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about
A song about the overdose crisis in BC. 'Overcoat' is written primarily from the perspective of a tailor, commissioned to make a coat for a patron who isn't alive to receive the completed product. There's an old expression for a premature, and uncelebrated death--"ending up in a wooden overcoat". A poorly constructed coffin, and certainly not an overcoat you'd ever request to be made--"nobody asks for pine".
lyrics
I cut my teeth on cutting cloth about this town
He asks of me an overcoat in chestnut brown
Made to measure, silk, and wool, and dye
Met the deadline, and ran out of time
Nobody asks for pine
Nobody asks for pine
My patron yesterday
Your lover's gone away
A bespoke coat for one man's form
Worthless by midday
Please promise me that you're prepared for gutting grief
This tailor tends to hem in all his disbelief
Wash my hands of all that has occurred
"Take your business to the carpenter"
Nobody asks for pine
Nobody asks for pine
My patron yesterday
Your lover's gone away
A bespoke coat for one man's form
Worthless by midday
Lover, you breathless lay on the floor
Ajar kitchen door
Cheap tar in the drawers
I pray to God, "wash out my eyes!"
Couldn't stand such a sight
If it can't be made right
You wouldn't wear this pine overcoat
I wish we had known
What we now know
(Nobody asks for pine / nobody asks for pine)
If it wears you down like salt in the snow
Please let me know
Please let me
credits
released September 27, 2019
Caleb McAlpine: electric guitar, vocals, autoharp, piano, electric keyboard, percussion, bass guitar, production, thigh slaps & hand claps
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