25/07/14

In correspondence with Jim Igoe re how he was coming along re Jamie's song, he advised he's "written a new middle eight"...

Given that Jim is off to Wickerman this weekend and there is then no opportunity to get together and for me to familiarise myself with this new section, the proposed collaboration is no longer possible...

Which is disappointing but not the end of the world...

I set about a new task of writing my first song in over two years, to be themed re World War I and, possibly, performed at The Listening Room on Sunday night...

The first part of the lyric concerned the wartime experiences of the (half-German) war poet and writer Robert Graves, author of two books of which most people are aware, his 1929 autobiography, "Goodbye to All That"...

..and "I, Claudius"...

His poetry and prose provide a good description of the terror and madness of his wartime experiences...

Wounded in 1916 at The Battle of the Somme by shrapnel piercing his lung, he was left for dead and indeed pronounced so by his surgeon in the field, leading his commanding officer to advise his parents by telegram of his demise...

Graves however recovered and ended up reading of his own death in The Times, at which point he contacted his family to let them know he was still alive...

Racked with guilt about being assigned to the home front, he somehow managed to get back to the Continent, only to have his surgeon threaten him with Court Marshall if he did not leave...

Graves returned to England and trained troops, while maintaining contact with his poet friends behind the lines...

He saved Siegried Sasson from court martial after Sassoon published an antiwar manifesto - his "Soldiers Declaration" of 1917...

Graves insisted that, like him, Sassoon must have been suffering from shell-shock and required medical treatment - Mr S was subsequently treated for mental illness - during which time he was introduced to Wilfred Owen...

Unlike many of their First World War contemporaries (Owen was killed in 1918), Sassoon and Graves lived on, Sassoon until 1967 and Graves till 1985...

On 11 November 1985, Sassoon, Graves and Owen were among sixteen Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner...

The inscription on the stone, "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity." was written by Owen. Graves was the only one of the poets still alive at the time and attended the ceremony...

He died less than a month later...

Yesterday would have been his 119th birthday...

The second part of the lyric was based on the themes from Graves' poem "Not Dead"...

Not Dead
Robert Graves, 1895 - 1985

Walking through trees to cool my heat and pain,
I know that David’s with me here again.
All that is simple, happy, strong, he is.
Caressingly I stroke
Rough bark of the friendly oak.
A brook goes bubbling by: the voice is his.
Turf burns with pleasant smoke;
I laugh at chaffinch and at primroses.
All that is simple, happy, strong, he is.
Over the whole wood in a little while
Breaks his slow smile.

It's all set to an atypically jaunty (for CBQ) tune - which could, of course, be played at the usual funereal pace...

Of course, the Exec Producer, on third listening, was able to point out that the chorus is a virtual rewrite of the chorus from "Everything Will Be Alright" from "Starlightnight"...

Back to the drawing board...

26/70/14

Some early morning re-writing of the Robert Graves song following the Exec Producer's observation that the chorus was a rewrite of a previous CBQ chorus...

Success...

27/07/14

a quick turnaround at home before heading to the Royal Mile for the Listening Room's war themed night of song...
All in all, there were seven performers and Jim Igoe gave a great rendition of Jamie's "King's Country", complete with Jim's new middle eight, which fitted in very nicely indeed...

It was hard to hear, especially as this was the last place we'd had a night out with Jamie, when we were arranging the ill fated Capital Models gig at the start of this year - but a fitting tribute to our much missed friend...

My first performance as CBQ for over two years went down well and I got some laughs with my pre-song rambles...

A debut for "Here Again", only finalised this morning - and, in the second half, a rendition of "Still We Doubt You" from "Deeperdown" - probably eleven years since I wrote that one...

A surprisingly good night, which even Anne enjoyed...