It must have been over 25 years ago. It was a sunny afternoon. Birds were chirping. Bees buzzing. We could almost hear the grass growing underneath us. Four tiny friends, we were discussing which song we would playback at the Playback Contest that was being held in our tiny town. One of them wanted to do Jason Donovan, hoping he would seduce the girls in doing so. But this was supposed to be a group effort, so no solo carreers. Not yet. Then someone suggested Wham!, but that was a duo so it was none the better. And then, after a small uninspired silence interruped only by the occasional fart and silly laughter, someone uttered the magical words. ‘The final countdown’. Hell yes!! That was the one!! We all jumped on our feet and started battling over who would be whom, and I managed to get the coolest part. The guy with the keyboards. The guy who played the awesome riff. Da-da-dàà-dààà!!! It was as close as I would ever get to being God.
It was my first time ever on a stage. We din’t win the contest, a boy doing Paul Anka won. We blamed it on the jury that was full of nostalgic old people. They didn’t get the pleasure of moving your head back and forth until you were dizzy. But we didn’t care. Rock ‘n’ roll was meant to be misunderstood by old people. So we took off our huge blond wigs and went home with a big smile on our faces.
Ever since, I have secretly wanted to go back to that. But then I got my first acoustic guitar and then Nirvana did their unplugged and then I discovered Leonard Cohen and before I knew, headbanging was a faraway dream. Utopia.
Maybe this song is as close I will ever get to ‘The Final Countdown’ again. If you listen closely you will find that I have listened to ‘There is a war’ by Leonard Cohen way too many times. And that keybaords are not what they used to be. But still. This song made me nod my head a few times in my little room full of instruments.
It’s called ‘Silent Soldiers’ I hope you like it.
Love,
L
PS There are no picture sof the Playback Contest. Please don’t bother to ask.
SILENT SOLDIERS
We were raised on green hills, in the shadows of trees
Sheltered lives built around the promise to please
But we were rolling to the opposite side
The first fight was a little accident
An act of faith we would later repent
We were roaming in silent stupor at night
In the morning I will whisper your name
The next one was a little less unforeseen
There was will to conquer, there was a scheme
We were struggling for a place to hide
We came across men that were hurtfully wise
Saying there’s only two armies and you need to pick sides
We were fighting back to back from that time
In the morning I will whisper your name
Then one day we started fighting kamikaze style
From the wounds we have we’ll happily die
We’ve been cornered into the darker side
When your way of looking at the world
Is more beautiful than the world you look at
There’ll be violence until the end of time
In the morning I will whisper your name
And you’ll be there
