Pentabook

by Matt Lumpkin

Pentabook cover art
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1.
05:31
2.
02:03
3.
02:03
4.
02:04
5.
01:46

about

This is a series of song sketches exploring the humanity of the the characters in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

What the Critics are saying:
"These were great - A. I was afraid they were just going to be using the stories as jumping off points for modern thoughts, but I liked the way you kept reflecting things that were there in the text and making links I hadn't thought of before - like Noah and the stench and the wine. Well done. And accessing it was very easy, so thanks." - John Goldingay

credits

released 31 August 2010

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Track Name: Adam
First time I saw her
My eyes blurred the light
I stumbled to catch her
As she slipped out of sight

I ran towards her laughter
And the shapes her toes made
In the wet morning grass
And the smooth red clay

I caught up and saw her
With her eyes open wide
Staring up at the branches
Felt the seam in my side

She slept in my arms
All spent from the day
In a bed of cool leaves
I watched her eyelids play

[I knew she was like me
Like I never had known
Fin'ly some one to play with
Bone of my bone]

///
We were just kids back then
Our skin still felt like our own
We didn't know it then
This kindergarten was never a home
///

When she came to me
With fruit in her mouth
I could tell
she knew something I didn't

Even though nobody died
till after our babies were born
I still felt something inside
crack
When I bit it

///
We were just kids back then
Our skin still felt like our own
We didn't know it then
This kindergarten was never a home
///

So we hid ourselves away
In Skins that never quite fit
We scratched our hands raw
In the dirt for a mouthful of bread

The first baby came
after two nights and a day
Mother doubled over on the ground
Rolling in waves of sharp pain

///
We were just kids back then
Our skin still felt like our own
We didn't know it then
This kindergarten was never a home
///


It's a terrible thing
see the hands that made you
holding you back at arms length

It's more terrible still
see the hands that you made
red in his brothers own blood
Track Name: Noah
First time I smelled it
I thought it was the livestock
Packed in tight between the beams F

But when we opened that boat
Expecting fresh air
That rotten deathly scent
coiled in around us

A thousand pale faces
gaping and lolling
frozen but calling
out

I tended my vines after the rainbow
and tried to forget
The cries of the people
shouting "save us"

Red wine on my tongue
The only relief
But even passed out drunk
I can't help but see

their faces their faces
their faces their faces their faces

never again
you promised you promised...
Track Name: Abraham
We were halfway up
when I first saw his eyes
Squinting at me
through the twigs that he carried

It had been a good ride
Was this the end coming now?
Is it time to pay the piper?

We waited so long
For this baby to come
I'm going to have to see this through

We're so far from home
we've been through so much
Do you see what I'm willing to do for you?

Tied down hard
His Eyes stabbing back up
I don't know how
I could ever meet his gaze

Raise the knife
Watch and wait
saw something move
out the corner of my eye

stopped my hand
see the ram
It's all right
Track Name: Jacob
At first light It'll be done
Easau'll kill me or he won't

That's what I was thinking when
Something came streaming
from the starlight

The way his feet moved
All fluid and smooth
I could tell he was something more than a man

He ground my face in the dirt
More times than I can count
But I kept catching hold of his heal

Let me go he said
In a voice that pricked my spine
But through clenched teeth
I managed to to groan
It'll cost you more than that

His answer was pain
And a hip bone clean out of joint
I forded the Jordan limping and straining
but smiling from knowing is real
Track Name: Moses
When I first walked in
Saw the bush all aflame
I could feel my own skin
Creeping and trying to crawling away

I felt like a creature,
like a tiny little bug
sittin' on the table of a man
who just might squash me where I stood

Crackling flame
Feet sweating in the stone
Voice in my head
Like an open fire
shinin' light in between the bones

He Said you've gotta go back
To the home I left behind
To the land where they drowned my brothers
in the reeds underneath the Nile

He said you're gonna tell
that king to let my people go
I've heard them crying out to me
bowed down underneath their load

I said who am I gonna tell them
said to come
Its gonna take more than
word of mouth to get'em
to follow my crooked tongue

He didn't give me a name
to call him by
he said I will be who I will be
I'll be with you in the signs

I am is the one
who said for you to come
steal them away in the middle of the night
out from underneath pharoah's thumb

He didn't give me a name
to call him by
he said I will be who I will be
I'll be with you in the signs