Haunts
His third album, ‘1983’ precedes Orwell’s significant 1984 warnings, Havens politicised and agonised by events of the actual moment in 1968, one year before his landmark performance at Woodstock which politicised and energised a generation – even if romantically and (as we currently see Orwell’s vision taking its full nightmare shape) fruitlessly. Like the convention of classic literary tragedy, alternative goodness is in beautiful expression and artistic perception despite the reality of despair. Songs like Stop Pulling and Pushing Me could suggest defiance and resistance; his cover of Strawberry Fields Forever nods in that beauty to psychedelia as refuge and hope, and What More Can I say, John? wraps the poignant, political questions in more beauty
You
have hidden your face from the people
And to them you keep on denying
That far, far away across the sea
For no reason their sons are dying
While it's Vietnam you're buying
Among all your conservatives a-sighing
And all your murderous lying
Hey, it's me who's defying
Hey, come on, you've got something better to do
There are further Beatles covers, as well as of Dylan, and overall there is a haunting tone to the collection, this further layered by the lamenting cover of Leonard Cohen’s Priests.
A double vinyl album, there are those who consider the live tracks on the fourth side as filler. Who cares?
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