We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Pretty Songs About Death

by Jeremy Mage

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 USD  or more

     

1.
Let Me Go 04:23
In my last year of high school, I’d go every other day To push my gramma’s wheelchair, to get her out of that place But she couldn’t stand the helplessness, she just wasn’t built that way I'd ask "Gramma, how you doin?" “I just wanna die” is all she’d say Let me go when I am ready, she told my mom on the hill I might need you to help me, Don’t keep me breathing still I’ve lived a life of purpose, Long and light and full So when that time comes daughter, just grab the chord and pull As I walk up the driveway, my mom gardens in the yard She staggers as she stands to meet me, change is freaking hard And though these days she’s sometimes out of breath and looking frail She loves that wind and sun, so she braves the mountain trails, and Let me go when I am ready, she tells me on the hill I might need you to help me, don’t want you to keep me breathing still I’ve lived a life of purpose, long and light and full When that time comes son, just grab the chord and pull It's always struck me as the most amazing feat To choose our hour of dying, to feel our life complete And tho there’s always twenty thousand things left still to do I hope when my time comes, I’ll be as brave as you, and Let me go when I am ready, I’ll tell my kid on the Hill I might need you to help me, don’t keep me breathing still I’ve lived a life of purpose, long and light and full So when that time comes When that time comes Valley of the shadow, trying to be brave When that time comes Feel so alone, try not to be afraid When that time comes Valley of the shadow, trying to be brave When that time comes kid, just grab the chord and pull When that time comes kid, just grab the chord and pull
2.
There's no repeat and no reverse It's improvised it's unrehearsed Can't tell the blessings from the curse So ride the gutter down down down, the gutter down Glorious glorious skipping stones The surface of the green and glorious Jumping stones the surface of The sea, the sea, the sea So ride the sea to me I'm not afraid of you time If I hesitate I will surely be late Leave off the brake and just fly We're closing on midnight There's still a chance for sanity Though margins are but narrowly Correct, if accidentally, So ride the gutter down down down, the gutter down Pale, pale why so pale You glimpsed the wings upon the walking Witness to the crying sea The sea the sea the sea the sea So ride the sea to me I'm not afraid of you time If I hesitate I will surely be late Leave off the brake and just fly We're closing on midnight Ride the sea, ride the sea, ride the sea the sea the sea Ride the Sea to me Ride the sea Ride the sea to me Ride ride ride the sea Ride the sea to me
3.
Someday, gonna be a fossil Or maybe just dust to wipe away A fast receding echo Of the things we do today What we do today Present tense and wound up tightly A tightrope walk of fear and pride Presently ambitions wailing Laying sleepless hyped and amplified Living longing for oblivion Blinded by the stars Emptying out my head Dust in the dusty milky way That's my kind of dead Could be something like freedom Even an occasion to rejoice! Could it be just total darkness As the world forgets your voice, and my voice The world forgets our voice. Are we fragments of something larger than us? Is the whole more than the parts? Parting can be such sweet sorrow Got no regrets we're beaten by our hearts Losing loving for oblivion Blinded by the stars Emptying out my head Dust in the dusty milky way Blinded by the stars Emptying out my head Dust in the dusty milky way That's my kind of dead Oh my kind of dead Dust in the dusty Dust in the dusty Dust in the dusty milky way My kind of dead
4.
I'll paint my room bone white To catch the winter sun To help me get up earlier Before the morning's done I'll throw out all my milk crates and build shelves against the wall Just need to get around to it, that's all Last new year’s I resolved To live more by my heart Not to sweat the small stuff To focus on my art To spend less time with acquaintances And more time with my friends Just didn't get around to it again What do I do in the time in between? Where do intentions and actions meet? I thought that I'd have time To tell you face to face How much you meant, how much I've changed To feel your embrace I was on the road When I got the call I never got around to it
5.
Pain, trouble and anger Leave it to the waves Leave it to the waves Now, you release the anchor Drift yourself away Drift yourself away All you keep And all you carry Is younger than a river stone No fear in the shadow of the valley Because you're going, you're going home Don't know nothing ‘bout an afterlife I know that the stars Are made of you and me All atoms in those endless heights Change eternally Change eternally All you keep All you carry Is younger than a river stone No fear in the shadow of the valley ‘Cause you're going, you're going home ‘Cause you’re going, you’re going home ‘Cause you’re going, you’re going home ‘Cause you’re going, you’re going home Ashes to ashes, You’re going home Dust to dust You’re going home The Sand and the stars are made of us You’re going home
6.
Walk With Me 04:43
I lay my burden down Upon the yielding ground And with my empty hands Carry on again The wind brings evening clouds Howling that lonesome sound And in the shadow's dark Will I find a friend Who will walk, walk with me On this winding road? Will you walk, walk with me ‘Till I find my way home Is this a fall from grace Made it this far by faith And even if I could Would I turn, would I turn back now Lay my burden down Upon the yielding ground And with a broken heart Carry on somehow Who will walk, walk with me On this winding road Will you walk, walk with me Till I find my way home Who will walk with me On this winding road Will you walk with me Till I find my way home My way home My way home I think we’re gonna make it home
7.
By Our Side 03:02
At the crimson edge of morning As the dew dries from the blade Hear the rasping voice Of a broken bell Ringing in the day, Just ringing in the day. And the floods of spring meander Through the breaking ice of the bay And the nest is built High up on the sill And there three blue eggs lay, And there three blue eggs lay. And you're by my side You are still by my side Though you're gone, You're still by my side As the great blue cloak of evening Covers the streets and the quays Hear the keening wind through the signal wires and the distant murmuring waves As the hunger moon is waning Darkness starts to fade Hear the rasping voice Of a broken bell Ringing in the day, Just ringing in the day And you're by my side You are still by my side Though you're gone, you're still By my side And you're by our side You are still by our side Though you're gone, you're still By our side, by our side By our side, by our side
8.
As I pulled away from shore Left behind all certainty The rudder broke, the sail torn But I know I'll reach the sea. The current's strong, stronger than I And it draws me toward the falls Not the way I woulda chose But it's out of my control Guess I'll just trust in the river To carry me along Guess I'll just trust in the river To take me where I belong, where I belong Hounds are howling from the bank Straining towards their fierce release Hard upon my trail Got no way of finding peace There's no moon to chase the fog With the coming of the night Just one star, silent and rare, Telling me I'll be alright... Guess I'll just trust in the river To carry me along Guess I'll just trust in the river To take me where I belong, where I belong Every day and each dark night As I'm learning how to breathe Let it go, just let it flow, I know I'll reach the sea, Eventually Guess I'll just trust in the river To carry me along Guess I'll just trust in the river Take me where I belong, where I belong
9.
All Gotta 03:01
All Gotta Are we any closer? To see the puppets wires Pull apart the meaning Seek a grand design Searching for beginnings A spark before the fire Echo of a vision Or a blinking eye We all gotta breathe And we all gotta sleep. We all gotta drink! And we all gotta eat. We all spent a few seasons In the womb of a woman. We all got to stay warm and dry… And we all gotta die. Heard that human nature is selfish at it’s best Greedy grasping violent fighting over caves A plague upon the garden a self destructive mess United by our fears, divided by our faiths We all gotta breathe And we all gotta sleep. We all gotta piss! And we all gotta eat. We all spent a few seasons In the womb of a woman. We all got to stay warm and dry… And we all gotta die. It’s round wet and crowded, it's hot in the summer Follow the moon, or follow your pride At the outside you got maybe a hundred years here, so God damn it, babies, you got be kind, ‘cause We all gotta breathe And we all gotta sleep. We all gotta drink! And we all gotta eat. We all spent a few seasons (oh momma) in the womb of a woman. We all got to stay warm and dry… And we all gotta die. (You and I) We all gotta die (Someday) We all gotta die.

about

By fate or chance, I frequently confronted death in various facets these last few years. I wrote songs to comfort dying loved ones, which we sang together in their final hours. I searched for a spiritual language that would resonate with a friend who was an avowed atheist at death’s door. And late at night, I wrote to come to grips with my own mortality, and to wake to life in all it’s beauty and absurdity. Without meaning to, I discovered I’d written an album.

credits

released November 2, 2022

Art by Priska Wenger

Choral Voices:
Troy Anthony
Orion Johnstone
Marcel Davies Lashley
Derrika Robinson
Tara Robinson
Purnash Durgaprasaud
Bev Grant
Jason Charles Walker
Andrew Gregory
Elio Nikola Wenger Mage
Dean Jones

Guitar, piano, lead voice, additional percussion, other stuff:
Jeremy Mage

Percussion: Jeremy Mage, Dean Jones
Trombone: Dean Jones

Produced by Jeremy Mage
Additional production by Dean Jones
All songs written by Jeremy Mage
"Walk With Me" written by Jason Charles Walker and Jeremy Mage
Mastered by Jamal Ruhe
#prettysongsaboutdeath

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Jeremy Mage & The Magi New York, New York

Mage is a New Yorker living in Switzerland. He played B-3 in church and broke his nose in a mosh pit, and then years later he broke it again on a Steinway. In between, he studied with Baba Olatunji, Alan Ginsberg, Fred Frith, Yusef Lateef; learned Raga in Varanasi and clave in Havana. He world-toured with Lizz Wright, Wunmi, and the Easy Star All Stars. His influences are a hopeless mix. ... more

contact / help

Contact Jeremy Mage & The Magi

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Pretty Songs About Death, you may also like: