Digital Program
Original Music inspired by Herman Melville’s Moby Dick
The Bushwick Book Club Seattle
presents
Original Music Inspired by
Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick
June 8, 2024
at Town Hall Seattle
Hosted by Wes Weddell
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Featuring Musical Performances from
(Click name for primary link, * = first Bushwick appearance, ^ = lyrics included below)
Rights to all song lyrics ©/℗ the individual artists, reprinted here with permission
Debbie Miller
Facebook Instagram Bandcamp
Darren Loucas
Helen America*
Facebook Instagram Bandcamp
Kristin Chambers
Linktree Facebook Instagram YouTube Interview
Plus the Bushwick Quiz, and more!
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2023-2024 “Bushwick Bestiary” Mainstage Season at Town Hall Seattle, Rabbit Box Theare, & online
Original Music Inspired by Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick
PERFORMER-PROVIDED LYRICS
Rights to all song lyrics ©/℗ the individual artists, reprinted here—exactly as submitted—with permission
Del Rey
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Ahab’s mirror is a gold doubloon
his reflection is deceiving
he drinks to death from a king’s harpoon
Ahab runs from grieving
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Ahab’s bed is a sea of blood,
he never wakes from dreaming
the Whale sleeps sound on the swelling flood
apart from Ahab’s scheming
–
shame on all you cowards
who’d rather die than live
shame on all you cowards
who take what you cannot give
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Ahab stands on a stolen bone
he only wears one shoe
his lonely road never leads him home
he’ll die with all his crew
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Shame on all you cowards
who break but never bend
shame on all you cowards
who rip what you cannot mend
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The Rachel weeps for her lost child
she never cries for vengeance
why take a child on the billows wild?
no care for your dependents
–
Pip holds tight to Ahab’s hand
his father on the sea
Ahab only holds his own
peculiar misery
–
Shame on all you cowards
who kill for sport or gold
shame on all you cowards
who do just what you’re told
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Nottingham & Wicks
Whalesong
–
How profoundly deep you fly
down to the depths you dive
hunting for what your heart is missing
Up to the surface to breathe
complex memories to weave
a reality rather than mere wishing
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What lies beyond your grasp
shuddering souls you’ll outlast
alone on imaginary islands
In a hardscrabble scramble
through seaweed or bramble
my lovely ragamuffin, rapscallion
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(chorus)
A gentle joy
floating in repose
awash in a man’s cruel madness
A mildness of might
this tender whale of white
a massive howling gale of sadness
–
[bass solo]
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In quietude you dream
your melancholy theme
through tranquil brilliance of the ocean’s skin
Years of circling the seas
your soul a slight unease
as you sing your song, devotion’s kin
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You croon your sad lament
your woeful mad repent
through the dark miles & miles of ocean waves
Filling the world with moans
as you longingly swim along
with your wisdom, strength, and tiger-heart tones
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(chorus)
Cyd Smith
ELEGY FOR AHAB
(Based on Chapter 132 “The Symphony”)
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There’s a woman I will widow
A child I’ll never see
And I will take to certain death
Those who follow me
The angels weep, I flood with tears
The futile chase, the wasted years
But like a beast that’s born to kill
I answer to a crueler will.
–
Chorus
The die is cast, let the game play out
What will be, will be
Too late to turn this ship around
It’s no longer up to me
And we will follow Moby Dick
We will follow Moby Dick
We will follow Moby Dick
To the bottom of the sea.
–
It’s all so clear to me now, written in the crystal sky
The type is set, the final chapter
Tells us how we’re going to die
There is no escaping fate
Still I stand and hesitate
Then in the distance, white as snow
Thar she blows and off we go
–
The die is cast, let the game play out
What will be, will be
Too late to turn this ship around
It was never up to me
And we will follow Moby Dick
We will follow Moby Dick
We will follow Moby Dick
To the bottom of the sea.
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Irthlingz Duo
Death & Devils
(Michael Hurwicz & Sharon Abreu)
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When a Himalayan mastodon tears through a sea of salt
That’s Moby Dick (2x)
And corkscrews and fantails like a split jib in a squall
Death and devils, men, that’s Moby Dick ye’ve seen.
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And behind it a ship’s captain by vengeance consumed
That’s Moby Dick (2x)
Well, keep your distance friend: that ship is cursed and doomed
Death and devils, men, that’s Moby Dick ye’ve seen.
–
The mightiest animated mass that has survived the flood
Moby Dick (2x)
Has smashed that ship to splinters and turned the sea to blood
Death and devils, men, that’s Moby Dick ye’ve seen.
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Most monstrous and most mountainous, this salt sea mastodon
That’s Moby Dick (2x)
You’re thinking you’re the hunter, but it’s you’ll be hunted down
Death and devils, men, that’s Moby Dick ye’ve seen.
–
The vengeance you pursue may pursue you in its turn
That’s Moby Dick (2x)
While those who would forgive may themselves forgiveness earn
Death and devils, men, that’s Moby Dick ye’ve seen.
