released 9/9/2022
recorded fall 2021-spring 2022
credits:
all lyrics and parts written, performed, and recorded at home by nick paraggio in roslindale, ma
mixed and produced by nick paraggio in logic pro x
consulting producer: gwendolyn luna roger
mastered by josh sebek
Track List:
- More Weight (1:48)
- Farewell! (3:07)
- Harpers Ferry (3:22)
- Crushed By The Sky (4:51)
- Turn Back (4:04)
- White and Gray (4:44)
- I’m Gonna Kick You Down The Stairs (2:05)
Gallery
LYRICS + NOTES
“All Will Be Free” is a collection of songs inspired by historical events and people. Read on for lyrics and personal/historical notes.
More Weight
Crows assemble! In a short time you will feast Gather now upon the rooftop Feel the wood beneath your feet Every day they come to see me Read my charges here aloud But they won't get the satisfaction It's almost over now More weight. Theocrats and slavers Thieves are gathered in the court And if you prove inconvenient Their proceedings will be short They have thrown my wife in prison Bound her feet and locked the gate It's a game they play for power I will not participate More weight. Three days in a field lying naked in the mud When the sheriff finally kills me I will live inside his blood Feel me writhe in your veins, feel my fingers clench your heart You want me gone but we will never, ever, ever be apart I leave my curse upon your office While you pile on the stones My descendants will be prosperous You will gather up my bones And when you look upon my corpse Peel my ribs off of the boards Your revulsion is my pleasure Your shame will be my sword More weight
This song is written from the perspective of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death by court officials in 1692 as part of the Salem witch trials. Corey refused to confess to being a witch, and was killed in an attempt to force him to testify. Corey refused to testify, only replying with “more weight” as they piled stones on his body in the churchyard. As the song references, this allowed Corey’s children to keep their family farm rather than the land being taken by the court. The song also references a curse that Corey is alleged to have placed on the Salem sheriff’s office- all Salem’s sheriffs after the witch trials died from heart and blood related disorders until the sheriff’s office was moved out of Salem in 1991.
Farewell!
Turn your back on me, dear husband Just lie down in your room I'm stepping out for just a moment But I'll be back soon Lay your sword down by your bedside How heavy it must be Pay no attention to the man in black Who comes in quietly No, you never once were good to me Oh well! Oh well But tomorrow I'll be sleeping by myself So well, so well Are you sleeping well, dear husband Enjoy it while you can I have waited for this moment Since the day you took my hand My father's blood upon your face Your soldiers all around But I bet you didn't think That I could put you in the ground No, you never once were good to me Oh well! Oh well But tomorrow I'll be sleeping by myself So well, so well Finally I am outside of the window I am watching it unfold And it's strange, but while you're sleeping You don't look quite so old Or quite so evil, quite so angry Quite so twisted and perverse But I carry all the memories Of our marriage like a curse No, I will never wash away the taste The wine you poured, your grinning face My father's head shoved to my lips Your hateful laugh, your icy grip No you never once were good to me Oh well! Oh well, oh well But the sweet Italian night Bids you farewell! Farewell! Farewell Finally
This song is from the perspective of Rosamund, who was the daughter of a local Germanic king during the 6th century. A rival king killed her father, abducted her, and and forced her into marriage, then made her drink out of her father’s decapitated skull at a banquet. She had him assassinated, which I think was the right move. I saw someone’s TikTok video about this in October of 2021 and pretty much instantly knew I had to write a song about it.
Harpers Ferry
It's been a difficult October It's unseasonably hot We packed into the farmhouse Like lobsters in a pot The warrant came down yesterday They'll be looking for me soon It's a good night for it anyway Almost no light from the moon So now we wait, the plan is set Feel the wind over the river as my hands begin to sweat Try to get some rest Pull my carbine to my chest In a Pennsylvania mineshaft They called it suicide When he realized I was serious Frederick swore that we'd all die But with the Emperor beside me Kings and queens and rooks will quake And more will follow after When the feel the foundation shake The morning is quiet, the sparrows sing There are times when the dead can speak louder than the living And when we attack Either way, we aren't going back I close my eyes and it is sunset in Ohio Through the trees I hear my mother sing, she tells me to be strong Then the weight of decades crashes down again And I fear I'm near the end of things, maybe it won't be long First we rise like the water We may break upon the shore But more of us are coming And more, and more, and more Great constellations! Shine your light on me God is coming to Virginia- all will be free Throw open the door We don't need secrets anymore
John Brown was an American abolitionist and a personal hero of mine. This song is from his perspective, and takes place hours before his raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, in what was at that time Virginia (now West Virginia.) The lyrics here draw on Brown’s immediate preparations as well as his meeting with friend and collaborator Fredrick Douglass, where Brown met the “Emperor” Shields Green. Although he was optimistic about sparking a slave rebellion, I believe Brown knew the plan would likely lead to his death. He was executed in 1859 along with Green and several others after their capture by the US Marines.
Crushed By The Sky
It's a windy night, we come back into town By the first building sighted I'm already starting to drown Now my heart goes back in the box where I store it So I stumble home, as I walk down the street Some guy is piss-drunk and he's singing, and I stare at my feet He's singing a love song, I try to ignore it There is one thought in my mind as I'm falling asleep Maybe tonight, maybe tonight the sky will fall on me I'm in camouflage, I commit to the act Where you can't touch a man without slapping his back I can play the part, I learned it before I was walking Cause you never know once the rumors are spread Who can stay at the table and who turns up dead So i wait for Ana to cut the strings, and set the stars falling As they tumble through my recurring dreams I pray to once more hold you close to me As I'm falling asleep I hear people outside And it hits like an instinct- find somewhere to hide But the footsteps are passing; I can't live like this I haven't relaxed since the first time we kissed People ask what's the matter Family members and friends I have nothing to tell them As I wait for the world to end
The ancient Celts had a widespread belief that at any time the sky would fall down on their heads and crush them. This famously came up in a diplomatic meeting between Alexander the Great and a group of Celtic diplomats, likely from the Scordisci tribe which inhabited the Balkans at the time. I initially set out to write about this meeting specifically, but I completely scrapped it and rewrote the entire song. I knew I wanted the speaker of the song to be queer- I had originally written in much more historical detail but I prefer this version which centers on the emotional experience of being queer in a repressive culture. That, combined with weight of a world that feels as though it could end at any time, hits pretty close to home for me.
Turn Back
Turn back, turn back, the forest seethes To bring the empire to its knees They stumble close to where we hide Beware! You don't know what's inside These trees that mask us closing like a net The water in the river does not forget The wolves who came to sniff for prey Who feed by night and march by day We know their business by the bones The dead beneath their Roman roads These peacekeepers are dressed a lot like soldiers The water in the river is getting colder More land will never be enough Every field's a battlefield, every promise is a bluff Well, they circle us like vultures It's a quiet kind of threat They think we're dying out here But we aren't dying yet I will not fall upon my knees Before the fasces and the club The wheel will keep on crushing you Until you tear it from the hub Turn back, turn back Or meet your fate Turn back, turn back And leave no trace This is your resting place
I wrote this song shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 as a reminder that imperialist violence is both ancient and always evil. The Roman empire historically did the same exact thing, annexing territory with “peacekeeping” military units. This song is inspired by the defeat of the Romans at the battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, where an alliance of Germanic tribes came together to destroy a Roman army that was occupying their home. This was the beginning of the end of Rome’s expansion in Europe, and a reminder that all empires fall.
White and Gray
The hotel room was an island After two hours sleep in my desk chair I wandered off like rowing into the ocean How could I have known that you were there? We spent the summer soaring On wings of white and gray Landed soft as pollen on the pastures Far to the west of the city, miles away And you came up to my window Like a pearl in the empty sky And you said that you knew that you were dying And you had come to say goodbye But if one day you fall from the sky I'll stretch out beneath you To break your fall Now in my dreams I still see the light That poured from your body So I wake and I wait until I hear your call
This is a sweet little love song about the inventor Nicola Tesla’s one true love. According to him, the last time they were together she told him she was dying and then her eyes began to glow bright white. She also happened to be a pigeon.
I’m Gonna Kick You Down The Stairs
I'm gonna kick you down the stairs And these sacred halls will sigh with relief At your exit I'm gonna kick you down the stairs I have my mind made up, you are not welcome here And you won't forget it Go on and cast your little spells Your words are snow to me, they spiral and melt I'm gonna kick you down the stairs I'm gonna kick you down the stairs Beware! I'm gonna kick you down the stairs In the light of day, even your friends say You've got it coming I'm gonna kick you down the stairs Because my booted foot is more powerful Than what you're summoning I know that you can't take a hit But after god knows how many years I am tired of your bullshit I'm gonna kick you down the stairs I'm gonna kick you down the stairs Beware! You have a sense of what you're due You are mistaken- I don't owe a thing to you I'm gonna kick you down the stairs I'm gonna kick you down the stairs Beware!
This album wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t put out this song. I wrote it for fun after learning about an incident where Irish poet W. B. Yeats kicked the British occultist Aleister Crowley down a flight of stairs after Crowley tried to steal some artifacts from a cult that had recently kicked him out. I think there’s a nice sort of peace in resolving to kick someone down the stairs. This was the first song I ever wrote about history, and I’m glad I didn’t keep it to myself.
Thank you very much for listening to this album. I also want to thank Maggi, Dad, Gwen, Josh, Autumn, Charlotte, Luke, and Nick. Thank you to everyone who watched my videos on TikTok and convinced me that there really were people who wanted to hear my songs. Thank you thank you thank you.