Day: May 31, 2020

Fandango’s One Word Challenge (31 May 2020)

Would you go into a CD store and steal a CD? It’s the same thing, people going into the computers and loggin’ on and stealing our music.

Britney Spears

It’s funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can’t afford the music.

Tom Petty

for Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC), thief.

Song Lyric Sunday (31 May 2020) – Spices

Last week, Jim (NewEpicAuthor, A Unique Title For Me) set a theme of termination (my selection). This week, he gives us the theme of spices.

It was a gift when I saw today’s prompt.

Being from Liverpool, I grew up with The Beatles, and greatly admired John Lennon’s voice. And when his elder son, Julian, started recording, everybody was blown away by how alike they sounded, so I was pretty much a fan by default. Even today’s choice has hints of Strawberry Fields about it.

Julian doesn’t have anywhere near the commercial appeal that his father had, but nevertheless he has come out with some blinding tracks over the years, including this one from 1991. Let that date hang there for a moment, because if you follow the lyrics, the song addresses issues of both the environment and poverty. So, how long have they been around as issues? Forever. You can judge for yourselves, for all the rhetoric, how much has actually changed.

This song was written by Julian Lennon in collaboration with Mark and Leslie Spiro. I couldn’t find much about Leslie, but Mark is certainly an established musician/songwriter – the tracks of which he has been a part have sold more than 100 million copies. Saltwater originally reached #6 in the UK chart, #1 in Australia. You might have heard of it more recently than 1991, after a 25th anniversary version was re-released in 2016.

We are a rock revolving
Around a golden sun
We are a billion children
Rolled into one
So when I hear about
The hole in the sky
Saltwater wells in my eyes

We climb the highest mountain
We’ll make the desert bloom
We’re so ingenious
We can walk on the moon
But when I hear of how
The forests have died
Saltwater wells in my eyes

I have lived for love
But now that’s not enough
For the world I love is dying
(And now I’m crying)
And time is not a friend
(No friend of mine)
As friends we’re out of time
And it’s slowly passing by
Right before our eyes

We light the deepest ocean
Send photographs of Mars
We’re so enchanted by
How clever we are
Why should one baby
Feel so hungry she cries
Saltwater wells in my eyes

I have lived for love
But now that’s not enough
For the world I love is dying
(And now I’m crying)
And time is not a friend
(No friend of mine)
As friends we’re out of time
And it’s slowly passing by
Right before our eyes

We are a rock revolving
Around a golden sun
We are a billion children
Rolled into one
What will I think of me
The day that I die
Saltwater wells in my eyes
Saltwater wells in my eyes

Julian Lennon, Mark Spiro, Leslie Spiro