Lyr Add: Medusa's Smile (Anne Lister)

Subject: Lyr Add: MEDUSA'S SMILE (Anne Lister)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 12:51 PM

MEDUSA'S SMILE
Anne Lister (Tabster), on Waiting for the Hero

As I walked over London Bridge I heard Cassandra cry
She saw the towers falling down, spill people from the sky
And all of us saw what she saw, the buildings torn apart
Saw the world turned upside down, a knife blade in the heart.

As I walked out through London Town I heard Achilles weep
He'd had a vision in the night which woke him from his sleep
A different kind of slaughter in a different kind of war
A thunderbolt from an open sky he'd never seen before.

The snakes around Medusa's head spread confusion and deceit
Her smile turns people's hearts to stone, success into defeat
We think we can control our lives, we think we make the rules
We look upon Medusa's face and then we know we're fools.

As I walked through the Isle of Dogs Odysseus caught my arm
He'd witnessed many battles but he'd never seen such harm
How do you fight with shadows, how do you catch thin air
How can you deal with evil when it drifts through everywhere?

As I sat down on Hampstead Heath I called Athena's name
But she was with the other gods, all playing stupid games
Our leaders are their playthings and our future is their prize
And every death in war is triumph through Medusa's eyes

The snakes around Medusa's head spread confusion and deceit
Her smile turns people's hearts to stone, success into defeat
We think we can control our lives, we think we make the rules
We look upon Medusa's face and then we know we're fools.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Medusa's Smile (Anne Lister)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 06:03 PM

Hereare Anne's notes, from Waiting for the Hero

It's taken me a long time to put 9/11 into a song. There's something about terrorism which makes me think of how the ancient peoples saw the gods as using humans for game pieces. The sense of helplessness, of being punished for something we haven't done. Cassandra, Achilles and Odysseus all had their lives severely messed about by various gods and goddesses. Athena was the goddess of wisdom. Medusa was the Gorgon whose head Perseus had to bring back, and one glance at her head would turn you to stone. A child listening to that particular story wondered if she'd been born like that—and if so, how.
Fertile area for thought huh? Who'd be a midwife?