i was recording “undine”
when dad and kathy dropped into the studio
that was when we used to record up on merlin street
not far from the olde mercury towers building
i was just putting the final vocal touches to the title track
i was singing in the darkened booth
sipping occasionally on a glass of johnny walker scotch (silver label)
and puffing on the ever-present weed
my voice was strained and sore
it hurt my throat to go for the high notes
i was singing low and husky
i saw dad first
he was talking to john b the engineer
i could see dad was making john laugh at the console
then i saw kathy
she was peeping shyly round the door in the recording room
there she was as bright as a button as always
we hadnt seen each other for so long now
not since i became quite famous
and i got stories written about me in the newspaper
we had both changed
both of us now were taller and gaunter
are you identical twins ? stupid people had asked us now n then
how can a boy n girl be identical? we’d ask back at the same time
and then face each other
roll our two sets of grey-blue eyes
and storm off
we were friends and twins and brother n sister
we played our own complex games
we had our own language
only dad was allowed in our world
usually dad and kathy ganging up on me
it made me laugh when they played with me
but it made me sad too kathy
that you always took dads side……
seeing her there, my voice took on a new leash of life
johns voice came on in my headphones
“well schteve ……” in his characteristic slur
“wanna try another one?”
ok i said
and the music rolled in
first of all a lonely accoustic guitar
its playing a f# minor 9th over and over
my bass came meandering in
looser than a golden goose
the drums pitter patter… just like water in fact
an electric guitar crying in gentle wah wah
i get ready to sing
my entry coming up
abrubtly the song rises up to d major
i begin to sing
beneath the surface where i watch you
drift away so drift away
everybody half something else
everybody wants to change
strangely enough
nothing could change you….
the music stopped
b’s voice came on
“mate you got it!”
i go back in to them
i have john play them our new album
dad says youre bloody clever, arent you
kathys got some little tears in her eyes and she just nods
but her nod means she really loves it
lets go out and have some dinner dad says
dad lets kathy drive his triumph sable but with much wincing
i sit in the back talking in her ear as she drives
and i ask her about south america
through the rainy streets of alexandria and kensington
kathy began to tell us about her time in argentina
as she braked and accelerated and steered through the shiny night
she met a man, a magic realist
THE magic realist according to some
enrico ruiz revilla
author of the lonely world
now a motion picture starring nicole kidman and tyrone powers
he was on holiday
and had seen my sister acting in shakespeares play beauty stab
and contacted her via her agent
they met and fell head over heels
and kathy had gone off to argentina with him
there they had embarked upon making a film
the film was sometimes called the two beasts
or sometimes
no su amante
anyway things became strange during the early days
things went missing
people changed roles and dropped out of character
the moon turned pink one night with a delicate mauve aureole
a real gun was fired injuring several cameramen
my sister begins to suspect somethings going wrong
but she cant speak much spanish really
shes acting in the film but she only has a few lines in spanish
during the montezumas dream sequence
she says
si no el cortez, entonces algun otro
kathy repeated her phrase a few times in the car
as if hypnotized…
gee thats sounds like real argentinian my girl said dad
thats really good kath i said
no its not really but i’m supposed to be english she said
anyway…
what about your enrico…? asks dad..what was he doing..?
kathy sighed
swinging into neptune street and changing lanes
she drove carefully down the long palm tree lined avenues
presently she begins to speak
dad and i listened in silence to her tale
“rico was obsessed with this fellini movie
or was it the norwegian director alldrig
about a group of people in this castle
changing into birds and flying around
watching everything
all the pain
all the joy
all the struggle
although set in medieval times
some characters appear to be modern
with wrist watches and telephones
usted no penso que entonces fueron inventados
i think my character says…
something like that
but some people understand whats happening
theres this hunter who traps the birds
and oh i dont really know
he does dreadful things to them
i never really understood this part
jesus is in there as this mexican god
i mean it really looked like jesus but in this golden head dress
and enrico and some others took some wild new drug
and some snake ate the birds that had been trained
at the same time as this
argentinas economy had gone all wobbly as enrico said
and our set was being repossessed bit by bit
we drove up into some mountains
and i was lost in a snowstorm
wandering in a white wilderness
my body became numb
i could not feel it
and eventually i did not care
i felt so sleepy and i lay down and slept
and the next thing i knew
i was walking in the door of the studio tonight..”
we arrived at our destination
but dad and i could say nothing