The Company (Keep the Madness Down)

[Intro: A low, scraping drone of the hurdy-gurdy, joined by the slow, rhythmic clink-clack of metal on stone. A solitary, detuned acoustic guitar picks a haunting, circular melody.] [Verse 1: The acoustic guitar picks up the pace, mimicking a racing heartbeat. The upright bass slides in with a distorted, menacing throb.] Father perished in the mines, mother met a man whose moonshine helped her keep the madness down. He traded her silver lockets for a pocketful of copper and a ticket to a lesser town. The canary in the cage was coughing blood upon the page of the holy book we used for heat, While the soot upon the sill was a testament to the mill and the poison bleeding through the street. Bleeding through the street! [Verse 2: The percussion kicks in—a driving, syncopated march of tom-toms and chain rattles. The vocal delivery speeds up, growing more desperate.] I was ten years in the dark, carving tallies in the bark of the timber holding up the sky, With a pickaxe and a prayer and the sulphur in the air, watching lesser men collapse and die. We were digging for the crown of a king who wasn't around, in a subterranean abyss, And the foreman with the whip had a ledger on his hip and a Judas-coin beneath his kiss. A Judas-coin beneath his kiss [Chorus: The music suddenly shifts into a manic, bouncing, almost carnival-esque waltz. The melody becomes bright and deceptively cheerful, contrasting violently with the sardonic lyrics.] Oh, sing ho, sing ho! Oh! for the Company, the glorious Company! A family of brothers who bleed in the dark! They generously lease us the beat of our heart! And when we are broken and ground into dust, We’ll thank them for building a system we trust! A system we trust! Sing ho! Sing ho! for the Company! [Instrumental Break: A chaotic, swirling duet between the hurdy-gurdy and a frantic, distorted acoustic guitar. It sounds like a machine spinning out of control.] [Verse 3: The instrumentation abruptly drops back to just the driving bass and a whisper of percussion. The vocal is tight, angry, and close to the microphone.] Brother took a sudden spell, tumbled down the second well, left a widow and a hungry child. When the undertaker came, he demanded we pay his name, and the Company adjuster smiled. Said the harness wasn't frayed, it was a debt that must be paid for the negligence of the deceased, So they took the family cow and the iron from the plow, and they fed it to the starving beast. Fed it to the starving beast [Verse 4: Building intensity. The hurdy-gurdy returns, whining like a siren.] Now the phantoms in the shaft echo with a bitter laugh, you can hear them in the elevator gears. It’s a calculus of bone, it’s a monument of stone, it’s an ocean made of orphans' tears. I have arsenic in my lung and a curse upon my tongue, and a matchbook striking in my hand, If the Lord won't bring the flood to wash away the mud, then the devil's gonna take the land! [Chorus: The carnival waltz returns, louder and more unhinged. Vocals are shouted and melodic like a pub sing-along sun with a sarcastic edge.] Oh, sing ho for the Company, the glorious Company! A family of brothers who bleed in the dark! They generously lease us the beat of our heart! And when we are broken and ground into dust, We’ll thank them for building a system we trust! A system we trust! Sing ho! Sing ho! for the Company! Oh, The Glorious company! [Bridge: Complete musical dropout. The vocal is a hoarse whisper, full of venom.] We owe our souls to the ledger book. We owe our eyes to the dirty look. We owe our lungs to the dust and grime. We owe our graves... [Suddenly shouting] To the end of time! [Guitar Solo / Climactic Break: A massive wall of sound. The distorted bass and acoustic guitar thrash against a distorted electric guitar. A jagged, discordant solo that sounds like a collapsing tunnel.] [Chorus: Maximum energy. The singer is yelling the melody overly dramatically, voice cracking with emotion. All instruments are playing at full volume.] Oh, Sing ho for the Company, the glorious Company! A family of brothers who bleed in the dark! They generously lease us the beat of our heart! And when we are broken and ground into dust, We’ll thank them for building a system we trust! A system we trust! Sing ho for the Company! Oh the Company… [Outro: The manic energy suddenly halts. Returns to the slow, creeping drone of the hurdy-gurdy from the intro. The singer delivers the final lines with exhausted resignation.] Father perished in the mines... Mother met a man whose moonshine... Helped her keep the madness down. Keep the madness down... [Outro: The manic energy suddenly halts. The singer delivers the final lines with exhausted resignation.] Father perished in the mines... Mother met a man whose moonshine... Helped her keep the madness down. Keep the madness down...