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The Foreign Correspondent

from Succumb (Deluxe Edition) by David Bridie

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about

Chris programmed this intricate rhythm layer and funky little keyboard bass part that I loved from the first moment I heard it. I wanted to write a memorial song to my good friend Mark, the man who took me to PNG in the first place. Mark was a friend who died so tragically a few years back, just a week after his great documentary on West Papua was first screened. The reference to the “dead man’s party” comes from a tradition in the Sepik and the title of a radio piece Mark recorded on a funeral in this province of PNG. We got Airi to lay down some garamut drums over the top of the electronica loops ending up with this punchy eulogy.

lyrics

THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (Bridie /Scallan)

They placed him in a cargo box
Six feet in the ground
With a bottle of whiskey, “White light White heat” by the Velvet Underground
His life rich with kino stories
Maps of lands impassable
He was five parts patience, one part bluster…. with the radio on

His life was spent deciphering, then scrambling the code
He wasn’t always reasonable, he had this story to be told
If the currency of life is stories of conviction collected on the run
Then he lived his short life much more than most, the bible or the gun

Foreign Correspondent’s gone, to a dead man’s party
The Foreign Correspondent’s gone, to a dead man’s party

The foreign correspondent’s fallen through the rotten floor
No doubt things around these parts won’t be the same any more
His life was spent, he’d made his film, a story no-one else had told
His eyes gazed, liver broke, drank and told his final joke at…. the dead man’s party

Foreign Correspondent’s gone, to a dead man’s party

He ducked the bullets at high speed on the rebel Gyzo run
The coconut fuelled tin boat ran the blockade and the PNGDF guns
This kind of passion’s out of style, won’t see his like for quite a while
He’s gone off to walk the crooked mile

Foreign Correspondent’s gone, to a dead man’s party

credits

from Succumb (Deluxe Edition), released October 10, 2008
(Bridie /Scallan)

For Mark Worth
Lyrics inspired by eulogies from Ben Bohane, Mark Davis and Jim Elmslie

Traditional West Papuan Song from Manokwari, West Papua

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David Bridie Melbourne, Australia

David Bridie is a multi award winning songwriter and composer.
Founding member of Not Drowning Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake.

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