Petrel (32nd page skirmish)

1 week ago by @emkeev

Liner Notes

This song's got good bones but I was interrupted so many times trying to record it that I'm in a foul mood, so the bridge and the vocal execution sucks for now. I'll come back for it later. It's just a phone recording. Also can't shake the feeling that I stole a bunch of stuff from a bunch of people but didn't really have the mental bandwidth to figure it out.

I opened the 32nd page of Sibley's Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America and that page is about tube-noses. I encountered some fork-tailed storm petrels (tube-noses) while I was in Alaska so here's a little... thing.

Lyrics

In the north, the Barren Islands I ii
Windswept free // of proud tall tree // Just the seas IV I V I
of grass and cold clear salt vi
Waving to us all IV V

Tufted puffin and the kittiwake
The common and thick-billed murre
Calling out their lives so loud
In secret, there you were: petrel.

In the grass, in the dirt
Tiny downy introverts, frail bird
with a pint-size volcano
Where you have a nose

All your friends up here
Are swagger-tough and hale enough, you’re fluff
And small and feather-light
How do you survive?

Tufted puffin and the kittiwake IV V I
The common and thick-billed murre
Calling out their lives so loud IV V V/vi vi
In secret, there you were: petrel. Vi V I

A rush of wings brush my face IV V
Floating silent, free I - step - vi
You are here in your unlikely home:
Above the raging seas, wing-full of good strong breeze.

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