Innkeeper (Original song) - Sam Wiccan
30
Published 2022-04-18
For the record, this is a piece of orientalist music and is inauthentic by design. The story is being told by a modern Middle class westerner to a rural medieval European audience about a distant place, and the instrumentation is intended to be representative of their conception of what that would sound like, becoming a hodge podge of vaguely Chinese, Middle Eastern and South Asian sounds.
Music and lyrics by Sam Wiccan.
Vocals, ocarina, percussion and sequenced instruments by Sam Wiccan.
Lyrics:
Deep in the East
Where the Silk Road begins
A house on a mountaintop stands
For eons this place
Has served as an inn
Which has ever so often changed hands.
There once came a man
With a wife and a child
Ambition and hubris to spare
Purchased the land
By spirits defiled
So told them the seller, "Beware...
All may be well
If ye be wise
Just heed my word:
Don't let the fire die!"
Innkeeper, Innkeeper
tend to the fire
To keep all the ghouls at bay
Innkeeper, Innkeeper
they never tire
It's up to you do maintain
The flame.
The man had a boy
Who was touched by the gods
On his spirit the demons would feast
They sought to spill
Every drop of his blood
So they might be finally unleashed
A soft soothing voice
In the Innkeeper's mind
Each night it would whisper sweet lies
A future foretold
Of a greatness he'd find
But destiny comes at a price
"Glory awaits
if you comply
Only for you
Your wife and boy must die!"
Innkeeper, Innkeeper,
Tend to the fire
To keep all the ghouls at bay.
Innkeeper, Innkeeper,
They never tire.
It's up to you to maintain
The Flame.
Wandering the halls
The curious child
Stumbles on
A woman, bathing
She beckons for his aid
The foolish child
Doesn't know
The spirit's craving
He passes her a towel
The helpful child
Starts to feel
Something daunting
Flesh begins to foul
The bloated crone
Holds the boy
Beneath the water.
Drunk and deranged
His father did find
A hatchet with razor-sharp blade
Tonight he would hunt
As the soft voices said
The boy and the woman his prey
Frightened and dazed
His wife tried to plead
Nothing could calm the man's ire
Her blood was spilled
As the boy wept and fled
And no one was tending the fire.
Embers aglow
Chill starts to rise
All turns to ash
The sacred fire dies.
Innkeeper, Innkeeper,
Bring me the child!
Make all of your dreams come true!
Innkeeper, Innkeeper,
Future defiled! Glory awaits you
Slay the child!
Trapped by mountain snow,
The frightened child
Turns around
To see his father
Murder in his eyes
Infanticide
A heinous crime
His heart's desire
In his time of need
The godly child
Awakening
A flame eternal
Burn it to the ground
A funeral pyre
Of silver light
And heat infernal
Innkeeper, Innkeeper,
Thine was the fire
To purify demons vile
Innkeeper, Innkeeper,
Die by the fire
The one that you failed to keep
Alive.
© Sam Wiccan, 2021