Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart
Listening to Clive Palmers’ ‘All Roads Lead to Land’ (What does that mean??) & wondering what secrets he holds in that old brain of his.
He left a successful Incredible String Band, who were to play ‘Woodstock’ for goodness sakes. Off he went to Afghanistan. No one really knew of its existence in those days, where it was regarded as a forgotten outpost of the British Empire. A far cry from todays’ front page headlines, where everyone except George Bush perhaps, has heard of Afghanistan & Iraq.
Later on my arrival in Afghanistan, I could instantly understand what drew people to that fair land, what captivated them & what kept them there, stopping them from travelling on to India. This magical land was like a step back into time, a lost civilisation of the Victor, the Hotspur, Boys Own & Ripping Yarns. Feudalism & the Middle Ages right there in front of you. A pre-industrial society in all its glory.
Of course, I am dwelling on a past time that has disappeared. It was destroyed & it is now a land full of bogus ideologies & modern sophisticated weapons of mass destruction. When I was there all the military owned was moth-eaten WW1 greatcoats & pearl- handled blunderbusses.
As I am getting older I look with new eyes at these apparently doddering, solitary, quiet old men like Clive or Bert Jansch (who took another route through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco in the early 60s). I think of all those ‘Big Hills & Wee Men’ in the book by Peter Kemp.
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