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Gordon Leadfoot
Under Athenian gates
Released November 28, 2025


01 - Tell me, brother

Why have you come at this hour Crito
When the night is thin and the day breaks slow
I see your trouble, friend, writ in your eyes
I’m ready for dawn, whatever may arise

Ooh, the bells ring low
Tell me, brother, what you know

I slept easy while the world’s been weeping
Did you wonder, sitting silent, at my dreaming?
But the ship from Delos, looming on the foam
Signals the end of my time spent at home

Will of the gods, I won’t turn away
Wrapped in calm as the night gives to day

Why have you come at this hour Crito
When the night is thin and the day breaks slow
I see your trouble, friend, writ in your eyes
I’m ready for dawn, whatever may arise

Ooh, the bells ring low
Tell me, brother, what you know

You urge me to run, let reason be gone
But I can’t trade my heart for the thundering throng
Some say the many can harm or heal
But truth, old friend, is what is real

Why have you come at this hour Crito
With the words of the world and fear to sow
By the judgment of the wise, my answer I’ll keep
Justice the promise, and promises deep

Ooh, the bells ring low
Tell me, brother, what you know

Let me follow for the thundering throng
Some say the many can harm or heal
But truth, old friend, is what is real


02 - Doing what we could

Advice in the morning sun, heavy helms on every son
We gather round the yard, in shadows of fathers' names
All the wisdom that we won, won't stretch far enough to run
We carry armour on our hearts, and questions rise like flames

Oh, oh, doing what we could

Gone are the deeds and glory sets,
We're bare before the young who watch
Our fathers' stories on the wind
Not a single battle won by our own hands
We hope for virtue, tangled in our nets
We hope we're not too late to catch the future before it's turned and fled
With every word, with every caution, with every plan

And should we train them up as soldiers
Or turn their ears to music's call?
Is courage seen on fields of clover
Or in the learning of the fall?

Advice in the morning sun, heavy helms on every son
We gather round the yard, in shadows of fathers' names
All the wisdom that we won, won't stretch far enough to run
We carry armour on our hearts, and questions rise like flames

Oh, oh, doing what we could


03 - The dust on my boots

I walk through the square with the dust on my boots
The words from the crowd rolling in like a root
Telling tales of the air and the earth and the stars
Their voices a circle of delicate scars

Under the sky, I survive, I survive
Oh na na, oh na, oh na na

Some say the wise man is only a fool
Teacher with nothing to barter but truth
They say I confuse, I corrupt, I deride
But they’re chasing their tails, while I wander the wild

It isn’t the fate of the soul I lament
But the blindness that comes when the questions are spent

I walk through the square with the dust on my boots
The words from the crowd rolling in like a root
Telling tales of the air and the earth and the stars
Their voices a circle of delicate scars

Under the sky, I survive, I survive
Oh na na, oh na, oh na na

Maybe the silence is deeper than grief
Or maybe it’s courage, or maybe belief
To ask one more time if the sleep will be sweet
Or the gates of the journey will open to meet

Speak not of the manner, but justice instead
For a cowpoke or shaman finds truth where he’s led

I walk through the square with the dust on my boots
The words from the crowd rolling in like a root
Telling tales of the air and the earth and the stars
Their voices a circle of delicate scars

Under the sky, I survive, I survive
Oh na na, oh na, oh na na


04 - The gods can't agree

Is what we see the real, or just the shape that we agree?
Tell me what is pious, what is holy, and what is wrong at all
You say all that's pious is that which the gods cherish
But the gods can't agree and their stories will perish

Is it loved by the gods, or loved because it's right?
Is it loved by the gods, or holy in its own light?

Why’s your answer a circle where nothing begins?

I’m left with the puzzle, the seeds I sow
Round and round, my friend, we chase the divine
On this road of the living, to reason’s design

Oh-oh-oh, what is pious, is it all we do or say?
Oh-oh-oh, you define and then you stray


05 - Chains of the Muse

Are we madness driven, or are we gods enslaved
By the chains of inspiration, by the poet's flame
Speak, let the thunder roll your name
Is it art or holy madness running through your veins?

Oh Muse, oh Muse, oh Muse divine
Carry us down the ancient line

O the rhapsode’s chain is long and winding
Hearts and voices swept by a sacred fire
Not skill or creed or art in binding
Only Muse’s hand can lift us higher

Oh, the Muse is calling
Oh, the soul’s undone

Socrates sits in the dust, questions turn like wheels
Ion crowned in festal garb, gold for all to see
Wisdom hides behind the sun, knowledge bends and kneels
Possessed by bard and poet’s trust, not by mastery

For prophecy, for painting, each must know their craft
Yet when Homer’s thunder calls, reason comes apart
And you who judge of war and song, must you choose a path?
Or admit you serve a voice that speaks beyond all art

O the rhapsode’s chain is long and winding
Hearts and voices swept by a sacred fire
Not skill or creed or art in binding
Only Muse’s hand can lift us higher

Oh, the Muse is calling
Oh, the soul’s undone


06 - Let the river roll

Who am I, you ask? I've asked myself for years
Was almost fooled by honeyed words and sowers of old fears
Yet none among those silver tongues could speak a grain of truth
Still here before you, plain and worn, an old seeker of proof

Ooh, ooh, the justice of the soul
Ooh, ooh, let the river roll

They say I'm wicked, say I've searched too deep
They paint their stories, hoping wounds won't heal
But all I've carried is a restless need
To know if wisdom sleeps beneath the wheel

And the voices, they're rising (echoing inside)
Slinging stones in the sand while the liars confide
But I'll stand like the mule in the summer's hot dust
For I'd rather know nothing than be blinded by trust

Ooh, ooh, the justice of the soul
Ooh, ooh, let the river roll

Who am I, you ask? I've asked myself for years
Was almost fooled by honeyed words and sowers of old fears
But I found on the roadside a wisdom so small
A pebble of knowing, worth more than them all

Ooh, ooh, the justice of the soul
Ooh, ooh, let the river roll

Let the river roll, let the river roll


07 - A world so torn

What is courage in a world so torn?
None of us can claim the deeds our fathers wore with pride
Shall we trust the one whose voice is sharp
Or heed the heart that's weathered loss

Tell me, what is courage? Oh, what is courage?

We seek the truth beyond the pain to come
Heavy with our flaws

Tell me, what is courage? Oh, what is courage?
What is courage? Oh, what is courage?

Let the fathers speak, let the sons become


08 - Call me what you will

You give a thing a title, say it’s got the natural sound
But what’s the stake in calling, when the truth ain’t always found?

If we call a man a horse is he ever really changed?
If they all name you king, do you rule or just arrange?

Rivers got their boundaries, but a name is just the start
Call me what you will, it won’t change my heart

Tell me, what’s in a name?
Is it fortune or nature, is it wild or tame?

Oh, what’s in a word?
Oh, what’s in a name?


09 - The porch of the King Archon


10 - Anxiété

Anxiété, dans mon coeur elle rôde
Comme un nuage sombre au-dessus de moi
Et le temps ne semble jamais ralentir
Anxiété, elle contrôle ma vie
