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Parce Domine
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A Prog epic
yes genesis classic prog
Artist picture
Trash-pop, guitar rock and melodic miscellany.
Not so much a band as a bloke with a guitar and a laptop, The Smivets deliver a genre-bending blend of pop, rock, punk, prog and many other monosyllables.
Song Info
Genre
Rock • Progressive Rock
Charts
Peak #150
Peak in subgenre #16
Author
Steve Smith
Rights
Steve Smith
Uploaded
December 08, 2022
Track Files
MP3
MP3 25.0 MB • 320 kbps • 10:54
Lossless
WAV 110.1 MB
Meta Data
Beat
9/8
Character
Danceable
coffee-place
dancefloor
Positivity
dark, sad, angry
happy
Appeal
unique
radio-friendly
Story behind the song
Paris's Musee de Montmatre is well worth a visit, offering a fascinating window into Belle Epoque Paris - the heady bohemian mix of art, culture, intellectualism and sleaze that existed around the cafes and cabarets of Montmartre. Chief among these cabarets was the infamous Chat Noir (Black Cat), and the museum displays a fantastic painting (fantastic in the true sense of the word) that once hung there. This painting captivated me. Amongst a wealth of allegorical detail it depicts a wild procession of beautiful people partying and carousing their way towards their doom. A Few months after my visit, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. Lockdowns came in as a way of slowing the spread and reducing mortality, but there those who felt they couldn't possibly give up even a few nights out - having a party was after all well worth the deaths of a few thousand other people. I watched the madness, appalled. The lowest point came in December 2020, when despite the vaccine roll-out still being a few weeks away, the UK government temporarily relaxed restrictions as a vote winner for the Christmas period. The image of the Monmartre painting seemed to capture perfectly what was happening, so I wrote this. In the month following that Christmas, 32000 people died of Covid in the UK. The painting is called Parce Domine. I'm not religious but the words of this ancient Catholic antiphon, together with the emotions of the painting, express my feelings at the time.
Lyrics
Parce Domine Parce populo tuo Ne in aeternum Irascaris nobis Beneath a winter windmill sky The arched back black cat spits As the painted parade of lost and damned Bids a rousing farewell to its wits Troupes of nuns and can-can girls Watch the insane descent begin And poor Pierrot takes his final round As a shadowy moth-winged angel cups his chin Cups his chin Cups his chin Cups his chin Parce Domine Parce populo tuo Ne in aeternum Irascaris nobis Parce Domine Parce populo tuo Ne in aeternum Irascaris nobis A century and the madness Has descended further still We squander scant resource Protecting Lemmings against their will When they've all denied the problem Because they didn't much like the remedy Partying on regardless of The consequent calamity Undeterred by irony They joined a foo's crusade Seeking compensation For the chaos they themselves had made Buoyed by crying Tok-Face followers Angry and aggrieved But would that be any comfort For the ones they'd leave berieved? Berieved Ah ah Ah ah Ah ah Parce Domine Spare Lord Spare your people Be not angry with us Forever Spare Lord Spare your people Be not angry with us Forever So how will this vision of 2020 Be written in the stars? Recovery from these wounds Will leave deep and unequal scars Think humans have no predators? Let this lend lucidity Oh, and no-one's discovered a vaccine yet For stupidity Spare Lord Spare your people Be not angry with us Forever Spare Lord Spare your people Be not angry with us Forever Parce Domine Parce populo tuo Ne in aeternum Irascaris nobis Beneath a winter windmill sky The arched back black cat spits As the painted parade of lost and damned Bids a rousing farewell to its wits
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