The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement

Lyrics

In the secret caverns underneath West Covina^[1]
Half desperate for peace
With the surface dwellers
But coming to no conclusions
And now we emerge
Sky grey and misty

The Grey King in his new Pontiac^[2]
Some of us sworn to the effort
Trying to get our shapes back
Teeth filed down to fine points^[3]
Framework too tight
Strain at the joints

And I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm pretty hardcore but I'm not that hardcore

Load into the Grand Am^[4]
Doomed sailors
Borne high by the waves
Wild with wonder
Leather and lace and good friends
Most of them good
Most of them friendly

The Grey King at the rail, sparks flying
Three of us in the car with him
Scared of dying
All eyes on the front seat
Assuming his form
Reborn in the heat^[5]

And I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm pretty hardcore but I'm not that hardcore

Banter

• When I was nineteen, I had my first, like, job that didn’t involve cleaning up other people’s food. It was for the East County regional headquarters of the Los Angeles Public Library. [Audience woos.] Thank you. Who doesn’t love the East County regional headquarters of the Los Angeles Public Library? So, my job was- you may wonder, if somebody… or you may not. If you want some copy of a book they don’t have at your library and you go and order it, how does it get there? Well, it’s the guy at the Regional Head- inter-library loan, exactly. Inter-library loan, the way it works is one librarian puts in a form to another library and then they ship it to the county headquarters; that’s me, nineteen years old. I get the box from Walnut, California - that’s 809, I believe is their code number - it’s been requested by Baldwin Park - that’s 801. So, the box comes in in the morning. I chat with the truck driver who brought them all in. I rip open all the boxes with a box cutter - feels badass no matter what - and open ‘em all up and you look at where they’re going and you rearrange them into the other boxes, you seal them back up with tape, your hand gets all gnarly, right, from too much stuff on the tape. And you do this for eight hours - minus your lunch break, where you eat a hot dog at the place at the court house. It’s the only food place around. And the guy selling you the hot dogs enthusiastically says, 'Yo, those are the same ones they serve at Dodger Stadium.’ And you remember it for 30 years. If you need a Dodger dog, you can go to the East County regional headquarters, walk straight across, there you go. I bet that guy’s dead now, though. So, score one for me. So anyway, one day I get off work - this is a long job without a lot of action in it - and I get off work and I go to the on-ramp to the freeway; you can see the scene depicted on our tour poster back there at the table. And there’s some people that are my age - maybe a year or two older - but they’re clearly a little deeper into some scene than I am. I don’t think they’re probably working eight-hours-a-day shifts. They’re probably quitting jobs a little quicker. And they have long hair that’s feathery and the roach clip, you know, with the feathers you can put in your hair. Looks - still looks good today. A fashion trend that will never die. And there was a guy, right, one of those guys whose shoulders seem to have widened a little earlier than everybody else’s; you look at him and he radiates testosterone, you know, and then like three women in the car. And he’s wearing shades, and we’re both getting onto the same freeway. I’m not even trying to stare at this guy. I’m just looking over, making sure I’m aware. And he sort of catches me with his sunglasses. Makes sure I’m looking at him. He smiles and he had fangs. Then the light turned green, he got on the freeway and I never saw him again. I wrote this song about him. (2017-05-25)

Live Performances

• 2017-11-12 Brooklyn Steel

Footnotes