Loreena McKennitt (83,01 %)

The Book of Secrets (73,59 %)

In collection

Loreena McKennitt - The Book of Secrets
Released: 1997-09-30
Type: Studio

Ranking:
Artist:
6

Year (1997):
10

Decade (1990's):
105

Overall:
653

1.
Prologue
04:25
2.
The Mummer's Dance
06:11
3.
Skellig
06:11
4.
Marco Polo
05:19
5.
The Highwayman
10:21
6.
La Serenissima
05:10
7.
Night Ride Across the Caucasus
08:33
8.
Dante's Prayer
07:11
 
Album length:
53:21

Lyrics

1.
Prologue
no lyrics yet
2.
The Mummer's Dance
When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair

When owls call the breathless moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light

We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay

Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the springtime of the year

The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days

And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone

"A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of Our Lord's hand"
3.
Skellig
O light the candle, John
The daylight has almost gone
The birds have sung their last
The bells call all to mass
Sit here by my side
For the night is very long
There's something I must tell
Before I pass along

I joined the brotherhood
My books were all to me
I scribed the words of God
And much of history
Many a year was I
Perched out upon the sea
The waves would wash my tears
The wind, my memory

I'd hear the ocean breathe;
Exhale upon the shore
I knew the tempest's blood
Its wrath I would endure
And so the years went by
Within my rocky cell
With only a mouse or bird
My friend; I loved them well

And so it came to pass
I'd come here to Romani
And many a year it took
Till I arrived here with thee
On dusty roads I walked
And over mountains high
Through rivers running deep
Beneath the endless sky

Beneath these jasmine flowers
Amidst these cypress trees
I give you now my books
And all their mysteries
Now take the hourglass
And turn it one its head
For when the sands are still
'Tis then you'll find me dead

O light the candle, John
The daylight has almost gone
The birds have sung their last
The bells call all to mass
4.
Marco Polo
no lyrics yet
5.
The Highwayman
The wind was a torrent of darkness
Among the gusty trees
The moon was a ghostly galleon
Tossed upon the cloudy seas
The road was a ribbon of moonlight
Over the purple moor
When the highwayman came riding
Riding, riding
The highwayman came riding
Up to the old inn door

He'd a french cocked hat at his forehead
A bunch of lace at his chin
A coat of claret velvet
And breeches of brown doe-skin
They fitted with nary a wrinkle
His boots were up to the thigh
And he rode with a jeweled twinkle
His pistol butts a-twinkle
His rapier hilt a-twinkle
Under the jeweled sky

And over cobbles he clattered
And clashed in the dark inn-yard
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters
But all was locked and barred
He whistled a tune to the window
And who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter
Bess, the landlord's daughter
Plaiting a dark red love knot
Into her long black hair

"One kiss my bonny sweetheart
I'm after a prize tonight
But I should be back with the yellow gold
Before the morning light
Yet if they press me sharply
And harry me through the day
Then look for me by the moonlight
Watch for me by the moonlight
I'll come to thee by the moonlight
Though hell should bar the way"

He rose up right in the stirrups
He scarce could reach her hand
But she loosened her hair in the casement
His face burned like a brand
As a black cascade of perfume
Came tumbling over his breast
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight
Oh, sweet waves in the moonlight
He tugged at his rein in the moonlight
And galloped away to the west

He did not come at the dawning
He did not come at noon
And out of the tawny sunset
Before the rise of the moon
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon
Looping the purple moor
A redcoat troop came marching
Marching, marching,
King George's men came marching
Up to the old inn door

They said no word to the landlord
They drank his ale instead
But they gagged his daughter and bound her
To the foot of her narrow bed
Two of them knelt at the casement
With muskets at their side
There was death at every window
Hell at one dark window
For Bess could see through the casement
The road that he would ride

They had tied her up to attention
With many a sniggering jest
They had bound a musket beside her
With the barrel beneath her breast
"Now keep good watch" and they kissed her
She heard the dead man say
"Look for me by the moonlight
Watch for me by the moonlight
I'll come to thee by the moonlight
Though hell should bar the way"

She twisted her hands behind her
But all the knots held good!
But she writhed her hands 'til her fingers
Were wet with sweat or blood
They stretched and strained in the darkness
And the hours crawled by like years
Till now on the stroke of midnight
Cold on the stroke of midnight
The tip of her finger touched it
The trigger at least was hers

Tot-a-lot, tot-a-lot had they heard it
The horse's hooves rang clear
Tot-a-lot, tot-a-lot in the distance
Were they deaf they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight
Over the brow of the hill
The highwayman came riding
Riding, riding
The redcoats looked to their priming
She stood up straight and still

Tot-a-lot in the frosty silence
Tot-a-lot in the echoing night
Nearer he came and nearer
Her face was like a light
Her eyes grew wide for a moment
She drew a last deep breath
Then her finger moved in the moonlight
Her musket shattered the moonlight
Shattered her breast in the moonlight
And warned him with her death

He turned, he spurred to the west
He did not know she stood
Bowed with her head o'er musket
Drenched with her own red blood
Not till the dawn he heard it
His face grew grey to hear
How Bess the landlord's daughter
The landlord's black-eyed daughter
Had watched for her love in the moonlight
And died in the darkness there

And back he spurred like a madman
Shrieking a curse to the sky
With the white road smoking behind him
And his rapier brandished high
Blood-red were the spurs in the golden noon
Wine-red was his velvet coat
When they shot him down in the highway
Down like a dog on the highway
And he lay in his blood in the highway
With a bunch of lace at his throat

Still on a winter's night they say
When the wind is in the trees
When the moon is a ghostly galleon
Tossed upon the cloudy seas
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight
Over the purple moor
A highwayman comes riding
Riding, riding
A highwayman comes riding
Up to the old inn door
6.
La Serenissima
no lyrics yet
7.
Night Ride Across the Caucasus
Ride on
Through the night
Ride on
Ride on
Through the night
Ride on

There are visions, there are memories
There are echoes of thundering hooves
There are fires, there is laughter
There's the sound of a thousand doves

In the velvet of the darkness
By the silhouette of silent trees
They are watching, they are waiting
They are witnessing life's mysteries

Cascading stars on the slumbering hills
They are dancing as far as the sea
Riding o'er the land, you can feel it's gentle hand
Leading on to it's destiny

Take me with you on this journey
Where the boundries of time are now tossed
In cathedrals of the forest
In the words of the tongues now lost

Find the answers, ask the questions
Find the roots of an ancient tree
Take me dancing, take me singing
I'll ride on till the moon meets the sea
8.
Dante's Prayer
When the dark wood fell before me
And all the paths were overgrown
When the priests of pride say there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone

I did not believe because I could not see
Though you came to me in the night
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and fire

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Though we share this humble path, alone
How fragile is the heart
Oh give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars

Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
Please remember me