We went down to the piccolo drum
Never made it into the hum
Down to the piccolo
Down to the piccolo
Down to the piccolo snare
Have you ever seen the sea
(Have you ever seen the sea)
Painted red by a bleeding army?
Skyhawks gather for a feast
(Skyhawks gather for a feast)
Of pawns who will never find peace
Tumbledown to the piccolo snare
Never made it into the square
Down to the piccolo
Down to the piccolo
No-one particular cared
(Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming)
Now! We can go home again
To our old haunts again
Together!
Now! Scatter us all around
Far from the bugle sound
Surrender!
Safe in the exclusion zone
Catch me and take me home
As brother fights brother
Wrapped up in tarnished flags
Banners and body bags
Surrender! Phantom!
(Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming) (X3)
Quote (Gruff):
"Piccolo Snare is a song about societies torn apart by war and the waste of human life for nothing: Pawns in a worthless game. A lot of the vocabulary for that song comes from the Falklands War, the Malvinas War, whatever you want to call it: 'Tumbledown' and 'Skyhawks' etc. It could be about any war, but that was a war I remembered from when I was a kid where people from my area were dying, as the media tried to maintain some ridiculous degree of jingoism. Apart from using the vocabulary, it's generally a song about people's misguided belief in flags. All flags are tarnished; they were only invented so that people wouldn't shoot their own side in the war. It's a song in at least three parts. It starts off folk rock in feel, and builds up to a cosmic funk coda!"
Where:
Monnow Valley Studios/Rockfield Studios
When:
2003
Source:
Track 5 (Phantom Power): 6 minutes, 8 seconds
Status:
Complete!
Video sequence director:
Pete Fowler/Neil McFarland
DVD director:
Darren Watkins
Remixed by:
Four Tet - Track 8 (Phantom Phorce): 7 minutes, 8 seconds
Notes:
Piccolo is just a word for small when applied to a musical instrument.
