Beyond confession 2: Fables, sequels and social issues
Continuing with last week’s theme (when and how songwriting can move beyond the ‘confessional’), this week I thought I’d discuss an example of a song that combines three other approaches. It starts with an exploration of a social issue, it draws upon a fable (or fairy tale) for inspiration, and it imagines a sequel.
First, the ‘social issue’ aspect. If you’ve been following the blog so far, you’ll know that my songwriting began in criminal justice contexts. Within that work, back in 2017, I took part in a Vox Liminis songwriting workshop which explored women’s experiences of the justice system. The workshop included women who had themselves been through the system, and others who worked in and around it (for example, a sheriff [which in Scotland means a judge], the CEO of a third sector organisation, someone who worked in policy, etc.). Vox eventually released an EP of three of the songs, which is well worth a listen: https://voxliminis.bandcamp.com/album/things-left-unsaid-ep
The workshop was themed around ‘freedom’. We all took part in a series of activities that helped us think about what freedom means to us. I don’t remember exactly why, but the activities got me thinking about how hard it can be to be free or to become free, when you have been living in a situation where a lot of choices have been made for you. For example, I remember reflecting both on my own adolescence and on my daughter’s; a period when we usually gain more freedom but are also confronted by the need to take on more responsibility for ourselves and others.
Although this is a very imperfect analogy for the situation faced by adult women being released from prison, some of those in the workshop who had been through imprisonment talked about how hard it was moving from prison to ‘freedom’ in the community. I won’t got into the details here (since that’s my day job!), but there is plenty of research on the difficulties and dangers of this transition, for both women and men. I’ll illustrate with just one statistic. An English study, published in the Lancet, found that women released from prison were 36 times (and men released were 8 times more likely) to die by suicide within 1 year of release than would be expected in the general population (see: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16829295/). Of course, women and men also die in prison much, much earlier and much, much more often than they should, so this is definitely not an argument for keeping people inside; it’s an argument for not sending them there in the first place.
So, where does the fable come in? In the workshop, some photos had been provided to help generate song ideas and lyrics. One of them, I think, was a picture of a turret in the roof of St Stephen’s cathedral in Vienna. I thought it had a fairytale quality and, given that we had been thinking about women and imprisonment, it wasn’t much of a stretch to start thinking about Rapunzel. I googled the story to try to get a bit more background about it — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapunzel — there’s much more to it than I remembered from childhood!
I was intrigued by how men are implicated in the story (given that abuse by men is such a common feature in the lives of women caught up in the justice system). In the common version of the story, to escape punishment by a sorceress from whose garden he has stolen, Rapunzel’s father gives her up as payment, leading to her confinement her in the tower. Later, of course, another man, the Prince, tries to help Rapunzel escape, before the plan goes awry (in different ways in different versions). So, men are cast as both villains and as (potential) heroes here, and Rapunzel is objectified (both as her father’s property, and as the beautiful object of the Prince’s attentions) and made passive. In some versions she is also cast as foolish.
The story has different endings in different version, some happier than others. Reflecting on what we had been thinking about in the workshop, I decided to write my own sequel, hence the song’s title: ‘Rapunzel, some time later’. In my version of this tale, as you’ll see below, Rapunzel and the Prince escape the tower, but find that it’s not so easy to escape the ‘demons’ that follow them. In the everyday struggles of life after release, bringing up their children, the Prince turns out to be less heroic than we might have imagined, and Rapunzel can’t help but long for the simplicity and the security of her life in the tower.
Again, for the sake of clarity, that some women and men express exactly this feeling about imprisonment (and that some seek a way back inside) is an indictment of the cruelties of life outside: So, if this song has a message, it is about the need for social change.
In the 2017 workshop, I had the help of Lucy Cathcart Frödén (aka Raukarna) in writing the song, and she also provides the keyboards and backing vocals. The song was recorded in the workshop by Jamie Savage.
One last thought: I feel some awkwardness about the fact that I’m a man singing this song from perspective of a female protagonist. Part of me wishes that Lucy and I had swapped the vocal duties. Indeed, I’ve enjoyed performing the song live several times with my friend Alison Urie singing the lead vocal. That said, I also have a big soft spot for Jamie’s recording — partly because sonically it takes me right back into the workshop, partly because of Lucy’s contribution, and partly because it’s the first ever recording of me singing that gave me confidence that my voice might actually sound OK (with the right engineer at least).
Here’s a link to the song on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-57337486/rapunzel-some-time-later-fergus-mcneill-master-1 [with thanks to Dana DeHart for permission to use her photo of St Stephen’s.]
Lyrics
I can take seven strides in my heptagonal room
I see seven miles with the sundial at noon
And when I hear her voice calling, I know what I have to do
And when I sing to the forest, I know he’ll hear my tune
These are beautiful moments, wonderful times
I’m treasure she’s defending, a treasure he desires
We lie by the window and look out at the moon
We know only hope here, in the gathering gloom
In the tower there is safety, no fear in the dark
In the tower there is no fear
Though my belly is swollen and my fingers are weak
The ladder we’ve woven secures our release
And we run from the tower through the bluebells and the briars
Set our faces for the road thinking dreams will never tire
But a prince is just a pauper with better clothes and smarter lines
More use for a rescue than a long walk through hard times
In the tower there was safety, no fear of the dark
The escaping part was easy: It’s the living free that’s hard
Our feet slipped the pedals, we were running on sand
Twins on our backs; fates in our command
In the harsh light of winter, we grew wizened, we grew lined
Rain on our faces, demons closing in behind
And a prince is just a pauper…
I stand on the shoreline, salt stinging in my eyes
The whiplash of an ocean of uncontained time
I will not look backwards, I cannot see straight
I wonder am I sinking under freedom’s weight
A prince is just a pauper…
Credits
Guitar and Vocals: Fergus McNeill
Keyboard and Vocals: Lucy Cathcart Frödén
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Jamie Savage
(c) Vox Liminis 2017, all rights reserved.