• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Bands & Projects
    • Marty Willson-Piper
    • Marty & Olivia
    • Noctorum
    • MOAT
    • Atlantæum Flood
    • Anekdoten
      • How I Joined Anekdoten
    • The Church
      • Sleeve Notes
    • All About Eve
  • Discography
  • Gear
  • Talking
  • Lyrics
    • SOLO ALBUMS
      • In Reflection
      • Art Attack
      • Rhyme
      • Spirit Level
      • Hanging Out In Heaven
      • Nightjar
    • NOCTORUM
      • Sparks Lane
      • Offer The Light
      • Honey Mink Forever
      • The Afterlife
    • MOAT
      • Moat
      • Poison Stream
    • Seeing Stars
  • Sleeve Notes
    • Of Skins And Heart
    • The Blurred Crusade
    • Seance
    • Heyday
    • Starfish
    • Gold Afternoon Fix
    • Priest = Aura
  • Bandcamp

Marty Willson-Piper

The official home of Marty Willson-Piper

  • News
  • Blog
  • Shows
  • Songwriting & Guitar Guidance
  • In Deep Music Archive
  • Contact

Apr 08 2020

TO WHERE I AM NOW

The sky was so blue today, the sun was warm on my back, I came out with my coat on and walked a few yards then turned back and left it in the hallway. I saw a goldfinch in a garden, exploding with colour, red and yellow flashes. The world might have been perfect, but what are we to do even beyond the present situation, because when it’s all over all those other problems we were living with, angry about, disillusioned with, will return with a whole lot of new issues to navigate. There are many injustices to be fought for and there are many imminent situations that need our attention, but it all seems so hopeless. Do we take action or do we concentrate on our personal improvement? Not all of us are warriors despite our concern. There was a time when I was sending a small amount of money every month from my bank to Amnesty International. I guess a lot of us pick a cause we believe in and try to contribute something. At some point I was disturbed to find that they had just simply stopped taking the money and I thought if they can’t get it together to take free money, how good can they be at fairly distributing it?

Today I was wondering if my contribution to the world was enough. Making music is certainly a privilege, especially if you are getting paid to do it. Writing and having someone out there read your words or teaching which in my case is simply sharing ideas collected from experience. Others aren’t so lucky, I could say I’ve made sacrifices, but most people don’t even get the opportunity to make the sacrifices and then there’s the world outside our little world of affluence and freedom that we have here in the West. I was thinking that for us privileged Europeans that maybe travel should be compulsory. Three months in a country that speaks a different language, three months in America, three months in China, three months in a developing country somewhere in Africa, three months in a different political system to our own, three months in the desert, three months by the sea, three months in the mountains. Two years of worldly experience. It couldn’t hurt and Americans, Australians, the Japanese, all peoples could have their equivalent so that everyone in the world was aware of everyone else and how it was. But even this is elitist and privileged, because the developing countries could never see the West and then go home to an uncertain future with little opportunity. So when all this lockdown is over, all the other troubles, ignorance and prejudices will still be there. What happened to the news of Syria, Israel and Palestine, the Catalan separatists, the new Labour leader, Greta Thunberg’s rallying cry to save the planet, Iran, Iraq, peace in Afghanistan, terrorist threats, Putin and Russia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, all these things are still there, you’d never know it. Racism will continue, the nutty far right will be continuing their message of hate, gay people will be persecuted, women will still be fighting for equal pay – maybe now nurses might get that pay rise that austerity wouldn’t allow.

In my lucky life I played guitar and six string bass on another Space Summit song today and I will be continuing to do this tomorrow. Dare and I were commenting that the acoustic guitar we recorded today (my Fender El Rio) we can’t remember ever actually recording before. It’s been more of a ‘lying around’ guitar. It’s the guitar I wrote Spark on and today we thought its rather special sound was perfect for the song we were working on. I also used the Fender 6 string bass, I guess that was the bass instrument used on Priest=Aura. I can’t quite remember when that was first introduced and then retired. If you would like to look at the guitar collection or these guitars in particular you can check out the gear page here.

If you’re going to collect something you’d better be prepared to get it organized and tonight after the studio I decided to sort out all the records that needed filing away. So I put the records that were out of the shelves in alphabetical order so I could see how much space I needed for each letter. Then out of the main shelf I moved all the Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, Genesis and Kate Bush albums into another place to free up space for bands I have fewer albums by. I have also done this with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, CAN, The Moody Blues, Miles Davis, The Who, The Beach Boys, Frank Zappa, Elton John, and Scott Walker. I need that warehouse.

Tonight’s music has been thrilling to say the least. Two far out CAN albums, Ege Bamyasi (1972) and Landed (1975), two amazing Dylan albums, Highway 61 and Bringing It All Back Home, both released in 1965, and then a record you might not know but have to hear, Talk To The People by the soulful jazzy pianist and singer Les McCann (1972). I think it was Barton Price from The Models that turned me on to this fantastic record. The last record of the night is the outstanding Struttin’ (1970) by those Funk kings, The Meters.

Today’s Song Of The Day is Questions Without Answers and it needs little explanation. There’s even a video:

 

Questions Without Answers

Is it true
I can’t believe this hatred
What do you do
The world is so ill fated
But when you’re sitting
On a quiet afternoon
With the sunlight
Pouring like gold into your room
You can’t believe that the world will end soon
The world will end soon

You sometimes feel
You’re not doing enough
But what is real
You never know who to trust
It seems that people
Sit in jail without a crime
And ruthless leaders
Seem to lead us all the time
There’s too much crying, people dying
Who can see the light
Who can see the light

Questions without answers
Questions without answers

So I sing
It doesn’t seem to make a difference
Should I give in
That’s not a point of reference
But the passive masses
Being eaten by TV
Ignoring cruelty
And saying it’s not me
When will they realize
Soon it’s going to be
Soon it’s going to be

Questions without answers
Questions without answers

Questions (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah) without answers (soon it’s going to be)
Questions (look out, look out) without answers (here it comes)

(Willson-Piper)
Rhyme (1989)

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there's any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

11209512_1669022976719710_7288437867089763325_n

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

  • spotify
  • facebook
  • instagram
  • youtube

Liking the blog?

Tour Dates

Instagram

Thanks to The Wernickis for a little glimpse into Thanks to The Wernickis for a little glimpse into their new New Mexico listening space 🌵 #nightjar #schoolkidsrecords
Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵 📷 @oliviaelek Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵

📷 @oliviaelektra 

#danelectro #danelectrobass #redeyerecords #pleasantrylane #pleasantrylanestudio
You usually don’t spend the day in the studio an You usually don’t spend the day in the studio and the night at a gig but if you put the studio next to the gig then there’s a greater chance. So @salimnourallah did just that, he put the gig and the studio next to each other and made it possible for me to spend the day recording and the evening playing live 🎵

📷 @drewliophoto 

#galacticheadquarters #happinessarecordlabel #pleasantrylanestudio #salimnourallah #oliviawillsonpiper
TO WHERE I AM NOW A visit in the studio today fro TO WHERE I AM NOW

A visit in the studio today from old mate Mark Burgess from The Chameleons who has been hanging in Texas recently. I was thinking about the two of us growing up in the northwest of England and all these years later finding ourselves in such an unlikely spot together. We fixed a few issues in the universe and I carried on recording some guitars until Mark had to leave. Mark had played at the Galactic Headquarters next to the studio this year as Olivia and I had four years ago and this reminded me to remind myself to remind everyone to remind their friends that we will be playing there with Salim on Saturday, New Year’s Eve, for the ultimate in intimate performance. You can get tickets here (follow link below).

CONTINUE READING: https://martywillson-piper.com/2022/12/to-where-i-am-now-1045

KEEP IN TOUCH: https://linktr.ee/mwillsonpiper

📷 @salimnourallah 

#markburgess #thechameleons #chameleonsvox #pleasantrylanestudio #happinessarecordlabel #martywillsonpiper #oliviawillsonpiper #moatband
📷 @argirgirl 📷 @argirgirl
TO WHERE I AM NOW Sadness manifested in a buildin TO WHERE I AM NOW

Sadness manifested in a building, today we went to visit Paisley Park. Prince built Paisley Park in Chanhassen, about twenty minutes southwest of Minneapolis. It opened in 1987 and he recorded his later albums there. Apart from Prince, REM also recorded and mixed Out Of Time there, recording Kate Pearson’s vocal on Shiny Happy People vocal. Madonna had Prince play guitar on three songs from Like A Prayer and the two co-wrote Love Song, finishing it remotely due to Madonna not being able to stand the cold weather and the rather desolate location of the studio. Of course, there are things around but it’s not in the city and it’s not in the countryside, it’s in a suburb, no distractions, just what Prince wanted.

CONTINUE READING: https://martywillson-piper.com/2022/12/to-where-i-am-now-1032

KEEP IN TOUCH: https://linktr.ee/mwillsonpiper

📷 @argirgirl 

#paisleypark #prince
Marty & Pablo! 📷 Rod MacQuarrie Marty & Pablo!

📷 Rod MacQuarrie
At last, a proper door stop. 📷 @judgeschamber At last, a proper door stop.

📷 @judgeschamber 

#grammysitting 👵
🌵 Texas Acoustic Dates 🌵 31 December - DALL 🌵 Texas Acoustic Dates 🌵

31 December - DALLAS
7 January - CELINA
12 January - HOUSTON
14 January - AUSTIN
15 January - SAN ANTONIO

With @salimnourallah and @joereyesmusic

More info here: https://mailchi.mp/e47ede06acd6/texas-acoustic-dates
Load More… Follow on Instagram

Mailing List

In Deep Music Archive

Songwriting & Guitar Guidance with Marty Willson-Piper
ORDER HERE

"These are awesome sessions that I highly recommend for guitar players of all levels. Very informative, frank discussions on everything related to guitar and music in general. Definitely a must for anyone pursuing songwriting."
(Stephen G., VA, USA)

"Marty knows how to bypass scales and get to the heart of feel and timing. His musical knowledge spans multiple cultures and genres. Perhaps most importantly, Marty is a cool dude. I highly recommend his guitar guidance." (Jed B., MN, USA)

"Ok, so you’re sitting in your home and Marty is across the world but is actually right here teaching you how to play guitar and write songs. He is a delight to talk to and he is your teacher, meaning he wants to see you get something out of his lessons. You know he’s paying attention and wants to steer you in the right direction. I am so grateful and humbled that he offers his time in this manner. This is an amazing opportunity for anyone who admires anything from his enormous body of work. How often do you get to learn from somebody that inspired you in the first place? Amazing." (Ann S., CA, USA)

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there’s any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

11209512_1669022976719710_7288437867089763325_n

MARTY WILLSON-PIPER © 2023 - Front Page Images by Hajo Müller