Paul Shapera
New Albion 1
[Verse 1]
Several hundred years before
A gambler and a monk embarked
On a long trek through the endless prairies of the North
They had a fierce debate
About God and chance and fate
And to resolve it, agreed a game of cards indeed be played
The game went on all day
And through the next and next they played
And around them a shelter was built to shield the rain
A street around the shelter formed
Then a church, a house, a bar

[Chorus]
And that is how the city of New Albion was born
That is how the city of New Albion was born

[Verse 2]
New Albion today
With bustling streets, machines, cafes
And the nice, the wise, the eccentric and insane
The mafia’s run by
A red haired dwarf with just one eye
Whose affairs he decides with a pair of silver dice
Over the Zeppelin Union Pilots
A castrati boss presides
And we hear his song each afternoon as he flies by
There’s prisons made of lead
And gargoyles of iron shreds
[Chorus]
And Annabel McAlistair who’s raising up the dead
Annabel McAlistair who’s raising up the dead

[Verse 3]
The lodge on Ashland Street
Is where the Alchemists Guild meets
And to join you have to craft
A glass pearl from a young girl’s dream
A group of thieves they heard
Broke in the lodge to steal the pearls
But in the morning they were found there
Sitting staring unperturbed
The twilight fog they say
An aphrodisiac contains
Nonsense, but yet, they copulate in doorways anyway
There’s inventors and inbred
In upper class as it’s been said

[Chorus]
And Annabel McAlistair who’s raising up the dead
Annabel McAlistair who’s raising up the dead
Clever little Annabella with her clever head, oh
Anabel McAlistair who's raising up the dead