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Feb 24 2022

TO WHERE I AM NOW

Another war live on TV, the spectacle of fear, tanks, missile launches and the horror of women fleeing holding babies in their arms. You want to talk about freedom, this is what the suppression of freedom really looks like. Bosnia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, Myanmar, all the modern wars and conflicts seem to be happening somewhere else but this one is close, it’s a major power invading a sovereign country in Europe in 2022. We live in Portugal, it’s a long way from the fighting, or should I say the killing, but Olivia’s family lives in Germany, my daughter and grandchildren and their family live in Sweden, our landlord is Portuguese but he lives in Lithuania and as if that isn’t real enough we have a gig in Poland with Anekdoten in May as I watch innocent civilians fleeing over the Ukraine/Poland border. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 have been mobilised and are not allowed to leave the country. This is a terrible moment in history as Putin made a chilling warning for the West not to get involved. Ukrainians have said he isn’t mad, he’s sick.

My cosy life continued today with an hour and a half in the gym and three seshes in a row with Noelle in Montreal, Matt in Brooklyn and Brian in New Jersey. Instead of there being MTV with all its dross and emptiness, today in the gym the screen was tuned to the war. Dross to gross, emptiness to seriousness, the world seems to have changed in one short day. No one knows what the consequences will be, a proliferation, a world war? Even the Ukrainians didn’t believe what is happening was possible as young women contemplate their situation in tears from the hopeful safety of an underground station. People and their pets huddled together, so much for Covid as the pandemic rules are eased, war becomes the topic of conversation in the whole world, how is it possible that things could have got worse than they were.

Cities hit with missiles and as night falls, all public lighting is switched off, soldiers and civilians dead, the Russian special forces search for Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, to overthrow him. Refugees, families separated, disbelief and the portent lurking question, who will be next? I was always grateful to have been one of the first generations that didn’t have to go to national service, that didn’t witness a war in my own backyard as a young man, although Bosnia felt like that. I went to play in Serbia, in Belgrade, with the ex-band and the other ‘aints, I saw the buildings destroyed by bombing, it was shocking. My parents went through World War II, this war seems like the biggest threat to world peace since then.

The worst of it is that it’s all about the leaders either indoctrinating the masses with their propaganda or punishing them for resisting their megalomaniacal desires – there’s a third thing, ignore them whatever they say or want. In Russia, you can’t protest, as I said earlier that’s what no freedom really feels like. It makes me demand that our democratic leaders get it together and not be seduced by their own power, their own ambitions and lies. Does the UK really have to suffer the deceit of Boris Johnson? Can’t they do better than that?

When I hear about football fans from opposing teams fighting each other, gangs of teenagers stabbing each other, does it mean that humans are always looking for someone to fight, to kill and if an enemy doesn’t come to their door, they just go out and find their own people to fight with? – “I just gotta kill somebody” – “I just gotta rape somebody, anybody will do”. It makes foreigners, people of different races, different sexual orientations, easy targets. But it seems like it doesn’t even need to be a minority, team supporters in blue are just as happy to attack team supporters in red even when they look the same and think the same, how absurd, too stupid to see the idiocy of their actions and too ignorant to see all humans as equal. The humans really are at it again and my theory that aliens don’t visit this planet because the humans are intent on their own destruction holds true. Why would they come here, unless they were hungry?

Music today has been the shimmering beauty of Harold Budd’s The White Arcades (1988).

Music Of The Daze

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

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Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵 📷 @oliviaelek Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵

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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 🎵

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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).

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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.

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"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

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