Birds of Relocation – Track 9: No Stone Unturned

Birds of Relocation – Track 9: No Stone Unturned

by Eric Peters on March 29, 2012

This song is a case of marrying old lyrics to new music. I wrote these words in the summer of 2000 and originally proposed that it be on Scarce (2006), but that album’s producer didn’t seem interested in it, so I shelved it. Having always liked these lyrics, I brushed them off while writing Birds of Relocation, set them at eye level, and lovingly affirmed them–I still believe in you. After trashing an earlier, older, and, honestly, outgrown chorus, I rewrote the music entirely, and with the guidance of Andy Gullahorn, gave these lyrics a chance to finally be heard. This song, though written over ten years ago, thematically seemed to fit so well on this album. Funny how time works. And flies.

“No Stone Unturned”

I’d forgotten what it’s like to be alive
Laying down to live and rising up to die
They say you get one chance to prove your name true
That’s why I fell in love with you

I was lost and gone, a man without a name
I’d lie awake in dreams, drift in and out of graves
The heart of hearts, no longer clothed in black
But all this skin on the outside is a god that turns its back

I am ashamed (of my less-wild lovers)
Deserted was my name (until you gave me another)
But you pursued (all the torches left to burn)
In the midnight searching you leave no stone unturned

We are rough and ready, primed to steal the show
Though we’re prone to doubt it, we are selves of our former shadows
I was listing and listening in the wind:
It was not that God was enemy, but that I had not been friend

I am ashamed (of my less-wild lovers)
Deserted was my name (until you gave me another)
But you pursued (all the torches left to burn)
In the midnight searching you leave no stone unturned
That is how you found me,
You pulled me from the clutches of my

Shame
You gave me a name
But you pursued
When I was ashamed (of my less-wild lovers)
Deserted was my name (until you gave me another)
But you pursued (all the torches left to burn)
In the midnight searching you leave no stone unturned