LIFE UPON
THE SKYWAYS
I’m sitting in a journey from armchair to armchair
And as I gaze across the street I feel I’ve got something to
say
I’d like to float upon the skyways
To a land across the Dreamtime
To another land of desert that’s the home of the Jew
Who find it hard to smile as I do here today
With each day that life that grows longer
Who’s lost along the way?
Some have chosen to stay home; others wandered far
In these past few months I’ve seen them go
And I wonder how they are
It makes life upon the home front just a little bit harder
I walk the streets for the old times
But there’s none to be found
Like the seas around a mountain, it’s time against my spirit
Must one accept with resignation
That the gloom’s too tough
Too tough to beat
I was feeling outnumbered so I got numbered out
The room was full of these strange lonely faces and mine
The earth goes on circling
Through the good times and bad times
It happened before and it will do again
These words that I’ve had to say raise up a smile
For the answer is simple – win, lose, or draw
The joy is in the telling; it’s in the trudging of highways
There are choices before you
It’s life upon the skyways
The answer is simple – not black, not white, but grey
The answer is simple – it’s up this way and grey
It’s up this way today
Come on this way today
Come on this way, up this way
And pray
1978
COMMENTARY
Around the time that I wrote this song there was an American singer
called Captain Beefheart. He and his Magic Band released a song called
Moonbeams and Blue Jeans that I really liked and I intentionally decided to use
the song’s melody for these lyrics. This was the one and only time I did this
but essentially I plagiarised the Captain Beefheart song. I never recorded it
and I didn’t really ever try and pass it off as mine. I still know how to
play it and like the way it sounds 😊 Obviously I was
still pining for Israel…..
