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July 24, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 172 There Goes The View

epi dThe final track on the album

The protagonist is cut loose in a cold world with the scars and in the uniform of his struggle

Prison clothes or a de-mob suit

It’s a kind of elongated funeral march into the unknown ahead

 

There’s a loser on the loose

And he’s wearing clothes like mine

Someone ought to give him the message

I got my number on my jackettundra 1

 

There is that slow bluesy guitar riff that drives it almost reluctantly on like a desert snake in a cold landscape

Crawling forward over the frozen tundra towards a sickly setting sun

The glory of the empire of a life fading like the secret of how to write in a relevant and ground-breaking way

Our snake, though doomed, still has some time and the ability to eat its own tail
There’s a cool breeze on the tundra

And it’s crawling just for you

Someone ought to tell you about the vacuum

Sit for a number of years in the wreckage

tun3

And so it comes back around re-digesting the subjects and substance of its purpose for fewer and fewer returns

I’ve spent the last nine months pouring all my resources into this album project and it’s taken its toll

Deep in debt and run down by this fixation with essential elements of day to day living on hold

Now it’s nearly done I find myself hollowed out and sitting in the wreckage of the life I’ve been letting slip

 

There goes the view

There goes the last of any substance I could use

There goes the rest of any subject I could do

There goes the last of any secret that I knew

 

I’m under no illusions that this record is going to save me but it did need to be done

Like with this weekly journal – the need to push my work into a place where others can access it before the inevitable

I was saying to a friend of mine a couple of days ago that I couldn’t see a future beyond the end of the record – fatalistic was the word I used

She was very supportive as are all my friends but it comes back down to me in the end – the mindset

 

There’s a blank kid on a mattressepi d

It’s a meeting of the minds

Someone ought to tell you about the glory

Went too many miles in a hurry

 

So where to from here?

Well it’s still not over – we have to go through the hoops of trying to release it in the most professional way possible given our limited resources

There are still albums of songs I want to record before I’m done too – that tank isn’t entirely empty

I’m proud of this record, my band’s efforts and especially John’s work in recording such a wide range of material and instrumentation

 

There goes the view

There goes the last of any substance I could use

There goes the rest of any subject I could do

There goes the last of any secret that I knew

 

The hope is that people will get it and gain some pleasure from hearing it…
innerslevevtundra2

The Ghost of Electricity – War Stories by Jon McLeary is a new initiative at Off The Tracks, a series of stories and reflections from painter, writer and musician Jon McLeary

To read any of the first 171 in the series click here

Posted in Blog, Miscellany and tagged with Art, Epidural, Guest Blog, Guest Post, Jon Mcleary, Lyrics, Music, New Album, Poem, Poetry, Song, Songwriting, Spines, The Album, The Ghost of Electricity, The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories, The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary, The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 172, The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 172 There Goes The View, The Spines, There Goes The View, War Stories, War Stories # 172, Writer, Writing. RSS 2.0 feed.
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