Rakehell.

An old term, some pictures, and dark little story told in song. They go well together.

Rakehell:

A rake, short for rakehell, is a historic term applied to a man who is habituated to immoral conduct, frequently a heartless womaniser. Often a rake was a man who wasted his (usually inherited) fortune on gambing, wine, women and song, incurring lavish debts in the process. The rake was also frequently a man who seduced a young woman and impregnated her before leaving, often to her social or financial ruin.

I had entered into a marriage
In the summer of my twenty-first year
And the bells rang for our wedding
Only now do I remember it clear
Alright, alright, alright

No more a rake and no more a bachelor
I was wedded and it whetted my thirst
Until her womb started spilling out babies
Only then did I reckon my curse
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

First came Isaiah with his crinkled little fingers
Then came Charlotte and that wretched girl Dawn
Ugly Myfanwy died on delivery
Mercifully taking her mother along
Alright, alright, alright

What can one do when one is a widower
Shamefully saddled with three little pests?
All that I wanted was the freedom of a new life
So my burden I began to divest
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

Charlotte I buried after feeding her foxglove
Dawn was easy, she was drowned in the bath
Isaiah fought but was easily bested
Burned his body for incurring my wrath
Alright, alright, alright

And that's how I came your humble narrator
To be living so easy and free
Expect that you think that I should be haunted
But it never really bothers me
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

An old rake with no (off the?) handle.

Three tines stuck violently into stump.

Two jail like bars, one horseshoe = three.

Things seen in a bigger perspective. Three of them.

Some misc pictures I took by my wood pile.

Made me think of The Decemberists. And this song.

Old things and many sets of three in the subjects.

I've posted this song before but it worked well with the photos.

Classified to Crane Wife to Killers.

My brother wondered if my pictures make the paper because I’m the only one that sends them in. Thanks a lot Bruce.

For my birthday I told Amy I’d like either The Decemberists’ The Crane Wife or The Killers, though I didn’t know the name of The Killers' album.

That cemented the decision. Unless I asked for women’s shoes, Amy doesn’t like shopping. I got The Crane Wife. Anyway I really like the album. It was named one of the best of 2006.

In the course of looking up a video to go with it, I found myself connecting one to another till I ended up with The Killers. Guess I’ll have to get that one too.

The Crane Wife (from Wiki).

The Crane Wife is an old Japanese tale.

While there are many variations of the tale, a common version is that a poor man finds an injured crane on his doorstep (or outside with an arrow in it), takes it in and nurses it back to health.

After he releases the crane, a woman appears at his doorstep with whom he falls in love and marries.

Because they need money, his wife offers to weave wondrous clothes out of silk that they can sell at the market, but only if he agrees never to watch her making them.

They begin to sell them and live a comfortable life, but he soon makes her weave them more and more.

Oblivious to his wife's diminishing health, his greed increases.

He eventually peeks in to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable.

He is shocked to discover that at the loom is a crane plucking feathers from her own body and weaving them into the loom.

The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.

Band leader (The Decemberists) Colin Meloy found a version of this story and decided to write music based on it.

The Decemberists making of The Crane Wife part 1.

Definitely sounds like Robyn Hitchcock, an old favorite of mine.

Robyn with The Decemberists, Feb 2007. I think they know it too.

Robyn with Deni Bonet. She played a song with Robyn in the Jonathan Demmi music video movie, Storefront Hitchcock. Yes, I own it. And I have Stop Making Sense too. One of the best music movies till Scorsese does The Rolling Stones (which he is working on).

Jonathan Demmi also directed the great music video movie Stop Making Sense with The Talking Heads. A must see. He also directed New Order’s Perfect Kiss. Almost 10 minutes of 1980’s sound. It’s funny; I used to really like this song. I can see people dancing to the light of a mirror ball at 2:30 AM. Now, its only so-so. ??? BTW, MORE COWBELLS.

New Order also did Crystal. The Killers got their name from the name on the fictional band’s (for the video) drum face, "The Killers".

Ending up with The Killers, When You Were Young. "He doesn’t look a bit like Jesus but he looks like a gentleman."

So at least to me, everything is connected. It's a small world.