Dear Friends In Music,
When you are preparing to go into a recording session you do several things to help the musicians get ready for it, including making a rough demo for the song. Usually that demo is for their ears only ... but given what is going on in this situation I have decided to release the demo to everyone as I did with the lyrics. My goal here is simple ... to encourage and stimulate discussion and thought. And to do that as quickly as possible in order to help save lives & limit damage. Moreover this is an important moment in this conflict because of the ceasefire. Indeed the pressure growing all around the world to stop the carnage & to stop the killing of innocent civilians may lead to an extension of this temporary event. This may just be our moment to have a substantial impact on this situation. Carpe diem ... time to seize the day and make the most of this opportunity.
In the sixties, the music of the day had a profound impact on the conduct of the Vietnam War and helped lead to a change of attitude towards that conflict. I am a flower child of the sixties so I guess I hoped that model could apply here. Terry Fox taught us one important lesson with his marathon across the nation, that any one person can change the world if they are determined to do so. I wrote this song on behalf and in honour of the 1200 or so innocent Israelis who were murdered on Oct 7 by Hamas terrorists and the over 13 000 innocent Palestinian civilians, including over 5000 children, who have been killed by Israeli air strikes and other military operations ... in an effort to help to prevent any further such deaths of innocent people on both sides of this conflict.
Let us all raise our voices in any way we can to put an end to this nightmare. Please share this demo and these lyrics with anyone you possibly can. Let us demand that our government have the courage to stop mincing words lest they offend someone or other, and call for an extension to this ceasefire. Let us encourage them to join with a growing number of other governments around the world in calling for a peace conference to bring this long standing conflict to a permanent end by resolving the issues at hand once and for all. As it says in the song, the Irish managed to achieve that ... so they can too. In doing so we would also be supporting the many peace activists in both Palestine and Israel who have a clear understanding of the need for such. Clearly it is in the best interests of both parties involved here to do so. Let us all take this moment to put Terry Fox's lesson into action together. We can make a difference here ... and we must ... time's a wastin'.
I would like to thank David Chester for his sound engineering skills in making this demo and for hosting its recording at his studio ... www.chalet.com I would also like to thank Patrick Fockler for his lovely slide guitar and for helping to obscure my rather clumsy piano playing by sitting in with me! I assault the keyboard more than play it and I do wish to apologize for that. I did enjoy getting to sing my own background parts ... and speaking of those, I also want to thank David Konvalinka for his suggestion for the ending of the song ... no more of the same. Also wish to thank Tamara Green for the wonderful image she created to accompany the song.
Spread the word ... let's try to make a difference here ... together we can.
And the time is now.
Bob
