Here we go - ain't it
grand
Here we stand on foreign sand
And we're not alone
Why do we fear what we don't understand
Can't we reach out our hands to try, just say 'hello'
Try to plant a seed - fulfil the need - to make it grow - just say hello
And when you're far from home try to learn from what you see
Your eyes will tell you everything you need
Why do we dread what we don't really know
Come not as concubine - come not as foe
Come with intentions clearly shown
Try to plant a seed - fulfil the need - to make it grow - just say hello
And though you're far from home, try to learn from all you see
Your mind will tell you everything you need - everything you need
Here we go ain't it grand
Here we stand on foreign sand
And we're not alone
Red, yellow, black and white
Every man stand in the light - stand not alone
It's not a lie - it's not a sham - we play for keeps - it's not a scam
No bigotry - we're hand in hand - it ain't a cinch - we make a stand
We learn to live on foreign sand
Just say hello
Why do we despise when we can't even speak
We keep on spreading lies
As far as we know it's the only way to be
Try to plant a seed - fulfil the need - to make it grow – just say
hello
And though you're far from home try to learn what you could be
Your heart will tell you everything you need
even though you stand here you stand on foreign sand
Ain't it grand here we stand
On foreign sand
Together we stand
Here we stand
On foreign sand
I
love this song – it’s a beautiful melody, carrying a really great
message. ‘Why do we fear what we don’t understand?’ The answer to
this question may lie in the prejudices we build up over the one-sided
view we may develop over foreigners we encounter at home. I think it’s
fair to look at the theme of travelling to learn about others and our
treatment of immigrants in tandem.
My
first big trip abroad was to China when I was nineteen. The nine months
I spent there were unquestionably life-changing. Not only did I gain
first hand experience of China, but I also met students from other
countries. For example, Arabs in London in the seventies received a very
negative press. There were instances of Arabs who had gained wealth
through oil who were shoplifting from London shops despite having lots
of cash on their person. But when I was in China, I made a very good
friend with an Arab student from North Yemen* – from him and a
Pakistani student I learned a lot about Islam.
Similarly,
the other time I spent abroad as a student – in East Germany was
educational in the sense that I met people (either workers or students)
from countries which were aligned with the eastern bloc – as the world
was divided along those lines at the time – such as Vietnam, Algeria,
Cuba, South Yemen* and other eastern European countries. I have happy
memories of conversations with all of them. It was only the students
from North Korea who were not allowed to speak with us. They were
dressed in blue ‘Mao-style’ suits, each with a badge of the leader
on the lapel.
In
the midst of the continuing debate about asylum seekers in the UK,
it’s people who stand out as being foreign who attract attention. But
it’s often ignored that most immigrants come from ‘white’
countries with similar cultures to ours such as Ireland and Australia.
One
thing I’ve tried to do to reach out is to make a point learning how to
say ‘Do you speak English?’ in the language of the country I’m
travelling to.Sometimes my
knowledge of other languages, such as German and French, has helped me,
but I obviously can’t learn every language. However, I think it’s
rude to assume that others can speak English and that we can walk into
their country and use it automatically.
This
song progresses from using our eyes to our mind and finally our heart
when we travel to other places, and it shows that there can be
understanding and unity with others despite differences.
I
went to the Ukraine
They don't have much to eat
No sugar on the table
But the people stay sweet
I've been to the third world
They've got nothing but hope
Through the starving and dying
Sometimes somehow they cope
It was a revelation - a revelation -
A revelation to me
I've been to the U.S.
Promised land of the free
With the workless and homeless
Begging on every street
It was a revelation - a revelation -
A revelation to me
Revelation, it was a revelation
And right here in Europe
Far as can been seen
Butter mountains and wine lakes
That much food it's obscene
Now you can label me stupid
Or naive with this song
But when children are starving
I know what's right and what's wrong
It
was a revelation - a revelation -
A revelation to me
This
song deals with the fact that the best qualities in human nature
can be demonstrated where there are few material possessions. It
is a revelation to
travel to some places and witness how little some people have;
poverty, of course also being the cause of many problems.
The
piece about the Ukraine reminds me of my experiences in two
other eastern European countries – Poland and Romania. Both
have struggled, in different ways, to emerge successfully from
the years of communist rule. In fact, when I visited Romania it
was still under a communist regime, and by far and away the
poorest of the eastern bloc countries; this became something of
an ‘in-joke’ among the other countries. I remember being on
a train travelling through Romania in a train in 1985 - in the
same compartment was an East German, and some friendly Romanians
shared some bread with us. ‘Bread in Romania!’ joked the
East German. Fortunately, these people were good-natured enough
to be able to take it gracefully. In Poland in the late
eighties, as I was once told by a German lady who went there
regularly, such were the shortages that the sausage was
regularly supplemented with paper in order to put the quantities
up to the requisite weight for sale. However, there is a saying
in Poland, ‘If a guest is in the house, God is in the
house’. They mean it too – I never wanted for anything when
I was the guest of a Polish family in Poznan. So I find the
words
‘no
sugar on the table
but
the people stay sweet’
ring
particularly true.
The
hardship of life in a developing country or in the USA, where
there is poverty despite the wealth, is also touched on in this
song.
I
have a bit of experience of living in parts of Africa and also
in China. The people tend to maintain a sense of community and
family. Despite the problems, for example, the Africans always
have faith and make music.
An
Economics lesson in the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU is
necessary to understand why surpluses – ‘butter mountains
and wine lakes’ come to exist, resulting in a huge gap between
rich and poor when they are not shared with countries outside.
The
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU was set up to
increase agricultural production and farm incomes, as well as to
preserve jobs in agriculture and secure an internal market with
stable prices. Therefore the CAP reduced food imports from
countries outside the EU and fixed guaranteed prices within the
EU which were kept artificially high by the purchase of surplus
products by ‘intervention buying’, ie purchase by agencies.
The results of this were a widening of the gap between rich and
poor countries and an optimum production by farmers as there was
no upper limit set on the amount purchased. In 1992, measures
were taken to reform the policy, such as the gradual reduction
of subsidies and production quotas, with mixed success.
In 'Our Drummer's Diamond
Days' I mentioned in passing the arrival in London of Roger as a
country lad who was about to commence his degree studies. There is no
doubt that the city held a fascination for him, and not just for the
reason that he saw it as the place to launch the musical career he hoped
for. This number, a gentle rocker, which forms the last track of Roger's
1998 album 'Electric Fire' (cover to the left) is the only song on the
album to mention its title, and, along with two other songs on 'Electric
Fire', features the serene vocals of Treana Morris of Wire
Daisies fame, whom Roger justifiably regards very highly.
Roger is issuing an invitation to
the excitement of the electric and eclectic experience of London; evidence that his
fascination for 'London Town' remained alive. The song is enhanced at
the end by the spoken quotation from 'London Fantasy', a prose piece by
Mervyn Peake. Roger's admiration for Peake extends to the fact that he
possesses original art works of his which are on display in his home, as
mentioned in an article in 'Mojo' magazine in 2004. Peake's words are
wonderfully metaphorical - containing, amongst other images, the idea of
the city as a 'dark hive' of swarming workers, involved in their mysterious
business, and the relentlessness of the bustling activity against the
backdrop of absolutely any
phenomena - man-made or natural. On the track, the quotation is
interspersed with a musical interlude before the words 'Clay
miracles...', during which powerful guitar work and more atmospheric
melody contained in the Morris vocals.
Here are the lyrics:
We
got it down, we got it down
We got it down in London Town
Dig this and dig that
Dig the thin and dig the fat
Dig the boys and dig the girls
Dig the straights and dig the curls
Dig the future, dig the past
Dig the audience and cast
Dig the sights, dig the sounds
Yeah, dig this London Town
C'mon down (c'mon down)
To London Town
Electric light surrounding me
Feel the electricity
Feeling up, getting higher
Feed on my electric fire
If you wanna get up, you gotta go down
Get your fix on London Town
So c'mon down
To London Town
C'mon down (c'mon down)
To London Town
C'mon down (c'mon down)
To London Town (to London Town)
But
for the fact that the eye can cease to respond, the brain to absorb, the
heart to miss a beat, the spirit to launch itself on a hazard of
speculation, then surely, in the weird creatures that make up this dark
hive called London, or for that matter the world, there would lie before
us every day such a scene as haunts the brains of madmen, a delirium of
heads and frames and hands, a cavalcade hardly to be suffered for the
very endlessness of its inventive fantasy....
Clay miracles float by in a hundred lights. The eyes in constellations
swarm through London. Sight becomes cluttered. There is no end to it.
Beneath the electric glare; in fog;* in sunlight, in firelight; in wind,
at sunrise or at dusk, there is no end.
