Category: Environment

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

Who Won the Week (15 March 2020)

I have Fandango to thank for this title – he has been posting regularly on this subject from his west-coast-USA vantage point. I am interested in current affairs too, and normally have some nonsense or other to spout about one of the UK’s topical news stories. So, I like to join in. Maybe there’s something in your world that you’d like to post about?

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is wwtw.jpg

Another week where I didn’t really have a winner. The media everywhere is dominated by Corona, and I posted on it both last week and yesterday. We had a budget in the UK, but I can’t possibly imagine anybody anywhere else being interested – bottom line is our government expects our economy to tank because of this virus, so they are handing out various breaks. Whether they will make any difference is unlikely. Under our right-wing government, the state is now spending more, proportionally, than the last left-wing government. Unusual times…

I did, however, take a look on Wikipedia to see what had happened on this day in history.

  • Would you believe it was a year ago that almost 1½ million young people went “on strike” for the day to protest about our inaction over Climate Change? Judge for yoursewlf how much has changed, even of people’s outlook. I think when we kept electing people who thought it was all hokus pocus, there was only ever going to be one outcome.
  • In 2011, that’s nine years ago, the first shots were fired today in the Syrian Civil War. Syria is probably a long way away for many of us, but it is a conflict which has drawn in both the USA and Russia, and has spawned a wave refugees, and a wave of nationalism, in both the UK and Europe. It is still ongoing, and I am left wondering exactly what kind of country Assad thinks he will ultimately govern.
  • Oh, and on this day in 1888, the Anglo-Tibetan war began. Isn’t it amazing, what you find out on Wikipedia? I never knew there even was an Anglo-Tibetan War. Boy, we sure knew how to pick our enemies back then!
  • Even further back, in 1672, British king Charles II issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence. That sounds ominous, since this guy’s indulgence caused a civil war! Although this proclamation seems to be geared toward religious tolerance.

You think that the news is too depressing already? Just keep reading my posts!