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Beneath the Cauldron (2021)

by Blake Starkey

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1.
Beneath the Cauldron 03:06
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My nightshade’s growing well I’m bound to cast this spell Yet nights turn into days These thoughts lead me astray I brew my potion I fill my cauldron And dance about When I think about you Beneath the cauldron The fire crackles While above it the old witch cackles I put a spell on you Without the slightest clue I’m pulling at your strings Come dance and spin again Stirring at the stew I’m chanting to the hymn of you I stare into the flame And things aren’t quite the same I brew my potion I fill my cauldron And dance about When I think about you Beneath the cauldron The fire crackles While above it the old witch cackles I put a spell on you Without the slightest clue I’m pulling at your strings Come dance and spin again I put a spell on you Without the slightest clue I’m pulling at your strings Come dance and spin again
2.
Mary 04:25
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I may not know where I am going But I sure know where I’ve been Down the dusty roads I’ve traveled With a dearest friend Throughout the years Struggling and walk alone I’ve been around the world Without a place to call home I’ve never needed one Like I have needed you You’re picking me up And it’s time to do what I do Mary, here I walk alone Mary, help me find my home Mary, here I walk alone Mary, help me find my home I may not know where I am going But I sure know where I’ve been Down the dusty roads I’ve traveled With a dearest friend Mary, here I walk alone Mary, help me find my home Mary Mary Mary Mary
3.
Waving Your Guns 03:58
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True it is you feel blue With grey skies and dark clouds Hanging over you Lost inside of your head Drifting off to the depths of hell Your lips silent and cold Lying in the dark but you’re just all alone This is nothing that’s new Like a puppet tied to a lonely string In the dark on your own Burning up the wires of an empty phone Your eyes lit up with joy Waving your guns at someone new Your eyes cut to the bone Like a tombstone that’s dressed up in pale shadows Leave you here wearing you wounds Waving your guns at someone new False it is I love you Ominous clouds and weird vibes surrounding you In the eye of the storm Like a white sail shaking you out to sea Your eyes deadly and cold Out to space like a creepy old china doll This is nothing that’s new Old habits that surely will die hard In the dark on your own Burning up the wires of an empty phone Your eyes lit up with joy Waving your guns at someone new Your eyes cut to the bone Like a tombstone that’s dressed up in pale shadows Leave you here wearing you wounds Waving your guns at someone new Do you know, do you know, do you know A place unseen? Do you know, do you know, do you know A place of dreams? Do you know, do you know, do you know An end in sight? Do you know, do you know, do you know A dark night of the soul? Writhing in pain with temporary fixes Based on nothing but futile distractions Detained in darkness and isolation Riddled with demons by affiliation In the dark on your own Burning up the wires of an empty phone Your eyes lit up with joy Waving your guns at someone new Your eyes cut to the bone Like a tombstone that’s dressed up in pale shadows Leave you here wearing you wounds Waving your guns at someone new Do you know, do you know, do you know A place unseen? Do you know, do you know, do you know A place of dreams? Do you know, do you know, do you know An end in sight? Do you know, do you know, do you know A dark night of the soul?
4.
Half-Right 03:46
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Oh Magdalene, a girl in slippered feet Goes prowling through the night From street to street Through the long night Until she gets a break This half clad girl walks On these tired feet In placid moonlight Wrapped in suitors arms Until the day’s light Working her sweet charms In broad daylight Holed up in her room With a cigarette and her cheap perfume Green mint breath and supple breasts Smooth pony thighs She glows divine Oh Magdalene She’s fallen from heaven She dwells alone in a rundown motel Oh Magdalene A harlot from heaven Her broken wings have gone unnoticed There beneath the red lights She’s dead inside, it’s not half right It’s not half right It’s not half right Oh Magdalene, she’s barely ripe eighteen She came to LA to fulfill the dreams With crystal vision to land on the scene She sells her body like some pack wrapped meat She’s but a stranger in the strangest place Mascara tears run down her slender face Much like a candle that burns all too bright She carries on like a blackbird in flight Twilight skies, the angels cry Electric nights, it’s not half right Oh Magdalene She’s fallen from heaven She dwells alone in a rundown motel Oh Magdalene A harlot from heaven Her broken wings have gone unnoticed There beneath the red lights She’s dead inside, it’s not half right It’s not half right It’s not half right A harlot from heaven A wicked tongue A harlot from heaven She'll have you sprung A harlot from heaven Down to the bone A harlot from heaven She’s all alone A harlot from heaven A wicked tongue A harlot from heaven She'll have you sprung A harlot from heaven Down to the bone A harlot from heaven She’s all alone
5.
Oh, Love (What an Illusion) 05:09
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Here out on my own Not far from home Another tale of a broken heart And nothing has changed Just rearranged And I still feel lonesome now Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Wretched lies Shattered lives Oh love, what an illusion Cheating hearts Ripped aparts Oh love, what a delusion Tattered dreams Ripped the seams Oh love, what an illusion From the start In my heart Oh love, what a delusion I wrote your name in the sky But the winds came and blew it away I wrote in your name in my heart And that’s where it will always stay Here I’m on the phone But still alone Another tale of a lonely heart And nothing has changed Just rearranged And I still feel lonesome now Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Wretched lies Shattered lives Oh love, what an illusion Cheating hearts Ripped aparts Oh love, what a delusion Tattered dreams Ripped the seams Oh love, what an illusion From the start In my heart Oh love, what a delusion I wrote your name in the sky But the winds came and blew it away I wrote in your name in my heart And that’s where it will always stay She is neither pink nor pale And she reeks of cheap white wine She learned to love in a fairytale From a wretched concubine
6.
Bring on the Dancing Horses (Echo and Bunnymen Cover) 03:50
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Jimmy Brown, made of stone Charlie clown, no way home Bring on the dancing horses, headless and all alone Shiver and say the words of every lie you've heard First I'm gonna make it Then I'm gonna break it till it falls apart Hating all the faking And shaking while I'm breaking your brittle heart Billy stands all alone Sinking sand, skin and bone Bring on the dancing horses wherever they may roam Shiver and say the words of every lie you've heard First I'm gonna make it Then I'm gonna break it till it falls apart Hating all the faking And shaking while I'm breaking your brittle heart Brittle heart, brittle heart Brittle heart and my little heart goes Jimmy Brown, made of stone Charlie Clown, no way home Bring on the headless horses wherever they may roam Shiver and say the words of every lie you've heard First I'm gonna make it Then I'm gonna break it till it falls apart Hating all the faking And shaking while you're breaking my brittle heart Brittle heart, brittle heart and our little heart goes Bring on the new Messiah wherever he may roam Bring on the new Messiah wherever he may roam Bring on the new Messiah wherever he may roam Bring on the new Messiah wherever he may roam

about

Fire keeps the cauldron lit and what keeps me creating. Often a spark is all that is needed to get the flame going,” Blake Starkey says in the liner notes of his new 6 track album, Beneath The Cauldron. The spark of the first album that I listened to of his got me listening to this next one, hot off the presses, released only two months later. And the fire, for me, is just getting hotter, with each release. Blake has his own sound, a conglomeration of bands from the 80s and the 90s, like the Cure and the Smashing Pumpkins. But still always a sound all his own. I think that’s what made me want to listen so much. From what I can tell, he’s not trying to copy anyone else out there. His sound is completely signature.

His lyrics, likewise, have their own themes and poetic feel, often delving into mythological or biblical or philosophical territory, but in a way that he spins the material to his own making. “Mary,” for example, which has a killer, almost Pixie’s like chorus line that has a middle Eastern aesthetic, finds him exploring the concept of “absolution through Mother Mary.” Whether it’s of Catholic origin or a kind of home grown faith, he does what people have done for centuries and mythologizes a character into a savior and a friend. “Down the dusty roads / I’ve traveled / with a dearest friend.”

He’s adept at stepping into other people’s shoes. “Half-Right” finds him singing about a sex worker, Magdelene, taken from the Biblical Mary Magdalene, I presume. “Oh Magdelene, / she’s fallen from heaven / she dwells alone / in a rundown motel.” It’s a compassionate look at a life that is falling apart. “She’s but a stranger / in the strangest place / mascara tears / run down her slender face.” In a play on the title, he calls her a “harlot from heaven,” half holy and divine, half fleshly and destitute, like many of us feel in life. Whatever he feels about sex workers, this is just one empathetic story.

Another look at brokenness and longing, the song “Oh Love (What An Illusion)” finds Blake crafting his own pop rock version of the blues. “Wretched lives / shattered lives / Oh love, what an illusion.” With a great Billy Corgan-esque guitar and vocal melody, and a catchiness ironic for such a dark theme, (he sings La la la’s for at least a minute at a time, twice during the song,) he explores the simultaneously fleeting and lasting nature of love. “I wrote your name in the sky / But the wind came and blew it away / I wrote your name in my heart / and that’s where it will always stay.”

The last song, like his previous album, So Long, Babylon, is a cover song and places him, who is so unplaceable, in a solid context. This time it is the famous song by 80s band Echo and the Bunnymen, called “Bring on the Dancing Horses.” It has echoes of the original song, but sounds both in lyrics and sound, much like a Blake Starkey original. In a line that sounds like one he might pen, he closes the album, “Bring on the new messiah / Wherever he may roam.” This album is for sure “new,” and it deals with life in a grand archetypal way. If you’re looking for an artist with a sound and themes all his own, check out this and his other album, So Long, Babylon.

credits

released January 11, 2021

Garrett Long - The Watermelon Room in Baltimore, MD - Mastering
Blake Starkey - Mixing, Songwriting and Engineering

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Blake Starkey Long Beach, California

Los Angeles based musician, producer and visual and performing artist.

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