The eight minute song

Four years ago I wrote some lyrics while I was in Spain and I’ve been slowly getting around to sorting out the tunes. The “Wreckers Prayer” was one of them but the big one, the one I felt needed tackling first is called “Gernika”. I don’t know if I’ll ever write anything like that again, but for various reasons it had to be done. The music came last winter holiday and occupied several days of recording and editing with help from peer reviewers and I was pleased with the result, published online in variou splaces and received some very encouraging comments about it. The thing is, the challenge of gernika, is simply that it’s eight minutes and thirty five seconds long and that exactly 5 minutes too long for the average song track, which is something that it never aspired to be, but this presents certain problems, in particular finding a spot for the live performance. My local folk club, Forest Roots have rejected the song and suggest Walthamstowe but the FAQ there says:

Walthamstow Folk – FAQ
All we ask is you keep the length of your piece to a reasonable duration – four or five minutes at the most.

Most of my songs are in the 3-5 minutes range, Gernika being a little unusual but then again my favourite LP of all time is Roy Harper’s Stormcock which comprises of 2 long songs on each side of the platter.

So where might Gernika be played live on Thursaday 26th April 2007 or thereabouts?

At present the contenders are

1) In my living room.

2) Out on the streets of London, the Underground or Southbank.

Related posts:

1. Mozambique at Havering Folk Club