SONG NOTES FOR BOOMERANG BAY
We don't walk boldly forwards into the future – we walk backwards, seeing only the known (the past). The future is an unknown place that we can only glimpse over our shoulders as we travel on.
Down to the water...
BOOMERANG BAY symbolises the magic land of childhood; places where we long to return. The devastation of many of our coastal areas by over-development and the legacy of "progress" in our greedy culture could leave future generations of children bereft of the inspirational places which nurture souls.
CABARITA WAVES roll in and roll out again and everything is changed. The wonders of the world are around us - in the hand you hold, the bird gliding over the sea; in a seashell or a glimpse of a distant whale. We're here for just a moment and the world around us is filled with treasures washed up on the shore or floating free.
MRS MACDONALD'S LAMENT was written by Gordon Bok of Maine, USA in 1971. Even in the 70's over-fishing was making its mark on traditional fisheries. This song is even more meaningful today as families all around the world are losing the things that sustain them. We also lose (as Gordon says) “… a way of thinking, a way of living, the value of which to the world can never be measured or replaced” .
LAKE IN MAINE. A late autumn afternoon by Megunticook Lake in Maine – a beaver swims right up to the watcher on the shore and speaks in the silence. The lake and its inhabitants leave their indelible mark on the watcher who takes these words with her as she leaves.
HERRING CROON. Big corporations are fishing even in the spawning grounds. Traditional fishermen never worked that way. “When we were fishing herring, they stood half a chance,” says Frank Wiley, old style fisherman. When the modern boats ‘otter trawl' the bottom of the ocean there is no habitat left for any species. Gordon Bok wrote the song in 1975 and added the final verse in 2010.
SONG OF THE ANSWERING VOICES (Elliott Heads, 1946). Many paths call our restless, youthful spirits. A young Bill Scott wrote this poem soon after he came out of the Navy. At life's crossroads we listen to the often conflicting voices within.
Heading inland …
THE ENGINES SLEEP. Keith Foster was a Victorian railwayman and a musician. R ecalling the middle of the night atmosphere of a large country steam locomotive depot of 65 years ago, he said, “It is just after midnight, early on a Monday morning. Picture some 30 locos at rest – one or two perhaps facing each other across one of the two turntables, but most with their backs turned, their heads in corners, as though seeking privacy. The only human activity is that of the lighter-up on his rounds and, yes, he knows that on occasion a whistle can make a soft moaning sound when its boiler first makes steam.”
OLD BROWN DONKEY. This is the true story of the life of Sarah, a donkey who was part of our family. When animals touch our lives we are enriched and blessed by their integrity and spirit.
BOULIA MOON. An old wooden wagon stands on the edge of an isolated outback town – a town which only came to be in 1879 and exists on the edge of the Simpson Desert. Whether the moon is full or dark, the night sky is full of stars and dreams. These lands are heavy with history and spiritual resonance.
THE OPAL. Queensland writer Bill Scott wrote Hey Rain! - a song we have loved and sung since the first rainy night we heard it back in 1986. The shifting colours of the tropics, the hidden fire of northern sunsets, and the powerful cleansing tropical rain are all contained in one jewel of a song. This is a song of thanks for a life-changing song and its maker.
QUIET GREEN BUSHLAND, GOODBYE. John Broomhall writes of the vanishing lands on the edges of our mushrooming cities. Since the 1950's urban sprawl has taken out farms and bushland at a great rate. Highways and real estate cover arable land, while birds and native animals lose their wild habitat and disappear.
GOIN' BACK. Music not only provides a soundtrack to our lives – it also helps us formulate our philosophies and values. We travel with these values and they shape who we become as we grow older.