Get all 9 Cornelius Eady releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Withstand EP, Withstand (single), THE STERLING BROWN PROJECT: CORNELIUS EADY & ROUGH MAGIC with Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Threnody, WHEN YOU GO TO SLEEP, DO YOU THINK YOU'LL WAKE UP IN AMERICA?, DECEMBER, CHEAP HOTEL EP, Seven Songs EP, and 1 more.
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Painting Song
Word and Music: Cornelius Eady
There’s a sea in a bottle
There are pigs in the sky
There are clouds where your lungs were,
But don’t ask me why
You just do what you have to
You just see what you see.
Scratch your head, if you want to,
Makes no difference to me.
I’m unscrambling my head,
Painting, painting
Decoding what the light just said,
Painting, painting
Pushing breath through my brush
Filling in the blanks, as we must.
Maybe you’d like a postcard,
Or a slap on the back.
You made the wrong turn, buddy,
Your trains on the wrong track.
You keep looking for Whistler,
You get ghouls at the mall.
A woman’s accusations,
Holy warts, and all.
I’m unscrambling my head,
Painting, painting
Decoding what the light just said,
Painting, Painting
Pushing breath through my brush
Filling in the blanks, as we must.
You just do what you have to
You just see what you see.
Scratch your head, if you want to,
It’s just music, to me.
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DECORATION DAY
02:44
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A POOR BOY'S TUNE
03:24
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JUNE IS A TUNE
01:34
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ARKANSAS TRAVELER
03:28
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Birmingham Sunday
Words and Music: Richard Farina
Come round by my side and I'll sing you a song
I'll sing it so softly, it'll do no one wrong
On Birmingham Sunday the blood ran like wine
And the choirs kept singing of freedom
That cold autumn morning no eyes saw the sun
And Addie Mae Collins, her number was one
At an old Baptist church there was no need to run
And the choirs kept singing of freedom
The clouds they were grey and the autumn wind blew
And Denise McNair brought the number to two
The falcon of death was a creature they knew
And the choirs kept singing of freedom
The church it was crowded, but no one could see
That Cynthia Wesley's dark number was three
Her prayers and her feelings would shame you and me
And the choirs kept singing of freedom
Young Carol Robertson entered the door
And the number her killers had given was four
She asked for a blessing but asked for no more
And the choirs kept singing of freedom
On Birmingham Sunday a noise shook the ground
And people all over the earth turned around
For no one recalled a more cowardly sound
And the choirs kept singing of freedom
The men in the forest they once asked of me
How many black berries grew in the Blue Sea
I asked them right back with a tear in my eye
How many dark ships in the forest?
The Sunday has come and the Sunday has gone
And I can't do much more than to sing you a song
I'll sing it so softly, it'll do no one wrong
And the choirs keep singing of freedom
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Cornelius Eady New York, New York
Cornelius Eady is the author of 8 books of poetry, lives in NYC and is the co-founder of Cave Canem. The band Rough Magic came out of the sessions for his CD/Chapbook BOOK OF HOOKS. (Kattywompus Press, Jan. 2013)
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