hole in the middle of the sea
That eats up boats and wailers
Will pull you down to the devil’s cave
With riff raff, scum and traitors

John, John our Kingdom’s come
The Queen’s run off with a chambermaid
The rigs on fire, around the Russian choir
And we got to get back before the license expires




I raked my hair with a fish bone comb
Rang the devil @ 5 to midnight
Hold off the flood, I’ll give my blood
How in hell do we make this all right

I got mowed down on the fatal shore
The Pox did me no favours
I bit my tongue and shut my jaw                                                                                   
Nailed myself to the cross of traitors

John, John, were in trouble from God
The bilge is a full of water
And the captains off his scone
There’s a shark on the deck
A noose around my neck
The cradle in the crows nest
Holds the sleeping baby son of god
   
I woke up in the belly of a whale
With 10 dead fish drunk sailors
Came ashore on a busted door
To the caravan park of failures

FISH DRUNK (lyrics)

“DON THE REVELATOR”

Oh Hidy hi hi hi 
Lordy oh no ho
Shit its Don The Revalator 
Ringing me? on the phone

Hoddie ho ho ho
Hidey hi hi hi 
Hell!! I think he’s coming on over 
He ain’t even saying why

Hells bells oh no no
Hidey why why why?
He’s an asshole in wolfs clothing
He’s just loves to watch you cry

Tappity , tap, tap tap
Who’s that knocking at my door
Oh it’s Don the Revelator
He looks crazier than before

Oh goodness and gracious
His rapture has begun
His hands have vanished  down his cassock
He’s just started having fun

Lordy lord lord
Where am I gona run
He scares the socks out of my shoes
He panics even me to get a gun

 I wont unlock this door! Go to hell!
No way I’ll let you in
You’d steel the cat food from my dish
And all the bickies from their tin

Bang, Bang, bang,bang
What the fuck the hell you want
I been baptised already
I drank all the water from the font

Oh goodness  gracious
His rapture is complete
He thinks he can save humanity 
By cleaving the arrogant from the meek

Oh goodness gracious
His rapture has began
His hands have vanished down his cassock
His rapture has begun

Hidy hi hi hi 
Hoddie oh ho ho
Its Don The Revelator 
Ringing on the phone

Hoady ho ho ho
Hidey hi hi hi 
He’s an asshole in wolfs clothing
He’s only happy when he makes you cry

 There was lightning in the heavens
hoodoo and voodoo perpetrated on the poor 
They were  deluded with smoke and mirror
Till they knew not the truth no more

Truth   the only one good light
Snuffed out by avarice and greed
Monsters hoarding pointless wealth
Oblivious to others needs

Don the Revelator
Don the Revelator

"DON THE REVELATOR" + LYRICS

Hey Delveen
It will be done next Tuesday morning
I’ll leave the key inside the glove box
With the wipers broken arm

I just gotta  cross the road
I need a race form for the horses
Theres a pyeball in the 6th
Tipped can bring the bacon home

But I just cant sleep at night
With Liaka stuck out in the heavens
Still orbiting the earth 
At 16000 miles an hour

We can  talk when I get back 
I  also need a hair cut
Hey Frank hows the dust farm
Has Mavis come back home?

Yeah and  I saw Charlie down from Pickton
He didnt need no money 
He usually comes to borrow
But this time  he didnt want a thing


Hey Jim how longs the que
Oh theres only Tom before you
Yeah but he dont have much hair
Ill wait he wont take long

Hey have you heard the Japanese are  importing some new car 
With a  really stupid name like Toy,yoyo or ping pong
And  that South Vietnam’s going up in flames
And there all catching some flue called  Viet Cong


Yeah well how bout them Russians 
Shooting a dog into the heavens
Its still orbiting the earth 
At 16000 miles an hour

We aint careful theyll be 
on the moon before us
Then stealing our cars 
Out of our gararge       
Orbiting the earth 
At 16000 miles an hour

Take our cars from our gararge 
Take our bubon from our bars
Took our post war love
Took our bomb
They want our moon
Whats going on

You seen jack latley
He aint been in for hair cut
After that trouble with the law
Seemed like he  hit the skids

I seen him headed out to Duffy
For a Studybaker fender
Then swinging back through Deadrock
To get a puppy for his kid

Hey Stan I pulled the carby down
Your gona need a new fuel filter
The bowl was full of rust
Black and thick as coffee grounds

The that old Packard block is still in shop
I’ll need two weeks to  get her humming
I reboard all the walls 
She going needs a tone of milling done

And Stan tell Jed he owes me money
His horse “The Red Star of Wyoming”
Had only one good leg
When the that broke they put him down

You stickin with your ususal pompadore
Or try out the new Ducks tail
I hear the ladies love it
They say it makes men look like stars

Oh and have you seen Presleys  new movie
Its all about some jail house
There all dancing and a jiving 
Like its fun to be in jail

Sid from over Lockdale
Heard the Russians blew off an H bomb
He said their spies  stoll our secrets
Sure hope common sence prevails

Your all done “Thanks Jim”
You want powder on your neck
No Im heading back to work
Dont want the boys to take me down

I’ll see you for the next one 
Or the game on the weekend
Keep the change for a hair cut
Or a big night on the y town

See  you in the by and by

"THE MECHANIC" Lyrics

The City

Once it was a city
Now it’s just a street
With every mile another dream lays crushed
And the sun shows no pity
Pouring out its heat
As mighty towers crumble into dust

One by one they followed
One by one they left without a trace

There were signs on the water
Portents in the sky
The Watchers blind by sleep didn’t see a thing
Six crows at the altar
A bargain for the price
Half less worth an eagle’s broken wing

One by one they followed
One by one they left without a trace

What walks the moon at midnight
Through the narrow lanes 
Lurking in the shadows that it cast
A pestilence upon us, a blight
A spreading stain
Taking everything out on its path

One by one they followed
One by one they left without a trace

So, sing the last love song written
Drink up the vineyard grape
Rouse the ghosts of tomorrow from their slumber
If I break out of this prison
And the hour’s not too late
I’ll be down the road without a name or number

One by one they followed
One by one they left without a trace

Written and Performed by Pravinand Maharaj aka Johnny Minstrerl

Image credits:
Creator:ZULFA MOHAMAD
Copyright:New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd

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