In 2021 I ended up writing a lot of the lyrics for The Korgis. In this series I will analyse some of the lyrics on Kartoon World and who knows what else?! I have often said that the world does not need any more love songs, though I still do occasionally write one if there is something eating at me! Instead I would prefer to find something more relevant or at least more interesting.
We were just coming out of Corona Virus lockdown and we were itching to create. On a late night Messenger chat with Chris Hopkins (aka Exhibit-1) we suggested writing a song by relay. We would send an idea and not have a say on the other person's input - just let it go somewhere wild. Well I knew that James Warren was going stir crazy so asked him to join in. MAGIC MONEY TREE was the first track to appear.
I wrote the music and lyrics for the first segment and it is no surprise, coming from the time period, that it is quite anti-government! The idea was also more analytical in that I figured phrases that were in common use already would resonate with the general public, who had already been bashed over the head with them! 'Dead in a Ditch' was another.
I was incensed that after all the years of hearing 'There is no magic money tree', the minute Covid struck there WAS a magic money tree. Suddenly the homeless were put into hotels and everyone was paid to stay at home. Remember this was also just post-Brexit with the division that caused. I did check with the other guys that we were all singing from the same hymn sheet here!
Check it out on YouTube with the accompanying video - and that's another story!
Here is the basis of the lyrics for this song. If you didn't get them already there are references in the relevant places.
Because there is no, no magic money tree [UK Tory slogan]
You just can't pick those, those homeless off the streets, [what seemed impossible suddenly happened]
We got first-rate medicine, and Corporate sponsored pills
It's not like the whole world, will suddenly get ill ['it could never happen here']
No no there is no, no cure for poor man's curse
Give him a cycle, so he can ride to find some work [Norman Tebbit proclaimed 'When my father wanted work, he damn well got on his bike and looked for it!']
And stop the spongers, who come from overseas [refugees had been hatefully targeted by Nigel Farage and UKIP]
Bringing their hate Gods, [since Isis some saw any Muslim as hateful] and their overseas disease [The lab in Wuhan perhaps has a lot to answer for!] - Please
Then James wrote this bit!... I tweaked the lyrics to make them fit.
No no magic money tree
to believe in build our dreams in
No no magic money tree
the wind is turning do you smell burning? [reference to the Australian bush fires out of control at the time]
Then Chris wrote this really off-kilter section! These are all Chris' lyrics.
We’re lost , Somewhere down the line our wires got crossed
Shipwrecked
Tossed around by storms in overdrive
Punished for the crime of being alive
Like a ship without sails
Off the grid and off the scale
Not by chance but all by force
Hopelessly lost and way off course [The whole section refers to the great unheard British working public and how out of touch they felt their representatives in London were]
Back to James
No no magic money tree
Has love ended? They say we've spent it
No no magic money tree
Fruits of our labours Go to rich neighbours [reference to the tax cuts on the rich and remembering the feudal system of rich landlords up to the 15th Century]
Do you think they'll save us? Or enslave us? [don't think they will save us!]
Back to me but becoming biblical - always good for overblown symbolism!
I made my millions, stealing from the poor man's purse
We trashed our neighbours. and blamed it on the Turks [Turkey wanted to join the EU and the scaremongering of 3 million Turks arriving in the UK fuelled the Brexit argument]
Didn't see the horsemen [Horsemen of the Apocalypse], aiming at the mark
Didn't see the serpent, and the locusts in the dark [Revelation]
I hid my fortune, I hid it in a dead man's chest
I saw the sunset, suddenly go west
I felt the wind rise, my sails were torn and tossed [All Pirates of the Caribbean references!]
And in that moment, I realised that I, was lost [Quoting Chris' passage to bind it together]
Thus the first song written for Kartoon World was born… and for quite a long time it was to be the first track on the album. That was until Bringing Back the Spirit of Love' came along…
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