HUCK & THE XANDER BAND

present

ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A FOLK OPERETTA - ACT 2

Written by Humphrey 'Huck' Astley.

('Thanks But No Thanks' quotes ‘I Whistle a Happy Tune’ by Oscar Hammerstein.)

Huck - vocals, rhythm guitar.
Jamie Cooper - lead guitar.
Billy Quarterman - bass guitar.
Tommy Longfellow - drums.

Co-produced and engineered by Richard Neuberg at Strawhouse Studios, Fencott.
Mixed by Jimmy Hetherington at PCE Audio, Oxford.
Mastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio, Oxford.

(C) 2014 Operetta Records / PinDrop ProDuctions

✝

8. THANKS BUT NO THANKS

I could deny myself everything I want,
And then blame everybody else for why I’m a cunt.
I could look at the world around me
As a whorehouse that surrounds me,
At infection as the price of having fun.

Made ill but made to be well.
Gimme medicine before I go to Hell.
Do the dance they call Descent of Man.

My soul is mine or it ain’t.
Help yourself to the lives of the Saints.
Keep me out of that old Master Plan.

I could destroy myself every single night,
But the End of the World would shit me out in the light.
I could make it a solemn habit
To follow the white rabbit,
But I wonder when I’d learn that vermin bite?

Today I’m taking my leave.
Party’s over and it’s time for me to grieve.
Nothing like a song to mark the end.

'Whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head erect
And whistle a happy tune, so no one will suspect
I'm afraid…'

Thanks But No Thanks

HUCK & THE XANDER BAND

present

ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A FOLK OPERETTA - ACT 2

Written by Humphrey 'Huck' Astley.

('Letter from Louise' references 'A Cap to Wear in Both Worlds' by Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī.)

Huck - vocals, rhythm guitar.
Jamie Cooper - lead guitar.
Billy Quarterman - bass guitar.
Tommy Longfellow - drums.

Co-produced and engineered by Richard Neuberg at Strawhouse Studios, Fencott.
Mixed by Jimmy Hetherington at PCE Audio, Oxford.
Mastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio, Oxford.

(C) 2014 Operetta Records / PinDrop ProDuctions

✝

6. LETTER FROM LOUISE

“Dear Alex, you’ve hurt us all real bad this time.
Your father’s a broken man, but claims he’s fine.
He asked me if I knew where you’d be found — I guess I lied.
My momma had so much concern for him, she prayed and cried

“But anyway,
I know you felt that you just couldn’t stay
And face a punishment everyday.

“That rumor you heard is not to be believed,
Though sometimes I wish it was, so I could leave.
I’m not gonna ask you to save yourself for such a girl,
But you’re not the only one losing faith between two worlds.

“Rumi once said,
There is a passion that need not be fed
By anyone at all, live or dead — so he said!”

Johnny, stop rolling your eyes…

Letter from Louise

HUCK & THE XANDER BAND

present

ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A FOLK OPERETTA - ACT 2

Written by Humphrey 'Huck' Astley.

Huck - vocals, rhythm guitar.
Jamie Cooper - lead guitar.
Billy Quarterman - bass guitar.
Tommy Longfellow - drums.

Co-produced and engineered by Richard Neuberg at Strawhouse Studios, Fencott.
Mixed by Jimmy Hetherington at PCE Audio, Oxford.
Mastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio, Oxford.

(C) 2014 Operetta Records / PinDrop ProDuctions

✝

7. STATEMENT AFTER A DEATH

Well I found him with his eyes rolled back into his head.
He was lying like a Painted Angel on the bed.
I said, Johnny, what’s the story? You slept through Labor Day!
And I told him what he’d missed, till there was nothing left to say.

Then my eyes fell on a needle dangling from his arm,
And before I thought of freedom, I sounded the alarm.
So the paramedics came, then you Boys in Blue arrived.
Now I’m held here in this station, hoping Johnny’s still alive.

Is it true, sir? Has my Dad come all this way to gloat?
Where’s the good cop from the movies to wrap me in his coat?
You’re not shepherding the helpless — you want someone to blame.
If you wanna know the truth, I wish I’d never said my name.

If my father’s on the other side of that door,
You can tell him I don’t want no bail, Officer.

Statement after a Death

HUCK & THE XANDER BAND

present

ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A FOLK OPERETTA - ACT 2

Written by Humphrey 'Huck' Astley.

Huck - vocals, rhythm guitar.
Jamie Cooper - lead guitar.
Billy Quarterman - bass guitar.
Tommy Longfellow - drums.

Co-produced and engineered by Richard Neuberg at Strawhouse Studios, Fencott.
Mixed by Jimmy Hetherington at PCE Audio, Oxford.
Mastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio, Oxford.

(C) 2014 Operetta Records / PinDrop ProDuctions

✝

5. XANDER

I was a bored little boy who emptied the Hell out of Pandora's Box,
The Hell out of Pandora's Box and it burned up the City I loved,
Till nothing was left but a Church and a TV and a fucking Starbucks,
And I understood why St Thomas Aquinas said knowledge was dangerous stuff.

So I came to NOLA and swapped the Inferno for the Flood,
The Inferno for the Flood and surfed a mattress right to the top
Of this empty hotel full of boxcar kids for a family caked in mud,
And nobody tells the End of the World when to stop.

They call me Xander, Xander the Great,
From the Lone, the Lone Star State.
Well they drink to my past,
While I spit out my fate.

We go down to Checkpoint’s and hustle beer money out of the tourists,
Beer money out of the tourists playing on the pool table.
Johnny sits in the corner and sings out the scores like a Greek Chorus.
We go back to the Bird’s Nest and get as high as the Tower of Babel.

When the kids are in bed, Johnny gives me the eye and tries to get friendly,
The eye and tries to get friendly talking life imitating art.
“If you’re Peter Pan leading the Lost Boys, I guess that makes me Wendy!”
And he sings me to sleep before the homesickness starts.

They call me Xander, Xander the Great,
From the Lone, the Lone Star State.
Well it ain’t my fault
If I arrived a little late.

(I had that dream again last night —
The fire skipped across the sand
And slipped into my daddy’s car,
Whistling, whistling through the cracks.)

What if we don’t wanna be saved?

They call me Xander, Xander the Great,
From the Lone, the Lone Star State.
Well they drink to my past,
While I spit out my fate.

Xander

HUCK & THE XANDER BAND
present
ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A FOLK OPERETTA - ACT 3

Written by Humphrey 'Huck' Astley.

Huck - Vocals, acoustic guitar.
Jamie Cooper - Electric guitar.
Seb Reynolds - Keys, FX.
Billy Quarterman - Bass guitar.
Greig Stewart - Drums, percussion.

With thanks to Ryan Quarterman, Jack Olchawski, Chloe Arnett and Josh Tomalin.

Engineered by Martin Newton/recorded by Jamie Morris LIVE at The Old Fire Station, Oxford, 12 June 2014.
Mixed and mastered by Jimmy Hetherington at PCE Audio, Oxford, Fall 2015.

Alexander the Great: a Folk Operetta was a co-production between Sebastian Reynolds and The Cambridge Junction as part of the PRSF development scheme New Music Plus...UK.

(c) 2015 Operetta Records / PinDrop Productions

†

LETTER TO LOUISE

Sweetheart, I ain’t coming home to you.
I know what to be, not what to do.
I still belong halfway
Between night and day.

Some streets name themselves for other towns.
Some feet guide themselves by lovers’ sounds.
Maybe one day I’ll stop,
And you’ll walk right up.

We’ll meet by the bones of a burned out car,
And trade our traditions below a lonesome star.

You’re not serious when you’re fifteen—
All that talk of immortality.
Let’s have a boy out here,
And let’s hope he’s queer.

We’ll live where the rules are like old stone walls.
We’ll fix them with bricks of our own, or let them fall.


Letter to Louise

HUCK & THE XANDER BAND
present
ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A FOLK OPERETTA

Written by Humphrey 'Huck' Astley (contains verses from ‘The Dreary Dream’ [John Jacob Niles/trad.]).

Huck - Vocals, acoustic guitar.
Jamie Cooper - Electric guitar.
Seb Reynolds - Keys, FX.
Billy Quarterman - Bass guitar.
Greig Stewart - Drums, percussion.

With thanks to Ryan Quarterman, Jack Olchawski, Chloe Arnett and Josh Tomalin.

Engineered by Martin Newton/recorded by Jamie Morris LIVE at The Old Fire Station, Oxford, 12 June 2014.
Mixed and mastered by Jimmy Hetherington at PCE Audio, Oxford, Fall 2015.

Alexander the Great: a Folk Operetta was a co-production between Sebastian Reynolds and The Cambridge Junction as part of the PRSF development scheme New Music Plus...UK.

(c) 2015 Operetta Records / PinDrop Productions

†

THE SPIRIT

For I have dreamed a dreary dream.
Oh who is free of sorrow?
For my love was dead on a leafy bed
Beside the River Yarrow.

And many men did come and go,
And all were armed with knife.
They’ve slain, they’ve slain my own dear swain,
They’ve twined him of his life…

They’ve slain, they’ve slain my own dear swain,
They’ve twined him of his life…

“The song you heard when in the womb—
Your mother sang it often.
The spirit of it stayed with you,
The gone but not forgotten.

“Now I become the dreary dream,
But I will hear no pity,
Though I lie dead on an icy bed
Beside the Mississippi…

“Though I lie dead on an icy bed
Beside the Mississippi…”


The Spirit

HUCK & THE XANDER BAND
present
ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A FOLK OPERETTA

Written by Humphrey 'Huck' Astley).

Huck - Vocals, acoustic guitar.
Jamie Cooper - Electric guitar.
Seb Reynolds - Keys, FX.
Billy Quarterman - Bass guitar.
Greig Stewart - Drums, percussion.

The Body: H. R. Khalsa - Vocal; Matt Halliday - Keys; Huck – Resonator.

With thanks to Ryan Quarterman, Jack Olchawski, Chloe Arnett and Josh Tomalin.

Engineered by Martin Newton/recorded by Jamie Morris LIVE at The Old Fire Station, Oxford, 12 June 2014.
Mixed and mastered by Jimmy Hetherington at PCE Audio, Oxford, Fall 2015.

Alexander the Great: a Folk Operetta was a co-production between Sebastian Reynolds and The Cambridge Junction as part of the PRSF development scheme New Music Plus...UK.

(c) 2015 Operetta Records / PinDrop Productions

†

THE BODY

Upon his release by the New Orleans Police, Alexander fled the confrontation with his father. But the feeling of relief died young at the hands of the thought that to be free was to be damned. Alone for the first time, our hero felt so small that to distinguish life from death was to split hairs. This would be his last night in the city—one last adventure in the throng.

To dull his pain and oil his tongue for what had happened to Johnny, the boys got him good and drunk and ferried him through the streets. But Alexander’s pall lifted only to let out the occasional despondent little laugh. He passed out at dawn, whereupon the author of his fate, like the Angel of
the Lord, appeared before the young man and told him what to do—he would save what he could of the body of his friend.

The entrance to the derelict was covered in police tape but Alexander slipped through and climbed the stairs to the Bird’s Nest. The squat was mostly undisturbed, the stash had not been found. And nestled in the bags of weed, screwed-up bills and fake IDs—the needle he had hidden from the cops. A plume of blood persisted, burgundy through gold, in the dregs of the fatal resin shot.

The footsteps on the stairs sent him flying out of the room and into the next, where he hid behind the rotten door. “We think around half a dozen were living here,” said the Lieutenant, “including your son and the Indian kid.” Nobody noticed Alexander making his descent… In the street, he forced the bad window of his father’s old Ford, climbed into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine the way Johnny had taught him.

By dusk, his drive had eroded all civilization but the road. Here was the desert his friend would eulogise—on the Texas-New Mexico border where the Ford had broken down. In the sky, a diorama of Greek Gods bandied with the legend of the Caddo brothers who turned into stars.

He rolled the car off the road and set it alight with the doomsday kit his father kept in the trunk, then lay on his back—sizing up the firmament, syringe in hand—and took the germ of Johnny’s body into his.


The Body

HUCK & THE XANDER BAND
present
ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A FOLK OPERETTA

Written by Humphrey 'Huck' Astley.

Huck - Vocals, acoustic guitar.
Jamie Cooper - Electric guitar.
Seb Reynolds - Keys, FX.
Billy Quarterman - Bass guitar.
Greig Stewart - Drums, percussion.

With thanks to Ryan Quarterman, Jack Olchawski, Chloe Arnett and Josh Tomalin.

Engineered by Martin Newton/recorded by Jamie Morris LIVE at The Old Fire Station, Oxford, 12 June 2014.
Mixed and mastered by Jimmy Hetherington at PCE Audio, Oxford, Fall 2015.

Alexander the Great: a Folk Operetta was a co-production between Sebastian Reynolds and The Cambridge Junction as part of the PRSF development scheme New Music Plus...UK.

(c) 2015 Operetta Records / PinDrop Productions

†

ALEXANDER

I was a bored little boy
With the night and the day in his eyes.
I told myself I’d seen it all.
But all that I saw, I was shown—
I’m as blind as a bat on my own.
I long to hear some echoed call.

Dull dusk of the soul…
Dawn of the dead as a dodo…

So put Dionysus to rest,
Let Apollo be put to the test
Under a tragicomic pall,
And we’ll find his fatal flaw.

Low to New Mexico’s ground,
Where the ghost of a crow may be bound,
I’ll take what’s left of Johnny’s love
And raise a new idol in dust.
Something tells me my god will be just.
Is that a lightning bolt above
Or a crooked eagle claw?

Dull dusk of the soul…
Dawn of the dead as a dodo…
With a baby in its craw.


Alexander

HUCK AND THE XANDER BAND

present

ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A FOLK OPERETTA - ACT 1

*

3. A SUFI FROM DIXIE

There’s a rumour going round — Louise, you’re the talk of the town, ‘cus your Mother, the widow, converted, and the meek sure speak up when deserted. They say she’s trying to marry you off to some rag-headed boy in the North. And my Dad says your Mom must be crazy if she thinks that Mohammed’s the one, and I may be bad-mannered and lazy, but he’s sure glad that he had a son. Well I love you, Louise, and I’m asking you, please, be my Queen before their Kingdom comes.

We grew up short by a half of the love we’re entitled to have, and with Death shovelling coal in our hearts, I think we deserve a fresh start. Well I asked Johnny for his two cents, but I wish that he’d stayed on the fence, ‘cus he said that a Sufi from Dixie is a hundred and ten percent dumb. Then he took from my dresser this picture, and likened the memory of Mom to your child-bearing hips, so I split his fucking lip — now he promises not to make fun of my Queen until their Kingdom comes.

A Sufi from Dixie

HUCK AND THE XANDER BAND

present

ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A FOLK OPERETTA - ACT 1

*

4. DISGRACE

Running away from the home where I got caught asleep in the arms of the boy my boredom brought. But Johnny’s not a boy — he’s a bird, and I like his song. And no matter what you heard, our harmonies ain’t wrong.

The sound of the car in the driveway made me stir, and half in a dream I heard a Hellcat purr. The footsteps on the stairs were like bombs falling far away, but I woke up with my Dad stood over where we lay.

“Such a disgrace — his only son is in love with another man.”

Johnny says Texas was over anyhow, and maybe it’s true this was only the testing ground. If the Garden ain’t for us, it’s in loss that our lot is cast. And we’ll get to New Orleans if we have to steal a raft!

(I’m sorry, Louise, but I can’t settle down till I know who I am, and for that I have to…)

“Such a disgrace — his only son is in love with another man.”

Running away from the home where I got caught asleep in the arms of the boy my boredom brought. But Johnny’s not a boy — he’s a bird, and he’s Heaven-sent. And no matter what you heard… we’re innocent.

Disgrace

Singer with The Xander Band, The Handsome Fee, et al | New solo EP coming 2020 ✌️🤞

HVCK