This is not exactly a Christmas track, but Hallam and I have not released anything for a while. We just finished this and we were each struck with the idea of making it a demo track.
This features not only the usual combination of my words with Hallam's wonderful voice and music, but also my own voice, speaking the part of the interstellar traveller.
A sonnet on the subject of: "quit", "exit", "farewell", "give up", "depart", "parting", "drop out", "get out", "go out", "go away", "leave behind", "throw in", "chuck up the sponge", "leave of absence", "leave-taking", "go forth", "throw in the towel"...
They say, they say, they say you've gone away
and that there's nothing I can do or tell
to change the fact of absence. I shall not play
this game by other people's rules, not dwell
upon impossibility. There must
be something, somehow that a man can do
and I'm the one to do this. I need to trust
in me; to find what route your 'plane takes through
the travails of whateverness. I shall pin
a patch to physics to let me fold the sky;
I'll bowl a curve-ball; find the true McGuffin;
whatever is the exit strategy
to let me say exit's not happening.
Please take my call—I can't see why you'd leave.
First time I've used "wang" or "tits" in a poem, but then your typical creation myth is going to get a bit earthy...
The mythical creation myth
They say they say the universe begins
in fire, of all things;
massive growth in white hot
techno-commercial foment or else
some moment
of some old godhead cutting off some other
old
god’s bits. The sky-father’s wang. The earth-mother’s
tits.
The separation of the light and dark, water
and land, the
casual combining of whatever
elements might come to hand into
first life.
First life, first light, first thought… first criticism
the
creation-creator held up for inspection
and to account. Is this
the only way
the World can be? Is there enough infinity
or
family values? Is the climate wrong
in late September? Has the
climate model
come undone, dropping her pointer and spilling one
boob
in front of the green-screen projection
of the home counties. What country is our home
in the world
we less than intentionally create.
Do not pause at the gate but
hit the commuter train
on time. Newspaper tucked firmly
beneath
your Sure for men armpit
and daily in
it
the word-smiths push their sempiternal spin
there is such
detail still needs
construction for
the creation story that never
ends.
Or rather Hallam London, my musical collaborator, is releasing our song To the Sky, which we dedicate to David Bowie because, as often the case, we didn't realise quite what we had until it was gone.
As usual Hallam wrote the music and I provided the lyrics. He also got other friends and professionals to contribute, see the bandcamp page for full credits...
Anyway, please enjoy the song and if you feel inspired to contribute a small sum to this enterprise, please buy it (for as little as 1€; for American friends 1€ is roughly $1.15 at today's prices...)
Please also share this song promiscuously. You remember how Andy Warhol promised everybody 15 minutes of fame in the future? Well it's been the future for over 15 years now and my fame still hasn't arrived...
You haven't heard much from me about my on-going collaboration with German Rock Musician Hallam London. Partly this has been because we had a bit of a slow period (as documented here) and partly it has been because I've been busy changing my job, delivering the kid to/from University, saving the World from killer rhubarb (don't ask) etc etc.
Also another reason is I've been busy with the songs themselves. Hallam and I just had an amazing six week burst of creativity during which we finished five songs. (For a given value of finished, music production goes through many, many stages such as arrangement, performance, production, mixing etc etc...)
However, it is not of these songs that I wish to speak.
In January this year, David Bowie died. Hallam and I were just starting a new song when we heard the news. We had some cause for introspection. We'd never discussed Bowie, but as you can imagine he was a formative influence for us both. We thought about doing some sort of song as a tribute, and then we had to wrestle with the question of how hubristic that was. After some soul searching, we realised that all of our music comes from a very Bowie place anyway: it's all about gender and sanity and slices of everyday or unusual lives; we're also frequently a bit SciFi; often trying to push some envelope or other; and as every song is very different, I think we're reinventing ourselves even faster than he did!
So anyway, we got on with the song. Unusually we reversed of our usual way of working. Hallam recorded the musical idea first, and I analysed the metrical structure of his "na naaa nah" place-holder lyrics. Then I wrote a prototype chorus.
So far so good, but we had to decide what the song was about, and we kept cycling back to Bowie-like (Bowiesque? Bowiesian?) ideas. In the end we were drawn strongly to the ideas in Major Tom and Space Oddity—and who doesn't want a space launch in the middle their song?—and a love story, obviously...
And now it's finished. It's partly a Bowie tribute, but obviously also has to stand as a song on its own. Hallam has gone beyond the mere "teaser" quality of our previous releases with this one. He's hired a great drummer, and an engineer to do the mixing and production. He's currently finalising the artwork.
It's called To the Sky, and next week Hallam will release it as a single!
Yes, you do have to wait until then... but in the meantime here's the play-list with our previous two teasers Anger Bob and Identity...
And BONUS! a recording of The rain in certain car parks (yes I did call a song that). This live recording isn't polished as Hallam's studio recordings, but it does have a live band and audience...
In about a week Hallam London will be ready to release the next teaser track from his Sheffield Album (working title) for which I have been writing lyrics for about the last ten months.
This is our ninth song and hot off the press. Add that to the two songs Hallam had already written and this means we are now past halfway to our target of eighteen. Having that many available will mean there's a plenty of choice when it comes time to pick the final selection to go into the album.
Will this one be on the album? This is a question about the future. The future is unknowable: you should know that. However at the moment this is definitely one of our favourites.
As a free sample and pre-publicity for the release, you will find below both the lyrics (these are the final version lyrics, exactly as sung) and also a link to me reading them (slightly shortened at the end, because twelve repeats are hard to get away with if you don't have musical support).
This is once again, Rock Music Description Language, so it's verses to the left, chorus in the middle, break on the right. Anger Bob is nothing like our previous teaser release Identity, and I'd be prepared to wager a small sum that it's nothing like you'll imagine from just the words.
If you can only hear the music, that makes all the difference.
Anger Bob
Anger Bob marooned in morning traffic.
Anger Bob shouts something at the cars.
Anger Bob perched high on night-time rooftops
shouts irate manifestos at the stars.
Anger Bob eats angrily from paper bags.
Anger Bob beats fists against the glass.
Anger Bob's a fixture in the city
as permanent as dead and dusty grass.
Did you wish to leave a message?
In your own words, please describe your early days
—please take a seat.
Complete all forms in Biro please;
list every item that you need.
Do not expect to ever leave the maze...
Anger Bob distrusts his own reflection.
Anger Bob slides nervously past shops.
Anger bob means something to commuters,
but this is not to say they'd like to swap.
Did you wish to leave a message?
In your own words, please describe your early days
—please take a seat.
Complete all forms in Biro please;
list every item that you need.
Do not expect to ever leave the maze...
A patron saint for modern time,
I see his only states of mind
are anger, fury, irritation, rage.
Did you once live ordinary days?
Did you wish to leave a message?
In your own words, please describe your early days
—please take a seat.
Complete all forms in Biro please;
list every item that you need.
Do not expect to ever leave the maze...
Don't expect, don't expect, don't expect to ever...
Don't expect, don't expect, don't expect to ever...
Don't expect, don't expect, don't expect to ever...
Don't expect to ever leave the maze...
Don't expect, don't expect, don't expect to ever...
Don't expect, don't expect, don't expect to ever...
Don't expect, don't expect, don't expect to ever...
Hallam London and I have been working on songs for his next album, working title: The Sheffield Album.
I'm excited to announce that he's now released one of these as a demo track!
This song is Identity. It's about all the miscellaneous bits and bobs of different personalities that we carry around with us, and the problems we might have making our different selves get along with the other people in our lives.
Hallam currently has it on his front page, in the link above. However he'll change that when even more exciting news comes along, so here is the SoundCloud page.
Identity
She's taken my imaginary friend
and I'm upset I think I think.
Things get more complex, it's a trend
I hope that I can grasp before I sink.
He's left me for my spirit guide
I now doubt things I know I know
are real. Keep calm. I won't hide
my disappointment, everybody goes...
How can he leave
with the boy who isn't here?
How can he love the girl who can't exist
in this or any other world?
He's run off with two characters I wrote
short stories for so long so long
ago. I think one left me notes
in margins but I may be wrong
and never worked them out anyway.
My other other self has gone
a partial person ought to stay
forever--so I thought, turns out I'm wrong...
How can she leave
with the boy who isn't here?
How can she love the girl who can't exist
in this or any other world?
Where have they done? Where am I now?
There is so little of me left to show
and once I would have fought
but these days I am caught...
There are more people here than you and me,
though none agree what's real is real.
There should be someone I can be
to keep the gang together. Seal
all the doors and count my shadows.
There's more and more of them abscond.
I need to be the one who's quite
certain where his fragments are tonight...
