What Are You Listening To?

[Ruby]

^Lol! Jelly Bowl lives on. Excellent song. I like "Leningrad" too - written for Viktor Razinov - so powerfully poignant, most probably because it's true. 

Chris de Burgh – Crusader. Just felt like it today. Some musical storytelling of a certain flavour. The man is not all “Lady in Red”, thank the gods, or at least he wasn’t – no idea of his later material. There were leanings then, for sure, but there was other, meatier material back in the Spanish Train days. There is sentimentality on this album, without question, and there is also quite exceptional song-writing IMHO - anyway, who doesn’t enjoy a little meander down the sentimental road now and then?! Possibly a lost opportunity in terms of exploring the Crusader theme to a fuller extent, but oh well …. fab musicians – the APP line up largely – Ian Bairnson on guitars, Stuart Elliot on drums, David Paton bass and vocals and Andrew Powell producing and arranging as well as playing piano.

Shades of foreboding and of “Spanish Train” (which he references here) resurface on the surprisingly vibey and somewhat ominous “The Devil’s Eye” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21_dEetXK0I

"Can you hear me, are you listening, has your programme disappeared?
I can see you, I am watching you, I've been planning this for years
I have blacked out your television, every station in the world is mine
And there are millions who are just like you as you sit there, paralysed!
I have some orders which you will follow, and there's nothing you can do
'Cos as you're looking at your T.V. screen, I am looking back at you…"
 
Seldom that one hears the harp in rock. Skaila Kanga on said instrument, Curved Air’s Francis Monkman on the harpsichord and Chris Laurence double bass. Here, have some vinyl crackles – I didn’t like how some of the other YouTube clips sounded -  “The Girl With April In Her Eyes” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qZz_m3uFh0
 
And the title track which is epic albeit a tale of a certain disillusionment –




"...Then the fool said "Oh you wise men, you really make me laugh,
With your talk of vast persuasion and searching through the past,
There is only greed and evil in the men who fight today,
The song of the Crusader has long since gone away,
Jerusalem is lost,
Jerusalem is lost,
Jerusalem is lost
Jerusalem."

Time for some Al Stewart now - just in that kinda mood ... Time Passages