FUTURE SADNESS PAST
Slow light, runway from the sun
So right, time and times are done
We must pay the price for fun
Until we have Night Man on the run

Slow light, MacBeth witches’ brew
Best seen from some distant view
We know, do what you have to do
It’s an icy night we must all live through

Now we rage against the cold sky
Now we hate tomorrow
Now we say we will try
To kill the birds of sorrow
To kill the birds of sorrow

Words by Peter Greatorex. Copyright (c) D & G Music 1991.

Lyrics by Peter Greatorex.
Music by George Davies/Peter Greatorex/Jeff Willmot.
Recorded at Silent Running Studios, Exeter, by George Davies, Autumn 1991.
Remastered at Wud Records Studios 2010.

Performers:

Peter Greatorex – vocals, cigarette lighter, Fast Fret tin
George Davies – guitar
Jeff Willmot – bass

Facts:

• This song was written using just the two stringed instruments, an Alesis Quadraverb and a few pipes of some extraordinarily good gear.
• Although a few subsequent attempts were made to record this song using the reel-to-reel machines, this live version was by far the best. It is lifted straight off a rehearsal cassette on the day when it was written.
• George plays Nicodemus on this song for the beautiful icy ringing of the strings when played beyond the bridge and the nut.
• An acoustic version of this song emerged a few years after the original.
• It is based around an Em9 chord, exactly the same chord as the start of Ship to Shore.
• The tempo of this song is somewhere between 0.25 and 7 500 000 BPM. Mostly though it is 0 as there are no beats at all until Pete starts fiddling with his lighter by the mic and then tapping the Fast Fret tin, reminiscent of the clicking of dry bones echoing from inside a fog over the darkened River Styx.