February Album Writing Month - FAWM.ORG

The Collyer Brothers of Harlem (*24209)

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Liner Notes:

The demo is a little rough -- I'm tripping all over the lyrics and the tune keeps changing and basically I'm inventing the song as I go. Forgive all that.

The Collyer brothers' story is an interesting one. There are some books about them and a lot of info on the Internet. You might be interested to Google "Collyer Brothers" and select "images" to see pictures of the hoard.

Lyrics:

Homer Collyer was a lawyer, class of 1904
Langley was an engineer who reinforced their mansion’s door
And built a fortress of debris to keep the world from entering
With lethal traps set up throughout that would be his undoing.
Langley was nocturnal and Homer had been blind for years
So Langley roamed the streets of Harlem bringing back the groceries.

The Collyer brothers were wealthy and lived in a mansion
They owned half the water front of their part of Manhattan
Their story would end tragically the way stories often do
And if you pay attention you’ll see how all this pertains to you…

The Collyer family moved into a brownstone on 5th avenue
In the up-and-coming borough of Harlem, they were well-to-do
The father was a doctor and the “boys” as they were often known
Had studied at Columbia but lived at home, though they were grown
They were the very model of the late Victorian gentleman
And when the parents died they inherited the ancestral fortune.

They never moved from the place that Dr. Collyer left to them
After forty years the city ruled that certainly they must condem
The house because there was garbage filling it and strewn all about
But when the police came to evict they could not get the Collyers out.

Homer was bedridden and blind since nineteen thirty-four
Langley walked the streets at night and added to the massive hoard.
Harlem changed around them and the world left them behind
When they died they were dressed like it was 1909.
They lived without electricity, water, gas, and telephone
And gradually garbage took the place of luxury that they had known.

In late winter of ’47 the police received a call there
By a man who used an alias who said that Homer Collyer
Might be dead and that they should come to try to get the body out
So with a ladder and a lot of work they able to remove all doubt…
For the first time in seven years Homer left the house -- in a body bag
Lowered by a rope like dirty laundry in a canvas sack.

But Langley was still missing and nobody knew whether he
Was still inside the house, still alive, it would remain a mystery
As the days wore on and cleaning crews removed 14 pianos
A Model T, mattress springs, newspapers, and cellos.

They found baby carriages, rusted bicycles and chandeliers
Bowling balls, a clavichord and eighty thousand newspapers,
Plaster busts, two organs, a child’s chair and a library
Of 25 thousand books and something that was very scary:
A two-headed baby in a bottle of formaldehyde,
And 34 bank passbooks very near the spot where Homer died.

After 18 days and 130 tons of garbage hauled away
They found Langley’s corpse just 10 feet from where his brother’s body lay.
He was crushed under a booby trap of his own devising
So Homer slowly starved to death (an awful way of dying).
And while the rats ate Langley’s hands and feet and half of his face
Workers hauled away the treasures that had filled the place.

“A man’s home is his castle” is a saying that is often said
But the same walls that keep others out also tend to trap us in
If you surround yourself with treasures to find solitude
The very same possessions just might be the death of you.

If you visit Harlem now at the place where the Collyer mansion stood
You’ll see a park and there’s no sign that it’s the same neighborhood
Where thousands waited years ago to watch dump trucks haul away
The accumulated fortune of two men who lived in such decay,
And you have to wonder if the things you have always struggled for
Have kept you from connecting with the ones whom you most adore...

The Collyer brothers were wealthy and died in a mansion
They owned half the water front of their part of Manhattan
Their story ended tragically the way stories often do
And if you’ve paid attention you’ve seen how all this pertains to you.

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standup 2 months ago

Dang, you crammed a magazine article into a song. And it kinda works.
nightengale 2 months ago

Ya, epic and awesone story telling. Sound great!
philnorman 3 months ago

Impressive lyrical storytelling -- you manage to work some serious turns of phrase into your meter; no wonder you stumbled a few times!

A sad story, eloquently told. Well done.
hamiltonpoolhall 3 months ago

Epic! Great story to choose, and you nailed the task of telling a narrative story in a verse context, and getting the words to feel flowing and unforced, like you were just talking. And, as Mike Bloomfield exclaimed, relating a story about recording "Desolation Row," "That's a long freakin' song, man!" Well done.
goodgina 3 months ago

never heard of them before but this is quite the tribute. well done.
mikeskliar 3 months ago

A great great subject for a song, I know of the Collyer brothers well- having heard for years those warnings (mostly not always directed to others-- 'clean up- what!. ya want to end up like the Collyer brothers'?

Great folk ballad- you tie up all the loose ends, so to speak, really well and make it meaningful--- great job! loved it!
rbarreda 3 months ago

At the risk of showing my ignorance of something that may be common knowledge... I have never heard of the Collyer brothers.

Admittedly I don't normally like or listen to songs like this, but your story telling sucked me in and I was stuck creaking along with your vocals begging in my head that you'd tell what happened to them. You did not disappoint. What a great song. Tripping over the lyrics did not detract at all in my opinion and in fact added to it.

Two thumbs up and five stars, too.