Macidol Mac music community

Song Information:

We have a long-time friend who came to Australia in the 70s to escape war in Lebanon he married a school friend of ours. Jim is a successful Lebanese Australian who has given a lot to the community, worked hard and done well for himself he is one of the most decent people I know. His extended family left Lebanon at roughly the same time as he did to Paraguay, Australia, the US and other countries where they were offered a safer existence.


On asking how his family was this week, I learned that some had returned to Beirut after the hostilities subsided over recent years because it was safe and because it had become possible to live a normal life there. Im talking about mainstream, hard working, decent folk here. His niece Zeinab, her husband and their baby twin daughters are stuck in a suburb of Beirut where Israeli bombs are being directed as I write this they are terrified but OK at the moment. She is a young woman the same age as my daughter and I cry for her and her family.


I do not support Hezbollah (although I think I understand partly - where they are coming from) and I think that their campaign of bombings in Israel is totally unacceptable. The behaviour of Israel though is unconscionable in this current situation a vast over-response to threat - over 400 Lebanese killed, the vast majority of whom are civilians with nothing to do with Hezbollah many of them children. The lack of intervention and the support of Israels actions by the US (and Australia and other countries) upsets me deeply it seems to me that all the impending war will do is increase the credibility of the minority radical groups in the Middle East, and as a result, their likely impact on world peace. It will kill countless innocent civilians along the way, and damage the lives of millions of others.


I am aware that these sentiments may upset some people here, and I apologise for bringing politics into this arena, but it is so frustrating to me that all I can do is write an insignificant song that goes nowhere near expressing my rage.


This song is for Zeinab, her family and all the other innocent victims of war.



My thanks go to Fran for adding the sadness and rage that I am unable to express musically.




Ziti: In the background chords, i used volume swells and vibrato on oddball voicings of neils chords...i was really trying to have the sound of crying children - an orphanage full. The solos are just the wail of anguish i feel about the whole situation.


I try not to mix politics and music either...we all have our views. I do not take sides in the current conflict between hezbolah and isreal. These people seem to hate each other more than they love their children. Killing in the name of God. I cannot grasp either of these notions.


Neils lyrics to me don't really take sides either...but it is an accurate observation. All the people in the middle east have a decision to make. Can they ever decide to sit and talk, instead of aiming missiles and strapping bombs on?


We can pray for peace in our time. We can act to promote peace in our
time.


All I can do is play my heart.


Thanks for the cool music to play neil!


Z

Song Lyrics:

Blown Away
2006 Neil Porter

Im so sad
Another sleepless night
Heartless missiles flying
Desperate people crying
Over there

Its so bad
I dont know how you sleep
All of this attention
No signs of intervention
Over there

Leaders give the orders
Someone pulls the trigger
Someone straps the bombs on
Someone aims the missile
They all make decisions
All except the targets
They get blown away

It cant be
These pictures cant be real
Demolishing a nation
Killing moderation
Over there

I cant see
How this can ever heal
Politicians lying
Frightened people dying
Over there

Armies do the fighting
No-one wants to be there
No-one wants to die there
No-one seems to listen
No-one hears the children
No-one has the answers
They all get blown away