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WINDOW ON THE STARS
A ballad from my album 'Islands of the Heart'. When Lieutenant William Dawes arrived on the Sirius with the first fleet in 1788, he had instructions to build an observatory to watch for a comet predicted to appear in the southern skies. The observatory was built at a place now known as Dawes Point near the south-west pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The small building also contained Dawes' living quarters. It is said that, for a time, this place became "the centre of the intellectual life in the early colony". (Sydney Morning Herald historical article).
My song takes some liberty in allowing a failed search and destroy mission to become one of many actual massacres in Australia's colonial history. Dawes did protest bravely to Governor Phillip, which makes him by my reckoning Australia's first white conscientious objector. After Dawes forced departure, the observatory was turned into a Sentry Post.
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lyrics
WINDOW ON THE STARS
1. At seventeen years I was a soldier.
At twenty-five years I sailed the stormy sea
Across the waves of the southern ocean
To the shores of New South Wales.
The Governor gave me a little portion
So I could build a window on the stars.
2. The summer was hard, the rations meagre.
The bush was strange - dark eyes were watching there.
We cleared the land through the month of April
Five marines and a convict gang.
We cleared the scrub and we chopped the trees,
We hammered and cut till the canopy of canvas
was raised on high.
The beautiful harbour close by.
And many the night I spent there watching
The southern skies through a window on the stars.
3. In Sydney Town the life was savage.
The world was framed with iron chains and bars.
The dark side of Mother England
A dumping ground called New South Wales.
Yet some came to sit and wonder
Gazing through my window on the stars.
4. The Governor's man, his gamekeeper
Was badly wounded by a spear in his side.
The Governor came and gave his order:
"In return- six blacks to die!"
The Governor said: "You're in the party".
I protested but he ordered me to go.
5. A terrible day as we went searching,
Crashing through the bush so spikey and dry.
At last we found a ragged clearing;
Some people there, watchful and shy.
And without a word we loaded arms,
Opened fire and shot some down.
The children screamed and the women howled.
Their wailing haunts me still.
The sound of wailing haunts me still.
Innocent lives so cruelly broken.
Innocent blood clouds the window on the stars.
6. On my return I told the Governor
That never again would I go on such a raid.
The Governor roared, he raged in anger:
"Then you can go - go pack your bags!
And so I sailed on the next ship over -
I hear they've closed my window on the stars.
7. At seventeen years I was a soldier.
At twenty-five years I sailed the stormy sea
Across the waves of the southern ocean
To the shores of New South Wales.
The Governor gave me a little portion
So I could build ... and I could build
A window on the stars.
Words & Music by Peter Kearney.
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credits
released January 23, 2022
RELATED RESOURCES for 'Window on the Stars'
Available for purchase through Peter's Online Store:
1. MUSIC BOOK: 'Islands of the Heart' is available. It contains 'Window on the Stars' and fourteen other songs . Link: peterkearneysongs.com.au/product/553816
2. CD 'Islands of the Heart' containing 'Window on the Stars' and fourteen other tracks is available. Link: peterkearneysongs.com.au/product/356144
3. PDF MUSIC for the song 'Window on the Stars': peterkearneysongs.com.au/product/756203
THE RECORDING
Recorded in the Little Portion Studio, Welby.
Produced by Peter Kearney.
VOCAL: Lead vocal: Peter Kearney
Backing vocal: Helen Archer
INSTRUMENTAL:
Accordion: Kevin Hunt
Didgeridoo: John Fisk
Snare Drum: Lachlan MacBean
Peter Kearney is an Australian songwriter and singer. His early folk-hymns 'Fill My House' & 'The Beatitudes' are
internationally known. He has written many other songs of justice and peace, songs for children, and a musical-narrative on St. Francis of Assisi. His published recordings include 153 original songs.
LINKS BELOW are for Peter's:
- Website
- Online store
- Facebook Artist Page....more
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