"The Soldier and his Wife"

Lyrics:

He was shipped off to the front lines
With a missionary’s pride
By the dawn, he’d seen the enemy
Within the hour, he’d retired

For a slug tore though his leg bone
And it frayed it to the knee
They sawed it off right there upon the battlefield
With a bullet lodged in his teeth

She was submissive as a saint is
Just a soldier’s lonely wife
By the dawn she’d birthed him a baby boy
Within the hour, he was nigh

To a God that she’d concocted
She was pious and devout
As her soldier praised the service
With all the swagger of a clown

And the stars they all were written
For the soldier and his wife
For they both had found religion
And they both would pay its price

A single gift the soldier gifted
To the soldier’s lonely wife
It was a dose of a plague-like illness
That he’d contracted on the line

And she thought it was her doing
From all her nights of lonely dreams
She prayed then for forgiveness
As she repented on her knees

Meanwhile the soldier spoke of battle
Oh, how he rhapsodized and lied
As he rapped a soldier’s rhythm
Upon the pulpit of his thigh

And his wife communed with spirits
Who required a sacrifice
So she wrote a farewell letter
And for two weeks, she revised

Til at midnight, it was over
For the soldier and his wife
For they both had found religion
And they both had paid its price

The soldier mourned the drowning
Of the soldier’s lonely wife
He baptized himself in whiskey
And for days, the baby cried

Within the hour, he’d found another
To replace its mother’s life
And the stars, they all were written
For the soldier and his wife

Komposition – Stephanie Nilles
Klavier, Orgel, Gesang, Perkussion, Melodica, Geige und Gesang – Stephanie Nilles
Klarinette, Kornett, Alt- und Tenorsaxofon, Tuba, Kontrabass, Gitarre, Penny Whistle, Gesang – Thomas Deakin
Bratsche – Allan Nilles

Aus der Hörspiel-Serie "Jenseits von Eden" nach dem Roman von John Steinbeck
Produktion: NDR 2021
Alle Mitwirkenden und mehr Information unter:
https://www.ndr.de/jenseitsvoneden