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London Bridge is falling down,
so I stopped for a pint at the Rose and Crown,
musing upon the king my brother's wreck.
She walked through the door as I lit my second cigarette.
I know it's not polite to care--you've got to keep calm and carry on--
but it was such a surprise that her skin was so white,
I couldn't help myself.
The girl with no tattoos, come to sing my blues.
She came to me like an angel sent from heaven.
London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.
She sang a song as she strummed on her guitar,
and her voice took me home, where I'd never been before.
Later on that night, I walked home in the rain,
and it didn't seem to bother me that I didn't know her name.
I know it's not polite to care--you've got to keep calm and carry on--
but it was such a surprise that her skin was so white,
I couldn't help myself.
The girl with no tattoos, come to sing my blues.
She came to me like an angel sent from heaven.
London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.
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Get out of bed, form a straight line.
Make sure your shirts are neatly pressed and your shoes are neatly shined.
And if a button's out of place--if a speck of dust falls through,
well, it's 40 laps around the yard; it's back to the kitchen patrol for you.
I know you'll say "glory, honor," and such dreck,
but honor's just an empty word with someone else's bootheels on your neck.
I don't want to go to military school.
I don't want to wear a uniform and follow all the rules.
What I believe I just don't know--I take it slow,
but my conscience says "no," and where it goes I will follow.
Nervously I while away the passing hours
while blond-haired beasts of prey stalk their victims in the showers.
"Dulce et decorum est" to be a homophobic lout.
Sadistic fantasies are daily being acted out.
I know you'll say words you saw on the TV screen,
but I know all about Pinochet and what we did in the Phillipines.
I don't want to go to military school.
I don't want to wear a uniform and follow all the rules.
What I believe I just don't know--I take it slow,
but my conscience says "no," and where it goes I will follow.
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The sea is calm tonight,
silent as the grave.
I'm alone on this lonely ocean, tossed about by the waves.
Winds they howl in the night.
Set my course for the shore.
I'll sail this ship into the harbor though there's no one waiting back home.
No there's no one waiting for us.
You are the one that I've always been searching for,
arms open wide reaching out in the dark.
Won't you touch me, love me, be with me always?
I'm sailing into your arms.
The sea of faithlessness was once wide and full, but no longer today.
And though I rightly pass for an atheist, should I tell them that I still pray.
You are the one that I've always been searching for,
arms open wide reaching out in the dark.
Won't you touch me, love me, be with me always?
I'm sailing into your arms.
Though there's nothing waiting for us.
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I hear that my old college is filled with desperate Christian women
cos their boyfriends are all too busy shaking hands with Yul Brynner.
Can you imagine the lack of balls it takes to tell somebody's daughter,
"If you're gonna be with me, you gotta share me with Gxbby Cxrter?"
My time has come.
Can I take you out to dinner? I won't do you any harm.
We could get married in the summer. We could live out on the farm.
I know a mewithoutYou song for every animal in the barn.
Let's make a baby, then a sequel. Girl, I'll treat you like an equal.
My time has come.
Hear me out, baby, don't walk away.
Please don't kink-shame me for what I'm gonna say:
See, I've got this sick, perverted fantasy
where I marry a nice girl and we start a family.
These days you've given up on finding your life's undying passion.
You would settle for a boyfriend who's not a Fascist.
But from an undiscovered galaxy, from an interstellar burst,
from the long-forgotten stars, I've come back to steal your heart
My time has come.
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I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth,
and in his one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, incarnate through a virgin birth;
who for us and for our salvation, was hung on a cross 'til he died;
and rose up again upon the third day, and now sits at the Father's right side.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life,
who proceeds from the Father; with the Father and Son glorified.
I believe in one universal church, I believe in the forgiveness of sins,
And I believe that eternally contemplating God is humanity's ultimate end.
This is what I believe--not in cops, not in guns, not in wars, not in bombs, not in markets nor jobs, not in drugs, not in sex, not in power or wealth, not in infinite expressions of my malleable self.
Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi swaha.
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I occasionally get asked the question "iS tHiS a cHrIsTiAn bAnD?" usually due not to me personal beliefs and their reflection in my song lyrics, but to the fact that my project name has the word "Catholics" in it. Do these people not know what the word "lapsed" means? Do they think that Lamb of God is a Christian band? And does this mean that "Sidelined By Mosh Pit Injuries" will someday be played on K-Love?
In any event, I have never wanted my music for this project to be agenda-driven. I'm not the religious equivalent of, say, a politically-charged band like Earth Crisis or Anti-Flag, trying to raise awareness and rally the faithful. There will be no altar calls at my shows. At the same time, it would be disingenuous to try to obscure the religious--and specifically Christian--elements of my songwriting, which is, after all, primarily in a confessional mode. The songwriters whose themes and approach I have tried to approximate have been Julien Baker, Andy Hull (Manchester Orchestra), Matt Berninger (The National), Tim Kasher (Cursive, The Good Life), Aaron Weiss (mewithoutYou) and Morrissey (The Smiths--too bad he died right after they broke up; he could have had a great solo career). None of these artists have been shy about their religious and political convictions (or lack of), but neither did their art descend to on-the-nose speechifying and ham-fisted attempts at converting the unfaithful (not that there's anything wrong with that; see also, Earth Crisis, Anti-Flag). Instead, they about their lives and the lives of others with--not exactly authenticity (what a slippery concept!), but something closer to nuance and fidelity. Like a detailed painting by one of the old masters, such as the Memento Mori that forms the background of this album cover. In my own way, I have tried to approximate what they've done, albeit with a pallette made up of rather garish permanent markers rather than oil paints. These songs are acoustic demos of songs that, for the most part, deserve a full-band treatment. The first and last songs on the EP are probably the two songs in my catalog that I think are the best--I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
The painting that forms the background of the album is "Vanitas: Still Life with the Spinario" by the Dutch Master Pieter Claesz, 1628. The photo was taken by myself. The two books in the picture are an ESV translation of the Bible, and Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science. This a reference to the concept of the "two books" in medieval theology--God has not only given us divine revelation, but also the "Book of Nature."
released January 15, 2021
Nick House: All instruments and vocals.
All songs written by Nick House. (c) 2021 Strength Through Despair Music.
