It was the severe, blizzard-filled winter of 2004 - the snow filled Istanbul to thigh-deep and buried the city in pristine white ice and fallen trees... in those days I was on the move with my back-pack and a guitar and I needed nothing else. This is probably the most autobiographical of all the songs. I wrote it on the train to Bucharest, passing through the fantastic, eerily magical mountains & plains of Bulgaria through the dead of an icy night, I had a fearful cold and had been sold these powerful little yellow pills by a chemist in Istanbul which did wonderful things to the mind... standing at the open window, riding over fields blue with ice in the moonlight, frozen streams, black silhouettes of trees... the pills kept me up and revved... it was a 26 hour journey to the Romanian border, and during it I wrote "A Winter Song". You can hear the rhythmic click-clack of the wheels on the tracks throughout.
What ensued was an adventure lasting upward of 70+ hours, involving no sleep, playing my way across the border with "Cocaine Blues", arrest and deportation, discussions about rock 'n roll with border guards, nearly freezing to death, a string of great lunatics, hitch-hiking, several propositions, a belligerent drunken sailor, heinous amounts of Mastika, rather a few cities and towns, an electrical strobing-frenzy high in the snowy mountains I'll never forget, and warm tired reunions with old friends...
lyrics
Pay my dues, fill my shoes
All that I have gathered in a bag.
Kiss my girl and dry her eyes
Don’t know where I’m going but it’s a long way.
Early morn, just before dawn
I wash my face and feel it in my heart.
Wolf cry, Owl fly
I step out in the snow and I am gone.
...mmm, a winter song.
Train ride all the night
Watching out the window as you do.
Fields of ice, and rivers too
Trees of black, cold branches in the moonlight.
Cities that I’ve left behind
Pass into the places made of stone.
I lay my head and rest my eyes
Something deep inside me when I roam
When I roam, (it’s been so long)
...A winter song.
Wind blow
Time slow
I’m going home...
Pay my dues, fill my shoes
All that I have gathered in a bag.
Kiss my girl and dry her eyes
Don’t know where I’m going but it’s a long way.
Early morn, just before dawn
I wash my face and feel it in my heart.
Wolf cry, Owl fly
I step out in the snow and I am gone.
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