Now here’s an odd one. At Neil Armfield’s behest, I was trying to find a way to put a song on this topic into the second act of the Belvoir show without stealing any of the gravitas of “The Light On The Hill”, and it proved tricky. It wasn’t until Guy Strazz was noodling on something else entirely that I considered a Latinish feel, and originally – as the demo version below illustrates – it was in 5/4. But it just sounded too frantic and full of verbiage, and pushing it back out to a longer 4/4 gave every line extra space. I still would’ve liked to work a bit more hip-wiggle into it, but it’s not the most lighthearted of topics, so I was happy just to get some air moving.
Redfern (First Demo)And now
We’re living in a great creative nation
Yet we wait somehow
The battle for the country can’t be won
Until we understand
How well we know our land
How much we hide our shame
Or dare to speak its name.
And here
We wander though the midst of this
And wish that it would disappear
As if it’s only locally created
Insulated pain
A shadow and a stain
A hurt we can’t reveal
A cut too deep to heal.
But oh, I know we can succeed
We can’t afford to fail
And justice must prevail
And oh, I’m sure it will indeed
With everything we share
We know it’s only fair.
To begin
I think we oughta show contrition, recognition of our sin
And wonder how we had the gall
To think that it was all OK
And never thought to say
“How angry would I be if this were done to me?”
But oh, I know we can succeed
We can’t afford to fail
And justice must prevail
And oh, I’m sure it will indeed
With everything we share
We know it’s only fair… Oh yeah!