[ B | Introduction | Song Index ]
Bad Old World
The song:
'Bad Old World' is based on a true letter.
- Source: NMAFC Newsletter 8 1/2 -
It seemes to me that the song is an answer to one of "these letters that I send / From the valleys of the green and the grey" (Green and Grey). Any thoughts on that?
Laurel:
A Laurel Sullivan is given credits in the booklet of the Love of Hopeless Causes
album, on which this song appears - whatever that means (maybe she's his sister
in law, so the letter would be by Justin's brother?).
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Ballad
Her:
The Earth's. Although the idea to present Earth as
a female organism is central to the Gaia hypothesis,
I don't think that this theory influenced this song (if it was around at that
time at all).
Scragends:
The inferior end of a neck of mutton.
- Source: The New Oxford Dictionary of English -
Big bang:
Usually the theory that the universe emerged from the explosion of dense matter
about 13.7 billion years ago.
- Read more: Wikipedia
-
I guess here it means that the world will not end in a big explosion or a "blaze of glory", but in a "series of sad and pathetic little fizzles".
Acid rain:
Rainfall made sufficiently acidic by atmospheric pollution that it causes
environmental harm, chiefly to forests and lakes. The main cause is the
industrial burning of coal and other fossil fuels, the waste gases from which
contain sulphur and nitrogen oxides which combine with atmospheric water to form
acids.
- Source: The New Oxford Dictionary of English - Read more:
Wikipedia -
[ Back to Ballad ]
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Ballad 2
The song:
The song was intended to be recorded again but something
was lost and it never made the final cut.
- Source: Robert Heaton in
Chris Benn's Chinese
Whispers - NMA FAQ -
Justin sometimes leaves the titles until the end and prefers
to give them generic names to begin with. This song was never given a proper
name
- Source: Chris Benn's
Chinese Whispers - NMA
FAQ -
[ Back to Ballad 2 ]
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Ballad of Bodmin Pill
The song:
'Ballad of Bodmin Pill' was written about a party they had on a beach just across the sound from where I used to
live in Sweden.
- Source: Justin Sullivan at Justin Sullivan and Friends gigs -
Bodmin Pill:
A lagoon of the river Fowey. It is next to a sawmill where they used to float
the logs before floating them out onto the river. The sawmill has been converted
into a studio where some of NMA's and Joolz recordings have been done. A Pill
is Cornish (Celtic) word meaning pond or lake.
- Source: Joolz in
Chris Benn's Chinese Whispers
- NMA FAQ -
Bodmin is a small village right in the middle of Cornwall.
East of it there is the Bodmin Moore. There the Fowey has its source. It runs
south west and ends in the English Channel, the part of the North Sea at the
English south coast.
- Read more: Wikipedia -
The sparks fly up:
It might be pure chance, but in the Book of Job in the bible it says: "Yet
man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" (i.e. inevitably, I
think)
- Source: The Bible. The Book of Job, 5.7 -
[ Back to Ballad of Bodmin Pill | Back to Prayer Flags]
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BD3
The song:
"The song is about fanaticised youths in Bradford,
often of Pakistani origin, and is named after their postal area. Tupac Shakur
and Osama Bin Laden are their greatest cultural icons, an unholy alliance. I
quite like some of Tupac's things, but you live by the sword, you die by the
sword. His fate is in line with the macho fantasies of youths."
- Source: Justin Sullivan in German Online Magazin
Uncle Sally's; my translation -
BD3:
A British postcode. British postecodes consist of two parts: the first part
is made up of two letters marking the place (e.g. BD for
Bradford) and a number
marking an area in that place. The second part is made up of one number and
two letters, meaning god knows what. BD3 is an area north east to the centre
of Bradford.
Tupac:
Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 - September 13, 1996), also
known by his stage names 2Pac, Makaveli, or simply as 'Pac, was an
American artist renowned for his rap music, movie roles, poetry, and his social
activism . . . Most of Shakur's songs are about growing up around violence and
hardship in ghettos, racism, problems in society, and sometimes his feuds with
fellow rappers. Shakur's work is known for advocating political, economic,
social, and racial equality as well as his raw descriptions of violence, drug
and alcohol abuse, and conflicts with the law. Many fans, critics, and industry
insiders rank him as the greatest rapper ever . . . On September 7, 1996, Shakur
was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, and died six
days later.
- Source: Wikipedia -
Bin Laden:
Osama bin Laden is a militant Islamist and the leader of the terrorist group
al-Qaeda, which is in all likeliness responsible for the attacks on the World
Trade Center and other targets in the USA on 11 September 2001. Accordingly, bin
Laden is America's most wanted criminal. The American government has accused
Pakistan of hiding bin Laden; many Pakistanis live in Bradford, so this may be
the connection here.
- Read more: Wikipedia -
Home:
In many of his songs Justin Sullivan explores the theme of family or home, which
here he seems to define as the feeling of belonging to a certain place
(Bradford). (cf. Dawn,
Familiy,
Family Life, Home,
Inheritance, My
People, No Mirror, No Shadow and
Twilight Home, to mention just the most
obvious)
Thornton Road:
A long street beginning in the center and leading to the west of Bradford,
ending in Thornton (duh), a village (now incorporated into Bradford) surrounded by moors and famous as residence
of the Brontė-sisters (well-known 19th century writers). The BT (British Telecom)
and Google Map directories list several garages at Thornton Road, none of them
Shell though.
Shell:
A huge multinational oil company of British and Dutch origins with petrol
filling stations all over the world.
Tinker ponies: [
Back to Ballad of BD3 | Back to Bloodsports
| Back to Masters of War | Back to Water ]
Irish Travellers (pejoratively called tinkers, because they worked repairing tin
ware) are a nomadic people of Irish origin living mainly in Ireland and Great
Britain. Many Travellers have now settled down or move around in motorised
caravans, though some still travel with pony-drawn carts.
- Source: Barnes, Bettina: "Irish Travelling People". In Gypsies, Tinkers and
other Travellers - Read more:
Wikipedia -
BD7
The song: 60s:
All Saints Road: It's a mean old scene: West-End: Scrap metal in a rusting town: BD7: Twenty-nine years: [ Back to BD7 ]
The song was written as a tribute to a famous piece of graffiti that survived
on a wall in Bradford for three decades. The song was performed only three times
live and there is no studio version.
- Source: Lost Songs booklet -
The 1960s is a decade associated with many political (e.g. civil rights
movements) and cultural (e.g. youth culture) changes in the Western world.
- Read more: Wikipedia -
A street in the BD7 area.
The graffiti this song is about.
This probably refers to the West End of London, an area of Central London
containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, businesses, and
administrative headquarters as well as most of London's major theatres.
There are other British towns with a West End, though Bradford ist not one of
them.
- Read more: Wikipedia
-
Justin uses similar words in the live version of the spoken verse in
Here Comes the War.
The British postcode for an area southwest to the centre of Bradford.
According the Lost Songs booklet the song was written in 1995, so the graffiti
first appeared in 1966.
Before I Get Old The song: Live too fast: Northern Lights: Southern Cross:
This song contradicts the people who "hope they die before they get old", a
phrase originating, I think, from The Who's song "My Generation".
A rejection of the saying "live fast, die young".
An aurora is a luminous phenomenon of the upper atmosphere that occurs primarily
in high latitudes of both hemispheres; auroras in the Northern Hemisphere are
called aurora borealis, or northern lights; in the Southern Hemisphere, aurora
australis, or southern lights.Auroras are caused by the interaction of energetic
particles (electrons and protons) from outside the atmosphere with atoms of
the upper atmosphere. They take many forms, including luminous curtains, arcs,
bands, and patches.
- Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica - Read more:
Wikipedia -
Also called Crux (Latin: "Cross"). Constellation lying at about 12 hours 30
minutes right ascension (the coordinate on the celestial sphere analogous to
longitude on the Earth) and 60º south declination (angular distance south
of the celestial equator), now visible only from south of about 30º north
latitude (i.e., the latitude of North Africa and Florida). The constellation
has five bright stars, one badly placed from the viewpoint of symmetry so that
the shape of the cross formed by the stars is somewhat irregular.
- Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica - Read more:
Wikipedia -
Believe It
The song:
In this song there someone's looking back on their life and saying "I can't
believe it. What went wrong."
- Source: Justin Sullivan in an interview
with German Nonkonform Magazine in July 1996 -
Betcha
Betcha: [ Back to Betcha ]
A non-standard contraction of 'bet you', used in representing informal speech.
- Source: The New Oxford Dictionary of English -
Big Blue The song: [
Back to Big Blue ]
When played live, Justin Sullivan announces this as "redemption song". The sea
is one of his favourite subjects (cf. Marry the Sea,
Southwest and Wipeout (which, like Big Blue,
are about surfing), Ocean Rising,
Sun On Water, and
Twilight Home).
Bittersweet Once upon a
time: Western:
A common beginning of fairy tales.
An (North American) fiction genre about cowboys or North America's west, often
set in the 19th century. A western hero is often a tough lonely man who fights
criminals or vicous Indians.
- Read more: Wikipedia
-
Bloodsports
The song: Into the
fire and the blood red sun: Hometown: He says:
Blood-sports:
Probably a comment on the Iraq war (or
America's "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan and Iraq), like
Masters of War. One
of the Chosen also deals with Islamist terrorism, other songs on terrorist
acts are
All of This, The Attack, Far Better Thing and
Flying through the Smoke.
Probably the rising sun in the East, in Afghanistan and Iraq. (In contrast to the former
expansion to the West. Compare All Consuming Fire for
the ideas of decline and violence connected to the colour of the sunset).
There are many people from Pakistan living in
Justin's hometown Bradford. They might be eyed
with distrust because in Pakistan terrorists are trained and
Osama bin Laden is believed to hide there.
This verse describes a suicide bomber who has an explosive belt hidden
beneath his clothes and approaches a checkpoint, probably of American
soldiers in Iraq, to kill them - and die himself, which suicide bombers consider
as sacrifice that secures them a place in Paradise.
Sport or entertainment which is believed to be cruel, involving needless animal
or human suffering, such as bullfighting, cockfighting, dog fighting, fox
hunting or gladiatoral spectacles.
- Read more: Wikipedia -
Bluebeat Preston
Street:
Belt of Orion: [
Back to Bluebeat ]
A street west of Bradford's centre, off Thornton Road.
Orion or "the Hunter" is a constellation of stars which in the northern
hemisphere is visible in winter; the Belt of Orion consists of three stars
within the constellation.
- Read more:
Wikipedia -
Blue Ship Isaac:
Milton:
Probably the biblical Isaac, only son of Abraham,
who was ready to kill him in obedience to God (but ultimately did not have to).
In old age, Isaac became completely blind.
- Read more: Wikipedia -
John Milton (1608-1674) was an English Poet and polemicist. He is best known for
his epic poem Paradise Lost, which tells the story of Adam's and Eve's
expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Like Isaac, Milton
became completely blind.
- Read more: Wikipedia -
Brave New World
The song: Brave new world: Aldous Huxley uses this quote ironically for his dystopia
of the same name (1932). He depicts a future world which is, on the surface,
stable and happy. However, it is really based on mass production and ultimate
control; people have become uniform and they have lost their liberty and individual
values such as truth, beauty or love. [ Back to Brave New World | Back to Modern Times ]
1985 was the height of yuppy culture - a truly disgusting period.
Meanwhile, our own flirtation with conventional 'success' had ended and we found
ourselves in London totally alienated in every way from our surroundings.
- Source: B-Sides and Abandoned Tracks booklet -
This is originally a quote from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Prospero,
banned Duke of Milan, lives on an uninhabited island with his daughter, Miranda.
He raises as storm, which makes the usurpers and some Italian noblemen strand
on his island; when Miranda sees the men for the first time in her life, she
exclaims "How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world / That has such people
in't!"
- Source: Shakespeare, William, The Tempest. Act V, scene 1 - Read more:
Project
Gutenberg -
- Read more: Wikipedia
-
Brave New World 2
The song:
Like many of our best songs, we recorded this as an afterthought. We were driving
endlessly round London in the middle of the night trying to borrow an old piano
and to beg a couple of hours of cheap studio time . . .
- Source: B-Sides and Abandoned Tracks booklet -
Brother
The song: Bradford has been the location of several
riots as result of tensions between ethnic groups. [ Back to Brother |
Back to Carlisle Road | Back to You Weren't There ]
We were in a German hotel room before performing at a festival [in Luebeck,
04/09/1993] when rioting in Bradford suddenly appeared on the TV screen. It
was a bad and tense summer throughout the city and the song was born out of
an incident at the end of Justin's street.
- Source: Lost Songs booklet -
Burning Season
The song: Swathe: Deconstruction:
The highway's jammed up with disinformation:
The mid nineties were an empty drifting time in Britain as the Tory monolith
that had ruled the country for so long began to break up. This was a song of
impatience.
- Source: Lost Songs booklet -
Swathe means bandage, but here the term is probably used as alternative spelling
for "swath", meaning track or trace.
A method of critical analysis of philosophical and literary language which
emphasizes the internal workings of language and conceptual systems, the
relational quality of meaning, and the assumptions implicit in forms of
expression.
- Source: The New Oxford Dictionary of English - Read more:
Wikipedia -
The internet is sometimes called information (super)highway.
Bury the Hatchet
The song: Bury the hatchet: Punk: Stole your thunder:
14/10/2007
Robert: It is hard to have someone as enemy just as it is hard to be in love.
Justin: After a while you think it is not worth the effort. Call it compromise
if you want, it's the hopeful element of the song. After all there are many
other things to spend your time with than fighting.
- Source: NMA in an interview with German magazine Zillo 10/90; my translation -
Make peace. Native Americans used to bury their weapons at the end of
hostilities.
Possibly a pun, because besides the obvious meanings of punk rocker and
worthless person it also means tinder.
Colloquial expression: to win praise for oneself by pre-empting someone else's
attempt to impress.
- Source: The New Oxford Dictionary of English -