A low day today. After months or years of moving towards new types of music and more incorporation of vocals I feel I've hit a wall in my vocal training, yet these feel crucial to my artistic future and development. My eyesight has taken a downwards turn this year and my painting may have to wait until the end of Covid-19, so I feel disconnected from art and the world. Yet, I have ideas, will, inspiration. The New Music Show on Radio 3 last night was full of exciting gems. If I lose my voice, my blurry eyes, my blocked ears, my arthritic fingers, then I can still adapt and do something, and will do so every day.
Here are my lyrics to 'I, Sisyphus' so far, which I don't think I've shared yet. This is very much a conventional rock song but it also defines a few themes for variations throughout the album. I need to add a few more tracks, and, for the sake of unity I will try to reuse the material that is there. These vocals are not recorded. I can but hope that, next year, some time, they will be.
I've been pushing this rock
for a million years
through this desert black
and my tempest tears
with an ice wind and rain against me
and a far-away peak to tempt me
and I scream to the void
to the gods above
but I feel no anger
I feel no love
and I hear no voices back
as I roll my friend along the track
just a-cawing of a raven black
evermore
I've been rolling this rock of pain
I've been rolling this rock of pain
Up this hill
And I see the bones of those before me
And I know the world will just ignore me
or tell me to stop
but I won't
until I reach the top.
My skin is gettin thin
and my arms are broke
but my will is stronger
than this cursed yoke
And I cry to the shades around
As I struggle on broken ground
and I hear no voices back
as I roll my friend along the track
just a-cawing of a raven black
evermore
I've been rolling this rock of pain
I've been rolling this rock of pain
Up this hill
And I give my life to this rock
Everybody keeps saying stop
but I won't
but I won't
until I reach the top.
