Category: Americana

Adam of the Universe – Our Mother the Mountain [Townes Van Zandt Cover]

On By Adam AstraIn Americana, Indie Folk, Music, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Song by the late great Townes Van Zandt. Performed, recorded, and mixed by Adam of the Universe with tremendous respect and gratitude for (and sincerest apologies to) the original artist. Find more fantastic music from Townes Van Zandt at https://townesvanzandt.com.

Our Mother the Mountain:

My lover comes to me with a rose on her bosom
The moon’s dancin’ purple
All through her black hair
And a ladies-in-waiting she stands ‘neath my window
And the sun will rise soon
On the false and the fair
She tells me she comes from my mother the mountain
Her skin fits her tightly
And her lips do not lie
She silently slips from her throat a medallion
Slowly she twirls it
In front of my eyes
I watch her, I love her, I long for to touch her
The satin she’s wearin’
Is shimmering blue
Outside my window her ladies are sleeping
My dogs have gone hunting
The howling is through
So I reach for her hand and her eyes turns to poison
And her hair turns to splinters,
And her flesh turns to brine
She leaps cross the room, she stands in the window
And screams that my first-born
Will surely be blind
She throws herself out to the black of the nightfall
She’s parted her lips
But she makes not a sound
I fly down the stairway, and I run to the garden
No trace of my true love
Is there to be found
So walk these hills lightly, and watch who you’re lovin’
By mother the mountain
I swear that it’s true
Love not a woman with hair black as midnight
And her dress made of satin
All shimmering blue

Original Song – This Invisible Ocean

On By Adam AstraIn Adam of the Universe Original Song, Americana, Indie Folk, Kansas Poetry, lyrics, Original Lyrics, Original Poetry, original song lyrics, Poetry, Prose Poetry, Singer-Songwriter, Song Lyrics, UncategorizedLeave a comment

For mom.

THIS INVISIBLE OCEAN

As a wild eyed child, little shovel in hand,
I dug for treasure in a box full of sand.
I uncovered a seashell, a spiral of ivory,
And ran to ask my mother what this wonder might be.

She motioned to the plains, as she explained to me
How they were underwater as far as you could see.
I looked out in amazement as the tall trembling trees
Trickled as they shifted in the quick liquid breeze.

I turned to my mother and I said, “No way!
You mean what we see here, that’s just today?
But mama, oh mama,” I said, suddenly afraid.
“Mama, oh mama, why can’t it stay the same?
Mama, oh, mama, will the water come again?”

She took me in her arms and kissed my salty tears,
Caressed my dirty forehead, and whispered in my ear,
“If you live in this moment, you will learn to swim
This invisible ocean that we’re living in.”

Original Song – Never Alone

On By Adam AstraIn Adam of the Universe Original Song, Americana, Indie Folk, Original Lyrics, Original Poetry, Poetry, Singer-Songwriter, Song LyricsLeave a comment

 

NEVER ALONE

One by one
my lovers have all moved on
Leavin’ me
With only this lonesome song

And quiet nights
With only myself to blame
Feelin’ as though
Nobody knows my name

    (Knows my name)

I walk along
The sidewalk still wet with rain
Just singin’ to
The shadows that move so strange

The moon it hangs
up in the sky so grey
It looks on me
Without a word to say

    (A word to say)

And then a man
With an unearthly smile
he says to me
“you’ve got it all wrong my child

You cannot be
alone in a world so grand.
and love it grows
out of the palm of your hand”

     (The palm of your hand
        Just give me your hand
            Help me understand)

      (instrumental verse)

And then the man
He vanished into the wind
And took with him
My feelings of isolation

And now I know
That all of life shares one
Love and so
I’m never alone

Never alone
     Never alone
           Never alone