Kenny and I spent some time along the coast in Ottway Victoria - we stayed at an old farm house for a week and went exploring everyday. One day we stumbled on a little cove that had the most amazing rock formations and Kenny went off for hours photographing. I had read a book at the farm house about the hundreds of ships (500 actually) that had wrecked along the coast line. The villagers would run to the shore when this happened, some to help save the sailors, some to pick over the items that floated into the shore. Once they found hundreds of sewing machines bound to the Great Melbourne Exhibition from a New York ship that had been at sea for 80 days. On board this ship were 37 sailors, the captain and one passenger Mr Joseph Braxton Yates (JB).
As I was standing on the beach collecting small bits of, what I believed were parts of the, old ships that went down, I saw a dark figure standing in the distance looking out to sea and with the wind occasionally I heard a humming tune. I stared for a while and he didn't move, I looked down the pick up a lovely piece of dark wood and when I stood up and looked again he was gone.
This song 'shipwreck' was the first song Kenny and I ever wrote and recorded together right there in the farm house that night, with the fire crackling, lovely red wine and wind blowing at the windows. The percussive sounds you hear are the pieces of wood I found on the beach that day - bits of old ships from a 100 years ago, holding great tales and ghosts.
lyrics
I saw JB standing
down at Ottway shore
We watched the big ship sinking
6 miles from the shore
6 miles from the shore
The wind it lashed my face dear
my eyes burned from the foam
I watched my fellows flailing
as the mask came down
as the mask came down
The waves splashed at my face while
the icy antarctic sea
embraced my shivers to my chest
and took life from me
and
took the life from me
credits
from Alternative Gothic Swamp Lullabies,
track released January 1, 2008
Sabine Heusler-Schick - songwriter, vocals, percussion
Kenny Schick - guitar, vocals, production, recording, mixing, mastering
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