The Shankill Butchers - Michael Kelly & Colette La Trouvere - (The Decemberists cover)

Описание: It's time for a creepy Haloween release, and that means our cover of The Decemberists' song, "The Shankill Butchers". Fellow bard Colette La Trouvere takes lead vox and lute on this one (as well as providing a heavenly chorus of pandas), with me supporting on two guitar tracks and backup harmony, and our friend Gryphon Elliott on viola.

I've always had very mixed feelings about the Decemberists. Much like the way I feel about Leonard Cohen, I don't really care for the vocal tone of Colin Meloy's voice, but I absolutely LOVE his songwriting. As a result, I don't tend to listen to the Decemberists very much, however when other artists that I enjoy cover their music, their songs pop onto my radar and I can't get enough of hearing them for a while. The Shankill Butchers is one of my favourite Decemberists songs.. I think Meloy's choice to take a group of real-life bogeymen and create a song that suggests a sort of cautionary nursery rhyme vibe is just brilliant.

The Shankill Butchers were a loyalist gang affiliated with the UVF in Belfast, Northern Ireland during The Troubles in the mid to late 1970's. They were responsible for the deaths of at least 23 people, and were notorious for kidnapping, torturing, and murdering Catholics in horrific fashion (regardless of whether their chosen victims were IRA affiliated or just innocent civilians). So bloody and high profile was their reputation that apparently, parents at the time would actually use them as a cautionary tale and tell their kids that if they didn’t eat their greens or do what they were told, the Shankill Butchers would come and get them. Sleep tight!

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"THE SHANKILL BUTCHERS" - written by Colin Meloy

The Shankill Butchers ride tonight
You better shut your windows tight
They're sharpening their cleavers and their knives
And taking all their whiskey by the pint

[CHORUS:]
Cause everybody knows
If you don't mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers wanna catch you
Awake

They used to be just like me and you
They used to be sweet little boys
But something went horribly askew
Now killing is their only source of joy

[CHORUS]

The Shankill Butchers on the rise
They're waiting till the dead of night
They're picking at their fingers with their knives
And wiping off their cleavers on their thighs

[CHORUS]

The Shankill butchers wanna catch you
The Shankill butchers wanna cut you
The Shankill butchers wanna catch you
Awake
Awake
Awake
Awake