Water of Europe
One of 12 new English chansons and three covers on this 1999 solo album.
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Des de Moor
voices, acoustic guitars
Stanley Adler
bass guitar, backing voice
Russell Churney
keyboards
John Piper
drumkit
A rock song, a form I was encouraged to look at again by Sean O'Hagen of the High Llamas. It was partly inspired by a piece in LM magazine about why electors on the Isle of Dogs in east London had returned a far-right BNP candidate to their local council. At the time I could look out of my tower block window across the river towards the Island and see "skyscapes scraped by builders' cranes" in abundance. "Distant smoke trails in the sun" is an image borrowed from the first novel by Ivor Gould, father of my former collaborator Morris.
That criss and cross in far terrains
To damp and overflowing drains
And skyscapes scraped by builders' cranes.
Joey's cramped contractor's terms
That force his crawl among the worms
Create a breeding ground for germs:
Opinions that the world confirms.
He rides as the circle lies
In planes describing the horizon.
Now Joey's quite a gentle bloke
But ugly times make ugly folk.
Those flowers should flood from Joey's brain:
They're blocked as surely as his drain.
The clots of rot clog up each bend,
The queues for casualty don't end,
You can't believe in your MP--
Now Joey's voting BNP.
He rides as the circle lies,
Hides in the circle's lies,
Dies with the far horizon
Far beyond his eyes.
Here is a beast that's pacing in a pen
At the edge of a feast for rather richer men...
Now Joey knows society's
Just individuals, families,
A world of poor pathetic forces
Struggling for scarce resources.
In Joey's dreams the trains still run
To distant smoke-trails in the sun
But dreams are dreams, and when they're done
The waking nightmare's just begun.
Written: Deptford, London, April 1994
Words |
Music |
© Copyright Des de Moor 1999
From the album Water of Europe (see left).
All rights reserved. No material on these pages can be reproduced in whole or in part in any form, except for short passages for the purpose of quotation or review, without prior written permission of the copyright owner.
More lyrics |
Heart of a Heartless World
To Those Born After (Bertolt Brecht; Hanns Eisler)
Joey's Dreams
Margins
Water of Europe
Big Sister
Sleaze City
Sharp Contradictions
Ordinary Joe (Andrew Brooks/Michael Hodges)
My Father Said (Jacques Brel)
Grandmother was a Hero
Avocado
Last Orders Please
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