[Intro | a cappella | solo female alto, warm and close | foot stomp only] Long table, summer table, the meadow laid it wide... [Verse 1 | laid back, conversational | acoustic guitar and upright bass enter] Bumblebee came early in her velvet coat. The quiet one from underground, the hoverfly afloat. Moth and beetle, humble folk, nobody sent a card - still there was a plate for everyone in my grandfather's yard. [Pre-Chorus | Hammond swells in | handclaps start] Then August came and cleared the plates, the clover turned to straw... [Chorus | stomping groove, full kit | call-and-response gospel choir] DON'T ADD A CHAIR [Choir answers] Don't add a chair! The table's getting small [Choir answers] Getting small! You can count a hive from the street below - who counts the flowers at all? [Post-Chorus | chant | choir and handclaps] Set the plate, set the plate, not another chair. Set the plate, set the plate, not another chair. [Verse 2 | groove drops back, conversational | tambourine] Ribbon on the rooftop, cameras in a row, forty thousand hungry mouths sent to feast below. Paper says we saved the bees, lawn is burning brown. You can photograph a box of wood - you can't photograph the drought. [Pre-Chorus | Hammond rising | tension] One guest has a keeper with a sack of sugar sweet... [Chorus | stomping groove, full kit | call-and-response gospel choir] DON'T ADD A CHAIR [Choir answers] Don't add a chair! The bread is wearing thin [Choir answers] Wearing thin! Every plate you never filled is a door you shut on them. [Post-Chorus | chant | choir and handclaps] Set the plate, set the plate, not another chair. Set the plate, set the plate, not another chair. [Stop | full silence, two seconds] [Bridge | solo female alto, raw unrestrained cry | no instruments] WHO FEEDS THE ONES WITH NO KEEPER? Who brings the sugar to the bee in the ground? [Bridge | Hammond and upright bass return softly | voice steadies] She's not the thief at the table - the honeybee's the fever in the field. When she pushes, the land is hungry. When she pushes, the land is hungry. [Final Chorus | key change up | full gospel choir | biggest stomp] SET THE TABLE AGAIN [Choir answers] Set it again! Leave the long grass long [Choir answers] Leave it long! Leave the hollow stems for the winter, bare warm earth where the small ones belong. SET THE TABLE AGAIN [Choir answers] Set it again! [Post-Chorus | chant | full choir and handclaps] Set the plate, set the plate, not another chair. Set the plate, set the plate, water waiting there. [Outro | bare | solo voice and fingerpicked acoustic guitar | slowing] Shallow bowl, a stone inside, somewhere small to land... nobody takes a picture - but they all drink from it. [End]
