 |
[ O/P | Introduction | Song Index | Updates ]
Ocean Rising
The song:
The sea is one of Justin Sullivan's
favourite subjects (cf. Happy to be Here, Marry the Sea, North Star,
Southwest, Wipeout,
Big Blue,
Sun On Water, and
Twilight Home).
The spoken word at the beginning:
. . . are the English shipping forecast, predicting the weather on the
sea around Great Britain and Ireland.
- Read more: BBC
-
Finnistair:
Either Finisterre, a rock-bound peninsula in the uttermost west of
Spain, or Finistere, the most westerly part of France.
- Read more: Wikipedia entries on
Finisterre
and
Finistere -
James Caird:
Possibly
a ship named after Sir James Caird of Glenfarquhar, Baronet
(1864-1954), a shipowner and the principal donor in creating the
National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. More likely it is an
open boat named after Sir James Key Caird, 1st Baronet (1837-1916), a
jute entrepreneur and philanthropist, who financed Sir Ernest
Shackleton's Antarctic espedition on the Endurance (1914-1916).
After the Endurance sank in the pack ice in 1915, Shackleton and his
27-man crew went on in three lifeboats from the ship, Shackelton
himself and five men in the James Caird. After four months (!) they hit
on an uninhibited island. Shackleton and a small crew again set out on
the James Caird to get help. For fourteen days they crossed one of the
most treacherous seas in the world before they finally succeeded.
- Read more: Wikipedia entries on
James
Caird of Glenfarquhar,
James Key Caird
and
James
Caird (boat) -
Boss:
In 1922,
Ernest Shackleton died on another Antarctic expedition and was buried
on South Georgia, an island in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
- Read more: Wikipdedia
-
One Bullet
The
song:
Some songs are very easy to write: you meet someone, they tell you
their life story, you write it down - finished. It takes ten minutes. Aimless Desire on the new album was
written like that, and so is this. This is about my next door neighbour
but two.
- Source: Justin Sullivan, 21/08/98, Sumpfblume, Hameln -
Gypsy kings:
Perhaps this event also inspired Joolz's story "Joey and the Gypsy
King":
"In the end, all the talking came to nothing.
Joey knew, without Uncle Benny even saying anything, that he had to fight the Gypsy King. That was his job - that was his life. The family expected him to do his duty. He was not ashamed, neither was he afraid. The Gypsies had overstepped the mark, tried to take what wasn't theirs. They were foolish not to back off - so now, Joey would make things even again.
In business, negotiation was always best; but the Gypsies were angry and wouldn't hear reason. They'd been greedy and got caught cheating. This alone was enough to make them furious, but add to that the little matter of one of their women running off with Joey's cousin Rafe, well... This was the only way. Their King against Joey. It was fair, in his opinion.
He went to the site in the afternoon, to look at the ground picked for the fight. The screaming racket of the rock music was already beginning, though the Festival wasn't due to start until the next day. The area was dottet with scruffy fans, doped and foolish - at least in Joey's eyes. He and they were of the same age, on the whole. But Joey's twenty-five years had been spent in a way these people could never understand. He sighed. Had he been missing anything? No - he thought not. He was a man, with responsibilities, with a life. This lot, they wanted to stay kids forever - he could have no respect for them.
The concessions - the stalls - food, drink, and the cheap, ethnic trash the festivalgoers loved so much, traditionally brought the family a great deal of money in site fees and security work. The Gypsies knew this, but had still tried to take over."
I'm sure I'm violating copyright already, so I better finish after half of the story. It goes on with Joey fighting the much older Gipsy King and winning easily.
- Source: Joolz, "Joey and the Gipsy King". In: Errors of the Spirit. Hexham: Flambard, 2000, pp.14-15 -
Gone
to ground:
To go to ground: "1. ([. . .] especially of an animal [. . .]) To escape into a
burrow, hole, etc. when being hunted. 2. (idiomatic, by extension) To
hide from public view or sequester oneself, especially when
authorities, members of the news media, or others are looking for one."
- Source: Wiktionary
-
One of the Chosen
The song:
Strangely enough, it's not written about the Muslim community at
all. It was a lyric I wrote a long time ago, and actually it was
written about a fundamentalist Christian group. But the thing is, when
I was a kid, I used to religion-hop a lot, among all sorts of different
religions, actually, and I remember the glory of just surrendering
yourself to some great truth. And being right: "we're right, everybody
else is wrong" - that kind of thing. But of course it applies quite
well to fundamentalist anything. [. . .] The thing about "One of the
Chosen," it's not a criticism. [. . .]
it's about how good it feels.
[. . .] what I try very hard to do is not to write about myself. It's
not all my views, do you know what I mean? The character in "One of the
Chosen" is not me. Well, it could be me - but it's anybody, in that
particular situation.
[. . .] it's told from the inside, told about how exciting this feels.
- Source: Allan
MacInnis: "New Model Army: Tribal Warfare and Western Civilization.
Telephone interview on May 18th, 2008 -
Christian fundamentalism is also the subject of Christian Militia. Islamist terrorism is also one of the topics of Bloodsports; other songs on terrorist acts are All of This, The Attack, Breathing, Far Better Thing and Flying through the Smoke.
Holy Fools:
This seems to be significant since it is written in capital letters.
However, the only reference to "Holy Fools" I found is to a Holy Fool
in the Russian Orthodox (a form of Catholicism) tradition. The Holy
Fool acts intentionally foolish in the eyes of men, is often homeless
and is believed to be a prophet.
- Source: Wikipedia
-
Orange Tree Roads
The song:
This song is about embracing change.
- Source: Justin Sullivan during the European NMA Tour Spring 2000 -
Inspired by the
novel Corazon by Joolz Denby
- Source: Offical NMA @ Twitter
- Read more: Official
Joolz Site -
Corazon (2001)
is Joolz's second novel. It is about a young women who after the break
up of her marriage takes refuge in Spain, where, despite doubts, she
becomes fascinated with a cult.
The words spoken in the background are from the Spanish translation of Joolz's poem about Spain, 'Corazon'. Seems that Justin and Joolz found a place in Spain where they feel at home. Here's the complete original poem:
There is a fire
burning on the hillside -
the smoke, a gauze-pale drifting ghost of the flames
rising against the long drop of the cliffs behind
like a memory of battles fought and forgotten.
The smell of
wild thyme; of rosemary
and the ochre dust of the red earth desert . . .
In the old house,
cool and shadowed, only the
thick white walls are warmed by the savage light outside;
in the rooms, walk barefoot on terracotta tiles
stratified and crumbling with the wear of years.
The smell of
eucalyptus branches burning in the
stone hearth; night jasmine; the velvet silence . . .
In her niche by the
door the plaster Virgin
cradles El Niņo; his robe rose-pink, her gown in the blue
of the midday sky, the folds all patterned with gold;
her gleaming crown is heavy, the Queen of Heaven bows under its weight.
The scent of
bitter oranges; of trees; of the flinty well-water;
of sweet vanilla cakes and red, oaky wine; of sleep . . .
Of sleep in the
silent fortress-house; the ancient stone
Strong with the procession of generations,
stepping like a long, sun-filled dream through
summers and autumns, winters and springs.
Each morning,
the great herds of goats pour down the valley,
sounding like a river of bells.
And like the animals, we move towards the light;
Like the animals we are - through the seasons, to the light.
- Source: Joolz, Errors of the Spirit -
This is one of many songs that uses driving as subject matter or metaphor, like After Something, Happy to be Here, Headlights, 125 MPH, The Price, Stormclouds, Sunrise, Tales of the Road, Vagabonds, or Wipeout.
Plaster
Virgin / cradles El Niņo:
A statue of the biblical virgin Mary holding her baby son, Jesus Christ. This is a very Catholic motif.
Two-lane:
A road with two lanes.
Once
we were lost but we can be found:
Justin claims that this is a quote from the bible, but I could not find
a direct correspondence. However, Luke, 15 contains several parables
about things or persons being lost and found again, of which the best
known is 'The Prodigal Son'. The point
Jesus wants to make is that God is always willing to forgive a
repentant sinner, and that one repentant sinner makes God happier than
many just persons.
- Sources: Justin Sullivan in an interview with German online music
magazine DocRock before the release of 'Eight' - The Bible.
Luke, 15 - Read more: King
James Bible -
Hale
Bopp:
A huge comet that was visible to the naked eye from February to May
1997.
- Read more: Wikipedia
-
[ Back to Orange Tree Roads | Back to Gigabyte Wars ]
Over the Wire
The song:
This might be over-interpretation, but perhaps like Here Comes the War, Wars of Purification and Whirlwind this song is partly
influenced by William Butler Yeats's poem 'The
Second Coming'.
Rusting
cranes:
I
think this refers to the de-industrialisation of the north of England
(which caused high unemployment and a decline in wealth), similar to
the 'rusting mills' in Did You Make it Safe? and the closing mills in Courage
and No
Greater Love.
1914-18 war:
The first world war, primarily between Fance, Russia, Italy, the United
Kingdom and the United States on the one side and Germany,
Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire on the other. More than nine
million soldiers and civilians died.
- Read more: Wikipedia
-
Pitshafts:
(Coal) mines. Many people lost their jobs when under Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher despite massive protests
several mines were closed.
[ Back to Over the Wire | Back to All Consuming Fire ]
The Pack
The song:
In a way the lyrics remind me of Modern Times.
New Cross Street:
A street in West Bowling in the south of Bradford.
In early years, Joolz and Justin Sullivan rented a house at 166 New
Cross street, where a lot of other poets and musicians began to live or
hang out.
- Source: Between Dog and Wolf
Magazine -
[ Back to The Pack ]
Paekakariki Beach
The song:
We
all share an interest in religion, for want of a better word, matters
of the spirit, the soul, difficult words, especially in England which
is the most unreligious country in the whole world, and not in a good
way. The whole thing about spirituality, there's like part of us that
wants to live in the spirit world, and part of us wants to live in a
very physical here and now world. That contradiction runs through a lot
of things that I write. [This] is the stop the world I wanna get off
song.
- Source: Justin Sullivan at the Red Sky Coven
Tour 2004 -
Paekakariki:
A town on the south-western North Island of New Zealand.
- Read more: Wikipedia
-
Part the Waters
The
song:
Like Die Trying a song about what around
2014 began to be called the "refugee crisis", i.e. not the fact that
according to the UN by the end of 2014 almost 60 million people
worldwide were refugees but that more than 1 million of them have dared to
come to Europe. Most of them have come from Asia or Northern Africa, fleeing
wars in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria, on the land route via Southeast
Europe or over the Mediterranean Sea. While the European governments
have quarrelled about the distribution of the refugees, many people in
every country have volunteered to help the refugees. On the other hand,
there has also been a rise in xenophobia.
- Read more: Wikipedia
-
Older songs about refugees are Another
Imperial Day, Higher Wall, and Refugee.
Part the waters:
I think quite often it's useful to use old stories. The bible's
great for this 'cause the bible's got a whole load of folk stories that
people generally know. And Grimm fairy stories, you can use these or
Greek mythology or, you know, these kind of stories that everybody
knows. This is our common culture. Then you can take a story and you
can twist it or use it. And so 'Part the Waters' is kind of using
Moses, only just as a quick sort of reminder to everybody that movement
of people is very old, it always has happened, it will always happen,
it is not a new phenomenon.
- Source: Justin Sullivan interview with Rock Antenne -
Moses was a religious
leader who, according to the bible, led the Israelite people in their
flight from slavery in Egypt. When they arrived at the Red Sea God parted the water, the Israelites escaped over the exposed seabed, while the pursuing Egyptian armee was drowned when the sea closed again.
- Source: The Bible. Exodus, 13.17-14.29 - Read more: Wikipedia -
[ Back to Part the Waters | Back to Die Trying ]
Poison Street
The song:
The song is basically having a brilliant time in the face of adversity.
It's like Smalltown England, the same
attitude. It's not necessarily a carefree attitude. There are so many
people that want to grind you down and it's saying 'for godsake, its a
beautiful day, lets go out, I don't care what's happening'. There are
so many people that want to put you down, just do your thing. It is not
based on a real street. It's like 'Smalltown England', there isn't a
smalltown England, name wise, but everyone identifies with it. 'Poison
Street' is the same thing. Where nothing happens and people dwell on
their misery and not the good aspects of life.
- Source: Robert Heaton in an
interview
with Chris Benn in May 1997 -
Singing
in the rain:
There is a song from 1929, and an "old time movie", a musical from 1952
called "Singin' in the Rain". NMA covered the song on their Thunder and Consolation Tour
in 1989.
- Read more: Wikipedia entries on the
song
and the movie
-
Prayer Flag
Moko man:
A moko is the permanent body and face marking by Maori, the indigenous
people of New Zealand. It is distinct from tattoos in that the skin is
carved by chisels rather than punctured. This leaves the skin with
grooves, rather than a smooth surface. Joolz said that "Justin
has a traditionally done tattoo (in the manner described above) of a
Frigate Bird on his hand, by the Maori artist Inia Taylor the Third.
The 'Moko Man' in question is Tangaroa Tuane, also a tattoo artist."
- Source: Wikipedia
- Joolz on the New Model Army Noticeboard -
Prayer flags:
In Buddhism, colorful panels or rectangular cloths often found strung
along mountain ridges and peaks in the Himalayas to bless the
surrounding countryside.
- Read more: Wikipedia
-
Prayer wheels:
A wheel on a spindle. On the wheel are written or encapsulated prayers
or mantras. According to the Tibetan Buddhist belief, spinning such a
wheel will have much the same effect as orally reciting the prayers.
- Read more: Wikipedia
-
Carnival:
More
and more the world resembles a medieval carnival or fair. Everything
gets mor colourful, emotional, mixed up and chaotic. The more you know,
the more chaotic the world seems to be. At least that is how I feel: I
know nothing any more, the more I know.
- Source: Powermetal
Interview with Justin Sullivan, where he actually refers to the title
of the whole album - Translated back into English by me -
The Price
The
song:
The first relationship song that I ever
wrote, way back when, way back. . .
- Source: Justin Sullivan at the Red
Sky Coven
Tour 2004 -
One of many songs that uses driving as subject
matter or metaphor, like After Something,
Happy to be Here, Headlights, 125 MPH, Orange
Tree Roads, Stormclouds, Sunrise, Tales
of the Road, Vagabonds, or Wipeout.
Every mile takes a
minute:
60 miles per hour equals 100 km/h.
Prison
Holy shrine:
Pilgrimage to a sacred place and devotion before a sacred object is a
major means of religious healing.
[ Back to Prison ]
Purity
The
song:
"It's in the nature of youth to think in opposites; everything is
either black or white. Very often the worst or most brutal regimes in
this world have been led by younger people, because the youth still has
this sort of blindness. In their kind of way they try to force through
a kind of purity; the Hitler Youth is an example for this. I certainly
don't say that all youth is terrible, but they tend see things in black
and white and this way they can easily be used for political purposes.
The song is a rejection of the idea to establish a pure society, I
don't believe in this anymore. Many people think New Model Army
represent a form of purity, so we wrote this song in order to deny
this."
- Source: Justin Sullivan in an interview with German magazine Zillo
10/90; my translation -
"Purity is a warning against
ideologies, religions and absolute truths. 'The song is truer than any
other song I wrote', says Justin. 'In my youth I jumped from religion
to religion, and in the end, all gurus had disappointed me' ".
- Source: Justin Sullivan in German Online Magazin
Uncle
Sally's; my translation -
Gospel
of the truth:
A gospel is a record of the life and teaching of Jesus
Christ. The term usually refers to one of the four books of the New
Testament in the bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), but there are
also gospels, partly incomplete, partly of unknown origin, in the New
Testament Apocryphal writings (writings that don't belong to the
standard version of the bible because they are not considered to be
genuine). One of these is called Gospel of Truth.
Also, the word 'gospel' is
informally used to mean 'the truth', and 'gospel truth' means
'absolutely reliable'.
- Source: Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English
-
Immaculate
conception:
Justin uses a phrase for in vitro fertilization (test-tube conception)
that normally refers to Mary, the mother of Jesus
Christ. According to Christian faith, she was still a virgin after
she conceived him, because his father is the Holy Ghost, one part of
God.
[ Back to Purity ]
[ O/P | Introduction | Song Index | Updates ]
16/11/14; last update 09/07/17