Letters to Sylvia and Virginia is a song inspired from the original female voices of Plath and Woolf, ahead from their time, in an era when mental illness was not represented and accepted as today.
In conversation with Frida Kahlo's painting of her own body gaze "What the water gave me" and the same-titled song by Florence Welch, with the lyric "pockets full of stones" referring to Virginia's suicide, Letters are a mirror to their beauty and their shadows.
This song is kind of a long lost letter like the Love Letter by Nick Cave: "and for all who'll come before me leave me standing in the rain, with a letter and a prayer" or Pj Harvey's The Wind: "Catherine liked high places, a little saint of nothing".
Sort of a ballad of lost souls living in the wrong time era or place, patron saints of their own unique life, identity and voice, "bullied by saints" - referring to the social norms and stereotypes.
Ultimately just an ode to flowers, both of them "rooted and flowing", "in a room of one's own".
lyrics
There should be flowers here, blooming from bloody lips.
There should be songs here, blooming from bloody lips.
You’re the drop left from the rain,
The coal left from a train to nowhere.
You’re forgotten by storms,
You’re being bullied by saints.
The world should be out of thorns by now.
Strange happy little girls dancing in your jar bells,
You should be playing see-saw with pain.
There should be flowers here and I should buy them myself.
Oh, they just don’t have time for me dear, but I can bloom in a room of my own.
Save me some coil from the dark ages,
Save me some soil from your false bullet.
You weren’t supposed to live in cages,
Darlin’ I fear, no one will cherish your pearls
Trade me for mirrors and cells.
There should be flowers here, blooming from bloody lips.
There should be songs here, blooming from bloody lips.
Don’t give me that look, so dingy and grim,
I’m standing here at the edge of the sea.
Inside me a larva fish learning to swim,
Inside me a woman learning to weep.
An old lady falling from the ship.
There could be flowers here and you would buy them yourself,
Oh, they just don’t have time for you dear, but you can bloom in a room of your own.
So, the flowers should have loved me more,
Do not surrender me on the first hand.
Now my eyes can see in the dark,
And I can gloom in twilight.
There’s no season to fight,
And in a puddle, I can kill a shark.
Flowers can grow on the shore,
Tears can flow in the salt.
So, we can taste our core.
There should be songs here.
Always clashing for more.
There could be songs here, always clashing for more.
There could be songs here, so we can taste our core.
You were supposed to walk the earth,
You were supposed to live and tell.
Darling, I fear, they will cherish your pages,
Trade them for breath.
Sell them for birth.
There could be songs here, always clashing for more.
There could be songs here, so we can taste our core.
credits
from A Moveable Feast,
released October 10, 2022
Lyrics by Christina Tsaliki.
Music by Nassos Conqueso.
Arranged by Nassos Conqueso.
Produced by Nassos Conqueso.
Drums & Bass Recorded by John Bairaktaris at OnStage Studio (Ilion, GR), Guitars Recorded by Alexandros Pantelias at Studio Aνaδυcις (Peristeri, GR), Saxophone Recorded by Alexandros Vafeiadis at 133 Studio (Ilioupoli, GR), Piano Recorded by Nassos Conqueso at madStudio (Patissia, GR), Vocals Recorded by Nassos Conqueso at ConQueso Studio (Kaisariani, GR).
Engineered by Harris Kremmidas, Nassos Conqueso.
Mixed by Harris Kremmidas at RecIt Studio (Athens, GR).
Mastered by Harris Kremmidas at RecIt Studio (Athens, GR).
Nassos is a singer/songwriter, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, wandering between Athens and London. His main influences include the 3 Davids (Byrne, Bowie, Gilmour), John Mayer and Eric Clapton.
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