Musikblogs

"Caint Ceoil agus Crack Cocaine!" An Irish expression to describe a good night out is "Caint, Ceoil and Craic go leor!"(I hope I spelt it right, my Irish is rusty), it means Talk, Music and lots of fun! But on the street where we are working at the moment is little talk much music and a much different type of craic than the one to be found in the Irish expression.

At night when we are leaving the studio we drive past a "crack house" where zombie like men and women roam the streets totally zapped by the lighting strike of crack cocaine! There is no fear of these people attacking you or being aggressive they don't have the physical ability to stay standing let alone start a fight. There is one street here, which is like another planet and we drive past it everyday, which is like a small film of craziness before entering the peace of the studio. I've talked about drugs before and those dark rooms of studios that have invited many musicians to disappear from one madness to another but this is a different environment, out on the streets. These people have lost the inhibition and self-respect and contact to the return path to a drug free life. They have released the safety net and drop slowly from the heights of normality to the hopelessness of crack cocaine. They are there early in the morning and at some stage they move further into the city and walk the streets in a helpless state. I am not sure what I should think of these people are they lost angels of desperation or are they just those who gave in to what we all have to refuse? I am too critical of people who just throw in the towel on life and choose to live under the illusion that they can always returns to the old life when ever they please but I know I am wrong to think like this I know that these people are sick and we must try and help them in whatever way we can. Forgiveness is a great strength and something that I battle with daily, I wish I had the heart to embrace all beings without judgement, those people who work with the down trodden and helpless are the true angels who walk our streets!

I try everyday to cross the boundaries of my own inhibition to embrace my brothers and sisters of the night's chaos but I still have the fight inside. Once in Hamburg where a heroin junky was trying to beg some money from the table next to me and the guy at the table started getting aggressive with the junky and told him to move on, the junky replied "I know I have a problem but what's your problem?" it was a funny analysis but an interesting viewpoint! I would love to roll out the red carpet to these people and offer them the chance to get back to step one, no lottery win just the step back in time to when they used drugs to remove themselves from life as we know it and give them the chance to decide otherwise, should they decide to take the same path as before then it is their own choice, destiny, hell but one chance of retribution must be there for us all! Roll out the carpet, swing open the doors it's time for some "Caint, Ceoil agus Craic go leor!"