In honor of the recent DNA identification of Henry Peglar I thought I'd polish up and re-issue my Henry Peglar playlist. Each song now corresponds to a document catalogued within the Peglar Papers; see the lyrics below for explanation!
No. 1 — Letter to Mr. John Couper, Commercial Road, London: “Paid.” (AGC/36/1/1)
1. “Limbo” | Eliza Carthy
I am a brisk lad and my fortune is bad
And if e’er I get rich it’s a wonder
I’ve spent all my money on girls and strong beer
What riches I had are all plundered
No. 2 — Record of Peglar’s Service (AGC/36/1/2)
2. [went?/now?] in the [Terror?] — “The bonny ship the Diamond”
Well don’t you weep, my bonny lass
Though you’ll be left behind
For the rose will bloom on Greenland’s ice
Before we change our mind
No. 3 — Fragment of Envelope with Illegible Address (AGC/36/1/3)
3. “I Am Mine” | Beta Radio
Apples and pears rotten lie
The eulogy itself can write
No. 4 — Apr. 21 1847 — The C the C the open C (AGC/36/1/4)
4. It was too [whide? which?] — “The Water is Wide” | Karla Bonof
A ship there is and she sails the sea
She’s loaded deep as deep can be
But not so deep as the love I’m in
5. I love dear a young and Hopen C — “Love We Are We Love” | The Sea The Sea
Love we are young too old too soon
Love we are wise too late to know
No. 5a — Fragment — Lines on the Party wot happened in Trinidad (AGC/36/1/5/1)
6. “Song That I Heard” | The Barr Brothers
I came to scatter ashes
Of the bridges I had burned
And to know the name
Of the song that I heard
No. 5b — Badly Decayed Fragment Written Backwards (AGC/36/1/5/2)
7. “Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still” | The Teacups
At the first sweet dawn of light
When I gaze upon the deep
Her form still greets my sight
While the stars their vigil keep
No. 5b — Fragment — Has my littel bark was drifting down (AGC/36/1/5/3)
8. My crew they went to sleep / While .[I?]. keep a Lookout — “Fires” | Allman Brown
Voices tell me a truth I nearly know
This will all soon be memory
No. 6 — Fragment — Sir in colonne in the [north?] (AGC/36/1/6)
9. “Sitting Room” | Beta Radio
In the living room, in the sitting room
I will wait for you in the hollow I have hewn
No. 7 — Fragment — O death [where is] thy sting (AGC/36/1/7)
10. “Where O Death Is Now Thy Sting?” | Mise
[instrumental]
11. The Harmonic I have wander[ed] — “Odyssey” | Talos
It’s hard to leave
I hold at the breach
I’ve got my reasons
I’m cast out in the cold
12. You [are?] peglar — “Bury Me Smiling” | The Ballroom Thieves
A heart like a wild sea
No man could own me
Won’t be the words
Upon my stone
No. 8 — Fragment with Writing Resembling an Address (AGC/36/1/8)
13. “The God of Loss” | Darlingside
Yes, we will leave here without a trace
Take a new name and an old shape
No. 9 — Fragment Labelled Only “Sentimental Song” (AGC/36/1/9)
14. “Nothing Arrived” | Villagers
I waited for something, and something died
So I waited for nothing, and nothing arrived
No. 10 — Leather Wallet (AGC/36/1/10 — AAA2114)
15. “My Arms Were Always Around You” | Peter Bradley Adams
Let’s go back to the days beneath the northern lights
When we danced so free like a little child
16. “The Fear” | Ben Howard
My, my cold hearted child, tell me where it’s all gone
All the luster of your bones, those arms that held you strong
No. 11 — Fragments from Leather Wallet (AGC/36/1/11)
17. “Anchors” | The Ballroom Thieves
This nest of bones reveals my parchment heart
Inkwell eyes have tried and failed to pull it all apart
18. “John My Beloved” | Sufjan Stevens
Beloved of John, I get it all wrong
I read you for some kind of poem
Covered in lines, the fossils I find
Have they no life of their own?
No. 13 — Various Transcripts of the Peglar Papers, 1850s-1950s (AGC/36/1/13)
19. “We Are” | Peter Bradley Adams
We are blind in the darkness
Crawling on our hands
We are born in the sunlight
We love the ones we can
[No. 14] — Stenton et al. 2026
20. “The Ancestor” | Darlingside
But I will find my way
Out of the dark someday
Into a crimson yellow sun
