time passes
we remain outside the wall
the pressure builds up
my head cant take it
i need to breathe or something
i cant find my way home
i follow the birds
i follow the fish
i follow the roads
i amble aimlessly
many things happen
people born
people die
the moon glides through the sky
the systems keep pumping
the great machine with its music
the hammers and bells
the strings and skins
a black piano
a silver saxophone
a blue note
a distant yacht
take me
take me back
take me back to a time when i was safe
and i never knew how music was made
and i was dreaming in the back of my daddies car
cos we were going on our christmas holidays
listen isnt that those beatles
we could hear them here and there
in the bohemian streets of old surfers paradise
go go girls at the jolly spot
the chlorine in the pools
the koala park
the bird sanctuary
my first guitar came 6 years later
a violin copy made by aria
and australia pressed all around me
my school and all its wonderful and strange kids
and on hot days and on cold mornings
and music magically kept appearing
new music old music
someone lent my dad a led zepplin record
and a record by spirit
and i tape recorded my favourite songs off the radio
with an old reel to reel machine
and i believed in all the songs
i thought they were all real
i never knew it was just like people making em up
and i joined and left bands in some long ago dismal past
that seems like in some other century…well of course it was
and i was so young
and i knew nothing
nobody really cared what i did
and i did what i like
cruising round canberra
in my datsun 1300 station wagon loaded up with guitar n amp
i drove out to queanbeyan n jammed with some guys
one day in the heat in this community hall or something
me plunking away on that bass
lugging my stuff up n down stairs
smoking stupid cigarettes and drinking chocolate milk
i was a veg so my mum gave me egg n chips n salad every night
life seemed so mysterious n unending
i would never grow old
i lay in the sun trying to get a tan
my hair got pretty long n silly
my girlfriend dropped me n picked me up again
we drove to the river for picnics
my dad put a little swimming pool in our garden
people would pop round n have their towels with them
one day electric warrior came out
i was lost in a dream
no paperwork
no computers
no mobile phones
no dvds no video cassettes
no colour tvs
the radio was king
we listened reverently
music was an aural thing
there was no visual attached
ah……
anyway……