I always get caught on the hop by these things. The morning the leak that was to become “Crimson/Red” was released, I was off out to see people. And this morning, when we had an utterly unexpected and wonderful YouTube upload of a new live video of Paddy singing a new song, “America”, I was at 40,000 feet over Turkey and blissfully unaware of it. I caught wind of it on the shuttle from Heathrow Terminal 5 B Gates having seen Bjorn of the “Paddy McAloon and Prefab Sprout” Facebook group post about a song I’d never heard of. And then at the baggage claim I finally found the Youtube link and was just as flabbergasted and delighted as everyone else.
Not a leak this time, but uploaded by Keith Armstrong, Paddy’s manager. And in its gentle and subtle way, you couldn’t really get a stronger expression of disgust for Trump’s imbecilic and divisive border policy. Presumably on that basis it is a very recent song Paddy wanted to get out there while it was still topical and while he was still angry. Does it point to a new paradigm for Paddy? Doubt it. But you never know. I’d love to be able to buy a copy of this.
At present there isn’t much information about the circumstances, but I’ll do a bit of digging, Moribund the Burgermeister style. In the meantime, it’s doing my jetlag no end of good. Very direct, it manages to remain subtle and with a beautiful chord progression. Here’s the youtube link.
A bolt from the blue indeed
Dear Trump, you’re upsetting a sleeping giant, and an old magician.
Wow!
What a surprise!
Its great to see Paddy playing guitar so upfront and personal. There are some classic Prefab Sprout chords in here–nice to see how he does them! In addition to the B half diminished, there is C# chord after the D major 7 which would not have been out of place on SWOON. That C# chord is like a C#minor7-11-#5? (C# F# B E A) So amazing!
Truly wonderful protest song by our beloved genious Paddy McAloon. Nice to see a video too. Can’t wait for a single or album release
More please!
Wow, classic Paddy and so pure! Love it, love you!
from ITALY : beauty song, Paddy at the best, BRAVO
50,000 views in 40 days.