Kashmir’s Memory of a Free Festival
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
Was obviously looking for something completely different, but stumbled on this in the process. This is a band called Kashmir or something to that effect doing Memory of a Free Festival
Tags: david bowie, Interpretations, kashmir, memory-of-a-free-festival, space-oddity
Memory of a Free Festival
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations, Vision
Before Bowie was Ziggy, before he was The Thin White Duke, before he became African or animated, he was a long haired hipster singing folk songs, looking something like this:
However, also from the same album as Space Oddity was an odd little tune that gave everyone a truer idea of what he was thinking at that time, Memory of a Free Festival:
The Children of the summer’s end
Gathered in the dampened grass
We played Our songs and felt the London sky
Resting on our hands
It was God’s land
It was ragged and naive
It was Heaven
Touch, We touched the very soul Of holding each and every life
We claimed the very source of joy ran through
It didn’t, but it seemed that way
I kissed a lot of people that day
Oh, to capture just one drop of all the ecstasy that swept that afternoon
To paint that love upon a white balloon
And fly it from the toppest top of all the tops That man has pushed beyond his brain
Satori must be something just the same
We scanned the skies with rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and size
We talked with tall Venusians passing through
And Peter tried to climb aboard but the Captain shook his head
And away they soared
Climbing through the ivory vibrant cloud
Someone passed some bliss among the crowd
And We walked back to the road, unchained
“The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We’re Gonna Have a Party”
OK, we’ve got Zen Buddhism, Woodstock, Heaven, God, ecstasy, aliens, bliss, and freedom. And, to finish it off, we’re gonna have a party. With the references to “Sun Machines”, bliss, and ecstasy, you’d think this song was written this year. However, it was written a long time ago, about 1967 or so. Somehow or another Bowie packed everything his world encompassed musically into one song. And, it also signaled a musical pattern Bowie would follow a lot for about a decade, meandering through a story without really saying anything. Who are the Children of the summer’s end? Hippies? Could be, we don’t really know. How many people would describe London as “ragged and naive, it was God’s land”? That’s not the London I know. Who is Peter and why do we care? Do Venusians speak English on Venus? So many questions, no answers. Just a strange, strange story. That’s what I liked about Bowie then. Every good song left you with the feeling of “WTF?”.
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Here’s my version, I just did it on my new PC.
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Here’s the original version via Sony
, it’s like 99 cents or so.
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Memory of a Free Festival originally appeared on
Space Oddity ( Man of Words, Man of Music ).
I’d suggest the album first. I like my version a lot, but I refuse to allow anyone else hear me sing it!
Tags: david bowie, Interpretations, memory-of-a-free-festival, space-oddity, Vision
