Bellwether from Apprentice Green by flakebelly

Another subconscious tone poem. Automatic writing. Streamed consciousness. A night I remember writing a few poems in one great rush. Candles in wine bottles on the table. Wheels greased & words a'flowin', an image formed. A small boat, silhouetted against a gigantic sun, setting on an ocean horizon, 3 birds flying back to shore. A storm gathering. I can still see it. I just wrote it down. A daydream. The easy lyrics that flow out almost unbidden are always the most beguiling & dream-like. Already written somewhere, you just have to put them down on paper.

Another 2 chord masterpiece. Key changes inserted in the final version. I'm trying to sound like the tide and the swelling sea. A jazz sea I suppose. A sea of jazz? The sound of an actual sea that bookends the song is from Sandquoy Bay, the beach behind my old house on Sanday in Orkney, where the album was recorded. 50 meters or so from the garden shed studio.

Tracklist

8.	Bellwether	4:54

Lyrics

bellwether tolls on the rolling tide
sun sink yellow
behind small boat
snapshot on the
sun sink yellow
behind small boat
dwarf into the firestar

bellwether strikes an impossible tone
seachange coming, there's a seachange coming
at the small boat
slipping on it's darkness hood

cloud stoop-listen to the altersong
seagull flash
into the distant gather
of the sleeping language
of the shore

Credits

from Apprentice Green, released November 1, 2024

License