The Final Word

from Western Reserve by Howard Simon

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Howard Simon: acoustic-electric nylon-string guitar, vocal
Derek Bianchi: bass, drums, electric guitar, guitar synthesizer (strings)
Libby McLaren: piano, backing vocals
Shira Kammen: violin

lyrics

The Final Word

So you’ve finally come to see Me
You bastard in a suit
I’ve kept up with your letters
And a few were quite astute

You’re right, you’re no Hank Williams
But then, you didn’t want to be
Climbing up a tower of song
You wanted to be Me

Or at least to do My bidding
Or at most to do My will
In songs and quiet questions
From a cell atop a hill

You said you wanted darkness
So I brought you through the night
Then to that crack in everything
That lets in the light

Your old ideas were new once
And now you understand
The permanence of parting
So long, Marianne

Now the suits are on the hangers
The hats are on the shelf
The Master has now mastered
The silence of the self

So we’ll sing My hallelujah
Then we’ll sing about your bird
And laugh at how it pleases you
To have the final word

You came so far for beauty
You cast your eyes above
But still you did your duty
In the field command of love
There’s a way to say goodbye now
To Heather and to Pearl
To a hotel room in Chelsea
To the waning of the world

Now the suits are in the closet
The hats are on the shelf
The Master has now mastered
The silence of the self

So let us all sing hallelujah
For the sacred and absurd
And wing a prayer to Leonard
Who had the final word

So you’ve finally come to see Me
You bastard in a suit
I’ve kept up with your letters
And a few were quite astute

credits

from Western Reserve, released August 22, 2020

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about

Howard Simon San Francisco, California

I am a San Francisco-based singer-songwriter. My songs are about love (romantic and otherwise), family, morality and mortality. If there is a common thread to my songs, it is the people we love, the desire to do right, and the hope and fear, the peace and the struggle that constitute life bring wonder in addition to its joy and sadness, and sometimes loss. ... more

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