Alternative Music – Page 2 – George Blamey-Steeden

AN EMPTY HALL

This spoof mag cover from about ten years ago was found in a pile of old stuff. I’d almost forgotten it, and my long hair and glasses back then when making music was just that – making music.

AN EMPTY HALL

I never saw the crossroads on last year’s map
Should I take the left turn or the right?
Straight ahead all I can see is a never-ending trap
As the sun shuts its eyes and says ‘goodnight’

That’s the time the dreams open a doorway
Grey shadows all dressed up in colours black
I’d swap my dreams for those shadows any day
Dreams seem so much better looking back

‘Time Out’ for now stares me in the face
I need space like you need drink and food
I don’t want to leave you without a trace
And join the broken, workless multitude

Indifference on the menu for tomorrow
I locked a daydream away just yesterday
Circumstance is an empty hall show
A place where shadows smile and look away

Larry’s given up the old guitar
Kate the mandolin
And Finn sold his accordion
No more ‘Busking in Berlin‘

Regarding the mentions in the above, first, my piece, ‘Time Out’ then next an old song of mine, ‘Busking in Berlin’. I hope you enjoy;

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you are looking for all my other music then you’ll find it to download on BANDCAMP and at AMAZON when searching ‘Zoolon Audio Albums’or you can stream and/or make a playlist of it on SPOTIFY

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

HEARTBEAT’S SILHOUETTE

At last the sun came out and so did I. Most people dis Dover for dumb reasons. I don’t. Aside the fact that we have White Cliffs plus a magnificent Norman Castle to the east, the harbour overlooking France to the south, more cliffs to the west and forests to the north, Dover has the River Dour running through it. Dover even got its name from the Dour. It originally had a wide estuary on the site of modern Dover, although today it flows into the Dover Harbour through a culvert. The estuary was a natural harbour for the Bronze Age settlers and traders in the area.

Scrolling forward, The Dour Estuary was then used as a port for the Roman town, as a natural harbour for the Roman fleet. This silted up in the medieval period, necessitating the construction of various artificial harbours for Dover instead.

The river has been used since AD 762 to power various watermills along its route. These included eight corn mills and five paper mills. Buckland Mill near Buckland Bridge was one of the earliest corn mills, but has since been converted into flats. Crabble Mill is now a fully restored corn mill and museum.

Time for some music. My song called ‘Tick Tock’. I hope you enjoy. The lyrics follow and are a good example how lyrics are nothing like poems.

TICK TOCK

Second hand turns
Feels like I’m slipping through times net
Safer inside
Bring the fear out
Look for answers
Victims quashed
It’s a slaughterhouse
Can you feel that sound?

Tick Tock a heartbeats silhouette
Tick Tock a heartbeats silhouette

Subside to the true face we disguise
Inside we know the only way is down

Is it safe low tide
to this poison mind
we endure
(bring the fear out) ?
Is it safe to say that getting caught was the plan?
take my hand

Tick Tock a heartbeats silhouette
Tick Tock

Subside to the true face we disguise
Inside we know the only way is down

Tick Tock a heartbeats silhouette
(we endure)
Tick Tock a heartbeats silhouette
And we know who we are
And we know what we are

Subside to the true face we disguise
Inside we know the only way

If you’re interested in my book of lyrical verse, ‘LOOKING FOR REASONS’ (above) is available on Amazon, either as a paperback or on Kindle. The UK link is below. Outside of the UK, just type in ‘Zoolon Audio’. The purchase prices have been cut right back, hence they’re not expensive. On Kindle Unlimited it’s even free!

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

DESTINY COMES WITH A CURSE

The last time I ever heard your voice
You were singing, crystal clear
Making up for lost time
Still begging to disappear

You never wanted fame, I know
Yet destiny comes with a curse
Drags you up then lets you down
I don’t know what’s worse
Than being fed a big lie
One that you believe
Just to find out later
You’ve nothing to achieve
Except maybe for insight
Into all that I confess
Knowing me completely
No need to second guess
There are places that we come from
And ones we’re going to
Sometime our paths may cross again
I guess I hope they do

I’ll tell the others to look out for you
To keep me up to date
I need to know that you’re OK
Not leave it down to fate

Here’s a song from my 2018 album ‘The Pigeons Are Switzerland’. It’s called ‘Francesca’. I hope you enjoy;

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

GINNY

Photography by Bjorn Looss – Model is Guinevere van Seenus

GINNY

It wasn’t the dragon
It wasn’t Merlin
It wasn’t the jester
Nor his old tambourine

It wasn’t the French knight
They called Lancelot
Nor evil Morgan le Fay
And the fall of Camelot

Dark Age’s disasters
Round table no more
Le Morte d’Arthur
Lady of the Lake came ashore
She took care of Excalibur
Kept it safe under water
Away from the wars
Away from the slaughter

It wasn’t because of a battle
Nor a lost wedding ring
It was his lady Ginny
Who broke the heart of Arthur, her King

She shouldn’t get blamed though
She just loved two great men
Love has its drawbacks
In the now and back then

Some say it’s all fiction
Or was just a dumb game
But one things for certain
Nothing would be ever the same

I have to admit I’m into Arthurian legend lately. Reading is about the only plus coming out of corona virus. I don’t think this lyrical style verse will ever make a song, but who knows what direction I’ll take when the world’s back to normal.

Next, probably my favourite song for all sorts of reasons. It’s from the Irish band Villagers and it is what I’d call a complete number. It’s just a shame it wasn’t mine.

Here’s one of mine. A weird instrumental called Barbed Wire from my The Forgotten Daughter Of Zeus album. I hope you enjoy;

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

THE ECHOES OF DISTANT VOICES

Now the ground is neither a sticky mud bath nor a slippery ice rink accident waiting to happen I went up to the forest on Sunday. Amazing how many trees had fallen down over winter. It’s peaceful up there.

WISHFUL THINKING

The chatter of the ghosts
A haunting silhouette
The echoes of distant voices
An orchestral violin quartet

From this cave of constant twilight
I see a red sunset
The hurricane is over
It’s nearly time to reset
The rules and regulations
The needles and vaccine
The masks, the bubbles, the distancing
The whole monotonous routine

Outside, upgraded video
Inside, a shadow’s monochrome
When yesterday becomes tomorrow
The door opens and we roam

I’m featuring the work of another artist this week. Fifi Rong is her name. As her write-up explains, ‘Fifi is a London-based vocalist, songwriter and electronic music producer. A ground-breaking artist, she is the first to succeed in organically integrating Chinese influences into western popular music, gliding effortlessly across an eclectic range of contemporary genres. Her trademark hybrid sound is a seamless blend of Pop, Electronica, Alternative R&B, Avant-garde and UK Bass music.’ I hope you enjoy her new video and song;

If you want to download this song of Fifi’s or any of her previous work then here’s the link to Bandcamp. Just click on ‘Another Me’;

18 months ago, Fifi kindly featured on my then new song, ‘Devil’s Kiss’. In case you’ve not heard it previously, here it is;

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

A BELL THAT DOESN’T CHIME

Source – Lieutenant Morris Meredith Williams was a talented artist and filled 15 pocket-sized sketch books while serving on the Western Front in WW1. The drawings, along with letters, he sent back home to his wife, Alice. There’s a book of his work called ‘An Artist’s War.’

A BELL THAT DOESN’T CHIME

You’re looking for a hero
That hero isn’t me
I gave up counting daydreams
And climbed into history
On that day I saw a thousand graves
They all said ‘Aged 19’
Wall to wall white marble stone
Stood on grass so green
They went on for miles
As far as I could see
Relics of remembrance
A cosmic storm’s debris

Were they just a band of brothers or just a band of new born ghosts?
Were it not for war they’d ditch the trenches for homeland’s coasts
What was once green grassland is now a battlefield so obscene
Where did it all go so wrong? Could it have been foreseen?

Guess that it hardly matters now
When the stones say ‘Aged 19’
Battles fought and lives all lost
Or something in between?

The portal up in the sky
Got opened bang on time
For mud and guts and diaries
And a church bell that doesn’t chime

Before lockdown shut the cinemas I’d seen the movie ‘1917’. Brilliant in so many ways. Since then I’ve watched it a couple of times more at home. I remembered I’d once written a song called ‘Age 19’ after visiting the WW1 graveyard in Etaples, France a few years ago where there were line after line of gravestones all marked ‘Age 19’. It makes you shiver; it makes lockdown a nothing. I’m told I had a relative who died on the last day of WW1. Imagine that. That war ended at 11am on 11th. November 1918. All he had to do was to stay out of trouble that morning. Sad, for sure. Above is the revised version of the original lyric.

I’m thinking ‘Time Out’ from my ‘Dream Rescuer’ album fits the mood of the trenches in WW1. I hope you agree;

If you’re interested in my book of lyrical verse, ‘LOOKING FOR REASONS’ is available on Amazon, either as a paperback or on Kindle. The UK link is below. Outside of the UK, just type in ‘Zoolon Audio’. The purchase prices have been cut right back, hence they’re not expensive. On Kindle Unlimited it’s even free!

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

A SCARECROW ON THE GALLOWS

*Source – Amazing Dance Shadow Studio – Funzug.com*

The lyric below is from my song, ‘Ballerina Dancing’ from 2014. It got good reviews back then but me being me it has never made a published album yet. Right now the song itself is still in demo mode, but not for much longer, so just the words today.

I’ve never known love
And I’ve never known hate
And charcoal letters on the wall
Help seal my fate

Ballerina dancing
And she’s just a silhouette
An offer to the condemned man
Of one last cigarette

All I know is all I know
And all I know is real,
Like a scarecrow on the gallows
It is no big deal

I’ve seen the writing on the walls
In shadow land today
Telling of another place
A place of night and day

I’ve never known love
And I’ve never known hate
And charcoal letters on the wall
Help seal my fate

Should you want to check out my current portfolio re music and words, here’s the list. I hope you enjoy;

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

TOY TOWN HAS LOST ITS SOUL

It may seem like Toy Town
When you’re looking down from up above
But in reality what you’ll find there
Are the lovers and the unloved

Like anywhere else around the world
Opposites attract
North and south and east and west
There’s no argument, it’s a fact

Umbrellas for a rainy day
Sledges for the snow
Barbeques come summertime
Autumn Bonfire Night’s multi-coloured show

But now the streets are empty
Corona virus has control
For lovers and the unloved
Toy Town has lost its soul

My last blog post was all about my new book, a book full of lyrical verse and short stories. It’s called, ‘LOOKING FOR REASONS’. I guess there’s no harm in mentioning it again. If you are interested, ‘LOOKING FOR REASONS’ is available on Amazon, either as a paperback or on Kindle. The UK link is below. Outside of the UK, just type in ‘Zoolon Audio’. The purchase prices have been cut right back, hence they’re not expensive. On Kindle Unlimited it’s even free!

Time for some music. This one is called ‘Summer Died on a Saturday’. Looking back, it seems I guessed right with the title. It’s a number from my album named ‘The Forgotten Daughter of Zeus’. I hope you enjoy.

Also, if you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you are looking for all my other music then you’ll find it to download on BANDCAMP or you can stream and/or make a playlist of it on SPOTIFY

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

‘LOOKING FOR REASONS’ – THE BOOK

Originally from my song, ‘Liquid Truth’ – written in 2012, me a first year music student back then – these words below open Zoolon’s new book called, ‘LOOKING FOR REASONS’. They just about sum me up.

‘When will all the pieces come together,
And if I don’t like the picture am I stuck with it forever?’

Someone wrote me some kind words for the blurb for the book. Thanks for that. It reads like this;

‘Zoolon is better known as an accomplished songwriter, sound artist and musician with 5 albums to his name. He also writes in his own distinctive style. Following on from his first book entitled ‘The Words & Thoughts of a Dyslexic Musician’, the ‘LOOKING FOR REASONS’ new collection is an assortment of lyrical verses and short stories themed around today’s hapless society, it’s pluses and minuses, along with his own off-centre take on a dying planet. He’ll make you laugh, think and sometimes cry, but it will be worth it’.

If you’re interested, ‘LOOKING FOR REASONS’ is available on Amazon, either as a paperback or on Kindle. The UK link is below. Outside of the UK, just type in ‘Zoolon Audio’. The purchase prices have been cut right back, hence they’re not expensive. On Kindle Unlimited it’s even free!

Time for some music. Today, ‘The Pigeons are Switzerland’. I hope you enjoy;

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you are looking for all my other music then you’ll find it to download on BANDCAMP or you can stream and/or make a playlist of it on SPOTIFY

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE

DREAMER, ZEUS & THE OLD LADY

Art work by Funniest Animal Videos

I was reading an article that said when in the mood a cat can count up to 7. My immediate thought was that that made a mockery of the 9 lives theory, given that cats must be in no man’s land after 7 disastrous accidents. I wondered how the writer got to know that cats can count up to 7, so I wrote this.

The old lady with the broomstick she took everywhere never really wanted to live on Planet Earth but she didn’t have much choice but to stay put. She wasn’t a witch or anything like that. She just liked her broomstick and didn’t care for Planet Earth that much. She always said she found having a broomstick therapeutic. Her Earth problems were all about allergies. Hay fever, dust allergies and atopic dermatitis were her adversaries. She didn’t quite know what atopic dermatitis was. It was what her doctor called it and he knew more words than she did. What she did know was that it made her itch most times, although for reasons unknown she never itched when carrying her broomstick. Mostly she slept with the broomstick. When she went down town to do a bit of shopping on rainy days she had to leave it at home because she couldn’t hold an umbrella and the stick at the same time without falling over.

Luckily she never had animal type allergies. That’s why she kept two cats and always kept the bird feeding station down the bottom of the garden full of seed.

As she’d grown older then older some more she found life was getting boring. Her husband had died years before and she lived alone, apart for the cats. Morpheus and Zeus were the names she gave them. Because she couldn’t always remember Morpheus’ name she mainly called him Dreamer. He slept a lot.

It was because of her cats that her world got better then better still. It was on a hot summer’s day that she decided she would feed her cats outside. Her back garden was massive but because of her allergies she’d had it concreted over. To make the garden look better she’d planted masses of plastic flowers in tubs all over the place. It confused the bees but no harm was done.

Somehow, given that she was carrying her broomstick with her, she took with her a bowl each of gourmet cat food chicken cubes in sauce for both Dreamer and Zeus. The thing was that one bowl had five cubes, the other had seven. Zeus got the short end of the stick. He didn’t look that happy. She noticed that Zeus had nodded his head five times before popping over to Dreamer, where he nodded seven times. When he’d finished nodding he looked up at the old lady and shook his head in disappointment. It was a that point she’d discovered that cats can count.

Ever since that day she never got bored again. Once she’d taught her cats to play counting games she never looked back. The cats were pretty happy themselves. They had known for some time that dogs can’t count, even though wolves could.

Every day, sometimes all day, you’d find her playing Snakes and Ladders and Ludo with the cats.

Some music. My song ‘Tick-Tock’ from my ‘The Pigeons Are Switzerland’ album. You can download this BANDCAMP I hope you enjoy.

If you’re interested in my inexpensive PROMO VIDEOS FOR AUTHORS hit the link here or aim at the one at the top of this blog.

As ever, if any poets out there are interested in having their poems turned into songs then click here to check it out: POETRY TO SONG

If you are looking for all my other music then you’ll find it to download on BANDCAMP or you can stream and/or make a playlist of it on SPOTIFY

If you’re thinking about new t-shirts and similar for yourself, here’s my collection you might be interested in ZOOLON’S MERCHANDISE