#auld wives

[scotianostra]

Up the close and doon the stair,

But and ben' wi' Burke and Hare.

Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,

Knox the boy that buys the beef.

A 19th century Edinburgh rhyme about the serial killers Burke and Hare.

William Burke was executed on 28th January 1829

I'll start this post as I always do for all the newer readers and let you know the main big fat fact about Burke and Hare, as the auld Edinburgh rhyme says, they did NOT rob graves!!! The pair were serial killers, but not in the true sense of the words as they killed their victims for financial gain.

Grave robbing was fashionable at the time many cemeteries even built watchtowers and employed people to guard the last resting places of their loved ones, there was a shortage of bodies for the Universities and Edinburgh was one of the leading cities in the world for teaching medicine, so people sold bodies to the schools, no questions asked.

William Burke and William Hare certainly did this but they were never known to get their hands dirty by digging up a corpse, this was too much like hard work for these two Irish Immigrants so they cut out the labouring part and decided to start their own wee industry, killing people and selling the bodies, the practice became known as Burking.

It all started when a lodger died at Hare's girlfriends house on the West Port not far from the Grassmarket in Edinburgh, he still owed his rent and the enterprising duo decided to fill his coffin with rocks and sell the body to pay this debt, they took the body to a Professor Robert Knox at Surgeon Square and were paid 7 pounds and 10 shillings for it, this is the nearest they got to stealing a body as their "trade" took a more sinister turn.

I wont go through all 16 murders I will just recite to you the one that was their undoing........

Fittingly it was Halloween 1828 and there was a party in Log's Lodgings in Tanner's Close where the duo lived, the following morning guests became suspicious at the disappearance of an old lady who had been very merry the night before. They discovered her corpse — stripped and ready for packing — in Burke's bedstraw. Mary Docherty had come to Edinburgh from Donegal in search of a long-lost son. She had chanced to beg at a gin-shop where Burke had befriended her. Like all the other victims, she was poor, hungry, and alone. Street folk were not missed immediately as more settled people would have been, and dissection ensured disposal of the evidence.

The mode of death was designed to leave no marks. Since only this last body was available to the authorities nothing could have been proven, despite strong suspicion, had not Hare agreed to give evidence for the prosecution in return for legal immunity.

His partner in crime was hanged on January 28th 1829, an event celebrated with carnival by the Edinburgh populace. His corpse, appropriately enough, was delivered up for public dissection at Surgeons' Hall. Hare left the city incognito, and his fate is unknown.

Burke's execution was witnessed by the novelist Sir Walter Scott, who sympathized with the general opinion that both men's wives had served as accomplices, and that the anatomists had been accessories to the murders. Burke's confessions were published after the execution, and they suggest that this view of the anatomists may not have been altogether misplaced. Burke and Hare were commended by Knox himself on the freshness of a corpse; they were never asked any questions about the derivation of the bodies they delivered to the school, were paid immediately, and were always urged to get more.

A pamphlet, later attributed to a doorkeeper at Knox's school, implicated both the anatomist and his staff in the crimes. According to this witness more than one of the bodies had blood at the mouth, nose, or ears. In at least one instance — that of a well-known Edinburgh beggar, Daft Jamie — identifying features were deliberately obliterated in the dissection room: when it became known that he was missing from the streets, his head and distinctive club feet were severed from his body and dissection was hastened.

Dr Knox was never charged with any crime, nor was he called to give evidence at the trial. He remained silent throughout the furore over the murders. He was burnt in effigy in the streets, ostracized by Edinburgh's medical community, and eventually left the city. He seems to have believed that murder could have been uncovered at any anatomy school, and the fact that it had happened to be his school was simply bad luck. Whether this belief had any objective basis will probably never be known.

The Burke and Hare murders are critically significant to the history of anatomy in Britain. They represent the apotheosis of the market in human flesh. The murders reveal that by the late 1820s, the poor were worth more dead than alive. A further 60 murders by the ‘London Burkers’ Bishop and Williams, in 1831 occurred before the Anatomy Act of 1832 provided the anatomists with a free supply of corpses requisitioned from Poor Law workhouses.

The photos include a contemporary drawing of Burke, a cast of how he might have looked, with a pocket book made from his skin, another card holder also made from his skin and his skeleton, still on display in Surgeons Hall 192 years after he took "The Last Drop"

The transcript of the Broadsheet below can be found here http://digital.nls.uk/.../broadside.../id/15228/transcript/1

[a-memory-a-distant-echo]

five people I’d like to get to know better 💘💘💘

tagged by @lianhuajing, who may now regret having tagged me, but: too late. i'm downgrading this from nine to five people, because tumblr seems to currently not be letting you tag more than five people.

🎶 Last song I listened to: dig by orange ocean. while i was writing this it changed, and now it's auld wives by bear's den.

📺 Currently watching: mmm, well. see. i'm watching mysterious lotus casebook. yes, again. yes, for the sixth time since i first watched it in march. we're also watching heroes (2022) but in the slowest way possible, because every time something bad happens to my precious boys (which is basically every episode) we have to take a break until i'm calm enough to continue.

🌶️ Sweet/Savory/Spicy?: savoury, always. i'll often choose straight-up unflavoured over sweet.

❤️ Relationship status: married enough that we've had to pay multiple governments about it

🤩 Current obsession: mysterious lotus casebook and…gruel, i guess? feels like all we do lately is blorbopost and eat gruel. not a bad life, all up.

absolutely no pressure tags: @anndramarama @howdaretrashships @omgpurplefattie @tiny-breadcrumbs @yletylyf

[zivaninja]

G i just wanted to let you know i listened to bear's den bc of that post you reblogged from me about what your blog description is from and WOW!! i enjoyed the album and especially loved laurel wreath and fuel on the fire. i'd love to hear some of your other faves or what you recommend most!

Justine this made me so !!! because I love bear's den!! I'm so glad you liked them! I've put two songs each from their other main albums below the cut and a few extras.

Islands: The Love We Stole, Elysium

Red Earth & Pouring Rain: Red Earth & Pouring Rain, Auld Wives

Blue Hours: Blue Hours, Gratitude

Agape & Above the Clouds of Pompeii are their most known songs + both are great live.

From singles + EPs, Stitch in Time is a personal fave and Favourite Patient is probably their most emotional song.

[other-peoples-coats]

10 songs/10 people

tagged by @notquiteaghost; I love talking about music and also seeing what other people are listening to, so cheers for the tag!

(10 songs I've been listening to lately; some of these are on my songs-to-listen-to-while-at-work playlist, so. props to anyone who guesses those I guess.)

Despicable by grandson

spillways by ghost

end of beginning by djo

tormentor by W.A.S.P

Auld wives by bear's den

warsaw by dessa

the legend of the mother swan, by the HU

training montage by the mountain goats (high five; also just listening to the entirety of this album constantly)

farewell to welfare by grace petrie

Ténéré Tàqqàl, by Tinariwen (+IO:I)

tagging in no particular order and with zero pressure: @lttrsfrmlnrrgby, @glimmerglanger, @elwenyere, @dodger-chan, @bytebun, @frostbitebakery, @ahsoka-ina-hood, @calika, @galateagalvanized, and @goddammitjim

[thecorpselight]

Originally a community festival, Yule became increasingly a season of family and social gatherings. There were great preparations in the home. The house was cleaned and whitewashed from floor to ceiling, and barns and outhouses as well; whilst the spence was stored with good things to eat. When merry Yule-day comes, I trow, Ye'll scantlins fin' a hungry mou!; Sma' are our cares, our stamacks fou O' gusty gear, And kickshaws, strangers to the view Sin fairn-year. During the Daft Days, every kind of avoidable work was banned. On Yule E'en, yarn was reeled and hanked, rok and reel were put by, the "peaty neuk" was filled to the rafters and the water-stoups to the brim; for, says the old rhyme, Atween Yule and Yearsmas Auld wives should'na spin, And nae house should be waterless Whar maidens lie within, lest the kelpie carry them off. Above all, a clean, bright fireside was necessary to propitiate the household gods. The folk of the hills garlanded their ingle-neuks with evergreens, and the folk of the sea theirs with seaweeds gathered at ebb-tide; and branches of the sacred rowan were hung above the lintel in house, sable, and byre to keep mischievous or evil spirits at bay. In wooded country a Yule-log was brought in. A small procession, headed by the man of the house, went off to the woods to cut it. It was carried home ceremoniously and placed on the blazing fire, usually late in the evening, so that it should continue to burn after the family were in bed, and preferably all night. The Silver Bough, Volume 3: A Calendar of Scottish National Festivals - Hallowe'en to Yule. F. Marian McNeill

[dearophelia]

23, 45 and 100!

23 — Easier Than Lying (Halsey)

45 — Auld Wives - Fragments (Bear’s Den)

100 — gold rush (Taylor Swift)

Give me a number 1-100 and I’ll tell you what song it is on my 2022 Wrapped playlist!

[calumthoodshands]

Heyyyyyyy can I see your 18, 52, & 88 plsssss ♥️

ofc u can annie 🧡

18: Auld Wives by Bear's den. There's something abt this song that's just... idk the vibes are just crazily specific and i fucking adore this song

52: Chance with you by Mehro <33333 i LOVE his music i think he's gonna get much bigger in a few years i can feel it

88: Built to last by Mêlée!! this song gives me violent nostalgia even though i'm 90% sure ive never heard it before last year

thanks for stopping by!!

send me a number between 1 and 100!

[libidomechanica]

The Masters lie

A Kelly lune sequence

               I

But prudence is slain. The Master’s lie? For when the woods!

               II

) But given you see. And babbles that all satisfied.

               III

Take, oh, take turns to progress silver anvils, and play.

               IV

Beneath the substance, and I defaced. Which I will sure!

               V

Might this fair surpasseth. And the like; she taught my way.

               VI

As the breath the same? Noon, there is no one to bless this.

               VII

Water shall not wait? Years for whose grace the Shepherd’s crook.

               VIII

She tells her lo’e nae man but with shot, her breast.&Somewhere.

               IX

Those faire to be! Sulk upon him who first learne spelling.

               X

When small bird? Our morning beneath a Double Burden.

               XI

Trees of a Ghazál. For pleasure shade, where these forests.

               XII

Her several part. -Ah! Love spark that need’st thou shalt do!

               XIII

That time—so just lie under the while as is the heart.

               XIV

Hopes which I don’t believe it. I’ll wed another’s fate!

               XV

And would come to bid farewell! That spread with misgouernaunce.

               XVI

For all as a man! The woman beare, moste is, a fool.

               XVII

Rip away the Lambe? Naked as horse? Full of the year.

               XVIII

As you can no more than mine. Now it ran bright contain!

               XIX

Drying in the blue. Turned half-round them. Love’s great god Pan.

               XX

Towards the Hunter’s near. The tear is used. Our girls, she fell.

               XXI

With horses dark again is sweetest scent. Let me go.

               XXII

And lo! But mutual bliss, when shifted round by thee.

               XXIII

Speak to injure. And baby. In faith is strange to meet.

               XXIV

Thee is but a voyage done! Had leuer my father one.

               XXV

But weave, weave them sighing and with all mine ears, their troth?

               XXVI

Is made of chamber studs, my hunting the way to death!

               XXVII

Pick up bad habits of power: and wives! Remember?

               XXVIII

I’ll wed another lay. She is not its signified.

               XXIX

A carpenter braue. Rocks that brought it, and I defaced.

               XXX

My sonne of his sole obiect best of Eternity.

               XXXI

To her face! To keep them with his mind prints his own skin.

               XXXII

Nay, but would he hankers, I never collide? Again.

               XXXIII

I will break. When I perhaps, thou art? Ridiculous.

               XXXIV

Last. Thus vainly this test—thy body answer; feeling.

               XXXV

A wheel echoes breaks. Cowards me pain. They slander so!

               XXXVI

These hallways. Well is it seemed to feed our idle shell.

               XXXVII

But drove Confusion change to me, nor smell, desire!

               XXXVIII

In this closely fused as fuel, heat, a breathing. His wont.

               XXXIX

—Alas! So not eares, but was a rose that from bedde.

               XL

Of sweet love, nor rested day by day prepare my Fall!

               XLI

And layd him dead. Somehow— I know in the outlet thee.

               XLII

There came to some light. I write, before we grow older.

               XLIII

All thought, mark me, Peona! I try to make us poor.

               XLIV

Take it sweet dreams are bad. The blue as you could you more?

               XLV

What’s freedom a drug that’s bought availed: he was brought to.

               XLVI

My lord was like a sea-fish. What if with thanks and cream?

               XLVII

Paws, and bids make all but Luther’s hunger mouth and lo!

               XLVIII

Nurse of you and yet three castle gate, pulling yourselves.

               XLIX

I felt the pleasure. Year be spring home till his eye.

               L

My clenched hand; she remember. Take, oh, take them more spell.

               LI

She fell. Nut have fresh bend of some stooped down some mischiefe.

               LII

-Be quicke. Her een sae bright gold sands, islands, and so long.

               LIII

Quit, quit for the iewell. To sell her stand open wyde.

               LIV

You came into the click of the shoe or slip or fall.

               LV

As on a shelf. At last I saw not, hearing her word?

               LVI

As Lady Psyche as she laid a feeling are one.

               LVII

Met wi’ an auld man. That keeps with many a fine knack.

               LVIII

Did for my voyage done! See her, look upon her face!

               LIX

That, in purple cleft brings a great harmes resist? The eye.

               LX

Julia, that Do; what Thyself and yourselves. Water, war!

               LXI

My stumbling chanced that he could keep a purer joy?

               LXII

Late at night, and in, from which gave upon a feature?

               LXIII

Entered into his sweet purse-mouth when the common-sense!

               LXIV

Bathing of my heart. Its girth; but when the stones, their sun.

               LXV

Than the isle of Dew. Savage and press? Sleeker than mine.

               LXVI

First of human kind. Would often deuoured they be fair.

               LXVII

Well, Sir, awful power shall our blood; it groan’d, and weep.

               LXVIII

That your isolation! Sing me a foot and a pose.

               LXIX

A flowers in your books, on your arm. An offices.

               LXX

Wonder at the poor lambkins from the heavenly tune?

               LXXI

Would they were met by my heart. So removèd by our praise.

               LXXII

Against thy calling. Glass of earth tis his fancy-sick.

               LXXIII

It makes its sound and wept. Make the snow, whether absence!

               LXXIV

You tell me all so often and with pity and die.

               LXXV

From her proof of desolate rockfields. But surely die.

               LXXVI

—To the doubtful smile and green. In the flockes be vnfedde.

               LXXVII

So witen ech other. These things? He fixed thee? The year.

               LXXVIII

There at the wild-briar is swerving. That will be dear.

               LXXIX

The though the grass; shapeless this. Full many lesings one!

               LXXX

Died thee? Let love, as a dream: yet such a paradise.

               LXXXI

As Horace fat, or a Tory, or Trimmer at least.

               LXXXII

Stood silent: for the iewell. Will to pre-occupy.

               LXXXIII

Ah! In the nipple; paps tractable as udders were.

               LXXXIV

The flashlight pendulum. Where is no reason at all.

               LXXXV

For I have done in tender mistresses. And wonder.

               LXXXVI

He heavenly zone. Full in the dore, and how soon thine.

               LXXXVII

Above a shooting. I was lost in the land, with leaves.

               LXXXVIII

He hoasts and having no such a Surplus as feeds Hell.

               LXXXIX

And spread greyly eastward, that like an arrow for me.

               XC

Hunt all beauties flow? Why did I wonders the heauens height.

               XCI

May so farewell! The mouing of her manners, wit, or face!

               XCII

Commend thee. But he must curse the happy was the sun.

               XCIII

Another skin from my wounds. So that was once esteem.

               XCIV

My husband is he gone? Pale death, dear Cloe, and silence.

               XCV

For thee to repeat. To steal and cleft the spirit well?

               XCVI

With her glory from the edge. He that place and tower.

               XCVII

Truth suppress’d. Upon this guilty with the lave o’t!

[sweethomesweethome]

my august playlist for you 💫

• death cab for cutie — soul meets body

• bear’s den — auld wives

• nothing but thieves — overcome

• beck — e-pro

• manchester orchestra — bed head

• twenty one pilots — shy away

• tokyo police club — simple dude

• exieez — i fell on my face

• jacquess — b.e.d

• russ — 3:15

• doja cat — paint the town red

• peggy gou — it goes like

and here it is: playlist 💫

[soundsandnoises]

BEAR’S DEN in Tramshed, Cardiff

05/11/2019

[everalivemusic]

But I swam across the ocean to find your memory A trace of all you've left behind And the auld wives swore that you were born to die Without a child for to call out your name -Auld Wives

Bear’s Den - Antone’s 2/11/2017

My decision to go to this show was a last-minute, impulsive decision - and I don’t regret it. This band exudes a feeling of closeness and charm. Each of their songs is very personal to the band and to the fans. Although their music is not the most upbeat, or easy to dance to music to see live, the band made the crown feel included and the concert was incredible. 

I could tell the members of this band were more than just bandmates, they were friends. They danced around the stage at played their instruments in sync during the high points of a song and they rallied around each other during each other’s solos. 

The two highlights of this show were when the band decided to sing without the help of amps or speakers. They went completely acoustic for two songs. The first, “Don’t Let The Sun Steal You Away” was a tribute to who the band used to be. This song was one of their first, and only the original three members performed it on stage while the other, newer members respectfully listened. For the second, “Gabriel” (one of my favorites), the band performed from within the crowd. They got on the same level as us, and again, performed an emotional song directly to us; no amps, no microphone. I value these moments to highly because they create an atmosphere which is very inclusive of the people at a show. These moments, when a band performs purely like this, are not possible with bigger bands at bigger venues. I appreciate these moments because I know they can’t last forever in a band’s career. 

Bear’s Den put on a great show at a great venue. It was very low-stress - somewhat of a deviation from the shows I usually attend. Yet another small, British band who has made an impact on my life. 

[scotianostra]

On September 5th 1750, the poet Robert Fergusson was born in the Canongate in Edinburgh.

‘Auld Reikie wale o ilka town’ 

This line from Auld Reikie, by Ferguson sets the tone for the main body of his output as a poet, written in the Scots tongue that Burns would later write so successfully in, if this other Robert had lived longer than the short years on this planet, I really do think that he would have been our national poet. The line means  Edinburgh: best of every town, so he was a champion of the city that he was born in.

Fergusson was brought up initially in Edinburgh but then moved to Dundee where he attended high school before being matriculated to the St Andrews University in 1765.

After the death of his father and completing his studies, the responsibility for supporting his mother fell upon Fergusson and he moved back to Edinburgh, taking up a post as a copyist. This caused some friction with his uncle as Fergusson had essentially rejected the excepted professions of the time such as lawyer or going into the church as a priest.  In 1771 he began to contribute poems to Ruddiman’s Weekly Magazine..

It was after he met Scottish preacher John Brown in Haddington Cemetery in 1772 that Fergusson, the 22-year-old copyist and author of Auld Reekie, had until then been a convivial man, at the heart of Edinburgh’s literary and social scene. But soon after encountering the theologian, he became gripped by “religious melancholia”. He shunned the limelight, preferring to stay at home and read his Bible, and his works took on a gloomy air. Then, a year after predicting he might share the fate of John Cunningham, a poet who had died in a mental asylum in Newcastle, young Robert had a fall in which he suffered a head injury, his fears were to become reality and ended up in Darien House, part of the city’s Bedlam asylum, on Bristo Place, where those with mental illnesses were offloaded. The conditions were terrible – food was in short supply and the use of restraints was commonplace.

Within weeks Fergusson was dead. His brutal end deprived Scotland of another potential bard (Robert Burns, who was inspired by his verse, erected a memorial on his unmarked grave in Canongate Kirkyard). His death was also a catalyst for a change in the way the city of Edinburgh looked after it’s mental health patients, thanks to a man who was a visitor of Robert Fergusson in Bedlam, Doctor Andrew Duncan.  In a letter to the Scottish Sheriff Deputy the doctor wrote of his experience of his visits with the poet that it “afforded me an opportunity of witnessing the deplorable situation of Pauper Lunatics even in the opulent, flourishing, and charitable Metropolis of Scotland”. By establishing the asylum in Morningside, Duncan contributed to Fergusson’s legacy, not just as a brilliant poet, but as someone who had a lasting impact on public health in Scotland.

I’ve chosen Fergusson’s poem  Braid Claith today, the title is a simple one and easily translates to Broad Cloth a  traditionally woollen fabric 

The Daft Days.

Now mirk December's dowie face Glours our the rigs wi' sour grimace, While, thro' his minimum of space, The bleer-ey'd sun Wi' blinkin light and stealing pace, His race doth run.

From naked groves nae birdie sings, To shepherd's pipe nae hillock rings, The breeze nae od'rous flavour brings From Borean cave, And dwyning nature droops her wings, Wi' visage grave.

Mankind but scanty pleasure glean Frae snawy hill or barren plain, Whan Winter, 'midst his nipping train, Wi' frozen spear, Sends drift owr a' his bleak domain, And guides the weir.

Auld Reikie! thou'rt the canty hole, A bield for mony caldrife soul, Wha snugly at thine ingle loll, Baith warm and couth; While round they gar the bicker roll To weet their mouth.

When merry Yule-day comes, I trow You'll scantlins find a hungry mou; Sma' are our cares, our stamacks fou O' gusty gear, And kickshaws, strangers to our view, Sin Fairn-year.

Ye browster wives, now busk ye bra, And fling your sorrows far awa'; Then come and gie's the tither blaw Of reaming ale, Mair precious than the well of Spa, Our hearts to heal.

Then, tho' at odds wi' a' the warl', Amang oursells we'll never quarrel; Tho' Discord gie a canker'd snarl To spoil our glee, As lang's there's pith into the barrel We'll drink and 'gree.

Fiddlers, your pins in temper fix, And roset weel your fiddle-sticks, But banish vile Italian tricks From out your quorum, Nor fortes wi' pianos mix, Gie's Tulloch Gorum.

For nought can cheer the heart sae weil As can a canty Highland reel, It even vivifies the heel To skip and dance: Lifeless is he what canna feel Its influence.

Let mirth abound, let social cheer Invest the dawning of the year; Let blithesome innocence appear To crown our joy, Nor envy wi' sarcastic sneer Our bliss destroy.

And thou, great god of Aqua Vitæ! Wha sways the empire of this city, When fou we're sometimes capernoity, Be thou prepar'd To hedge us frae that black banditti, The City-Guard.

[orquidaeas]

TASK #04: PLAYLIST

the revenant, a gilbert orquídeas playlist.

PARTICLES | NOTHING BUT THIEVES. “oh, doctor, please. this don’t feel right. oh, can you give me something to get me through the night? oh, if it all falls apart and if this thing goes wrong, oh put me back together however you want.” // “my mind plays tricks. and i don’t sleep no more. and doctor, please. I can’t switch off.”

DON’T CRY FOR ME | STORMZY, RALEIGH RITCHIE. “in case you think i’ve changed and i’m different, i’m not keeping you at a distance. so have a thought for me, yeah. hold down this floor for me, yeah.” // “remember the time before things changed? back in the day. everything can stay the same. remember i came? remember my name? remember my face? i don’t wanna fade away.”

 HANDS TIED | BILLY LOCKETT. “but wait, wait a minute. for a second i lost myself. for a second i lost my whole life” // “and i have days where i know i can't climb but i’ll survive, ‘cause you taught me that i fall in love far too easily.”

 HOSTAGES | THE HOWL & THE HUM. “so meet me on the bridge, we’ll hand over our hostages. a fake silver ring, your books in foreign languages. you can keep the coat, it looks better on you. anyway, i’m fine, i guess the cold’s a state of mind.” // “and it wasn’t like you liked me for my sunny views on life. oh, i’m dead on the inside, babe i’ve known that all along. any time i tried to love you i got it wrong.”

 ANGEL IN LOTHIAN | SAM FENDER. “back then the door was always open, i’d come and go, back and forth, anytime i need. but i’m needing it more now than ever, as i’m fading away. and i’d claw at the door every bad night, but somehow it’s blocked from the other side. claw till my skin falls apart. until i feel something.” // “and my brother was spiralling down, he said, ‘kid, it’s not me, it’s this town’.”

 RED EARTH & POURING RAIN | BEAR’S DEN. “i was waiting for a call. a call never came, so i made my own way, and i can’t find my way back home again.” // “can’t you hear me calling out your name? i’ve got something burning, coursing through these cold veins. in the words we speak, babe, somehow i get lost in between when to suffer in silence or to break it all with each breath that we breathe.”

 FUEL ON THE FIRE | BEAR’S DEN. “was it all in my mind? was i lost in my own head? worried about something i regret. is there anything i don’t regret?” // “fuel on the fire, now i’m burning up. fuel on the fire, i won’t let it stop. fuel on the fire, remembering how to love.”

 AULD WIVES | BEAR’S DEN. “but i swam across the ocean to find your memory, a trace of all that you have left behind. and the auld wives swore that you were born to die without a child to call out your name. but i call your name.”

 LAST TO MAKE IT HOME | SAM FENDER. “i’m godless and wrecked, but i can’t live by those stakes. the semantics are totally outdated. and the love i had is never enough. it bores me and leaves me frustrated.” // “i’m the last to make it home. i’m the last to call it off. i’m the last to meet my bed. and last to bring home the bread. and last to make it home.”

 DEW ON THE VINE | BEAR’S DEN. “born to break or to last, is it all in the past? is that a scar or a birthmark? retracing this cold heart, and now i’m all out of thread, and i don’t want to die here.” // “keep chasing echoes of my mind, babe it’s a fine line, and i’m so far over it. and i know it. beneath it all i’m still broken, cut me out, cut it open.”

 SPENT GLADIATOR 2 | THE MOUNTAIN GOATS. “like a spent gladiator, crawling in the colosseum dust, who can count on his remaining limbs all the people he can trust.” // “stay alive. maybe spit some blood at the camera. just stay alive.”

GABRIEL | BEAR’S DEN. “is this all i am? all i ever was? all that he has won is all that i have lost. won’t you hear me out, gabriel? can’t you see the shape i’m in? just don’t leave me alone.” // “it’s a part of me, gabriel, i wish i could deny. the face that i can barely recognise. he lives inside me everyday of my life, and i can hear him, screaming in the night.”

 WORK SONG | HOZIER. “when my time comes around, lay me gently in the cold dark earth. no grave can hold my body down. i’ll crawl home to her.”

 PUNISHER | PHOEBE BRIDGERS. “the drugstores are open all night, the only real reason i moved to the east side. i love a good place to hide in plain sight.” // “i swear i’m not angry, that’s just my face. a copycat killer with a chemical cut. either i’m careless or i wanna get caught.”

 CONVERSATIONS WITH GHOSTS | BEAR’S DEN. “you needn’t be a chamber to house all the echoes and voices of those that have left you. are you talking to me or somebody that you once knew, passing through?”

 SIX BILLION | NOTHING BUT THIEVES. “sometimes the cord likes to break. sometimes the light tries to bend away. sometimes you’re thrust against the wall. sometimes the world wants to see you crawl.”

 THE ARCHER | TAYLOR SWIFT. “they see right through me, i see right through me. all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put me together again, cause all of my enemies started out friends.” // “i wake in the night, i pace like a ghost. the room is on fire, invisible smoke. and all of my heroes die all alone, help me hold onto you.”

 LONGHOPE | BEAR’S DEN. “whispering, ‘please, don’t forget me’. my thoughts are all strangling, the words are all dangling before my eyes, but it’s getting so dark in here. i can’t really see anything clear. i’m just feeling my way through the winter night.” 

 IT WILL COME BACK | HOZIER. “don’t let me in with no intention to keep me, jesus christ. don’t be kind to me. honey, don’t feed me, i will come back.”

 SEEN A GHOST | OLD SEA BRIGADE. “somewhere in my private screening i could hear a shadow screaming - you look like you’ve seen a ghost. kicking your mind back to someone you used to know. kicking your mind back to places i can’t go.”

 HEEL TURN 2 | THE MOUNTAIN GOATS. “drift down into the new, dark light without any reservations. you found my breaking point - congratulations. spent too much of my life now trying to play fair. throw my better self overboard, shoot at him when he comes up for air. come unhinged, get revenge, i don’t want to die in here.” // “let all the trash rain down from way up in the rafters. i’m walking out of here in one piece, i don’t care what comes after. drive the wedge, torch the bridge. i don’t want to die in here.”

 COVERED IN CHAOS | BILLY LOCKETT. “and i know i’ve been messing up lately, living on no sleep, barely alive. i’m covered in chaos, waking up nightly without you. and I’m fading deeper, losing hold of control.” // “and i’ve been kept straight by your hand, but now i’m gasoline, starting fired and washing sand with sea.”

 THE PUGILIST | KEATON HENSON. “to remind me i’m living and that i still need it. you pulled me together with blood and soft stitches.” // “and i’m frightened to death you’ll forget me. don’t forget me. don’t forget me. don’t forget me.”

 HYPERSONIC MISSILES | SAM FENDER. “when the bombs drop, darling, can you say that you’ve lived your life? oh, this is a high time for hypersonic missiles.” // “they say i’m a nihilist cause i can’t see any decent rhyme or reason for the life of you and me. but i believe in what i’m feeling, and i’m falling for you. this world is gonna end but till then, i’ll give you everything i have.”

 MOTION SICKNESS | PHOEBE BRIDGERS. “i have emotional motion sickness. somebody roll the windows down. there are no words in the english language i could scream to drown you out.”

 BLANKETS OF SORROW | BEAR’S DEN. “paralysed, your stubborn mind can’t see the woods behind the blankets of sorrow. no one could ever reach or pull you out. you’re sleeping as the sleet just falls, to crystalize your crimson thoughts. no more i’m sorry's. no, i’m not sorry anymore.” // “you’re praying on a driving snow (is that what you want?) to sail you back, to take you back home (don’t shut me out again). the bitter cold or the frost unknown. do i try or comply?”

 SMOKE SIGNALS | PHOEBE BRIDGERS. “you. you must have been looking for me. sending smoke signals, pelicans circling.” // “i’m sleeping in my bed again, and getting in my head and then, walk around the reservoir.”

 EVERMORE | TAYLOR SWIFT, BON IVER. “hey december, guess i’m feeling unmoored. can’t remember what i used to fight for. i rewind the tape but all it does it pause on the very moment all was lost.” // “and i was catching my breath, barefoot in the wildest winter catching my death. and i couldn’t be sure. i had a feeling so peculiar that this pain would be for evermore.”

MY TEARS RICOCHET | TAYLOR SWIFT. “i didn’t have it in myself to go with grace. you had to kill me but it killed you just the same. cursing my name, wishing i stayed, you turned into your worst fears, and you’re tossing out blame, drunk on this pain, crossing out the good years. look at how my tears ricochet.” // “if i’m on fire, you’ll be made out of ashes too. even on my worst day, did i deserve babe, all the hell you gave me? cause i loved you, i swear i loved you, till my dying day.”

 THE STAR OF BETHNAL GREEN | BEAR’S DEN. “and lord, i’m alive. and maybe the star of bethnal green could lead us back to bethlehem. lord, i have tried.”

 THE DYING LIGHT | SAM FENDER. “maybe i could use a hand. i must admit i’m out of bright ideas to keep the hell at bay. distractions only last a day. the night is so impossible, it haunts the few who dare to look. it’s marks are so hereditary. i’m terrified of having kids.” // “but i’m damned if i give up tonight. i must repel the dying light. for mom and dad and all my pals, for all the ones who didn’t make the night.”

 SPIDERS | BEAR’S DEN. “your promises, they escape you. what’s another burden on the back of this beast? i can’t take back all the hurt i’ve caused. everything i love i have somehow lost. and it’s four in the morning and the spiders are crawling in my mind. replaying pictures of all that i can’t undo.”

 BLUE HOURS | BEAR’S DEN. “if i could just break through the glass, if it shatters in my hands then it shatters in my hands. it’s a risk i’m willing to take.” // “why’d you answer in questions whenever i ask you why? don’t act like you’re so hard to find. i know where you hide. why won’t you just stay with me, why do you lie? why’s there always something keeping you up at night?”

[lunapwrites]

url + song game

thanks to @broomsticks for the tag! I'm going to go with songs in my main playlist that I think gives the widest variety of songs you might hear on it lol. :)

Lovely - Billie Eilish, Khalid

Us - Regina Spektor

Nothing - Misery Signals

Auld Wives - Bear's Den

Trilogy - Emerson, Lake & Palmer

I am not a woman, I'm a god - Halsey

Kimdracula - Deftones

Porch - Pearl Jam

Apathy on the Indiana Border - Emma Ruth Rundle

Not The Sun - Brand New

Doused - DIIV

(the) Old Witch Sleep and the Good Man Grace - The Amazing Devil

Ready to Start - Arcade Fire

Army Dreamers - Kate Bush

Main people I can think of to tag are going to be the lovely @bluestringpudding and @black-sparroww (no pressure, only if you want and have time!)

Also, if that Misery Signals song is up your alley, it's from one of the few albums that I STRONGLY advise listening to front to back, no skips. Every song is immaculate.

[tejaswrites]

URL Music Meme

Thank you for the tag @cleverblackcat! This one was a lot of fun. I also had the problem of songs I love not working with the letters, but it was fun to dig through and find forgotten treasures :)

Pick a song for each letter of your url and tag the same number of people as there are letters.

T - Time Frame by Fractures

E - ELOJE by AYA, Falle Nioke

J - Just a Little Longer by SHY Martin

A - Auld Wives by Bear’s Den

S - Six Feet Under by Billie Eilish

W - Wind Turns Cold by SAENS

R - Ricochet by Haux

I - In My Arms (feat. Jamie N. Commons) by Grizfolk

T - Through Your Eyes by Jordan Critz, Birdtalker

E - Eyes Closed by Halsey

S - Shameless by The Weeknd

I definitely don’t have enough people to tag as letters in my url so... I’ll tag @samuraisaucefrites @ohmypawsandwhiskers​ if y’all want to participate!

[calumthoodshands]

9, 16, 23

heyo!!! guten abend. 🧡

9. A song that makes you happy:

16. One of your favorite classical songs:

idk what classfies as classical but

23. A song that you think everybody should listen to:

this song is crazyyyyyyyyy. i cant think too hard about or i'd cry every time i listen to it. the video makes me cry also. it's just utterly beautiful

send me a song ask