Preston Miller Lyrics - Flower Of Avalon - Tracy Grammer

He was born in Miller's mansion when the mistress was asleep 

The secret son of the chambermaid and master 

And they sent him into hidin' for his schoolin' and his keep 

With the Carlysles and the other lucky bastards 

Now his toady tutors fawn and praise the man that he's become 

Though he's taken to the laudenum and faro 

He walks the streets like velvet death with his daddy's money on his breath 

And a shame he cannot shake down in his marrow 

CHORUS: 

When day fades to black you must not listen to the killer 

Pretty voices keep you beautiful and bound 

Cause the simple, sorry fact of your existence, Preston Miller 

Is enough to bring this house of evil down 

One night upon some drunken dare he writes his absent sire 

Sayin' father I would fain come home to meet thee 

And though his worthless friends guffaw this sudden show of fire 

Another round of bourbon and it's easy 

And this letter finds his father in his tower far away 

And the hoary claw that holds it shakes and trembles 

Is it grief over a life misspent, or love or greed or mere contempt 

Or something darker stirring in his temples 

CHORUS 

A week gone by, he's wakened by a knockin' at his door 

And he drags himself half-wasted to the threshold 

It's a message in his father's quill sayin' meet me scion, if you will, 

At the very stroke of midnight in the meadow 

Now he has combed his laggard locks and hired a comely roan 

And he's met his comrade fops around the fountain 

And he's bidden each a grand goodbye and he's cantered off alone 

To meet his aged father in the mountains 

CHORUS 

Oh father dear come out come out I honor thee tonight 

He shouts as he goes weavin' in the saddle 

And he sees the stars go blinkin' by like the twinkle in a trollop's eye 

And six riders riding madly in the shadows 

This mornin' sailed a ship of fools across a sea of gin 

With a blind and grinning reaper at the tiller 

And it drove an aging Jacob to his lone and bitter end 

And a bullet through the brain of Preston Miller