Pete on Songwriting

The childhood image of the Punch and Judy show is, I think, deeply rooted in our folklore. Like the children’s song ”Ring a ring a roses”, the underlying theme has serious reflections upon the human condition from the first recordings of mans activities through to the present day.
When I am working on new songs I sometimes feel the need to brainstorm/create images and try to get a feel for what the song may sound like. In this case? Possibly a dark folk-rock sound with graphic rhythms and a very dry joke or two.

PUNCH and JUDY
(To be read with not too heavy a heart)

PUNCH……..”Silly bitch!……….. Silly bitch!…………Fester unto me……En-clothed as you are …..Come to my mind and see. Into my mind ………Fester and fight…..All again ..All again……..All through the night. You say I am sick… Sick….Sick ……….All again through the night…. I am sick sickly sick.” The night’s light and long………..When the moon is in song. Look on my shadow…………… Know where I belong”.

JUDY……“Though my mind is unmade……… And seems unclear……..I will carry my task forward……. And try it to steer. My baby is truth ……….in my life so deep…………Don’t make me weep……..My burden does heap”.

P……“Do you not understand…….My simplest of thoughts?………….I need a kissy kiss kiss kiss………Not a hissy hiss hiss hiss. I tried to gather……… You up my arms………..But alarms did call…….So many alarms. So I take myself……………. Away from you…….Again………Oh yet another again.”

J……”I Found the messenger…. Tried to croc-o-dial. Croc…….Croc……………Phone and dial. You treat me now so vile…Vile………Croc…Croc…Phone and dial.”

P……..”Hit you?……..Me?……Never did I so?”………(Yet once I was in control of my labouring soul). “Through the love we had....You give away…..Babies touch ……Leaves me alone today”.

J……”I cried for help through desperate need……………And neighbours heard my calling pleas. And help will come……..So save your sins………..I scorn in fear of the knife you bring”

(A KNOCKING A- LOUD DID HIT THE DOOR’S FRONT ).

J………..”My saviour ……My saviour………I hear sounds of the law….. Fists breath upon our front door”

P………..”No saviour has time……Time has run out…………Feel my knife piercing in…..And…..Out My hurry shows…. No time to spare…….Bowls eat the blade …….And face despair”.

J……….”So take my life ……..And away with you………The knockers soon to knock upon you. Can you guilt yourself into my distress……..And face your cage in loneliness”?

P………”Too late……(Digging rhythm)…….. Did sound the chord………..40 guineas for bail me lord?”

J………”Mock if you must………..But prey do not take……. The babies will………..Its will you can make.” You hope that the knocking door instils……… Mercy upon you …They will hear yours ills? If only from all fear and doubt………… With each blow…. Let the monsters out.”

P………”And what do you know of my monsters need? I stood in childhood in miseries deed. I took an oath thereafter to live…………..To get inside my fathers head. And take upon myself his wrath…….And empty it into my minds bath. And cleanse it of its sordid greed…………Of its control…….. I tried to heed. But attracted into its bosoms bless………I did find a strange and sweet caress”

J………”Shut your mouth as you watch me bleed………I do not wish to hear your need. Fire does now inside me dart………Yet the stillness approaching does comfort my heart. One last thing I ask of you……………Save the child…….And teach it well”?

P…….”Too late ……Too late………I have outcast its eyes………..And seen its face’s new disguise.. Blood for tears and cries for coo’s……ooh! …And its nappy I will soon peruse”.

J……..”But look down my love and see and see………………My knife’s begun to penetrate thee. In your eagerness to problem solve………….You missed Judy’s’ solution to absolve.”

P………..”Ah!………..Yes ……..My body is shook…….Your fire pierces with your every look. But what of our child within its strife?………. I cannot finish the end of its life. Or meet the hangman upon the door……….Or help those understand the watchers scorn”.

J……..”Then lie still with me now and lets forget…………This life embraced in bitter regret. Hold my lips upon your own………..And share with me death lovers throne”.

P………..”Yes its true………..I have comfort too…………Gods speed to death for me and you. The policeman’s too late……...To save the case. Our child suffocates……. In our arms embrace. Bare witness my love and the mason’s deface…………Our grave stones read upon its face.

Punch and Judy with childs embrace

………The image of this lovers fate. And soon I am to face the devil………will I win or go to heaven”?

Pete Cheethamxxx

Punch and Judy came to England in the 17th Century via Italy and France……..The first recorded version was in 1832. There was no crocodile(possibly later replacing the dog) in the original script of Collier and Cruikshank of 1832, however I felt it needed a tribute . The ghost is Punch’s father and the knife is the weapon in this case. The Doctor is punch’s potential psychoanalyst. (Me)? And the blind man is punch himself(unable to see his own pathology).Judy’s bowls are of course the sausages(Yuk). Some other characters are missing e.g. Scaramouch, but are I feel, more superfluous. Hey…its only me having some fun! HA! HA! HA!……(Pete does overacting)!

“The song itself is soon to follow……question yourself if in it you wallow”!

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