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8. PUPPETS IN RAINCOATS
This strange song emerged unbidden from some dark corner of my unconscious mind. It just more or less fell out of my mouth on to the floor. What prompted it is largely a mystery to me – though I do see in it what might be some very veiled references to some actual events in the news.

lyrics

8. PUPPETS IN RAINCOATS
By Marc Nerenberg
Hooks in store windows now only hold rotting meat.
The whole town is starving, there’s not a speck left to eat.
A large group of puppets are milling about on the street.

The hotel is empty. The puppets have killed the last guest.
The flags on the flagpoles flap in the winds from the West.
The puppets start dancing, pounding their fist to their chest.

The puppets keep dancing. The people keep falling down dead,
Dying in alleys, in the streets, and at home in their bed.
Those puppets keep dancing. They need neither meat nor bread.

A storm in the night covers the town in hard rain.
The force of that storm derails an oil tanker train
In the center of town where those puppets are dancing again.

Rivers of oil slicks cover dead ducks in a trench.
A deathly decay fills the night air with its stench,
While puppets in raincoats are enjoying it all from a bench.

Lightning strikes! And fire erupts in mid-town
Soon everything’s gone. Soon the whole town has burnt down.
Just those puppets are left, mechanically dancing around.
All those puppets in raincoats,
Maniacally
Dancing
Around.

credits

from DELIA'S GONE: Murder Ballads & Other Songs of Love & Death, released July 15, 2019
Words and music by Marc Nerenberg

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Marc Nerenberg Montreal, Québec

Marc Nerenberg is a veteran Montreal folksinger who plays old time banjo styles and blues harmonica. He has a narrative- centric repertoire, recounting stories in song and wrapping stories around songs. You may “be drawn in by a combination of Marc’s mastery of traditional banjo styles, his idiosyncratic singing, and [his] richly detailed ballads.” (Mike Regenstreif – Folk Roots/Folk Branches 2019) ... more

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