Song #72 Don't Change Your Mind

 There was a long stretch in the 90s where I wrote very few songs, and I've just guessed the dates for many songs. But I know this one was written just before the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 - so perhaps 2002.

DON’T CHANGE YOUR MIND

 

One day we’ll all be gone

Some day there’ll be a me-less dawn

Do you wonder – what will remain?

Of that crazy guy from down the road?

 

Who for 10 years was always there

Smoking, gutter bound

A child-man in his own time

Already a statue in my mind

 

Or the two guys with hip long hair

As twins they walk, heading somewhere

Each day the same routine

Who will remember them when they’re gone?

 

There’s a battle for terror in every Western land

Coalition of the willing looking for their man

Guns in central Asia pointed at the man

Who detonates bombs with a wave of his hand

 

Meanwhile down on the sand

Adelaide cruises on

Sunsets end our days

I come home and find you there

 

Whatever things may come

Home means peace with you

Safe harbour for another day

I hope you don’t wake and change your mind

 

Bombs explode while Baghdad boils

Some still say it’s a battle for oil

Papers freak us out; mayhem all around

Terror Australis – where are you bound?

 

One day we’ll all be gone

Please hold me and keep me near

In our safe harbour

Please don’t wake and change your mind

 

I hope you don’t wake and change

I hope you don’t wake and change

I hope you don’t wake and change  

Your mind

 

(M Coghlan circa 2000)

Commentary: written around the time the Coalition of the Willing (US, UK, Australia) believed Iraq was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction and there was much chest-thumping and war mongering among Western allies. Clearly too I'm beginning to contemplate mortality. It's also a love song;  a song of thanks to Elizabeth.

 

 

Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo - Review

Little Theatre, The Cloisters, University Of Adelaide, Thu 14 May.

Presented by Adelaide University Theatre Guild

The Iraq war was a descent into madness – a war based on fabricated evidence of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. The absurdly named Coalition Of The Willing, Australia amongst them, waded into a war that created a hell that helped unleash Al-Quaeda, the Islamic state, and a host of other miseries upon the Iraqi people. It is in this hell that Rajiv Joseph sets his award-winning play. We view events through the eyes of American soldiers, Iraqi civilians, the son of Saddam Hussein, and the ghost of a tiger that has escaped the Baghdad zoo.

The dialogue is laced with dark humour as we watch the soldiers lose their sanity, limbs and the crass souvenirs of war that they hold dear. The military presence brings nothing but misery to Iraqi civilians. Musa, a local Iraqi gardener played by Nigel Tripodi, initially tries to gain from employment as an interpreter but ultimately despairs at the foreigners’ stupidity and lack of sensitivity towards their customs and culture.

The play’s telling irony is that the most intelligent and aware character in the play is an animal’s ghost. Only he, played with great presence by David Grybowski (looking suspiciously like a crazy Spike Milligan) sees the pathos and tragedy of innocent lives being lost as a city burns, the layers of sadness, and the pointlessness of the conflict.

Oliver de Rohan effectively portrays marine Kev’s personal descent into madness. His soldier mate Tom (Adam Tuominen) is played with just the right amount of bluster and bravado befitting the stereotypical profile of an American Marine before he too is forced to face his own fallibility staring into the eyes of a leper.

Multiple short scenes keep the pacing lively. Carefully chosen musical interludes between scenes reinforce the growing sense of futility. The set and staging is visually engaging and everyone is close to the action within the Little Theatre.

While the take home message of this production may be on the bleak side, the play itself is entertaining and a touch eccentric. It’s a good combination supported by a strong cast, an impressive set, and enlightened direction by Nick Fagan.

(Also published on The Clothesline.)