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Track cover Beautiful Strangers

Beautiful Strangers

Mavis Staples

5:58•soul • Album Beautiful Strangers • 2025-08-26

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Description

The storm here is not about the weather - it is a memory of war, fear, and sirens that echo through the centuries. Between gunshots and prayers, a stubborn song is born: gentle, almost lullaby-like, and yet full of pain. Death flashes nearby, like a neighboring shadow, but the main thing in the lines is not fear, but love, which still breaks out. It's like singing through tears: the voice trembles, but it is precisely this that prevents the world from falling completely silent.

Producer: Brad Cook

Arrangement and mixing: Brad Cook and Paul Voran

Mastering: Tim Smiley

Lead vocals: Mavis Staples

Backing vocals: Nathaniel Ratliff

Harmony: Tre Burt

Acoustic guitar: Nathan Stoker

Electric guitar: M.J. Lenderman, Rick Holmstrom

OP-1 bass guitar: Matt McCogan

Drums: Matt McCogan

Piano: Phil Cook

Vibraphone: Brad Cook

Saxophone: Matt Douglas

2025 Anti 2025 Anti ©

Lyrics and translation

Original

If you ever hear that thunder
Put your eye to the sky, boy, and wonder
Maybe there's a kingdom above the weather
Oh, and whether you're gonna get our name is up to him
If you ever hear that crying
In the distance like some siren
Maybe there's a singer
With no ring around their little finger
No love
And If I lose my voice
If I have no choice but to go quiet
Won't you sing for me a melody into the night there
Well, if I die too young, if the wolf he comes
Fee-fi-fo-fum
If I die too young, oh, if the locust come
Well then, run, run, run
Free
If you ever hear that gunshot
You may think 'bout what you do but you don't got
Say a prayer, think of mother, I am a rock
If you ever hear that sound now
If the door gets kicked in here, they come now
Think of others, be their cover
I am what they're not
Pray for Paris
They can not scare us
Or stop the music
Your sweet voice, child
Why don't you use it?
If I die too young, or the gunmen come, I'm full of love
So release me, every piece of me, up above
(Up above, ooh ooh ooh)
Love my mama and my papa
Love my sister, can't stand the coppers up in their choppers
Oh, flying overhead, forty-nine dead
Singing, oh, my Lord, come carry me home
Oh, my Lord, come carry me home
I'm singing oh, my God, oh, my Lord
Oh, my God, oh, my Lord
Oh, my God, oh, my Lord
Oh, my Lord
And if I die too young for something I ain't done
Carry my name every day
Oh, I'm sorry
Oh, I'm sorry
Freddie Gray
But sleep easy like baby Jesus in a manger
Oh, sleep easy like little Jesus, beautiful stranger
Oh, beautiful stranger
If I die too young, let all that I've done be remembered
And I'll sleep easy like baby Jesus in his manger
And I'll sleep easy like little Jesus, safe from danger
Carry onward, like some songbird, beautiful stranger
Carry onward, like some songbird, beautiful stranger
Oh, beautiful stranger

Watch video Mavis Staples - Beautiful Strangers

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