Stoic Music 18

The Style Council passed on, just as all fashions must pass on.

I recall that sad moment when I read that Weller and Talbot had their last album rejected by their label, because it was hardly commercial enough. In hindsight, Modernism: A New Decade is actually a great set of tunes. It's just that the suits didn't know how to sell it for their profit.

This remake of Joe Smooth's "Promised Land" was all we got from those sessions at that time. I remember jumping around in my living room to it, wondering how no one else was moved by the music.

Written in 12/2004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fSytuCtZnk

Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah
Brothers, sisters, one day we'll all be free
From fighting,violence, people crying in the street
When the angels from above
Fall down and spread their wings like doves
We'll walk hand in hand
Sisters, brothers, we'll make it to the Promised Land

You and I
We'll walk the land
And as one, and as one
We'll take our stand

When the angels from above
Fall down and spread their wings like doves
We'll walk hand in hand
Sisters, brothers, we'll make it to the Promised Land



And that was is it for my favorite band of the 80's. Talbot went on to continue doing what he loved, playing piano and Hammond in the new Acid Jazz scene, never caring about all the popularity. Weller had a harder time.

The man had been a British cultural icon, and now he seemed to be a nobody. And he carried on, as all great people do.

In the fall of 1992, I was quite probably in the worst state of my life. I had lost my best friend of many years, the girl I wanted to marry. I was now setting out on what was going to be six years of solitude. And Paul Weller released a self-titled solo album full of songs that helped me to survive.

This was the most important of those songs. Weller wasn't quite as political as he had been. He became more personal, and more philosophical. And this would keep me from blowing my brains out quite a number of times:

"Time around us, time to live
Getting back everything we give
Freedom's truth is the only truth
To save the day and pave the route."

Written in 12/2004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcR6vXZVyqY

Tell us if our future's far...

Only surface, Just skin deep
When words fly like angels around your feet
Need the something, feel real inside
Cling together, as together we ride

Round and round and up and down
Here we go in this moment in time
Round and round and up and down
Here we go again

Moving up to collect our prizes
Sinking fast into life's surprises
Win today but lose tomorrow
Lending what we just can't borrow

Round and round! Up and down!

Round and round and up and down
Here we go again

Time around us, time to live
Getting back everything we give
Freedoms truth is the only truth
To save the day and pave the route

Be the first one on your block
To know the time and own a clock
Whose hands point upwards to the stars
To tell us if our future's far

Round and round and up and down
Here we go in this moment in time
Round and round and up and down
Here we go again

Round and round and up and down
Here we go in this moment in time
Round and round and up and down
Here we go again

Tell us if our future's far...