A Train Is Coming

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Reimagined version of My Baby Got To Go by Marie Tueje.

"In contributing to the Prison Songs project my objective was to create a piece that retained the spirit of the source material whilst re-imagining for a contemporary context. Despite a radical re-working, an echo of despair and loneliness connect Alan Lomax’s1 My Baby Got To Go with the re-titled A Train Is Coming. This work was inspired by two themes; repetition and disruption, and the roots of this dichotomy were planted by chance. I was reading about the origins of the slogan ‘arbeit macht frei2 ’ (work sets you free) that appeared, notoriously, at the entrance to a number of Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. I learned that, in an apparent act of deliberate rebellion, prisoners who had to make the sign at Auschwitz I3 conspired to render the ‘b’ of the word arbeit upside down. I found the repetition of prison life (and, indeed, everyday life) coupled with the disruptions (‘little rebellions’) that serve to break up the very mundane interesting. The three parts of the piece tie (very loosely) with the three stanzas of My Baby Got To Go. The decision to only use fragments of the lyrics is reminiscent of a today’s environment, where our communications are often fragmented, partial and succinct. Part 1 establishes the themes of repetition and disruption, with some heavily distorted tones. It is not meant to be subtle. Part 2 is the most cohesive section, with a definite sense of melody, harmony and rhythm; structure. Finally, in Part 3, three sonic elements (voice, field recording and, soundscape) occupy the centre, left and right speakers, respectively."