remove & regret
Recorded at Almnäs 13 in Sweden (Lars’ sommerhouse) 2011
All songs by Allan Østerdahl
Produced by Neill Cardinal Furio
Allan Østerdahl
Lead vocals, guitars, harmonica, drums on Miles City 1933
Søren Koch
Guitars, Mellotron, Vox Continental, backing vocals
Jesper Ormstrup Jakobsen
Electric bass, string bass, backing vocals
Lars Vilmar Jensen
Drums, cymbals, silence
Neill Cardinal Furio
Bad conscience on track 5, Flutterbass on track 7
Recorded & engineered by Thomas Holm
Vocals & overdubs recorded by Allan Østerdahl & Søren Koch
Mixed by Morten Maltesen
Mastered by Thomas Holm
Cover art by Tim Bjørn (madebytim.com)
A listener’s guide to Remove & Regret
THE PASSING SHOW
Of all the big and little words in that stack of tall tales called The Bible, maybe the four most meaningful are “This too shall pass” … The problem is finding them in there amid the ornate babble. Once you do, though, you’ll come to know they go for both good and bad times alike. And that’s life.
A BALLAD IN BLOOD
Oh, and speaking of The Bible … here’s a Cain and Abel fable that arches in flashback from the Lower east Side of Manhattan to the iconic American Southwest. Hey, wait a minute! Is that Woody Guthrie’s birthday tucked into verse two?
BETTER SORRY THAN SAFE
When it comes to regret, apparently more people would rather experience it for having tried and failed than for never having tried at all. Makes sense … even in a world where your foibles are forever available in an online echo chamber.
LOVE & WAR
A Russian novelist, an American songwriter, and an Elizabethan euphuist walk into a bar. The bartender, astonished, asks, “Is this some kind of joke?” Truth is, it can’s be … singer-songwriters can’t afford a beer.
LILY KRISTINE
What happens when the little red devil who sits on your left shoulder binds and gags the innocent angel who sits on your right? That’s right … the world gets a brand new murder ballad.
BLOOD BROTHERS
My sister has two sons. And though I’ve never wished for even a second that they were daughters … if I had, would you blame me?
COME & GONE
Like I said: This too shall pass … and this one does, with all the lovely shades of gray that Photoshop reminds us exist between the poles of pure black and stark white.
SEVEN SEVENTY-NINE
If you turn to page 779 in your navy blue Psalm Book, you’ll find the 1841 Berggreen/Ingemann co-write that has underscored more than a few Danish funerals over the years. “No one knows the day before the sun goes down,” indeed.
MILES CITY 1933
Oh, and speaking of Woody Guthrie … Bound For Glory might just be the best book of the New Testament that’s not actually in the the New Testament. That’s why the two of them sit on my shelf next to each other. Shine on little sun, indeed. Or is it son?
Neill C. Furio, September 10th 2012
LYRICS
A BALLAD IN BLOOD
Half-blood moon stained Allen Street
Passion played out in the Rivington heat
Living room light in a shade full of dark
Quiet broke bread with one faint remark
“God only knows what that kid might do”
Father accused like he knew it too
Billy looked up and then around the room
And what he spoke could’ve sealed a tomb
In the evening afterglow
Home’s horrid to and fro
Stopped suddenly and slow
In the evening afterglow
It all went down near Hideout Hill
With ways to mend and time to kill
Two young boys on a daydream run
Found a hardback book and an old six-gun
Black birds flocked in the grassland sky
.44 summer, 14th of July
And high above the park plateau
The spotted sun of New Mexico
In the midday shadow show
Hope’s helpless reap and sow
Spurring seeds to grimly grow
In the midday shadow show
The scene is old and the story’s stale
And the hours spun in dizzy detail
A quivering hand and a quickening mind
Fact and fiction intertwined
“Put it down Billy, put your hands in the air
There’s twenty-one dead, but you I’ll spare”
Billy drew a smile, then replayed his part
And put the twenty-second blast through his brother’s heart
In the gloaming overflow
Hurt’s hunted high and low
Silhouettes will nearly know
In the gloaming overflow
A church bell tolled and the sunset cracked
Six-fold vengeance and a graveyard pact
Ashes to answers and dust till dawn
Billy was still Billy but the kid was gone
Gone like the dream, the past and the peril
Pitched like the bullet, the trigger, and the barrel
Passed to the book-black passion and blood
Into the future and covered in mud …
BETTER SORRY THAN SAFE
I made a vow when I was younger
That I’d follow every rule
I’d be good and kind by definition cruel
From the corner of my condition
To the city’s golden pave
Better sorry than safe
I was raised with poor luck
Till I fell in with Grace
And then I came down to where I live these days
Across the banks of the Rubicon
I dodged the archer’s strafe
Better sorry than safe
Better sorry than safe
Who wants to worry about past mistakes?
Better sorry than safe
Safe …
I was a man-about-town
But I came all sweetness and light
And then hell froze over overnight
But if God saved a wretch
He’ll save this wicked waif
Better sorry than safe
So I laughed hard with the devil
And I howled at the moon
I even hurt myself one afternoon
Cursed by a demon
Crossed by the chafe
Better sorry than safe
Better sorry than safe
Who needs to worry about past mistakes?
Better sorry than safe
It’s better to be sorry than saved …
I made a vow and now I’m older
I guess I’ve broken every rule
I’m good and kind by definition a fool
LOVE & WAR
In very word, in every song
In this nonsense, I belong
In every sound you can’t ignore
There’s a love and there’s a war
In every bite, in every treat
In every mouthful, I repeat
In every flavor you adore
There’s a love, there’s a war
In every woo, in every cliché
In every root, to this bouquet
In every ring … till you open up your door
And there is love – and there’s a war
Intuition into black
Interaction into dust
Intervention into stone
That is built up
And carved
Or even thrown
In every psyche, in every bed
In every blue eye, I see red
In every heart your arrow’s sore
There is love and there is war
And if I should feel nothing anymore
There’s a love and there’s a war
LILY KRISTINE
Sweet scent, serene skies
September where the mornings rise
In a flower shop Veronica’s
This week’s japonica
Down Canal street round the boulevard
To the gates of the old graveyard
This is her routine, the grieving queen
Lily Kristine
Sunday best, high-lace muse
Pupil black and royal blues
Lily’s face like porcelain
But Lily’s lips are red as sin
In the noon-flower fashion
Until the crimson set ashen
Nightshade scarlet velveteen
Sweet Lily Kristine
Flower up into the night
Sparkle in the diamond bright
Lemon squeeze, the venom bees
We’ll revel in our love’s disease
Passion waves her magic wand
Auburn twilight, orange blonde
Curling wild like tangerine
My sweet Lily Kristine
Checkered streets, rose-pale dawn
Chessboard mourns a fallen pawn
Whispers from a trashcan pile
High-heels down the beggar’s aisle
Gaze upon her dim-lit face
Breathless in her resting grace
The queen and the guillotine
My sweet sweet Lily Kristine
BLOOD BROTHERS
Brother don’t you worry, I’m still on your side
A kick in your bad conscience, a foot on your pride
Minutes of the third degree, memories of eternity
Blood is still thicker than water
Well nothing’s said and nothing’s lost
A finger aimed, two fingers crossed
If I’m able to, would you ask me to?
Brother don’t you worry, I won’t drag you to court
Here’s a penny for your troubles, here’s a pound for your support
Indifference or inequity, a wit of such ability
Blood is still thicker than water
When questions rise, answers dwell
Two parts heaven, two parts hell
Both in motion but standing still
Going nowhere against our will
The poles you push, the strings I pull
You keep on pouring when the cup is full
But I pick you up whenever you fall
Cause you’re my brother after all
And realize our blood spilling over from the past
Is stained across our battle line but settled here at last
And recognize the same taint dangling from our family tree
Looking just like you, looking just like me
Brother don’t you worry, there’s no need to appease
You can do as you might like, you can do as I please
Struggle down from tragedy, snuggle up to honesty
Blood is still thicker than water
When questions rise, answers dwell
Two parts heaven, two parts hell
Both in motion but standing still
Going nowhere against our will
The poles you push, the strings I pull
You keep on pouring till the cup is full
But you pick me up whenever I fall
Cause I’m your brother after all
COME & GONE
Novel ways to an old-time start
New bloom to a bleeding heart
Nonsense to a work of art
Nursery to name a part
Note to self is paper-thin
Next line to next of kin
Naked truth to a soulful spin
Nightfall to the daylight’s twin
The dawning duet
Forgive and forget
Come and gone
Come and gone
Come and gone
Come and gone
Free will to freewheeling
Freedom to a factual feeling
Face down to the ritual, kneeling
Full grace to habitual healing
Faith cure to a framed-up mind
Fixed good but redefined
Formalized to disinclined
Fear of falling too far behind
The annual quartet
Remove and regret
Come and gone
Come and gone
Come and gone
Come …
Open lines to black-and-white
Original to overwrite
Overblown to stage a fright
Out of the blue, an insight
Out of mind to incarnation
Only track to transit station
Oddball to an even nation
Old book to a new translation
The infinitet
The year and the yet
Come and gone
Come and gone
Come and gone
Come and gone
SEven seventy-nine
Good luck and Godspeed
Down to earth and up the creek
Ashes scattered at the water’s edge
Creep through the hole in the hedge
Good luck and God bless
All you love is all you possess
Ice-cream summer, black winter sledge
Slide through the hole in the hedge
Good luck and God knows
Whatever day brings, evening shows
Thunderclap, umbrella sedge
Rush through the hole in the hedge
The psalm, the sun, the quiet hill
The evergreens are moving still
Goodbye and good day
Good luck and God forbid
The awful truth I hate to admit
Out the window and out on the ledge
Jump through the hole in the hedge
Good luck and God forsake
This old place is bound to break
A sparrow’s fall, an arrow fledged
Shoot through the hole in the hedge
The psalm, the moon, the valley still
The evergreens, the alley’s rill
Goodbye and goodnight
Good luck, God damn
Shutters shake when doors slam
Hearts inhale, hands outstretch
Reach through the hole in the hedge
MILes city 1933
Blow on little wind
In flailing circumstance
And turn upon the road of shifting dust
I know where I must go
I know what I mistrust
Blow on little wind, keep blowing on
Rain on little rain
And wash away the hurt
And rise to wade through muddy waters
I can take another beating
I came through bloody slaughters
Rain on little rain, keep raining on
Strike on little lightning
Come midnight, crashing down
As plain as talking ’bout the weather
It hits you like a stone
No, it hits you like the heather
Strike on little lightning, keep striking on
But if the wind won’t blow
The rain won’t wanna pour
And if the lightning glow
Won’t lighten up my door
The wind won’t whip around
The raindrops’ dripping sound
And I’ll be gone this time tomorrow
Shine on little sun
Midday, golden warm
Now the heart’s cruel shade is sacred
I know this out of love
I know this out of hatred
Shine on little sun keep shining on
Keep blowing on …
Keep raining on …
Keep striking on …
Keep shining on