America i.m. 22 November 1963

A special 22 November 2025 release of our cover of Simon& Garfunkel's love song to/elegy for the American Dream.

"Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together

I've got some real estate here in my bag"

So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies

And walked off to look for America

"Kathy", I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh

"Michigan seems like a dream to me now"

It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw

I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus

Playing games with the faces

She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy

I said "Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera"

"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat"

"We smoked the last one an hour ago"

So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine

And the moon rose over an open field

"Kathy, I'm lost", I said, though I knew she was sleeping

I'm empty and aching and I don't know why

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike

They've all come to look for America

All come to look for America

All come to look for America

We're not so much trying to make 'America' great again in our version as to do it justice. Simon & Garfunkel's original version is perfection. One of the greatest folk/pop songs ever written, simple genius from lyric through melody to performance, arrangement and production, it's top ten in the Great American Songbook as far a we're concerned. It's that elusive American dream in a song; a hymn to enduring hope. All the longing of youth; all the energy and spaciousness and potential of America and all the sadness as both fall short.

Maz - lead vocal, acoustic guitar

Gaz- vocals, bass, floor tom drum

Arty's Aarti

Chorus: You tell me I please you Because my heart's aching To let your name Baba Escape to my lips Escape to my lips. How is it you love me So much for so little? The bed of the valley Is less stone than I. No matter how far off My life's stream meanders, Your sea of compassion Keeps drawing me hot. Though gloomy impressions Like mists would deny you, Your sun's affirmation Keeps making me sing. Chorus: You tell me I please you Because my heart's aching To let your name Baba Escape to my lips Escape to my lips. Your beauty is blazing Like mountain moons on me, The snows of your silence Wash all my dirt clean. This forest so lonesome I'm hacking to reach you, Is full of birds singing 'He's closer than you!' Ah why should I wonder You give all for nothing? Your glance is so lovely, A steel heart would melt. Chorus My art is the craft of A thundering river Which acts to a pure sea Of stillness, your name. My heart I have mined for Good words and intentions, To burn off like incense All faults in your flame. Chorus. I wrote the words at the Meher Baba Pilgrim Centre in Meherabad, India in 1989. Aarti means devotional song and is derived from Sanskrit words for 'complete love'. Several beautiful Aartis are sung daily - an Australian Aarti; an American Aarti and a variety of Indian ones, the most beautiful of all the Gujarati aarti written and composed by Meher Baba himself. Despite some every eligible candidates (Pete Townshend and Ronnie Laine for example) there is not an English or British aarti. I was for almost two weeks a lone Englishman and because of my regular ghazal readings at the morning and evening songs and prayers was nicknamed 'Arty' by one of the fifty Americans who outnumbered the Indian devotees and staff residing or on pilgrimage there. I played up to my role as the lone stage Englishman and so did everyone else. Sometime in the second week, one of the old Parsi followers comically 'exposed ' me as 'a Welshman in disguise' which all added to my reputation as 'quite the clown... and composer' (as Baba's niece, Meheru, the woman I am pictured with under Baba's picture in the final frame put it.) All of these elements combine in my attempt at an Aarti uttered from the British stiff upper lip. I found the long forgotten lyric in a drawer of Baba papers and composed the music I had never been able to add in 1989 (Bob Brown explained how my original hummed effort was much too complicated) and accompanied myself on bass, adding a higher vocal, drums and harmonium.

REMEMBRANCE FOR PERCY AT FRING ALL SAINTS Previously unreleased LIVE per...

The best way to start these notes is with a recent email to us from Lancelot's great grandnephew Daniel Williamson... "While going through my gran’s loft recently we discovered a photo of Lancelot which we didn’t know we had. We’re not sure but believe he’s late teens here. It’s the only photo we have of him, and we thought you might be interested to see it, especially as it’s much clearer and higher quality than the picture currently available online." We are more than interested! It's wonderful to see a proper family photo of this excellent young man. Lancelot joined the RAF aged 19 so 'late teens' suggests he's 19 here. We gave the (edited) address and performed the song you hear on this video as part of a memorial service for him on Sunday 13 July 2025, the 80th anniversary of his fatal aircrash. At that time, we also released a film of the graveside blessing and a second (outdoor) performance which followed the service    • In Remembrance of Lancelot Percival Willia...   but wanted to reserve this present one for Remembrance Sunday. This audio is our part of that in-church service and has a unique resonance, echoing inside the 700 year building beside which he is buried, so that one can almost imagine 7 centuries of Fring worshippers joining in the acknowledgement of a brave, unselfish, loving (and still very young) man who gave six years and his life to defend the England this church stands for. The video combines the wonderful new family photo with press cuttings about his life and 'splendid' RAF career along with footage of the church (including our sides-person Bernard Clark setting up before morning service) a week later. (The actual song and address during that service were not filmed, only recorded).