Eric Bogle   •   Colours of Dreams

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  • Colours of Dreams
    • 2002 - Greentrax CDTRAX 237 CD (UK)
  • Track List
    1. The Colour of Dreams
    2. No Resurrection
    3. The Koala Kafe
    4. As If He Knows
    5. Reconciliation
    6. Elvis N Me
    7. Daniel Smiling
    8. Global Economy
    9. Care For the Land
    10. One Morning in Bar Harbor
    11. The Dalai Lama's Candle
    12. Homecoming
    13. Ibrahim
    14. Elizabeth's Song
    15. Cradle to the Grave
    16. Soaring Free (Maureen Sansom, Eric Bogle)

  • Musicians
    • Eric Bogle: Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals
    • Dave O'Neill: Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Fiddle, Mandolin, Bouzouki
    • Jon Jones: Drums, Percussion
    • John Munro: Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals
    • Kat Kraus: Backing Vocals
    • Adrian Ferraretto: Cello
    • Mick Wordley: Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Accordion
  • Musicians
    • Produced by Mick Wordley & Eric Bogle, with the assistance of Con Zensus
    • Engineered & Mixed by Mick Wordley at Mixmasters Studios, Hawthorndene, Adelaide, South Australia
    • Mastered by Neville Clark at Disk Edits P/L, Adelaide, South Australia
    • Photos: Eric Bogle
    • Artwork: Presto Graphics, Adelaide, South Australia
    • All songs written by Eric Bogle, unless othewise noted
    • Australia is blessed with many fine musical instrument makers
    • On this recording, Dave, John & Mick all played guitars made by Brian De Gruchy. Dave also played a mandolin made by Peter Coombes & a bouzouki by Graham MacDonald. Jon played a space-age bodhran, crafted by Syn Percussion of Bathurst, N.S.W.

Sleeve Notes

The Colour Of Dreams — A sort of "can-remember-where-you-were-when" type of song more or less and probably a bit less than more.

No Resurrection — A few years ago in William St. in Sydney I watched a very young, very dead boy being loaded into the back of an ambulance. The general consensus of the crowd of onlookers was that he was the victim of a drug overdose, this opinion being confirmed by one of the policemen on the scene who delivered his own epitaph in a street-weary tone tinged with contempt: "Just another fucking junkie".

The Koala Kafe — If, as I would still like to believe, the real heart of Australia beats more truly in rural rather than urban Australia, then this country is in need of some open-heart surgery. Many small towns and villages in rural Australia are dead or dying as the migration of young people from the bush to the city continues unabated. It's not a new problem by any means, but it seems to be getting worse. Mind you, it might help things a bit when politicians from all sides of the political spectrum (does a spectrum have sides?) start giving the people in rural Australia the help and respect they deserve.

As If He Knows — During WW1, Australia shipped about 53000 horses overseas to serve in the various theatres of that war. Of that number, only one returned to Australia at the end of the war, and it was, of course, a General's favourite mount. The rest, or at least the survivors of that original 53000, were not allowed to return home mainly because of quarantine restrictions, it was feared they could spread anthrax and similar diseases throughout Australia's cattle industry. So the ANZACS were ordered to get rid of what horses they had left. In the European theatre of war many of the horses were sold or given to French and Belgian farmers and peasants, and such like. But in Palestine the Light Horsemen refused to either sell or give their horses to the local Arab population, as they thought that the Arabs in general treated their animals with dreadful cruelty. Mind you, I can't think of anything more cruel than subjecting innocent horses to the horrors of modem warfare, but I guess those were the prevailing attitudes of the times. So, rather than leave their horses to a lifetime of slavery, as they saw it, the Light Horsemen shot them. Each man shot his best mate's horse, and that was that. I wrote this song after reading an Anzac Day newspaper article about an old veteran Light Horseman called Elijah Conn, who was talking about his horse, Banjo, and how his best mate shot Banjo just before they marched off to the ship that was waiting to take them home to Australia. Even after 70 years, Elijah's eyes filled with tears when talking about it. This song then is for Elijah and Banjo. Sorry to take up so much of your time with this little story, but it's one that deserves to be heard I think.

Reconciliation — One of the more noble words in the English language, along with another noble word, "Sorry". Unfortunately, both words seem to stick in the throat of some of our more senior politicians, shame on them. The removal of children from their own native cultures in order that they could be brought up in the white man's infinitely more advanced and civilised culture is a shameful story that has been repeated in many countries around the world. Australia is not alone in this regard, not that this in any way excuses one of the more ignoble chapters of Australia's history.

Elvis 'N' Me — Elvis was my very first musical hero, and his music helped me get through a hormonally tortured, perpetually sullen and extremely protracted adolescence. If my mother was still alive, she would no doubt like to thank him as well.

Daniel Smiling — It's a disturbing fact that children who are abused during childhood, physically or sexually, often grow up to be adults who physically or sexually abuse children. This was certainly true in the case of 3 year old Daniel Valerio who was beaten to death by his de-facto stepfather, who had been in turn horrendously abused when he was a child by his father. And so the sad and vicious circle was completed.

Global Economy — I have been a Leftie, politically speaking, for most of my adult life, but I thought I'd grown out of it. Obviously not …

Care For The Land — Hands up those who remember the year that Wee Eric was one of the official LandCare ambassadors. Well, if anyone does, let me know, because I can't remember either. All I know is that it was a few years ago, and I wrote this song to mark my ambassadorship. LandCare is a wonderful organization, it started in Australia, and has now spread around the world. You can call me a tree-hugging greenie if you like, I would regard it as a compliment of the highest order …

One Morning In Bar Harbor — On the 11th of September last year my wife Carmel and I were in Bar Harbor, a beautiful and tranquil little coastal town in Maine, on the east coast of the U.SA. Like most of the rest of the world we sat stunned and disbelieving as the horrific events in New York unfolded on television before our incredulous eyes. The beauty and peace of our immediate surroundings served only to heighten and make even more obscene the murderous madness that was taking place a couple of hundred miles down the coast. Many have remarked that they woke up on September 11th to a world changed forever. It is perhaps more disturbing to conclude that we may well have woken up to a world that had not changed at all, but which only chose to reveal it's true nature on that day.

The Dalai Lama's Candle — A couple of years ago, a friend came to our housewarming party and gave us a candle as a housewarming gift. When I asked him why he'd given us a cheap bloody candle and not a silver dinner setting, he told me that it was a special candle, that it had lit by a candle that had been lit by a candlde which had been lit by a candle which had been lit by the Dalai Lama. And that furthermore, whenever we lit our candle it would spread the Dalai Lama's gentle and courageous spirit through our house, and that if we chose to light other candles it his spirit would be spread even further! Whew! And to think I would have settled for a paltry silver dinner setting! Anyway, it got me thinking about continuity, what's handed to us from our ancestors, and this is what this song is about with a few diversions along the way.

Homecoming — In pursuit of our dreams we often find that what we left behind in the pursuit is what we were pursuing in the first place. From page 12 of Eric's Book of Well-Worn Cliches.

Ibrahim — Eric's Hypotheticals - if a boatload of refugees from the troubles in Northern Ireland or a bunch of disillusioned Poms fleeing Tony Blair's Socialist Paradise had turned up at some time off Australia's northern shore and landed here illegally, would they have ended up in a detention camp in Port Hedland for 3 years? I somehow doubt it, which could suggest that Australia's policy on illegal migrants is racially based, heaven forfend! All this talk about legality, and very little about morality or plain old human compassion. What's happening to us?

Elizabeth's Song — Elizabeth died when she was only four months old. another medical statistic to add to the puzzling files of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. But to her grieving parents. Sue and Richard, she was not a statistic, she was their much loved, eagerly anticipated little daughter, and they found their grief was not helped by the fact that their family and friends were reluctant to talk about Elizabeth after her death, quite understandably thinking to do so would only cause Sue and Richard more pain. But Sue and Richard wanted people to talk about Elizabeth, they wanted to share the precious few memories of their daughter that they had, for not to do so would have dimmed the joy of the happy memories and helped lock the painful ones inside, and would have been a denial of the very existence and validity of Elizabeth's brief, bright life. Sue wrote to me, and I wrote this song.

Cradle To The Grave — Hallelujah, Eric is saved! Well, not really, it's just that I like a good strong old-fashioned hymn (or her).

Soaring Free — Many Years Ago, In A Cold, Wet, Green Land Far Far Away. I Used To Be A Singer For A Rock Group Call "Eric And The Informers". The Drummer Of This Group Was One Mr. Brian Brockie, And Early In 2002, His sister Maureen wrote to me enclosing a poem she had written about our home town of Peebles. It's amazing the myriad of ways that the past can reach out to you every now and then and give you a wee jolt. I liked the poem very much, and set it to music and here it is.