Song of the Day

Four songs today - in keeping with my theme, I couldn't have one without the others 

These songs have been on a special playlist on my ipod for awhile now, and were brought back to mind by photos I saw today of the rows upon rows of war graves in just one cemetery in France, from WWI. There was a picture of a gravestone on one of the sites, just showing the epitaph at the bottom - 'Till we meet again Father'. These songs just highlight for me the pain and loss of all wars and battles. 

The first, a song by Bruce Watson - 'Trenches'

There are trenches in the hills by Sarajevo

Where soldiers hunch against the wind and snow

Their eyes, their guns sparkle in the red glow

Of the houses burning in the town below

Their hearts are filled with pride

Their minds are filled with hate

God is on their side

They fight for glory, land and state

There's a trench in a field by Sarajevo

Where a mother lays her precious child to rest

He was looking for his father from the window

When a sniper's bullet took him in the breast

She mouths a silent prayer

She shivers in the frost

The countryside is bare

There's no wood for a cross

There are trenches that will rend the hearts forever

Of the women raped in anger and disdain

By the soldiers, who in peaceful times could never

Have believed they'd be so eager to cause pain

When purity is all

For women and for race

To the victor goes the spoils

To the victim sheer disgrace

 

There are trenches between people in the Balkans

Of ethnic pride and history's tie to land

But wherever hearts are cold and lives are broken

We all must see the blood on our own hands

From our shanty towns of shame

To the famine's cruel decay

Between us and them

We build trenches every day

Trenches every day

His website is: http://www.geocities.com/brucewatson1/

The second is Fred Smith's 'Kusi & You'

When Kusi and you were leaving for Bougainville

Part of the 2nd Battalion from Lay

I felt so proud, my husband the soldier

Working for peace in a land far away

I didn't understand about the Pangoona thing

Who's Francis Ona, what's BRA?

But I understood that you are a soldier

As you marched like a soldier from the barracks that day

I said I love you now

More than I ever did

Wish you weren't leaving, I wish you could stay

But I understand that you are a soldier

You are a soldier, you fight for your pay

When I got your first call, you'd made it to Buka

Were heading down south on a chopper that day

Four weeks then past, til you called me from Aranwa

Something had happened, you seemed so far away

And so I said 'Hey what you doing'

And you got all secretive

Government work, you said it's classified

Well let the Government know

It's your woman you're speaking with

Does the Government know of the nights I have cried

I'll bet I love you now

More than I ever did

I need you now, more than I could ever say

And I don't understand

Just what you're doing there

But you are a soldier, you fight for your pay

And the day that you left, was the first of December

Said you'd be home by the first of July

But I had to wait til the third of October

Just for this letter, it says that you died

It tells me you fell in the BRA ambush

Fought til the end, til you ran out of rounds

But Kusi just told me, that wasn't what happened

He said one of their men turned your claymores around

And I need to know

There was some better reason

Need to now, that it wasn't in vain

But the Moresby politicians

Seem to change every season 

This hole in my heart now, seems to remain

Because I love you now

More than I ever did

Need you now, more than I could ever say

I need to know

There was some better reason

Than you are a soldier, who died for his pay

Fred wrote this during his time in Bougainville working for DFAT, singing songs in Pidgin 

you can listen to a little at http://payplay.fm/iaincs (it's well worth listening to the snippets of his other songs)

The third - 'Were You There?' by Martin Pearson & the MP3

Were you there in Washington

When the eagle spread his claws?

Sat down with the lion-heart

To flout their own damn laws

Were you when the order came

Aboard an east-bound transport plane?

Where Jordy prayed to Jesus

To the Jesus he knows well

Who's words of peace will rule the Earth

When Allah's blown to hell

Were you there in Baghdad

When the bombs lit up the sky?

Did your spirit turn away

When you saw that child die?

Did you hear her mother cry

The self same tears as you and I?

And the bombers pray to Allah

And Allah knows them well

And Allah's words will rule the Earth

When Jordy's blown to hell

Were you there in Canberra

When the phone calls came?

Calling obligations in

Without a trace of shame

And another long sad day goes by

Too many tears we've yet to cry

And we pray to Gods and Saviours

Oh but surely we can tell

Their words will ring, in an empty world

When we're all blown to hell

and the final song, Martin Pearson & the MP3's version of 'Masters of War'

Ah you masters of war

You have built all the bombs

You have built the death planes

You've built all the guns

You hide walls 

And you hide behind desks

I just want you to know 

That I've seen through your masks

You've never done nothing

But build to destroy

You play with my world 

Like it's your little toy

You put a gun in my hand 

And you hide from my eyes

Then you turn and run faster 

When hard bullets fly

Like Judas of old

You lie and deceive

Well war can be won

You want us to believe

But I've seen through your eyes

And I've seen through your brain

Like I see through the water 

That run downs my drain

You fasten the triggers

For others to fire

Then you sit back and watch

As the death count gets higher

For threatening my babies 

Unborn and unnamed

You aint worth the blood 

That runs in your veins

And I hope that you die 

And your death will come soon

I will march by your casket 

In the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while they lay you 

Down on your deathbed

Then I'll stand by your grave 

'Til I'm sure that you're dead

(Harmonica solo)

Let me ask you one question 

Is your money that good?

Will it buy you redemption? 

Did you think that it would?

I think you might find 

When death takes it's toll

All the money you've made 

Won't buy back your soul

Ah you masters of war 

You have built all the bombs

You have built the death planes 

You've built all the guns

You hide behind walls 

You hide behind desks

I just want you to know 

That I've seen through your masks

All you masters of war, masters of war

phew.... it feels good to get that one off my chest...

You can check out Martin at www.7thdimension.com.au/index.cfm?artist_details=4

I'll put some more related links up when I can be bothered finding them, but for now, reflect and enjoy

Song of the Day Catch-Up

I missed two days, so I'll put up 3 songs today to make up for it :)

Thursday - 'The Queen and the Soldier' by Liz Frencham and Martin Pearson

The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door

He said, "I am not fighting for you anymore"

The queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before

And slowly she let him inside

He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill

And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill

But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will

Only first I am asking you why"

Down the long narrow hall he was led

Into her rooms with her tapestries red

And she never once took the crown from her head

She asked him there to sit down

He said "I see you know, you are so very young

But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won

And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun

And now will you tell me why?"

The young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye

She said, "You won't understand, and you may as well not try"

But her face was a child's, and he thought she would cry

But she closed herself up like a fan

And she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread

It cuts me inside, and often I've bled"

And he placed his hand down on top of her head

And he bowed her down to the ground

"Tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel

As you are living here alone, and you are never revealed

But I won't march again on your battlefield"

And he took her to the window to see

And the sun, it was gold, thought the sky it was grey

And she wanted more than she ever could say

But she knew how it frightened her, and she turned away

And would not look at his face again

And he said, "I want to live as an honest man

To get all I deserve and to give all I can

And to love a young woman who I don't understand

Your Highness, your ways are very strange"

But the crown it had fallen, and she thought she would break

And she stood there, ashamed of the the way her heart ached

She took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait

She would only be a moment inside

Out in the distance her order was heard

And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word

And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred

The battle continued on.

This song makes me want to cry, it's so beautiful. These two amazing musicians have spectacularly beautiful voices in their own rights, and combined, it makes for an emotional chord-striking song. The bass is awesome too :) 

It was originally written and performed by Suzanne Vega, but Liz and Martin recorded it on Liz's new album of duets, 'You & Me Vol. 1'.

check out her website at www.lizfrencham.com    she is my idol.

Friday - 'Le Tic-Tac du Moulin Et Les Malins Plaisirs' by the amazing Genticorum

(I can't figure out how to put the different characters in, so I apologise that the french accents and other cool grammatical things will not be appearing here tonight. Plus the layout of this song is pretty funky, there's a lot of call-and-response and repeating, so I'm just going to write it as it appears in the booklet)

C'etait un jour de fete, comme si c'etait demain

J'ai rencontre ma mie, qui dormait dans un coin

N'approchez pas, fillettes, du tic-tac du moulin

J'ai rencontre ma mie, qui dormait dans un coin

J'lui ai dit : chere mignonne, tu me r'connais-tu bien

Ah oui, mon beau galant, nous etions au moulin

Je mangeais d'la sucisse, un p'tit verre a la main

Nous avions arrose a grands renforts de vin

Le tonneau, la barrique, nous ne les craignions point

On en fut bien malade quand arriva matin

A fallu aler qu'ri, aller qu'ri le medecin

L'bonhomme dans sa visite, m'a interdit le vin

Mais d'aller voir les filles, il me l'interdit point

D'aller te voir, mignonne, bien calee dans le grain

As it says in the CD booklet,

"In this particular song, a young man finds himself feeling ill after a night with a few bottles of wine and his favourite companion. The doctor tells him to give up drinking for his health, but thankfully he isn't so strict when it comes to women. The song is followed by a tune in 3/4 to accompany the dance of your choice, with or without undergarments."

Unfortunately I missed out on Genticorum's show at the Harp in Tempe on Friday night as I was watching Cloudstreet in Hornsby, but I listen to this song on repeat through much of Friday, so in a way it kind of made up for it (not really, but I keep telling myself that so I don't get too depressed). My friends all laughed at me when I told them I was in love with an overweight, French-Canadian fiddle player, but it's true.... their music is fantastic (my school friends are notorious non-fans of folk music, but I'm working on their conversions all the time). Haha I'm pretty proud of myself coz I've learnt some of the lyrics. 

Genticorum are a band from Montreal, who play traditional Quebecoise music.

you can listen to a snippet at www.genticorum.com/mp3/le_tic-tac_du_moulin.mp3

check them out at www.genticorum.com

do it... *shakes fist menacingly*

Saturday - John Thompson's 'Ave'

And we sang "Ave Maria"

And they told us what the words were

A homage to a lady, the purest of them all

The mother of the Christ-child

A woman of great beauty

The one who bore the son who was the saviour of us all

And we sang "Ave Maria"

And the taught us what the words were

The men in robes who loved no woman

But gave their lives to God

They taught us with their firm words

They taught us with their firm hands

And we wondered on the love of Mary, mother of the child

And we sang "Ave Maria"

We grew to know what all the words were

The words of love and cruelty

Of discipline and stone

They taught us all the things we mustn't do

And all the things we mustn't dream of

But I saw the love they spoke of

Shining through their lies

And we sang "Ave Maria"

But we forgot what all the words were

The message of a mother

Who'd touched the hand of God

The story of her sacrifice

To give her life up for another

And the son she bore so painfully

Who gave his life for love

And we sang "Ave Maria"

And we sang,

"Ave Maria, gratia plena

Dominus tectum, Ave Maria.

Benedictatu, benedictatu

In mulieribus

Et benedictus, fructis ventris tui, Jesu.

Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis

Sanct Maria, ora, ora pro nobis."

John wrote this song about the time he spent as a choir boy at a cathedral in Brisbane. He sung it at a request from me on Friday night.... I thought I had died and gone to heaven. His voice is indescribably beautiful, words do not do it justice. You can check it out yourself at www.neverthetwain.com/sounds/Live%20at%20the%20Pod/Ave.mp3

and Cloudstreet's website is www.cloudstreet.org - John and Nicole sing some great harmonies