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I Saw The Signs

from Mad Martins by Gary Miller

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a gorgeous deluxe hardback book-format packaging, including approximately 100 pages featuring lyrics to all 50 tracks, additional interlinking text, a host of beautiful pictures and illustrations throughout, as well as a comprehensive list of credits and acknowledgements. This wonderful and unique presentation, designed by Helen Temperley at helentemperley.myportfolio.com has been a true 'labour of love' and is a fascinating and real work of art in its own right.

    Includes FREE bonus "companion piece" CD - 'FAIR FLOWERS AMONG THEM ALL (THE MAD MARTINS INSTRUMENTALS)', while stocks last.

    IMPORTANT MESSAGE for non-UK buyers:
    Please be aware that if you are ordering from outside the UK, due to reasons beyond our control, you may be liable for additional charges, e.g. customs tax. Please note: we will NOT refund payment for any items refused or returned to us due to non-payment of these charges at point of delivery.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Mad Martins via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
    ships out within 7 days

      £24.99 GBP

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

In 1821, John exhibited one of his most popular and successful oil paintings, ‘Belshazzar’s Feast’. Amidst great public excitement, he went from being a painter of promise to being famous, literally overnight. The ‘European Magazine’ called the painting “a poetical and sublime conception in the grandest style of the art”. Meanwhile, ‘The Magazine of Fine Arts’ described it as a “most dazzling and extraordinary work… and one of the most original productions of British Art. The principle of this painter’s work differs from those of all preceding artists.” Despite such general public and critical acclaim at the time, however, his work did not always meet with universal approval. The writer and essayist Charles Lamb, for example, described ‘Belshazzar’s Feast’ as “vulgar and bombastic”.

lyrics

I SAW THE SIGNS

I was a thirteenth child,
put out to nurse,
afraid of ghosts and goblins.

I drew on doors and school walls.
I sketched in sand on the riverbank.
I grew, and grew famous.

I slipped off to the City.
I saw the signs
and painted them,
all ways.

In London with Boniface,
I mixed paints with Lords.
I raged and thundered
warnings in my work.

I became a Radical,
hissing at anthems;
a snake of a painter
in oils, in awe.

And all the while
remained a child
alive on Barcombe Fell:

a child of Science,
a child of Reason
ahead of my time,
head filled with wonder,
wondrous dreams.

I died a beautiful man
on the Isle of Man,
on the Plains of Heaven:

a tranquil death,
last glorious breath,
hands still in the madding dawn.

(Words: Keith Armstrong / Tune: ‘Tweedside' Trad. arr. Ann Sessoms)

credits

from Mad Martins, released April 30, 2017
Keith Armstrong - Spoken Word
Ann Sessoms - Northumbrian Pipes

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Gary Miller image

Gary Miller Durham, UK

Gary Miller first rose to international prominence with folk-punk/rock pioneers The Whisky Priests (1985-2002), founded with his twin brother Glenn - “the Joe Strummer and Mick Jones of Folk Music". He now performs as a solo artist and with his new band 'Gary Miller's Big Picture' whose debut album is coming soon. ... more

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