Διάλειμμα απ’ τους keyboard masters με δυο μεγάλα τραγούδια του Peter Hammill, ένα από σόλο άλμπουμ (Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night), και ένα από άλμπουμ των Van Der Graaf Generator (The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Οther). Με τριών χρόνων διαφορά, 1973 και 1970 αντίστοιχα, και με συνδετικό ιστό την παρουσία στους στίχους τους ενός φιλικού του ζευγαριού : οι “Mike & Susie” είναι η Αγγλίδα ηθοποιός Susan Penhaligon και τότε σύντροφος της Mike McLean (φωτογραφία) – μαζί τους ο PH μοιραζόταν ένα διαμέρισμα στα late ‘60s. 🟡 🟡 A break from the keyboard masters with two great Peter Hammill songs, one from a solo album (Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night), and one from a Van Der Graaf Generator album (The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Οther). Three years apart, 1973 and 1970 respectively, and linked by the presence in their lyrics of a couple of his friends: “Mike & Susie” are the English actress Susan Penhaligon and her then partner Mike McLean (photo) — with whom PH shared a flat in the late ’60s.

00:00 EASY TO SLIP AWAY
My friends, I never really thought you’d go
But, then, we know that’s the way it happens here
Now time is like cat’s cradle in my hands:
And I gather up the strands much too slowly
The refugees are gone… They take their separate paths
Obliterate the past, figures in an ash shroud
Susie, I guess you’re on your way to be a star
But I don’t know where you are;
The only time I seem to see you is on the TV
Yes, it’s so easy just to slip away…
And Mike!
It’s a year or two since I’ve seen you…
I might have dropped you a line
If I’d had time
Or the will
It’s my fault too: I play a hermit’s role
Of cars and stages, wages, supersoul
Hardly ever seem to get outside these days
And so, dear friends, as we grow on we feel to grow away
Can only live in the hope that some day it will all return
But it’s so easy to slip away…
Easy to slip away…

05:22 REFUGEES
North was somewhere years ago and cold:
Ice locked the people’s hearts and made them old.
South was birth to pleasant lands, but dry:
I walked the waters’ depths and played my mind.
East was dawn, coming alive in the golden sun:
The winds came, gently, several heads became one
In the summertime, though August people sneered;
We were at peace, and we cheered.
We walked alone, sometimes hand in hand,
Between the thin lines marking sea and sand;
Smiling very peacefully,
We began to notice that we could be free,
And we moved together to the West.
West is where all days will someday end;
Where the colours turn from grey to gold,
And you can be with the friends.
And light flakes the golden clouds above all;
West is Mike and Susie,
West is where I love.
There we shall spend our final days of our lives;
Tell the same old stories: yeah well,
At least we tried.
Into the West, smiles on our faces, we’ll go;
Oh, yes, and our apologies to those
Who’ll never really know the way.
We’re refugees, walking away from the life
That we’ve known and loved;
Nothing to do or say, nowhere to stay;
Now we are alone.
We’re refugees, carrying all we own
In brown bags, tied up with string;
Nothing to think, it doesn’t mean a thing,
But we’ll be happy on our own.
West is Mike and Susie;
West is where I love,
West is refugees’ home.