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BrokenJaraFingers

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FEATURED SONG
The Bitter Spring
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The Bitter Spring
Album:
Released: Jul 27, 2011
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General Info

  • Genre: Acoustic / Folk Rock / Lyrical

    Location Un

    Profile Views: 5661

    Last Login: 7/8/2012

    Member Since 2/23/2011

    Website http://www.myspace.com/BrokenJaraFingers

    Record Label Acoustic lyrically-heavy

    Type of Label Unsigned

  • Bio

    If these snippets of song intrigue you: "THE BLOODLUST OF THE WEST CANNOT BE CONTAINED IT STARTED IN IRAQ AND CONTINUES, UNRESTRAINED IT SOMETIMES FEELS LIKE BUSH AND BLAIR STILL RUN THE WORLD THEIR ACOLYTES KEEP STARTING FIGHTS AND DIVING INTO MUDDY MIDDLE EASTERN WHIRLPOOLS FROM WHICH UNEXPECTED MONSTERS SLYLY CRAWL SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM ENDANGERING US ALL" (The Bloodlust) "AND WHEN THE PIGS ARE IN CONTROL THEY'LL SELL YOU JUNK AND BUY YOUR SOUL AND OVERLOOK EACH BANKER'S IMPROPRIETY THEY'RE DROOLING FOR THEIR DIRTY DREAM TO ONCE MORE SEE SUB-PRIME SUPREME YOU CAN BANK ON THAT, IN THE PIG SOCIETY" (Pig Society) "AT THE BACKWARD BANQUET OF CELEBRITY I'M-ALL-RIGHT-JACK LEERS AT JILL-LOOK-AT-ME AND THEY GNAW ON THE BONES AS THEY PRONOUNCE TO THE PRESS ON THE MILLIONS OF REASONS FOR THEIR UNDESERVED SUCCESS" (Penury) "IMPALE ME ON YOUR BEAUTY ON THE FLUTTER OF A LASH IMPALE ME ABSOLUTELY TILL I CRUMBLE ALL TO ASH" (Impale Me On Your Beauty) "NOW OBAMA SAYS HE'S GONNA CLOSE IT DOWN BUT THERE'S SUCH MALAISE ON THE RICH SIDE OF TOWN AND THERE'S TERROR STILL BEYOND THE TOLLING BELL SO WILL HE CLOSE IT DOWN AND OPEN BRAND NEW CELLS SOMEWHERE ELSE FULL OF SUNSHINE BUT NO BLINDS?" (The Stars Look Down: On Guantanamo Bay) The above are just a sample of the lyrics to some of the songs on this site, which I believe to have strong lyrics and an okay acoustic backing in classic singer/songwritery mould. I would LOVE every one of the 946 Visitors so far to actually LISTEN to a few of the songs on my site or for any any of the ones still to visit to do so. I realise a lot of people just like reading Profiles, but it would mean a lot if people would listen to the songs and comment so that I know. I write songs because I have to. I don't choose them, they choose me. They literally appear out of the air, fully formed. They hit me like boxing gloves out of nowhere when I'm walking down the road. Very occasionally I only get a line or a verse and then I struggle, but mainly they seem to be almost inspired by something other than me. Why do I write protest songs? Because I want to do my little bit toward changing the world, I'm too basically pacifist to be a good revolutionary and I hope to inspire others. Which makes me a coward, but I'm a writer not a fighter, as Gilbert O'Sullivan once put it. I've written songs for a number of years and this is the first time I've ever thought of sharing them with a wider public, mainly due to the incredible encouragement of various great new friends. My songs range from the political (The Stars Look Down on Guantanamo Bay; Epiphany or The Love Song of the Tyrant; Penury) to hopefully Leonard Cohenish love songs like Impale Me On Your Beauty and more spiritual offerings like I'm The Man Who Runs The Fair. I also write satirical and comic songs, of which a few may find their way here eventually. I would have loved to call myself Broken Hands but too many people already had that name. Not that Broken Fingers was in any way unique either, so in the end I had to settle for this Rumpelstiltskin version of Brokenfingers, which sounds more like a malevolent elf than an optimistic protest singer. Sadly, even that was taken and in my desperation to find something wholly unique I ended up with BrokenJaraFingers, which sounds a bit like what a particularly sadistic kidnapper might find on the floor if he smashed the jar his snipped trophies were kept in :-) Which dark thought is a bit of a shame, because the actual reason I so wanted some version of shattered hands or fingers had nothing at all to do with kinky kidnappers and everything to do with the iconic and symbolic depth of what the image embodies to me: the utter power of totalitarian States to control everything, including art and music, and bend it entirely to their will. This extends to controlling every aspect of the people's lives and thought, and often extends to so-called democracies, the latest to be moulded thus being Egypt, although in its understandable euphoria it hasn't yet quite realised that, in my opinion anyway. The actual image of BrokenJaraFingers, though, comes from Victor Jara, the great Chilean protest singer who uniquely tried to rally the people to revolt against the authoritarian Pinochet government who had turned torture into an artform only later equalled by Iraq's Abu Graib. Jara's genuinely revolutionary songs disturbed the regime and their answer was swift and ruthless: when he played in the Chilean stadium for the downtrodden people, some minions of the regime went on stage and deliberately broke his hands so that he could never play again. This happened again with some of the abstract artists in the USSR and has metaphorically continued to happen in the name even of democracy in many countries across the world since then. And while I would in no way even vaguely compare myself with Victor Jara, Phil Ochs, Woody Guthrie, Tom Paxton or any of the truly great protest singers, I hope in my own way I've said something meaningful about the world I see today. I am fully aware of the limitations of sound quality, singing, strumming, picking and voice, but I do believe I write powerful lyrics and hope to include some kind of lyric sheet for the songs soon. Thank you for checking out this profile and I truly hope you like what you hear. I now have six new videos on YouTube, not the romantic ballads I previously put there but real, hard-edged political protest songs about both America and the UK, the West's involvement in all things Middle Eastern (The Bloodlust), the Arab Spring (The Freedom Anthem) and Cameron's cuts and their effects on the poor in England (Pig Society). The video links are : For the newest video, PENURY, about the credit crunch and bankruptcy of everything, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Eekdz-Ntk FREEDOM ANTHEM, about the faltering beginnings of the Arab Spring:http://lnk.ms/PVf7l For the new video, THE BLOODLUST, about the West's involvement in the Middle East: http://lnk.ms/N7Hr2 For PIG SOCIETY, about David Cameron's real plans for the UK http://lnk.ms/PVf7n For the record, I can also be found on Last FM on: http://www.last.fm/music/BrokenJaraFingers where you can find my ongoing album and now unrecognised on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Brokenjarafingers/154192671317853?sk=wall and would LOVE somebody to visit there!

  • Members

    Just me and my dreams. And could I say here, where I haven't blurted and blurbed excessively yet, that the painting of the Blue Guitar on my Profile Page is by Leonard Cohen, my favourite artiste of all time. I hope you don't mind its use here, Mr Cohen, and thank you for everything.

  • Influences

    Leonard Cohen; Joni Mitchell; Phil Ochs; Harry Chapin; Pete Atkin; Al Stewart; Don McLean; Ralph McTell; David Ackles; Momus; Elvis Costello, and anybody who writes really strong lyrics whom I may have forgotten. And, for voices, John Kay of Steppenwolf, the greatest rock singer in my opinion, and Jim Morrison of the Doors.

  • Sounds Like

    A combination of Leonard Cohen at his gloomiest and Dylan at his most nasal, tinged with a bit of Harry Chapin's over-reaching notes and sense of drama and, on some of the love songs, a bit of Ralph McTell's deep sense of loss and longing.

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