#212 (of 365) "The War Criminal Rises and Speaks" Okkervil River

I got to see Will Sheff solo (with a guitarist backing him) playing with The Antlers at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City a couple weeks ago, first time I've seen him in several years, maybe first time he's done a tour that came to the area in that long. It's been over 20 years now since he burst onto my radar with the stellar Black Sheep Boy and I was obsessed with Okkervil River back then (rightfully so). The songs were dark--super dark--and poignant, with lyrics that told stories like a gifted writer of literature. I've written short stories about their songs and attempted a novel based on "Westfall." But then, sometime in the early 2010s, Will left the darkness behind, and eventually left the named Okkervil River pretty much behind (although the recent tour did feature that name, not his own). I hope he comes back and starts making new Okkervil music again. I miss it. I miss the joy in these dark songs.

So they found a lieutenant who killed a village of kids
After finishing off the wives, he wiped off his knife and that's what he did
And they're not claiming that there's any excusing it
That was 30 years back, and they just get paid for the facts, the way they got them in

Now he's rising and not denying
His hands are shaking, but he's not crying
And he's saying, "How did I climb out of a life so boring into that moment?
Please stop ignoring the heart inside, oh, you readers at home!
While you gasp at my bloody crimes, please take the time to make your own home
Where I'm forgiven by time, where I'm cushioned by hope
I'm numbed by long drives, where I'm talked off or doped
Does the heart wants to atone?
Oh, I believe that it's so
'Cause if I could climb back through time
I'd restore their lives and then give back my own
Tens of times now its size on a far distant road
In a far distant time where every night I'm still crying, entirely alone
But the news today always fades away as you drive by
Until at dinnertime when you look into her eyes
Lit by the evening sun that usually comes from above that straight, unbroken line
The horizon, it's rising, it's a given
Just like you living

Your heart's warm and kind
Your mind is your own
So, our blood-spattered criminal is inscrutable, don't worry, he won't
Rise up behind your eyes and take wild control
Say he's not of this time, he fell out of a hole, hole, hole

"The War Criminal Rises and Speaks" - Okkervil River // Down the River of Golden Dreams (2003)