Magpie

from Nobody Lives There by Sean Davis Newton

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about

This song was written shortly after the climate strike in Edmonton at the end of September 2019. It struck me how many people showed up with kids and toddlers; I didn't understand how you could be in government, sit and look at the window at that and not feel some kind of immense guilt. Around that time of year, the magpies were taking straw from a planter outside my bedroom window where I had planted some sunflowers, and this was the first of two songs I wrote watching that daily ritual.

Riley added the drum part in October, and for a while this was a Trace Italian tune. Quarantine had me rethink that, so I reworked the arrangement a bit, with Dana's stunning vocal contributions and a dash of clarinet.

I've often said that I think in order for me to be proud of a song these days, it needs to have something a little political or just a little sexy in it; this definitely falls on the angrier, political side of that dichotomy.

lyrics

You say there's something wrong
Why don't they talk about it
It's stuck in your lungs
Just move along without it
The black and blue
Saliva spittin witness
Fly off to someone new
Take their pets as prisoners

Magpie
Magpie
Magpie
Won't ya please forgive us

A thousand human lives
Dancing in the fountain
Junior crowfoot eyes
From years too small to count em
Someone like you
You've lost the right to silence
The magpies view
Take their song through acts of violence

Magpie
Magpie
Magpie
Won't ya please forgive us

credits

from Nobody Lives There, released May 1, 2020
written, recorded, and performed by sean newton
riley chernoff on drums
dana clementine on background vocals

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about

Sean Davis Newton Edmonton, Alberta

Hey folks; my name is Sean Davis Newton. I’m a songwriter. I live in Edmonton, and I have a brand new album coming out this year. It's about birds.

RIYL: Paul McCartney, Pavement, Fiona Apple, Wilco

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