Author Archives: BJD

I was reading ‘ Climate Change and the Course of Human History’ by John L Brooke and realised that geological time makes you look at things with a different perspective. This song is about people reacting differently to the same stimulus because their world view is shaped by the here and now.

I watched a TV documentary about America’s conspiracy theorists and right wing fanatics . Algorythms on the Web work to reinforce prejudice and misinformation by constantly redirecting people to more of the same. A propagandists dream…..

I have conflated two ideas: the demise of the high street in the face of competition from the online retailers and the efforts of organised religion to preserve its place in the modern world. This observation is set against a Celtic backing track, alluding to myths and legends.

I read a BBC news article about a young disabled man. “Robert and Trude mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life for their disabled son. But when Mats died, they discovered that people all over Europe lit candles in his memory.”

How do we cope with not fully meeting our aspirations in life? Being able to box up disappointment and regret is one solution but sometimes others might glimpse what is in that box.

Song a Week 22 Week 13: Learning my blues scales I played around and then wrote this quirky lyric about being swept away with a drunk ferryboat captain. Saved from a long journey to a fabled land overseas by a mermaid, I am returned to the beach. This version with new vocal and slightly shortened in 2022.

I asked Joe, a friend who is also a semi-pro musician, how you could make money out of songwriting. He said, “Write a Christmas hit.” It was August but I had a crack at it. It is about the office party.

This is about abandonment at the break up of a relationship but it is interwoven with an idea of being lost at sea. The concept of the verses being letters only arose when I made the video.

I do like progressive rock but am a long way off playing it, so this was composed and forged from samples. I had been reading ‘Who We Are and How We Got Here’ by David Reich. The piece is in part about our origins but it also echoes modern migration. The core themes are population growth and diversity based upon common ancestry.

This is the second song that I wrote and performed, with Peter on guitar and bass. 2018 was the worst year for school mass shootings in the USA and Trump fronted the NRA convention. I grew up with American films and music. Suddenly it seemed to me that the American dream had become a nightmare.