Got a Friend who told me she was angry Another friend who told me he was sad
He’s got a friend who told him he was stupid
For sharing something making her look bad
And the singers sing and the dancers dance The cats all play the fool
And the gurus pray we can find a way
To Stop
And the gods weep
Cos we built a machine, it’s doing us in and we can’t make it stop
And the black sheep
Took a ride in a rocker, machine in his pocket, he thinks he’s a god
And the big sleep goes on and on and on
Come inside my movie watch me shining Come and watch me walking by the sea Come inside my head while I’m declining Block me with your compassion fatigue
While the singers sing and the dancers dance
The cats still play the fool
And the gurus cry cos they don’t know why
And the sellers sell and the fighters fight The wolves all poor the fuel
And the gurus pray we can find a way To stop
And the gods weep
Cos we built a machine, it’s doing us in and we cant make it stop
And the black sheep
Took a ride on a rocket machine in his pocket, he thinks he’s a god
And the mission creep
We’re fighting for freedom, freedom to borrow, freedom to shop
And the big sleep goes on and on and on..
 THE BIG SLEEP
TRACK 3
RECORDED by Gerardo Alonso at his studio in Montevideo MIXED by Steve Stewart at Waves Studio, Cambridge
VOICE & PIANO Joanna Eden
BASS & BACKING VOCALS Andrés Lafone SYNTH Hugo Fattoruso
DRUMS Albana Barrocas

 THE BIG SLEEP
TRACK 3
Written in Montevideo, February ‘23, Andrés came up with the chord sequence and melody for the verse - which sounded wonderfully childlike to me over the cool, funky groove.
It made me think of children telling tales or saying ‘na, na, na, na, na!!’ And that started the first verse lyrics for me.... a kind of childish ‘she said that, he said this’ thing!
And then I knew it was gonna be about social media.
If television was the ‘drug of the nation’ what does that make social media? Stronger than any conceivable drug. And those who deal it know exactly how to get us hooked whilst we’re busy ‘having fun’.
I think I started with Facebook thinking ‘I wonder whatever happened to so and so from school/college, then later I climbed on the bandwagon of belief that it could market my music. The jury’s still out on that one; my music is out there, I have no control over it, and it’s available for free so my earnings have gone down.... hmm ... scratches head and feels a bit silly).

 THE BIG SLEEP
TRACK 3
And now - well now I hardly see my friends’ posts. They just don’t come up in my feed. And the ‘discussions’ I used to join in, debating increasingly contentious matters, with an ever- widening circle of ‘friends’? Well they just became too ugly. I don’t really get involved these days.
I do spend a lot of time and throw too much money at the wall trying to play poker with algorithms to get my music ‘out there’.
Meanwhile the algorithms play me, for hours per day.
I’m ashamed to say, my psychological weak-spot is airplane disasters. Meta knows. The longer I’m on a break from it, the more lurid, morbid and tempting the airplane clips they send me... and I’m hooked again. Just enough cute and funny cat clips to give the appearance of balance. It’s all just healthy fun.
Meanwhile, my kindle lies gathering dust whilst every day I promise myself this is the day I start that novel.

THE BIG SLEEP
TRACK 3
It’s good to write this down.
To acknowledge that I have been consumed by a kind of madness. I can’t dwell too long on the subject as sooner or later my thoughts will come to my kid and the tragedy that they grew up at a time when we adults collectively let down our guard and let the lunatics take over the nursery.
To my beautiful kid:
Terrible things happened in front of you online during your childhood.
On my watch.
I’m so sorry for my part in the collective neglect.
The Big Sleep is our collective blindness to all this.
The Black Sheep is one of silicon valley’s monsters - you choose which one!

The Big Sleep

This is a lost gem of 21 year old Bonnie Raitt singing an unplugged cut of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock".  Recorded in March 1971 at the Jabberwocky Club in the basement of the cafeteria at Syracuse University. The gig was recorded by WAER radio but was never released on her albums.  Its considered a bootleg and hard to find.  Many current music stars like James Taylor played here because WAER would do these broadcasts "live" to the New York area.

Woodstock, B Raitt

My daughter asked me to make my version of one of her current favourite songs.  Had a ball creating this at home with expert assistance from Andrés Lafone on bass and Charlie Price on drums.

Still Feel

UK Singer-songwriter, mentor to Sam Smith

The Big Sleep

Joanna Eden

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