The Fisher King Blues

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The seventh track off Tape Deck Heart is, like “Broken Piano” later on the album, a song contrary to TDH’s theme of avoiding explicitly English lyrics. It draws on the… Read More

Apr. 22, 20131 viewer

The Fisher King Blues Lyrics

Parents, don't be too kind to your kids
Or else how will they grow up to be
Louche Parisian sinners or Nashville country singers
Singing about the terrible things their parents did?
Lovers, don't be sparing with the truth
Break their hearts if that's what you must do
Fill them with remorse, tinged with hope of course
And let their baser instincts pull them through

And though it seems a little strange to me
People never really change, it seems

And all across America
Waitresses and boys who play guitar
They fall in love and they fall out, the boys have something to sing about
The girls go drown their sorrows at the bars
While in front rooms all across the old country
Sat spellbound in front of their TVs
The younger brothers and sisters wonder at what they're missing
And wonder how the air tastes when you're really free

And though it seems a little strange to me
People never really change, it seems
We're all broken boys and girls, at heart
Come together fall apart

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And in Battersea power station, the fisher king
Ponders on his ruin, among many other things
He folds his broken hands
Surveys his barren lands
And prays for hope to whisper on the wind

‘Cause we were born without reason, we’ll die without meaning
And the world will not shrug all that much at our passing
You can try and try and try
No one ever makes it out alive
No one ever makes it out alive

All you broken boys and girls
With your tattered flags unfurled
Fix yourselves then fix the fisher king
All you broken boys and girls
With your tattered flags unfurled
Fix yourselves then fix the fisher king
All you broken boys and girls
With your tattered flags unfurled
Fix yourselves then fix the fisher king
Won't you fix yourselves to fix the fisher king?
Won't you fix yourselves to fix the fisher king?

About

The seventh track off Tape Deck Heart is, like “Broken Piano” later on the album, a song contrary to TDH’s theme of avoiding explicitly English lyrics. It draws on the Fisher King, an Arthurian legend, also referenced heavily by Frank’s favourite poet, T.S. Eliot, who he also references on “I Knew Prufrock Before He Was Famous” and “Journey of the Magi”. See the annotations on the song for a more in-depth explanation!

The song is the first in a rough trilogy, followed by “Broken Piano” and finishing with “The Angel Islington”, dealing with the story of the Fisher King in contemporary London.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDlq0oB2hWw