Jacob and the Man in Black Blues

Jacob drank his wine beneath the ruined foot
His brother watched the offshore sail, black-suited, still as soot
Here comes another cargo of murder dressed as law
Jacob turned the bottle once and watched the vessel draw

Oh, Jacob, Jacob, how many souls you gonna bring?
Oh, Jacob, Jacob, how many souls you gonna bring?
Man in Black just bares his teeth, ain't changed a goddamn thing

They came with muskets, crosses, contracts, flags and chains
Left their little kingdoms scattered through the hurricane
Every fresh arrival swore his cause was sanctified
Man in Black kept count of all the righteous men who lied

Jacob scratched their surnames where the cavern walls ran cold
Crossed a few with charcoal, left the others growing old
Richard wore the centuries like whiskey in the blood
Ben spent half a lifetime being useful in the mud

Oh, Jacob, Jacob, how many souls you gonna bring?
Oh, Jacob, Jacob, how many souls you gonna bring?
Man in Black just bares his teeth, ain't changed a goddamn thing

He knew which father left a bruise no medicine could mend
Which abandoned son would sell a stranger for a friend
Never had to preach much, never had to make a threat
He only found the unpaid hurt and came to claim the debt

Then Locke came walking back with death behind his stare
Same bald head, same crooked smile, and someone else in there
Ben had forty years of bile fermenting in his chest
Man in Black said nothing, hurt could handle all the rest

Ben asked Jacob what he'd been worth after all those years
Jacob gave him almost nothing fit to soothe his ears
Steel went in, the old man fell, the fire took the thread
Man in Black looked down at him and knew the loophole bled

Oh, Jacob, Jacob, how many souls you gonna bring?
Oh, Jacob, Jacob, how many souls you gonna bring?
Man in Black starts laughing, ain't changed a goddamn thing

Jack came limping through the bamboo, blood beneath his shirt
Hurley learned the island never needed Jacob's hurt
Down beside the cliffside, one last bullet found its mark
The man who'd begged for daylight died beneath it in the dark

No angel kept the tally, no devil called the score
Just one brother guarding what the other wanted more
And somewhere past the wreckage, where the broken breakers sing

Oh, Jacob, Jacob, how many souls you gonna bring?
Oh, Jacob, Jacob, how many souls you gonna bring?
Man in Black is dead and gone, ain't changed a goddamn thing