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about

A take on the children's nursery rhyme, Sing a Song of Sixpence. The original meaning of this song is up for debate - some would have it has symbolic of the sun, the moon, the hours in a day, while others claim it as a pirate recruiting song. My version, in which I've changed both the tune and most of the lyrics, it's a plague song. A Black Death shared is a Black Death doubled.

The recorder tune may develop into an earworm. It all adds the the plague...

lyrics

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie,
From within the crust, the birds sing in the pie,
They sing a song to tell the world the time has come to die

The king was in his counting house a-counting all his coin,
but all the gold within his kingdom won't cure pustules in his groin.
Rich or poor they all must heed the blackbird's song,
rich or poor they all must know their time will not be long.

The queen was in the parlour, eating honeyed bread,
Servants lay around her, Blackened, rotten, dead.
Honey in the bread can't hide the taint of spoil, decay.
Even queens will kneel when the blackbird has his day.

The maid was in the garden, a-burying the dead.
Along came a blackbird, and pecked off her head.
Their wings spread out across the land, they cover all the earth.
And none shall be escaping when the blackbirds do their worst.

Sixpences closed the dead man's eyes the rye grew through his corpse.
Those that ate the pie were sick, their humours all a-warped.
The blackbirds all took to the air, their beaks a-gape to sing,
and all that did a-hear them knew it was death they bring'd.

credits

from Nursery Rhymes for the Apocalypse, released October 31, 2017
Words & music by LM Cooke, adapted from the traditional nursery rhyme, Sing A Song of Sixpence.
Performance, instrumentation and programming by LM Cooke.

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all rights reserved

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about

LM Cooke Birmingham, UK

LM Cooke's solo work tends toward the dark and curiously-rhymed side.

She currently also performs in Mediaeval Biateches. Until recently she was singist/ main songwriter in Crimson Clocks and before that violinist/ main songwriter in Broadarrow Jack. LM is also a published writer of dark fantasy/ science/ mythic fiction, and hosts The Murder Hour radio show on Mixcloud. ... more

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