Pre-historic expression

Talking of pre-history, I love these cave paintings. Brings to mind a song ‘The Caves of Altamira’ by one of my favourite song writing partnerships, Donald Fagin and Walter Becker.

On the stone an ancient hand
In a faded yellow-green
Made alive a worldly wonder
Often told but never seen
Now and ever bound to labor
On the sea and in the sky
Every man and beast appeared
A friend as real as I

Chorus:
Before the fall when they wrote it on the wall
When there wasn't even any hollywood
They heard the call
And they wrote it on the wall
For you and me we understood

Shaped by Hand

On the subject of shaped flints. The things you can find just lying around these chalk downs. This arrowhead over 5,000 years old was found near Chichester, so beautifully worked I wonder if the person who made it was very much different to us? Were they happy or sad, did they sing to themselves while they sat chipping away at this stone? Well they didn’t have thousands of years of technology and an Ipod/pad plugged in their ear but what skill!

Heart of Stone

I do like to be beside the seaside but just a mile or so to the north the hills are alive with the sound of music, well in my head anyway. This chain of chalk and flint ridges run from Eastbourne to the Itchen Valley in Hampshire. A great place for walking and getting creative inspiration. I don’t take a note book, I just go over words and tunes in my head and if I remember them when I get home, then that’s a good sign. If I don’t and it’s gone then the idea probably wasn’t good enough anyway.