The Penitant Man

The penitant man and the sinful prey,
Know only too well that it ends today,
The sun comes up and the hunt begins,
Ain't much doubt about which one wins.

The penitant man got a piece of the sky,
Business class about eight miles high,
While the sinful prey got boots on the ground,
Listening out for that jet plane sound.

The penitant man got a fresh magazine,
Slipped in the grip of a Glock nineteen,
On most days hard to find reasons to die,
Today he got fifteen arguments why.

The heart that mocked him and the hands that bled,
Just about ninety nine miles ahead,
At a Greyhound Station queueing inside,
Eighty five bucks for a ticket to ride.

Way out in those flatlands, nowhere to hide,
Those are the breaks without God on your side,
The quality of mercy strains and bends,
On a lonely farm where a story ends.

Now the sinful prey ain't making no sound,
Lying in the dirt about six feet down,
The smell of fresh gun smoke hangs in the air,
The penitant man got blood in his hair.

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Edited by bassMonkey on February 11 2023 23:28

fantastic band and great lyrics thanks Alan
[wl]263806[/wl]

[notes]
This one started with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - towards the end with Indy trying to avoid getting his head chopped off and thinking out loud "The penitent man... The penitent man... Is humble before God" and then kneeling - SWISH. Screw "spolier alerts" everyone has seen it.

I had this "Penitant Man" character in my head for a long time and kept writing down "The Penitant Man... something something something" playing 4/4 bass parts. Saw him as some kind of hit man retained by a religious organisation to dispose of people they needed gone (the sinful prey) but was he very sorry when he did the deed. Of course then I realised that was basically the albino guy in "The Da Vinci Code". Meh.

So it just ended up as one simple story and someone said to me "Is this a about a guy killing his ex-wife?" - Nope. Just a sad story about someone doing something bad and regretting it - but I suppose many things could apply.

Outstanding interpretaion by Gary though on a really cool track which (for me) completely describes the onward movement and periods of reflection I was thinking about.

Oh - and especially for my friend Peter, I smuggled in one Shakespeare paraphrase and one Percy Shelly one. The latter delivered with considerable aplomb on the track above ;). There are no prizes for spotting them though I really, really wish there were

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Edited by bassMonkey on February 24 2023 23:54