Blantyre Explosion

I heard the Christy Moore version of this old scottish song about the Blantyre Mining Disaster which took place on October 22, 1877 where 207 miners died and 92 widows made, and 250 fatherless children. I had never heard of this explosion yet, this town is just next to my home city Glasgow till i heard this song. Tears came down my face first time i heard this..

Dunno there is something about this song that really touches me, makes me think of all us ordinary people that get fucked over by a system that reduces us to a means of production or reproduction, or a wastage underclass and how precarious our existances are within that set up…

It is songs like this that gives us an insight into the real lifes and emotions of such events that can alas only be generally put into statistics for us to recount such is the magnitude of the problems of this world….

I came across the chords for it and have been practicing it, i like to sing real songs about real people, and the real struggles that we all have to endure that rarely get noticed.

Anyway heres a great version by Luke Kelly and below are the lyrics..

By Clyde’s bonnie banks
as I sadly did wander
among the pit heaps
as evening grew high.
I spied a young maiden
all dressed in deep mourning
a weeping and wailing
with many a sigh.
I stepped up beside her
and this I adressed her
“Pray, tell me fair maid
of your trouble and pain.”

Sobbing and sighing
at last she did answer
“Johnny Murphy, kind sir,
was my true lover’s name
twenty-one years of age
full of youth and good looking
to work down the mine
of high Blantyre he came.
The wedding was fixed
all guests were invited
that calm summer’s evening
my Johnny was slain.
The explosion was heard
all the women and children
with pale anxious faces
made haste to the mine.

When the truth was made known
the hills rang with their mourning.
Three hundred and ten
young miners were slain.
Now husbands and wives
and sweethearts and brothers
that Blantyre explosion
they’ll never forget.
And all you young miners
who hear my sad story
shed a tear for the victims
who were laid to their rest.”

 

Yeah… im feeling a bit sorry for myself……

Darkest Hour by Megadeth

In my hour of need
Ha [no] youre not there
And though I reached out for you
Wouldnt lend a hand.

Through the darkest hour
Grace did not shine on me
It feels so cold, very cold
No one cares for me.

Did you ever think I get lonely
Did you ever think that I needed love
Did you ever think to stop thinking
Youre the only one that Im thinking of.

Youll never know how hard I tried
To find my space and satisfy you too.

Things will be better when Im dead and gone
Dont try to understand, knowing you Im probably wrong.

But oh how I lived my life for you
Still youd turn away
Now as I die for you
My flesh still crawls as I breathe your name
All these years I thought I was wrong
Now I know it was you
Raise you head, raise your face your eyes
Tell me who you think you are, who?

I walk, I walk alone
Into the promised land.

Theres a better place for me
But its far, far away
Everlasting life for me
In a perfect world
But I gotta die first,
Please God send me on my way.

Time has a way of taking time
Loneliness is not only felt be fools
Alone I call to ease the pain
Yearning to be held by you, alone so alone, Im lost
Consumed by the pain
The pain, the pain, the pain.

Wont you hold me again
You just laughed, ha ha, bitch
My whole life is work built on the past
But the time has come when all things shall pass
This good thing passed away.

 

Turning Point…

I have been at a serious impasse regarding life direction since the loss of my religion,  breakdown of my marraige, homelessness, at all those wonderful things. All the motivating factors for my studies were no longer there, all that defined me ceased to be.

I am now finding my way as a single dad who sees his kids less than hed like to. Its a tough adjustment going from stay at home dad to weekend dad. However, i know what i want, i want to be as involved with my kids upbringing as much as possible. Ideally, i would like to have them 3 days a week overnight – that is the goal im kinda working towards although im realistic enough to know that i will have to approach this in an ad-hoc manner.

What this requires though is for me to have a liveable income, and at the moment my studies which are going nowhere is hampering my efforts. Univerisity at the moment means that i am sleepwalking towards being a teacher something which is cool and all that but considering that my studies was with the aims of being educated where i could be a progressive muslim academic its quite different to being a teacher. I lost my ideology anyway so i can no longer engage with it or try to be a polemicist for it. For the sake of income to be the family man i so desire to be again i need to work full time, that is not possible to do with full time studies at university. So what do i do? It came to me this week and it feels fucking awesome to find direction again.

 I withdraw from university, and do a credit transfer to the ‘open university’. I can study at the open university part time which means i can work full time and get my finances sorted. It will take me 3 years to do the degree that i want to do at the open university which means it would only take me a year longer than to complete the degree im currently doing at Glasgow. But heres the really cool thing. The degree that i’m changing to doing instead is a LAW DEGREE!

I can’t wait, now i need to get these wheels moving…..