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The Low Anthem
Oh My God, Charlie Darwin {Album Lyrics}

Songs

1Charlie Darwin
2To Ohio
3Ticket Taker
4The Horizon Is a Beltway
5Home I'll Never Be (No Lyrics)
6Cage the Songbird
7(Don't) Tremble
8Music Box (No Lyrics)
9Champion Angel
10To the Ghosts Who Write History Books
11OMGCD
12To Ohio (Reprise) (No Lyrics)

  • Charlie Darwin

    Set the sails I feel the winds a’stirring
    Toward the bright horizon set the way
    Cast your reckless dreams upon our Mayflower
    Haven from the world and her decay

    And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
    Fighting for a system built to fail
    Spooning water from their broken vessels
    As far as I can see there is no land

    Oh my god, the waters all around us
    Oh my god, it’s all around

    And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
    The lords of war just profit from decay
    And trade their children’s promise for the jingle
    The way we trade our hard earned time for pay

    Oh my god, the waters cold and shapeless
    Oh my god, it’s all around
    Oh my god, life is cold and formless
    Oh my god, it’s all around

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  • To Ohio

    I left Louisiana on the rail line
    I left Louisiana on the rail line

    Lost my love before her time
    Lost my love before her time

    I was trying to get to Ohio
    Trying to get to Ohio

    Now every new love is just a shadow
    Every new love is just a shadow

    ‘Cause once you’ve known love you don’t know how to find love
    Yeah once you’ve found love you don’t know how to find new love

    All the way to Ohio
    All the way to Ohio

    Heard her voice coming through the pines of Ohio
    I heard her voice singing in the pines in Ohio

    She sang bless your soul you crossed that line to Ohio
    Bless your soul you crossed that line

    All the way to Ohio
    All the way to Ohio

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  • Ticket Taker

    Tonight’s the night when the waters rise
    You’re groping in the dark
    The ticket takers count the men who can afford the arc
    The ticket takers will not board
    For the ticket takers are tied
    For five and change an hour
    They will count the passers by

    They say the sky’s the limit
    But the sky’s about to fall
    Down come all them record books cradle and all
    They say before he bit it
    That the boxer felt no pain
    But somewhere there’s a gamblin’ man
    With a ticket in the rain

    Mary Anne, I know I’m a long shot
    But Mary Anne, what else have you got
    I am a ticket taker, many tickets have I torn
    And I will be your arc, we will float above the storm

    Many years have passed in this river town
    I’ve sailed through many traps
    I keep a stock of weapons should society collapse
    I keep a stock of amo
    One of oil and one of gold
    I keep a place for Mary Anne
    Soon she will come home

    [Chorus]

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  • The Horizon Is a Beltway

    The horizon is a beltway that we may never cross
    The tops of buildings tremble like children lorn and lost
    The stain runs deep it’s deeper than the blood upon the cross.
    The horizon is a beltway that we may never cross.

    You’ll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
    Hear the whistle blowing put a teardrop in your eye
    You hear the distant love song but widows know the lie
    The horizon is a beltway, the skyline is on fire.

    The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
    The horizon is a beltway and the skyline is on fire

    You come up from the lowlands to the city on the air
    Where pilgrims and commissioners curate Christian fare
    From Havisu to Brownsville feel the long unbroken stare
    I wonder what it smells like in that city on the air

    You’ll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
    Hear the whistle blowing put a teardrop in your eye
    Just the same blue love song that made my Grandad cry
    The horizon is a beltway, the skyline is on fire.

    The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
    You’ll hear the distant love song, when the skyline is on fire
    The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
    The horizon is a beltway and the skyline is on fire

    This old house stood empty now for fifteen years or more
    Willows fall half way to meet the weeds around the door
    Time throws up her curtain and we know not who we are
    The horizon is a beltway, the skyline is on fire

    You’ll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
    Hear the whistle blowing put a teardrop in your eye
    Jagged as the jaw bone once the flesh expires
    The horizon is a beltway the skyline is on fire

    [Chorus]

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  • Cage the Songbird

    God cage the songbird
    Before the feathers run brown
    God bar the windows
    That we may though hollow be sound

    And this island shall be shackled to her waters
    Here we vow never to change
    Here we will stand at last for something
    With no desire to pretend

    Send up our prayers to gilded idols
    Their names etched in heartwood of palm
    And scatter the ashes of the contracts
    Their freedom so hollow a song

    God cage the songbird
    Before the feathers run brown
    God bar the windows
    That we may though hollow be sound

    The street lamp will be tethered to her station
    The poor man be tethered to the flesh
    The wise man be tethered to his wisdom
    The mother be tethered to her cresch

    Was your hunger your awareness of salvation
    As your chances go slipping to the past
    You’re tortured by the changing of the seasons
    And each grain of sand in the glass

    God cage the songbird
    Before the feathers run brown
    God bar the windows
    That we may though hollow be sound

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  • (Don't) Tremble

    If your pilot light should die
    Do not quake and do not bark
    You will find the spark

    If your tree should bare no fruit
    Do not worry, do not spill
    You are beautiful

    If your clarinet should break
    Do not cry a million lakes
    Do not cry a million lakes

    If the winds surround your house
    Do not twist and twist about
    Wait it out

    If your hand should lose it’s grip
    Do not tremble do not sweat
    For where then would you get

    You have got the looks my dear
    To make a mountain shake
    Imagine me

    You have got the voice my love
    To melt a lake of ice
    Imagine me

    If your heart is unemployed
    Do not rush but do not stall
    For I’ll be waiting

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  • Champion Angel

    Throw up your voice but not you mind
    While them agents of change go monopolize
    Their colors and their faces are just shades of the same
    All lost in the game

    And we don’t need no personal saviors here
    Just a warm hearth and water. It’s purely biological
    No posturing mannequin man or woman
    Shall receive my hand

    Among all you angels is a champion angel
    Among all you devils there’s a free soul
    Up from the disenfranchised the engine cries
    Up from the circle there’s a hole

    The child insubordinate disrupts the pecking order
    So go marry young while you can
    ‘Cause the weave of the rug and the cut of the throne
    Testify before the ocean’s open hand

    I promise you this promise we are not alone
    But why is it I alone that promise this
    Deny the forces that would hurry men
    If you still can

    [Chorus]

    We come now to a fracture in the road
    Here time has taken her toll
    The endless freezing and the thawing of the heart
    Would eventually divide us apart

    What’s that you found in the pocket of your coat
    Looks like a small sentiment that she wrote
    Don’t be my personal savior I would not be saved
    I chose to walk alone

    [Chorus]

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  • To the Ghosts Who Write History Books

    To them ghosts that write history books
    To them ghosts that write songs
    Everyone asks would you write one about me

    To them ghosts in the train yard
    All them ghosts in my drink
    Your money’s no good here just write one about me

    And when you go, where the winds are strong
    When you go where flowers bend
    Please take along all the best of my luck and come back unchanged
    Your demons all tamed
    Your flowers uncut

    And when you go where the winds are strong
    Where soldiers carve their stones
    Please take along all the best of my luck and come back unchanged
    Your demons all tamed
    Your flowers uncut

    To them ghosts that write history books
    To them ghosts that write songs
    Everyone asks would you write one about me

    To them ghosts in the train yard
    All them ghosts in my drink
    Your money’s no good here just write one about me

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  • OMGCD

    When I go, when I go
    Sure don’t know, where I’m going
    I look up high, I look down low
    Sure don’t know where I’m going when I go

    Just do you job and I’ll do mine
    I’ll do my best to hold the line
    I’ll do my best like Charlie says
    You don’t eat here, you’re not to sleep, you hold the line

    Oh my god, oh my god, Charlie Darwin where are you now
    I set these tiresome codes down where you lay
    Oh my God, Oh my God, it ain’t nothing but the cold hard ground
    My better half will stay but I must go

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  • OMGCD

    When I go, when I go
    Sure don’t know, where I’m going
    I look up high, I look down low
    Sure don’t know where I’m going when I go

    Just do you job and I’ll do mine
    I’ll do my best to hold the line
    I’ll do my best like Charlie says
    You don’t eat here, you’re not to sleep, you hold the line

    Oh my god, oh my god, Charlie Darwin where are you now
    I set these tiresome codes down where you lay
    Oh my God, Oh my God, it ain’t nothing but the cold hard ground
    My better half will stay but I must go

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