All Things Must Pass

Listening to ‘Wonderwall’ finally after all these years of searching. No not that one ya ninny! Can you say ‘very freaky’ on this blog. Memories of Dec 73 on Colva Beach, Goa come flooding back. ‘All Things Must Pass’ was playing every day from a grass hut nearby. Somebody spoke & I drifted into a dream.

Paradise on earth, but with buying some of life’s little luxuries, I took my daily expenses up through the 5p per day ceiling. My extravagance knows no bounds.

Strange that this is the only piece of music that I can recall from that time. As a constant companion amid the squalor & the hunger & the real poverty, It was an ideal mantra for life in India.

Maximum Collateral Damage

Imagine the situation. You are still wet behind the ears & you desperately want to be part of the scene................'the swinging 60s' & all things groovy & then someone sticks this lp on the decks & its as if you had totally forgotten to breath, you get swept up in a mad mental maelstorm...........lifted up & cast aside.............you know that bit in movies now, where the director uses fast editing & movement becomes so fast & furious & erratic. This was the efect of listening to this album the first time. Now that I have listened to it so many times the impact has lessened slightly, but it is still for my money the best live album in the world ever. Ladies & gentlemen, I give you the MC5.

Modern Times

Just in case I gave the impression that I don’t listen to recent music, I will review the latest album by Bob Dylan. Here goes: Bob discovers J.J. Cale & rips him off like he did with Martin Carthy & Bert Jansch in another lifetime. End of.

If gardening is the new rock & roll & fishing is the new kung fu, is Gordon Brown, (or John Reid another in the Parcel of Rogues): the new Tony Blair?

Alasdair Gray in 1992, wrote about the benefits of small countries having their own self- government. This was particularly important if the small country had a wealth of natural resources. At the time there was a whole cover up & black operation to smother any ideas of the Scots acquiring this wealth that should obviously go to our colonial masters.

Amid this bitches brew, Alasdair Gray points out that throughout history, there has existed this parcel of rogues, who are motivated totally by self interest & who do their utmost to put their own country down. Is this not treason? Hanging should be their fate, not the top seat in government. Certainly, if I was English (God forbid), I wouldn’t take too kindly to a smug bunch of tartan toe-rag, know-it-alls, running my country. I think the voters will show this in the next General Election. Enough of this rant & back to the music. Didn’t Bob Dylan used to be a protest singer, political, Jew, born again Christian?

‘If it keeps on raining, the levee’s gonna break’ – pure J.J. Cale. However, I would like to state that I am a big J.J. Cale fan so that I am enjoying this cd.

I am now remembering a John Cale gig @ Glasgow’s City Halls, back in the day & we were all there, all my friends in some sort form of abandonment. Many of these friends are now dead or facing a 6 month countdown. This last week, I heard of another clean living friend, who had worked in the shipyard gaining an apprenticeship, & then went back to College/University to get his degree & changed careers. I used to meet him swimming or at the sauna, he kept himself fit. He dropped dead at work. He was a couple of years younger than yours truly. When your time is up.

Happier times, happy trails.

Broken Flowers

Just caught this movie on dvd recently. I had heard the soundtrack & loved it & I do like Bill Murray as an actor, although I did think that ‘Lost in Translation’ was just that: lost.

However I was lost in ‘Broken Flowers’ it just seemed to drift without purpose. The music is the best & most haunting part of the film & Tilda Swinton showed how you can alter your appearance with a long black wig.

This is how Osama Bin Laden has eluded his predators. Although some Black Operators have leaked the story of him dying of, what is it this time? Kidney failure, no its Typhoid.

Another movie I have just caught up with was ‘Hotel Rwanda’. This was not as harrowing as I had expected. It was a terrific film, but the harsh realities of what happened there & of how it was allowed to continue make my blood boil. It doesn’t surprise me, nor does any cruelties showing man’s inhumanity to man. Palestine is a daily record of these extreme atrocities.

Arran, not Iran

A September Weekend turns into an Indian summer: God smiles on the righteous. Lets hope that no mad US president decides on a nuke strike, while we are on this island.

Happy Highlanders meet us off the ferry @ Brodick in the sunshine. We were staying with them in their ’Log Cabin Home in the Sky’.

I had left my car in Ardrossan, so it was pleasant to be a passenger as we toured the Island listening to Alt. Country. Not as rugged an island as Mull, where we had our break last year, but it was very much like one huge working farm. The island’s dairy products reflect this & the milder, Gulf Stream weather, accounts for their farming success & the number of palm trees around are beautiful. I thought I really was back in Iran again.

Day 2 was even better & divided into 2 very distinct tours. Part 1 was a walk out to the standing stones on Machrie Moor. I am an avid fan of Julian Cope’s (cannot cope) book on the standing stones of Britain, that has a huge section on Scotland & I bought a Reference copy for one of the libraries, I used to work in. Sadly it has gone out of print. I am also reading his book on Krautrock at the moment. Anyway, nothing prepared us for the totally awesome & gobsmackable experience of these stones on Machrie Moor. The little roadside sign & the lack of a proper car park did not indicate how superb this site was, although to be honest either I am getting older or the distances were incredibly inaccurate!

From the first set of standing stones, we could see another & from the next set, we could see another & from the next set, we could see another & from the next set, we could see another & from the next set, we could see another

Etc : 6 sets. As we approached the last set, amid much snickering about telling my wife, who stayed in the car, that I had done a Billy Connolly, we hit bogland & for the first time in years, I got my feet really soaked, they were to stay this way all day, squelch, squelch, squelch.

Next up was a visit to Brodick Castle. I am not that interested in the insides of the castle, but the gardens were like those of Eden. Here was a glimpse of Paradise.

I will never forget the feeling of being in the walled garden among more butterflies & bees than you could ever dream of, wonderful, unreal & heavenly bliss.

Curves in Rainbowed Air

My younger son has decided we are going to attempt to clean up the loft & make it a more manageable dumping ground. For the foreseeable future we are as a family going to attempt this lifechanging exercise.

The area has been divided up into zones. This is how I found my old 'hippie trail' sleeping bag. If you look closely, you may ask yourself what caused all those minute burn holes. Well thats another story.

How Did We Get Here From There

Spending all those years abroad in a war zone, meant I had to catch up on a lot of new music on my return. During that short time so much musical changes had occurred, perhaps inspired by that second summer of love. Mind you when one looks around, one doesn’t witness a world full of love. Certainly there isn’t a lot of love in the USA & Britain’s weapons of mass destruction, that are killing & maiming innocent women & children all over the Middle East.

Dance music had exploded in the uk. I had to immerse myself in house, techno & drum & bass for a while. During an earlier period in my life, I wanted to learn about classical music & I learned by spending 2 or 3 years tuned into a very informative and pompous radio 3. I still listen to classical music, but now it’s the newer cutting edge pieces by artists like Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley…etc… Radio 3 has a number of decent programmes that I listen to on a weekly basis e.g. ‘Mixing It’, ‘Jazz on 3’,’Hear & Now’, ‘Between the Ears’ etc..

As the years pile on I have had to become very selective in the listening process. I am still fond of the odd decent house tune or good Detroit techno or intelligent techno e.g. Wagon Christ, Aphex Twin, Muslimgauze or Black Dog. As I write this I am listening to the latter’s album with Black Sifichi & it is so outstanding. I was in contact with Black Dog’s Ken Downie via a Bulletin Board (remember them?) while I was working @ Bell College.

At that time using Bulletin Boards I got in contact with 2 friends, Eric & Steve, who got me involved in the whole Industrial/Intelligent Techno scene. From a shared interest in Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Zoviet France & especially the Hafler Trio I was to move into an exploration of pure sound or more non-musical sounds, soundwalks, glitches………etc…….

I am still around that arena with occasional backsliding. Now for instance, I am listening to Johnny Cash American V: 100 Highways, but during the period of writing this, I have played Vashti Bunyan, Devendra Banhart, Linda Perhacs, Astor Piazzolla Remixed, Koop, John Mayall, John Martyn’ s ‘Dusty’ & ‘The River’ & the Allman Brothers Live @ Filmore East.

My current obsessions include Psychedelia, Krautrock, Ye-Ye Girls & jazzy lounge.

‘If you could read my Mind’ now I am puzzled: who used to sing that? ‘I will Meet you Brother Further on up the Road’. Looking forward to it: Mr Cash.

Tartan Terrorism




Sometimes you feel so fiercely proud to be Scottish. 2 wins out of 2 in our World Cup campaign helps. It’s a bit early in the campaign to go all out Ally MacLeod, barking mad, but there is a faint glimmer of hope. Mind you we are in the so-called: ‘group of death’ ( we always seem to be & England end up with countries you’ve never heard of & I am far-travelled).

The English media’s coverage of Andy Murray’s rapid rise to the top lightens the heart. However, it is only by being involved in 3 Reading Groups, that I gained exposure to George Douglas Brown’s ‘House With the Green Shutters’. I found this lost Scottish classic to be so enjoyable & a constant page turner. A joy to read.

It is difficult being a librarian when you cannot choose the books you read. For the past 3 years, someone else has done this for me. I have discovered that this had led me into reading titles I would have avoided, but also almost all the titles I have read have been superb…e.g. ‘Time Travellers Wife’ , ‘Kite Runner’, ‘Kevin’, ‘No Great Mischief’, ‘A Gathering Light’….etc……

Its also very useful as the years pass by to learn new things. I work in an educational environment, so it is easy. I am in the process of learning to drive a 15 seat minibus & I am enjoying the experience.

Also I finally got around to listening to the Akron Family today & I would recommend this, but not while driving a 15 seater & reading ‘Green Shutters’.

Happenings

There is so much going on in Glasgow. You would think we had more hotels than you could ever need, but all 12, 500 rooms were full this weekend.

The weather didn’t really suit the Indian Summer Festival in Victoria Park, but it did stay dry most of Saturday. There are many bands at this event I would have liked to see…e.g. Camera Obscura, Fall & Antony & Johnsons. Devendra Banhart was playing @ the ABC, Sauchiehall St. We passed by the ABC & hundreds of kilted members of the tartan army who were celebrating the rebirth of the 6-0 winning Scotland side. Yes, we are back & proud.

No, we were not on our way to Hampden Park to see Robbie Williams, but to the fairly, empty CCA, where there were more people on the stage than there was in front of it, in the audience.

I have such high regard for Raymond MacDonald & Geoge Burt. I have caught them a few times @ Brels, during the West End Festival playing with one of my heroes, Lol Coxhill. Sadly they didn’t perform together this year.

Also there is the connection surrounding the cd they recorded about the Tobermory Clock, that has a personal history in my family. I bought that cd recently & visited the clock last September. So, one year later I managed to persuade my wife to come along with me to see MacDonald & Burt with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. The venue has such a history for us, when it was the Third Eye Centre. Mind you at that time there wasn’t all those semi-clothed drunken girls & boys cruising Sauchiehall St.

The actual concert itself reminded me of one of the 60s ‘Happenings’. We were told there was 6 pieces (6 goals, 6 improvised pieces….co-incidence?). There was such diverse sounds with varying dynamics. My wife & I agreed on something & this was that the quiet piece was our favourite. There was an AMM Keith Rowe/George Burt connection with the latter.

It was weird again, after the concert, to be walking amid the kilted throngs & the miniskirted girls with thongs in Sauchiehall St. It was such a sharp contrast to where we had been during the previous 90 minutes (another fitba reference!).It was a very enjoyable affair & thanks to the Happy Highlanders for letting us know about the event.

Son Nos. 1 & 2


This Was Our Reaction to the Fact That Celtic Were in The Same Group as Man Utd for the Euro Championship

If the Profile Fits, Wear It

Thinking of visiting friends on Scotland in miniature: Arran, over the September weekend. I hope we will be the only’ Weegies’ on the Isle. Just thinking how silly it is to remake the ‘Wicker Man’ one of my favourite films in the USA. Isnt that silly, it’s like making an American version of ‘Get Carter’! Oh, wait a minute, someone did!

Anyway the media has created mass hysteria. Last week some swarthy gents were taken off the Arran ferry. Were they speaking Arabic? No that was on a flight from Dubai to Manchester. I spoke to 2 students, who will be flying back from Dubai to Manchester to start University & there is a high chance they may speak Arabic on that flight. I should have warned them, I was talking to them in Arabic last week at the college. I will probably see then next in an orange jumpsuit on TV from Guantanmo Bay.

Good job they don’t check passports on the Arran Ferry. Mine would give even the slowest passport – official, much food for thought: Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. If he looked closely at the Saudi cities & areas visited (assuming he could read Arabic), it would be orange jumpsuit for yours truly.

I hope they don’t ask me about my time working in prison, where I used to deliver books & tapes & talk in Arabic to Algerian prisoners, picked up during the last wave of mass hysteria.

I am reminded of the time I was held up by tanks in Greece during the Generals revolution or the long journey across the desert during the first Gulf War, or being arrested in Kabul for playing cards or the time I had to reverse the motor at 90 mph as 2 Bedouins pulled guns on each other & I had to get my wife & boys safe. Being a librarian does have some excitement!

I don’t want to harp on again about if we had our own country, we wouldn’t have all those enemies that Labour’s foreign policy has created.

‘Joy to the world was a beautiful girl, but to me joy meant only sorrow’. This Nilsson song keeps going around in my head from Nilsson - ‘Son of Schmilsson’ maybe it’s because Joy from the library has taken a few much needed days off. Enjoy.

'Time Keeps Slipping into the Future’.

Wearing long black Civil Defence wartime greatcoats & carrying black umbrellas with steel points that could double as weapons (a la John Steed in ‘The Avengers’ or Alex in ‘Clockwork Orange’, that we saw before it got banned in cinemas).

Listening to MC5 ‘Kick out the Jams’: our first exposure to what a live concert should sound like on vinyl & Procul Harum’s ‘Salty Dog’ & the Doors first 2 lps on Grundig 4-track open reel recorders: the i-pod of its day. Our whole life lay before us unmapped. We could do anything go anywhere & some of us did…. With bells on!

There was a constant soundtrack to our lives & various places we woke up in. Hearing the songs immediately triggers memories of places & happy times. Weekends at Noblestone, Bonhill listening to Sly & Family Stone: Belmont St, Glasgow & Nilsson ‘Son of Schmilsson’ & ‘The Point’ & the Beach Boys ‘Holland’. Round the corner on Maryhill Road at the Pacetta’s place with the endless Grateful Dead lps. My bit under the Grosvenor with the Kevin Ayers, Roy Harper & Soft Machine & early morning visitors you didn’t expect.

Muswell Hill, London & Steely Dan in the back garden on those endless summer days. St Georges Hospital lying in bed with hep b & Mahdu robbing me tapes & books & Santana’s ‘Caravanserai’ always playing. Mahdu not named Mahdu then, but struggling to keep it together disappearing for hours in the toilet in a worse state than I was & he came to visit me. Chasing him out of his squat in Maida Vale. This was the second time I chased him out of London & home for his health.

What a time we had & then you wake up one morning & look in the mirror & see a fat, grey haired old man & you think where did the time go? This time last year we went to Mull & Iona for the first time. It seems like it was only a couple of months ago, but it was a year ago. ‘Time Keeps Slipping into the Future’.

Librarians Love Lists


As summer slips away, I have fond memories, to keep me going over winter, of lying in my hammock listening to this Radio 1 'One World' special on the 'new folk' movement


Monday 5 JuneFolk Tales presented by Huw Stephens


01.00 Devendra Banhart - 'Hey Mama Wolf'
Vashti Bunyan Vashti Bunyan - 'Diamond Day'
Vashti Bunyan - 'Feet of Clay' (In session at Maida Vale)
Devendra Banhart & Vashti Bunyan - 'Rejoicing in the Hands'
Joanna Newsom - 'Bridges & Balloons'
David Berman from the Silver Jews Silver Jews - 'Room Games & Diamond Rain'
Nils Okland - 'Biberslatt'
Jolie Holland Daniel Johnston - 'Walking the Cow'
Jolie Holland - 'Ghostly Girl'
Tom Waits Tom Waits - 'How's It Going to End'
Vetiver - 'Amerilie '
Microphones - 'The Glow '
Linda Perhacs Linda Perhacs - 'Parallelograms' (1st play in the world)
Sierra Cassady from Coco Rosie Coco Rosie - 'Noah's Ark'
Bonnie Prince Billy - 'Careless Love'

02.00 Jana Hunter Jana Hunter - 'Crystal Lariat'
Alison Cotton from Left Outsides
Left Outsides - 'Leaving the Frozen Butterflies Behind'
Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips - 'Evil Will Prevail'
Allison Brice from The Eighteenth Day of May
The Eighteenth Day of May - 'Cold Early Morning'
Josephine Foster - 'Who Will Feel Bitter At The Day's End?'
Adem Adem - 'Statued'
Adem mix :
Scatter - 'My Son David'
Tim Buckley - 'Song for the Siren'
Shirley Collins - 'Dabbling the Dew'
King Creosote - 'Circle of My Demise'
Serafina - 'Ground in a Council Flat'

Getting Old

Am I embarrassed or proud that the Stones are still strutting their stuff in their 60s? Personally, I believe they should have folded after their best album: ‘Their Satanic Majesties’ an album I still love deeply to this day.

However as Loudon Wainwright approaches 60 this month, we can see he is still producing great material. His offspring are doing ok, too. Reminds me of Blood, Sweat & Tears – ‘Child is the Father to the Man’. If anything he is improving with age. Yesterday, I met a lifelong friend who has only 1 year to live, he is only a year older than me & we were constant companions during those heady days of the late 60s/ early 70s. I am still in shock.

I have lost so many friends over the years, but it is important to focus on the new friends you make over this time.

These last few days have been strange. I have taken ages to write this as we have been so incredibly busy at work. I have worked in difficult situations before, e.g. while Saddam was bombing my library with Scud missiles & I have upset double murderers during my working days within libraries, but nothing can scare me like the wrath of Librarians who have days & days of solid data input into a catalogue, that should have appeared automatically.I can feel the death threats mounting. However, I am optimistic & hopeful that the dark days are behind us & we can move on.

Also I am trying to finish work in the garden between heavy showers. Its frustrating: charging up the drill only to find it impossible to get out due to the torri tential rain.

If 6 was 9: everybody’s dying: Arthur Lee. Should have went to see him over the past 2 years, when he was touring. Thought he would go on forever like all my companions from childhood. He has left a great body of work, mind you for the past week, I don’t think I have played any music after 1967: been listening to the Seeds, Standells, Electric Prunes, Chocolate Watch Band, Strawberry Alarm Clock & my current favourite: Southwest F.O.B. – ‘Smell of Incense’. I don’t know much about the latter, except that I love it. Am I getting so old that I am listening to this old music or is it because it sounds so fresh today?

Anyway, I found another corner of the world to ‘hang out’. This is where you can find other like minded oddities like Professor Roger Ruskin Spear ex- Bonzo Dogs (I actually saw him live in Greens Playhouse a hundred years ago!). It has taken me forever to discover the ‘Freak Zone’ on bbc radio 6. I cannot remember (old age) when it broadcasts in ‘real time’ (whatever that is) I will post the website address later. Looking at the recent playlists this is my music collection & this is what I would play in a 3 hour slot.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/freakzone/

They Did It To Jesus, They Do It To the Lebanese & They Are Doing It to Us Too

The Herald
MARTIN WILLIAMS
August 07 2006

TWO Scottish human rights activists were injured after being hit by a plastic bullet and debris from a stun grenade fired by the Israeli army during a demonstration on the West Bank.
Margaret , 52, suffered severe bruising after being struck in the back by a plastic bullet while she was marching with hundreds of people in the village of Billin in memory of more than 1000 people who have been killed in Gaza and Lebanon.

She said that she and her husband, John, were deliberately targeted.
John, 53, with whom she formed the Glasgow Palestinian Human Rights Campaign, suffered facial injuries after a stun grenade exploded at his feet, causing him to be deafened in one ear.
These grenades create a noise of up to 160 decibels and are used in crowd control.
The couple are in the area to provide humanitarian aid to children and teenagers in refugee camps in Palestine.

They raise money from their home in Bishopbriggs and travel to Palestine three to four times each year to deliver toys.
They also work to raise public awareness about the human rights situation in the West Bank and Gaza.

Mr and Mrs Pacetta said they had put up a poster in the West Bank village bearing the message, "Stop the Bombing of Lebanon and Gaza – Over 1000 Dead", and were walking away when the army began firing tear gas canisters, concussion grenades and potentially lethal rubber coated bullets.

Speaking from the West Bank, Mrs P, a former bank secretary, said she was struck as she and her husband were heading back to their flat.
"We turned our backs and as we walked away the Israeli army just started firing on us. We were deliberately targeted and they fired at our backs. My husband was holding his face and as some of the Palestinians were asking if he was okay and I felt this thud at my back. It was extremely painful.

"I knew it was a bullet because I could hear them. I was just hoping it was not real bullets. The fact we were walking away and they were still firing was so awful.
"We were definitely and deliberately targeted as internationals. This is a clear violation of human rights and international law."
Her husband said there was "no justification" for the army response.
"If you are in a peaceful demonstration with Israeli peace activists and people from all over the world, you would expect it was safe to go there. You don't expect what they call a civilised army to open fire at peaceful, non-violent demonstrators who are walking away.

"I can understand if we were throwing rocks or something, but all we did was put a poster up and walk away and they started to fire at us."

Last Great Wilderness

Managed to catch up with this movie on tv this weekend. I have been looking for it since I knew the Pastels had done the soundtrack. I had heard most of the music already. I had no concept of a plot but then this was not a problem, as I don’t think that the director had one either.

It meandered through the most beautiful country in the world at its harshest, but some would say most picturesque, time. If anyone knows what the film was about, please send a comment.

David Hayman had a typical menacing role, but eventually he had to wear a dress as did Bill Wells. This may be difficult to imagine, it was odd to see. Good to see the Pastels in a movie. Not many librarians make it to the big screen. I have a distant memory of being an extra in a Bollywood epic during the early 70s, but this may have been a hallucination, they were strange days indeed.

By the way apart from continuously playing Koop' s Waltz for Koop cd, I have been on a sort of mahavishnu trip. I tell you 'Inner Mountain Flame' followed by ' Between Nothingness & Eternity' helps blow the cobwebs away as I type this @ 6.30 a.m Saturday.

Can Blue Men Sign the Whites



Recent BBC 4 documentaries reminded me of how great the Bonzo Dogs really were. I have almost worn out vinyl copies of ‘Donut in Granny’s Greenhouse’, ‘Keynsham’ & ‘Gorilla’.

The title of this post was their tongue – in - cheek response to the 1960s UK blues boom.

Liverpool Scene is another of my favourite bands of this period & they also satirised this movement with, ‘I’ve got thos Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, don’t go back, John Mayall, cant fail, blues’. I have lucid memories of that time & listening back to those albums I am amazed, how much they have stood the test of time & how fresh they sound. Other prime examples, would be Savoy Brown, whose song ‘Bamboo Grove’ was in my cd player they other day & lets not forget the Groundhogs, whose first lp was ‘Blues Obituary’ & who’s lead guitarist, Tony (T.S.) Mc Phee appeared on many of Mike Vernon’s Blue Horizon labels compilation. The original Fleetwood Mac & Chicken Shack did the same. Incidently, there has been a whole raft of these Blue Horizon albums available for download on other blogs.

It is difficult now to imagine how big a movement this was & how great an impact it had on other styles of music, e.g. jazz & folk bands…e.g. Alexis Korner (R.I.P.), John Mayall & Graham Bond. The members of these latter groups were to go on & push the boundaries with the next stage of development: psychedelia or progressive music as we used to call it back in the day…………e.g. Cream, Ten Years After, Family, Edgar Broughton Band, Pretty Things, Traffic, Trees, Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, Occasional Word….etc. Many of these bands began by playing R & B, but soon they got caught up in the lifestyle & tripped the light fantastic. Some went out there too far & never came back………..Syd Barrett (R.I.P.), Graham Bond….etc..

For me at this stage of my life, I am constantly re-discovering wonderful sounds from that period………..at the moment it is Comus………….superb, fresh, exciting………when they came out they were lost amid so much terrific material………..now that I am getting a chance to hear them…………the wait was well worthwhile……..

DRONE TO DRIFT

Note to self: must listen to more Scott Walker & David Sylvian. Although in truth, I have listened to both recently. I finally got Scott's 'Climate of the Hunter' on cd & his new album 'Drift'.

However what I have really been listening to & enjoying is Nine Horses (David Sylvian) song 'The Librarian' for two very obvious reasons. Here is the superb lyrics:


The Librarian


Keep you head down Keep you head down While they’re firing low You’re too young child To know the difference
Oh my pretty Oh my sweet girl It’s a marvelous place They put weights down In your coat tails to burn you out
Lest you fly Lest you take off And show whomever what’s what. It’s one outrageous lie after another
Turn their lights out Change the channel Before we lose the heart To fight against belief in what they’re saying
There’s a hotel With a dark room At the end of a corridor I will meet you To the strains of Allah
We will lie back On a pillow of the whitest snow And the silence we were promised Will engulf us

Lay your head down Keep your head down While they’re firing low You’re too young child You’re too young child
We will wake up From the dreams that bury us We will tunnel our way out By moonlight
From the dark room To the white streets and the snow banks We’ll invest in one another’s future
Oh my pretty Oh my sweet girl It’s a marvelous place She designed it With escape routes For you and me
So to the library With your new card Grab your favorite books Look for blueprintsTo the strains of Allah Here we go….
Benevolence is in back Of everyplace you look It’s not a monstrous face she is hiding
If I see her I will tell you You’ll come quickly If you see her Don’t hesitate just go
But til then

Keep your head down Keep your head down While they’re firing low You’re too young child You’re too young child
You’re too young child Here we go…

Some People Are Hoping to Challenge Terrible Warcrimes

Having a Laugh


Clearing out the loft, I came across this old photo of Keith & I in our swimming pool in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia................