The Sound of People Dancing

For the Patrons: this is the full, uncut 25-minute live version of The Sound of People Dancing, the “sonic postcard” written and recorded at Le Poisson Rouge on July 20th with my touring partners Thor & Friends. a cleaned-up, shortened version will be mastered later for public download here and for bandcamp, youtube, itunes etc. If you’re a member of the public and you’ve stumbled upon this, no problem. we’re working on it – join the patreon to join the discussion and support the art: www.patreon.com/amandapalmer

Meanwhile: Patrons….enjoy and hit me with feedback on the discussion page about cuts & ideas.

CREDITS:
Amanda Palmer – words, piano, vocals
Thor Harris – xylophone and clarinet
Sarah Gautier – vibraphone
Peggy Ghorbani – marimba
Brockett Hamilton – pedal steel
Elizabeth Warren – Viola
Penny Buentello – clarinet

Crew at Le Poisson Rouge:
Jay Eigenmann – Engineer, mixing, mastering
Bernard Girman – Asst. Engineer
Francesca Cecala – Asst. Engineer
Recorded live at (le) poisson rouge

LYRICS:

there’s so much sorrow in the water now
it’s hard to tell what’s natural tasting
is your reservoir infected?
is your heart no longer working?

did you drink it?
from which faucet, ma’am?

i don’t know….who’s asking?

last night my friend’s mother died of cancer…
drowned in a fountain of blood from her own mouth
and since she didn’t have insurance
well, it was a sad thing
she went…not right.
a budget passing.

get it?

three days ago we drove through DC
and we saw the flags at half mast
flying – well, more like hanging – in the heat, like they’d given up on being flags

and there’s so much bad news lately that we found ourselves remarking
that we had no clue which tragedy or which deaths their state was marking…

and who do you ask that, anyway?
is there a number you can call?
is there an app?
is there a hotline?

…is there a woman in a basement keeping track of what all of these things are costing?

there’s so much sorrow in the water now
we don’t know if we’re coming
or we’re going
or who’s shooting who
or who’s grieving
or who’s watching
or if we’re helping
or we’re harming
or if we’re catching
or releasing….

but last night after the show i girl i’d never met held me in her arms
and she told me that her father had been shot
by a policeman

we’re holding our breath in this nightclub, in the bathroom
we’ve been trapped in here for a couple of weeks
we’re not sure what’s going on out there
but we heard there was a gunman
it might just be
the sound of people dancing

boom….boom…boom…boom…
it might just be the sound of people dancing

i’m with my family right now, in new york
we’re among the living
they’re from oklahoma, and iran, and new orleans
and from austin

and the people
we keep trying
to keep trusting
they keep failing
but its ’s hard to cross them off lists
so we cross them like priests
as if we can absolve them
with the delusion that people can change
on a dime
in an instant

is it you?
is it me?
or is it the world that isn’t changing?

there’s so much sorrow in the water now that we’re no longer
dying of aging, we’re dying of worse things….
we’re dying of hatred.

we threw all the guns in the ocean
but there were too many
and the sea couldn’t hold them
and the coastal plains flooded
and that
wall
they
built?

it busted.

and the waters rushed in
and the heartland started rusting.

i don’t know.

it might just be the sound of people dancing.
it might just be the sound of people dancing.

on the way to the venue today, to record this, i walked by two girls in washington square park
and i caught one line of their conversation
she said
“i’ll avoid conflict at all costs”
but the question is:

what is it costing?

…it might just be…the sound…of people dancing….