PHANTOMS OF FABLES

by Damien Youth

PHANTOMS OF FABLES cover art
/

  • Digital Album

    Immediate download of 20-track album in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  $8 USD

  • PHANTOMS OF FABLES CD Official pressing.

    Damien Youth's PHANTOMS OF FABLES Album. Official pressing on Zygote Records. 2005. (Not a CD-R)

    Includes immediate download of 20-track album in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  $8 USD

    ships within 4 days
    edition of 100

  • Share / Embed
1.
04:21
lyrics
download
2.
03:57
lyrics
download
3.
04:01
lyrics
download
4.
05:19
lyrics
download
5.
04:07
lyrics
download
6.
03:58
lyrics
download
7.
03:03
lyrics
download
8.
02:34
lyrics
download
9.
03:09
lyrics
download
10.
04:23
lyrics
download
11.
05:12
lyrics
download
12.
04:28
lyrics
download
13.
03:30
lyrics
download
14.
03:38
lyrics
download
15.
(free) 03:35
lyrics
download
16.
05:38
lyrics
download
17.
(free) 04:03
lyrics
download
18.
(free) 04:40
download
19.
(free) 03:27
download
20.
(free) 04:56
lyrics
download

about

"The song remains pretty much the same over the course of the prolific Damien Youth's releases, but it's a pretty good song. And you get more than one song, of course, on Phantoms of Fables, though the approach is in line with most of his previous albums: pleasant, acoustic-based folk-pop-rock-psychedelia with some unusual lyrical twists. Since that nutshell description could be applied to some Robyn Hitchcock records, it's not that much of a surprise to find a tune here titled "I Know Where Robyn Hitchcock Lives," itself likely a partial homage to Television Personalities' cult homage "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives." For the most part, however, the material's devoted to the kind of moods and topics common to Damien Youth territory: pastoral romance with a touch of the gothic and mystical, ghosts, melancholy days in the life ("These Days Are But Molecules"), and trippy and fearful disorientation ("Freaked Out," "Dead Relative"). Some of the lyrics go into the odd and disturbing, like "Doll Child"'s recollection of dressing up a woman (girlfriend?) like a doll child and covering her in glue, describing her as being to nymphomania "like Elvis is to heart attacks or black blind men are to blues." Still, the tone is more often than not friendly and reassuring, if more conducive to solitary dark rooms than open sunny fields. And while some more variation from the acoustic folk-rock Damien Youth frequents might be welcome, it's not all stuck in that format, going into mildly gutsy Syd Barrett-ish full rock on occasion (particularly "I Know Where Robyn Hitchcock Lives"), and employing forceful piano at others. "- Richie Unterberger

credits

released 12 December 2004
Damien Youth: Vocals & Instruments
Adam Wilde: Photography

tags

tags: alternative cult rock indie lo-fi psych pop psychedelic rock acid folk gothic indie rock psychedelic New Orleans

license

all rights reserved

feeds

feeds for this album, this artist

discography

contact / help

For help with downloads, click here.

For all other inquiries, including help with merch, click here.

Track Name: Artemis
Sitting solitaire on Tolstoy afternoons
watching as that two face moon, tries tricking me
through rustling leaves, into shepherd sleep.

With all her science and her romance and mythologies
she’s trying to cast her spell on me,
my soul released to velvet glow
Flow through lunar bliss, to stranger’s kiss
on the holy wings of Artemis

Alone beneath the gingham swirl of gorgeous nights,
I lie and wonder, oh how many lonely nights
can I afford my self,
looking into the eyes of no one else
chastised by the church bell chimes and
beat down by the hands of time
Wake up on the floor and find
I can’t recall her name or my state of mind
Untold truths and mis-spent trust
I don’t miss you, I miss the both us

Tripping down the jigsaw jazz of city streets
morning sunlight through the trees,
wraps the day in cellophane

swirling all around me in off key harmony
voices carry on the breeze,
on my odyssey for amnesty.
On my lonely search, for Artemis,


all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Hope
Back when Prometheus had kept you in his jar,
then let you out to watch you shooting like a star
and everybody there had wondered who you are.
I know, I know, I know.

For I had watched you from the corner of the sky
Your spirit spinning through the orbits of my eye
and I could conjure you if only I could cry.
I know, I know, I know.

I saw your ghost in this room
you were hovering cold in puddles of twilight
You stared through violent squares,
pulsing vision impaired like some harlequin nomad.
I saw you trapped in a skin like a magical jinn.
A serious no show.
He’s got you chained to his wall,
but this chasm is swirling your spirit right out of his hold.

Back when Prometheus had kept you in his jar,
then let you out to watch you shooting like a star.
and all the silent children wondered who you are.
I know, I know, I know.

For I had followed you through fields of icy snow
your spirit moving through a labyrinth of ghost.
Then slow ascending through a circle like a star.
I know, I know, I know.

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Red Ghost Mother
Red ghost mother chased the screaming idiot savant out to the black chair room.
High orifice devouring the empty space as carpet dust floats minuscule.
Pre-surgical hysteria swirls in the minds of lookers on
the waiting room is filled with crinkled eyes and unread magazine.
The bathroom becomes refuge to the hypodermic recluse,white rooms wait for thee.

And now I hear the silence of the sun,
As chatter blossoms faces come undone,
Irreverent and bold and looking on,
their fate they see and I am the stage
that they stare as they wait for the final play.

Aunt Dorothy pull the car around,
in black suit silent sitting down, through market street.
As window blenders next to me,
churn signs and shops and autumn leaves, I fall asleep.
As mediocre monuments unhinge and blend all Dali-esque
A park bench turns to elephant, amoeba pulse ‘neath flower dress
A street light glows like UFO as rainbows show their
pots of gold to tired thieves.

As clock hands slow undress the time of day and
morning’s molestation starts to fade.
The telephone rings, tattles what you say and I am just the book that you read as you rough draft your autobiography.

Should her theories fail to float,
she’ll quickly turn the other coat and side with me.
Should she capsize far from shore
on half built rafts of metaphor she’ll drink the sea.
The salty lie of lover’s moan, with belly full of suds and foam
She lies on bed of roots and stone, fish eye nipples staring on
A light house beacon cuts the fog, her mermaid bottom slow dissolves, she finds her feet and leaves.

Like pyrite glistening golden to the fool,
distant stars are divination tools
astrology the science to define,
she’s reaching for the stars and the sun and the moon for she fears what’s inside the mind.

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Anastacia
Go away, I don’t want to see you anymore,
I don’t want to see you in my room beneath my silent cloud.
Blow away, I don’t want to be here anymore
I don’t want to lie beneath those stars here in your world
spin round.

As solemn as an epitaph in grassy lawns,
she stands beside my bedside like a hologram
I don’t want you, I don’t need a friend
I don’t love you and I won’t let you in... Anastasia


Go away, I don’t want to see you anymore,
I feel your sunlight shining through my trees,
incinerating me.
I guess I’ll be the one to put you in your place
to send you sailing soulless from the human race


We don’t want you, we don’t need a friend
We don’t love you and we won’t let you in... Anastasia

I’m breaking all the flowers that you sent to me
(Anastasia)
I burned your letters with your effigy
(Anastasia)
and when you lie beneath your plot of stone
(Anastasia)
may maggots eat your flesh down to the bone
(Anastasia)
and may you spend your elder years alone
(Anastasia)
hallucinating that you're miles from home
(Anastasia)
In case you're wondering, yes, you’re in this song
(Anastasia)
When you thought I hated you were not wrong
(Anastasia)

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: These Days Are But Molecules
Sally left her coat out in the rain,
buckle shoes, umbrella lie in streams
from paint box the colors run, from cold blue to indigo
solemn the days did come, still solemn they go.
And the rains came down

Teardrops trickle down her window room
gray clouds gather weeping out their hue
from white dress young Sunday girl,
to black clad dark misty eyes
these hours were not your friend, your garden doth die.And the sands came down

Sally rides her bike up to the square
Strides of silent wonder, blue eyes stare
Her cottage sinks far away, over her shoulder small
the pathways snake endlessly, it’s ending unknown.
Still she moves along

Sally sits out by the forest edge,
picking all the borrows from her hair
untangle the messy brier, tender locks fall undone
like black velvet orphan child, no friend to the sun

these days are but molecules, gathering flow recklessly, and chemical spools are we, each swirling un-spun, still the days come down

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: I Know Where Robyn Hitchcock Lives
Late one night, by chance, I spied, a stranger, yet, familiar guy?
Twas distant down an alley way half shadow cast, all black and gray.
Night was thick with humming wires,
street lamps swayed to touch the spires
bedroom windows dimmed like ember in December’s frown

Pre-legendary then, my phantom friend
still lurking round the bin, in street light dim, my phantom friend

Amidst the poetry of night A staggering form, no fancy flight
did wander, thus, did intersect, distracting me as I reflect
Like an exclamation out of place,
he steered his form to match my pace
I turned , too late, he’s at my side, though drunk,
doth syncopate my stride.

dare not glance peripheral, to not see what’s visible?
beyond what I could perpetrate, increase my pace, I deviate.

Racing running my lair swelling in my sight and
up the stair way turning on my bedroom light
footsteps echo, down the dusty corridors of night

Down the hallways, closing all the curtains and
I block the doorways, still I hear him coming
breathing, stumbling, slow across the floors.

But as I opened up my door and search the dusty corridors.
A phantom standing not quite clad,
save railroad boots and cowboy hat.
With flannel shirt and blue jean vest,
just looming there, all Roger-esque.
Phantom friend

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Freaked Out
I’m freaked out, the world keeps spinning,
like the sun spun yarn of a spider web wrapping around.
I can’t move and the days keep burning down around, it’s pages are turning.

I strike out but there’s no connection,
this fall from grace wasn’t misdirected at me.
I never planned to be more than what you see right now,
the man who’s a cold black sycophant
riding the hours, hating the obvious,
telling the powers that be. . .

I don’t want to be here anymore,
I don’t want to do this all again.
so save a picture of me in your mind,
cause when it ends it really is the end.

I lay low when my days get static,
I wanna run away but the clock keeps laughing at me.
The spot light, cuts the night and follows me
to where morning is waiting.
I sit up and close the curtain, I lay back down
cause the days are hurting me more.
They say it the life I’m leading, I shoot that down,
it’s more like the other way around.
riding the hours, hating the obvious,
telling the powers that be. . .

I don’t want to be here anymore,
I don’t want to do this all again.
so save a picture of me in your mind,
cause when it ends it really is the end.

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Doll Child
I guess you’re still upset about Sunday, was it something I didn’t say?
I never claimed that I was a poet, I never had to anyway.
As playful as an alley cat, she climbs into my bed.
I closed my eyes and dreamed of you, c’mon, you know that I did.

I close my eyes, I reach for my pen, I sit very still,
I write for you a romantic song to make up for wrong.

I guess you won’t be coming ‘round Mondays like you used to do,
when I would dress you up like a doll child and cover you in glue.
As obvious as an elephant in short skirt and pink fuzzy shoes.
She tries to pretend she’s innocent, but we know what she wanted to do.

She closed her eyes, she kicked off her shoes,
she pulled down the shades
I swear to god she reminds me of you

Like Elvis is to heart attacks or black blind men are to blues,
she is to nymphomania and also she reminds me of you...

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: There Goes My Girl
There goes my girl, there goes my whole wide world
as seasons change, her flowers folds and fades
I’m sitting up thinking to myself,
I want her and there ain’t no body else
gonna make me feel the same way

There goes my girl, there goes my perfect girl
her solemn face, these tears won’t wash away
Sick of feeling sorry for myself,
but I’ll never feel for anybody else
cause I really can’t afford to

There goes my girl, there goes my perfect world
September rains, I watch her walk away
I’m walking down the side of that road,
I don’t care how far it’s gonna go
cause my destination’s unknown

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Valentine Boyfriend
I’ll be your valentine boy friend
I’ll give you hearts made of paper, glitter and glue
I’ll write you into my story,
and if the ending’s not happy, I’ll re-write it for you

I may not bring home the millions,
but I give you my coat dear, when it’s starting to rain
and no I may not be so handsome,
But I got charm as my fortune and wisdom’s my wage.

She is my funny face girlfriend,
in her Easter pink stockings and her hair like a birds nest
beneath her Christmas light hallow, slowly
she puts her head on my shoulder,
and I’m lost to the night

Just like a maid ‘neath the Maypole,
she dances round in my castle waiting for a slow kiss.
As I decipher her mantras and I get lost in her eyes
my little harlequin dancer and with your mystery smile

I am the heart round her arrow
and she’s the face in my window staring like a black cat
We are like phantom of fables, both of us,
getting lost as the days flow, faster into jet black.
Into spider webs of abstract.
just moving long the road map of life,
past Jack-o-lantern smoke stacks,
the gypsies on the free way,
the jokers in the rat race keeping to the slow pace,
as the sun is sinking slowly,
beneath the fields and the factories,
taking all the back streets,
sleeping in the back seat,
I listen to her heart beat…

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Lies We Tell
Oh god is that really you and after all of these years
Must have been out of my mind, I didn’t know you were here
Got caught up with a friend, we went out for a ride
then we stopped in for a drink and just to murder some time

Tell, me how have you been, hope you been keeping warm
are you still there in the city or did you move to that farm
and all those plans that you made, did you see them all through
or did you take it in stride and do the best you could do?

There are lies we never tell but we mean them just the same
There are feelings that we feel that there are no words to say

Me, I’m doing just fine, nothing much has changed
except a wife and a child and a home on the range
I still sit up all night, writing songs for no one
I go to sleep with the sun and with my room all undone
I still keep telling myself I’ll be discovered some day
If only time is the cost, then the price I’ll have paid
to build my legacy, my philosophies, lost immortality

There are lies we tell our selves, sometimes others go along
There are feelings that we feel even though we know they’re wrong.

OK we’re back in the room and I must confess
I saw you right from the start cause you were wearing that dress
But when I looked at you, your eyes looked away
so I turned to me friend and wished that you’d go away
Because there’s nothing to say, I like to tell myself
there’s nothing left to say when there’s too much to say,
I always tell myself there’s nothing left to say

There are times when all we have it still seems so far away
and there are nights when all we want doesn’t seem like much to me
and there are fears we never say, cause we hope they’ll go away
and there are secret tears we shed as we turn our backs in bed

There are lies we never tell but we meant to anyway
and there are things we’ve never felt, but we said them anyway.

Like. . . “Me? I’m doing just fine.”
Track Name: Spy In My Tree
Amalgamation of the fold, black tie choking growing old. with all my luminaries pissed off to the cemeteries.
All cloaked in anonymity, the prize is bigger than we think or so I tell myself right before I sink.

Turn out the lights in the night, close the curtain call Andy
On the phone in my home like some typical Stanley
Hear a sound, write it down, with my eye to the keyhole
Like a ghost in a coat in a room full of beetles
Close the door, drop the latch, I’ll keep waiting in wonder
While the clock on the wall keeps on vomiting numbers
There’s a spy in my tree and he’s watching me sleeping
The alarm starts to ring.

Culture junkie, holy hybrid, post punk, anti-hippie freak.
A fanzine Pharaoh, spits prolific, still it counts for zero.
In blacklight banter, rock god mantra, I dismantle minions.
Emulate the flight of fallen heroes.

Dead like a head in a bed with no body beneath it,
with a hat and a comb and a mouth full of speeches,
Staring up at the fan as it spins in slow motion,
There’s a buzz in the air, there’s a fly in my lotion
There’s a muse in my room and she’s touching me gently
There’s a voice in my head but the pill box is empty.
There’s a spy in my tree and he’s watching me sleeping
The alarm starts to ring.

I stand on stage a victim of inquisition.
Yellow light beams down, truth rose from shadow.
Lorikeets chatter as the pig heads breathe their smoke into the air, as glances turn to stare, in this beast head battle.

Run to the car, there’s a star on the door where I’m staying.
There’s a man over there and he knows what we’re saying.
That’s okay, drive away, get me back to Golgotha.
Keep an eye on the sky for the black helicopter.
There’s a spy in my tree and he’s watching me sleeping
The alarm starts to ring.

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Rooms Of December
I don’t want to go, Silent in my room,
Stare at fields of snow through frosty windows.
Death’s a latch away, Love is in her grave,
Flowers in the vase, Ghost in the gables.

And in December rooms I lock all my doors,
In fire light and shadow play I lie on the floor,
As the mantra of passing days dulls to a drone
I’m lost in my home, far away,
lost in the rooms of December.

Lost in retrospect, All forms silhouette,
Sounds I can’t detect, Life slipping by me.
The contours of my face, I never can erase,
scribble out the child that now dies inside me.
Lost souls of apathy who squandered their youth,
make up the hierarchy that murders the truth,
to camouflage entropy but there is no use,
you know it’s a lie.
You’ll die in the room of December.

The seasons, they used to come,
sweet winds to the sail,
Now they come as solemn as a lowering pail,
to take all your water worth and empty your well,
as you die in the room of December.

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Don't Want To be
Late night all alone soul winter freeze
Midnight shadows try to trick me into sleeping
Childhood self bid fare thee well,
faint voice echo life’s fairytale,
trail away from me...
and I don’t want to be

In my garden days of no regret,
brown leaves scattering in their minuet
life’s brittle pages crumple in the wind
forming the wings of the Seraphim
who wait for me...
and I don’t want to be

Half lit lovers lost to dusty rooms
behind long shadows of afternoon
in the ghost winds they fall from flight
and sink like treasure in an old man’s eyes,
lost at sea...
and I don’t want to be

Ancient philosophers who said they knew
now dime store prophets in a medicine show
the artist steals his colors from the eye
and he uses them to paint the lie
and the poet is a thief
and I don’t want to be

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Dead Relative
I’m going back in my mind, I’m getting lost in the currents
I’m gonna open that door, float out of your forest
I’m rising over that wall, staring down at the valley
and every thing is wrong

I’m going out of my mind, I’m gonna swim through the violence
I’m gonna sever the ties, between energy and matter
My words will stick in your brain, splatter in the blood cave
like hieroglyphics blood stain, screaming down your hallway
and everything is wrong

I’m coming into your room, I’m standing over your body
I’m gonna reach in your mind, I’m gonna fuck up your science
I’m coming into your home, I’m gonna stir up your silence
till everything is gone
Track Name: Galaxies
Galaxy, galaxy, will you be my doorway?
I can see entities, floating all through space.
Galaxy, galaxy, I will be my doorway.
I can come into you, unfurl in the sun.
And she said, I will be your doorway.
I will take you home. I will be your stairway.
I will make you whole.

Galaxy, galaxy, will you be my window?
Volunteer, volunteer, will you take me home?
Galaxy, galaxy, will you be my stairway?
We are here, we are here, we are all but one.
And she said, I will be your stairway.
I will take you home. I will be your doorway.
I will make you whole.

Galaxy, galaxy, will you be my doorway?
I can see entities, floating in your face.
And she said, I will be your doorway.
I will take you home. I will be your stairway.
I will make you whole.

all lyrics copyright 2004 Damien Youth
Track Name: Phantom Wheels (Bonus)
Johnny told the man, we’re not sticking with the plan
we’re trying to find a new way.
And he said we have a choice , but I never found my voice in that revolution peace craze.

You can take it to the streets and
you can raise it up on every sign
But they’ll just knock you off you feet and
push you back in line.

I have no faith in gods or the saving grace of love
and I’ve no hope for all humanity.
No I won’t participate, I won’t vote and I won’t pray
That’s just spinning phantom wheels to me.

They raise up holy martyrs say they died for you and me.
But the truth be known, it was us who killed them anyway.

It’s selfish if you think all existence is in sync
with what you feel or what is in your mind.
It’s not humble it’s not wise,
you just hide behind your lies
saying “People, God is on our side.”

Johnny told the man, we’re not sticking with the plan
we’re trying to find a new way.
I’m not trying to make you scared, but Johnny disappeared
they found him bleeding in his doorway.

You can put it on the silver screen,
you can play it from your stereo
But they’ll just knock you off you feet
and tell you where to go.
Track Name: Joe Don't Listen To The Man (Bonus)
My California, isn’t your California
And my addiction, isn’t like your addiction
My holy love song, isn’t your holy love song
My lonely sunrise, isn’t your lovely sunrise

So don’t bully fuck me
say you got me figured out
don’t try to encage me, define or enslave me
Cause I’m going to make it known,
We’re down here on our own
And What ever they tell you, they’re just trying to sell you
So don’t super impose, your ugly egos, over everything unknown

Your New York city, isn’t, my New York city
And your holy vision, isn’t my holy vision
And your Armageddon, shouldn’t be my Armageddon
But your war of nations, now is, my war of nations

So don’t compromise me, don’t tell me what I need
Don’t tell us we’re brothers, then to kill one another
You say we’re not alone, Our actions are condoned
By a god who plays shepherd, while his lambs all get slaughtered
Cause you’ve super imposed, your ugly egos, over everything we know

Joe don’t listen to the man, It’s just another Vietnam,
The blood you spill is not for the land, it’s for the money changing hands
And they tell you Christ is on his throne and all your actions are condoned
But the scripture reads, if truth be known, the only blood he spilled, it was his own
And like a murderer knows not how to feel, a martyr knows not how to kill
And if the world goes to the meek....why not turn the other cheek?
why not turn the other cheek? why not turn the other cheek? why not turn the other cheek?