High Hawk Season
Lyrics
I heard the wings beat
on the wind tonight
As the heat stole power from
the darkening light
I saw the streets fill up
with people that I knew
People who looked like you
Rise if you're sleeping, stay awake
We are young supernovas and
the heat's about to break
Drift through the streets,
walk between the cars
Newborn sons and daughters
spat forth from distant stars
The summer will reveal itself
to those whose hearts are true
And to the faithless few
Rise if you're sleeping, stay awake
We are young supernovas and
the heat's about to break
Who will rise and who will sink?
Who's going to stand his ground
and who's going to blink?
Surge forward from Van Cortlandt Park
like frightened sheep
Spirit throngs that hoist us high,
three thousand warriors deep
Spray our dreams on any surface
where the paint will stick
Try to time the rhythm,
listen for the click
Rise if you're sleeping, stay awake
We are young supernovas and
the heat's about to break
Banter
- That song was the second one I wrote after we moved across town here in Durham, right. And our new backyard — the hawks were landing in it, which I suspect they were doing because there were two new cats in the neighborhood, right, so they're checking it out. But, if you get more than one hawk, like, two hawk sightings in your backyard, in the space of a week, for an excitable animal person like me, that means you just won at life, you know, everything else is great once I, you know — I really love to have animals in my environment, I would live in a zoo if I could. And, but, yeah — this was this hawk on the back, and my wife knows a lot about birds and she was explaining how, you know, it does this — this is not going to translate well on radio but — they do this thing with their necks where they sort of look like they're kind of checking you out and they dart their — and that's because they're getting perspective to figure out whether they, how far you are from them, right, in case they need to eat you, right. And I thought that was awesome, so I got this really sort of surrounded vibe from them and I was, you know, there's something really neat about feeling surveilled by birds of prey. (2011-04-08)
- This song is just basically, a narration to the script to 'The Warriors'. (2012-06-30)