Almanac Music – ‘Distant Sand’: A Song Tribute To The Fallen At Anzac Cove

 

Somewhere between Led Zeppelin 3 (October 1970) and Led Zeppelin IV (November 1971), my high school friend Gary taught me my first guitar chords – C, F, G, D, Em, Am and also lent me Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits album. Within 16 months I had written my first song – inspired by a girl that I liked – and when I played the song for her she seemed to like me too. I was ‘officially’ a songwriter and had my first girlfriend! The relationship was short-lived but the ‘break-up’ provided a rich vein of emotions from which I could mine songwriting lyrics. By the time Led Zeppelin released Houses Of The Holy (March 1973), my songwriting canon had grown to 13 – including the slightly creepy ‘I Followed Your Footsteps’ and the heartbreaking ‘The Only Girl I Ever Knew’.

 

Over the 50+ years since, songwriting has always been my unpaid passion and my place of refuge. The vast majority of songs I have written have come from finding a quiet space, strumming the guitar meditatively and waiting for an image, a word, an idea or a lyric to float into my consciousness. My real job then was to capture what was offered to me and put my individual stamp upon it via music & lyrics.

 

On very rare occasions, the seed of a song has come to be by other means. This article is about one of those occasions.

 

Between August 2018 and February 2021, after a few years of self-directed leisure (or what others call ‘retirement’), I decided to devote myself more fully to songwriting. I planned each day around a songwriting activity, I woke up as a ‘songwriter’ and went to bed as a ‘songwriter’. As I went about my day-to-day business I wore my invisible ‘songwriter’ cape. The plan worked as I collected songwriting ideas and lyrics doing simple things like hanging out the washing, doing the grocery shopping, riding my bike along the path beside Lake Illawarra. Song ideas and completed songs were coming thick and fast, and I felt that the quality of the songs had picked up a few notches….I was in a good creative space.

 

During this period a rare creative phenomenon happened. My songwriting diary records the following:

 

‘At 3am on 2 April 2019, I awoke with a jerk and the words ‘Them Sands’ in my head. I felt compelled to rise from my bed, wander down the corridor in the darkness, and go into my songwriting room. Still in darkness, I found pen & paper & checked the time and wrote down “3am – them sands” so that I would recall the moment and the words the following morning’.

 

In the morning as I contemplated the words ‘them sands’ I was quickly drawn to the sands of Anzac Cove, Gallipoli. I felt uncomfortable about digging too deep at first, as I have often been conflicted by:

 

• • the positivity of primary school stories of heroism (Simpson and his donkey);
  • the idea that Australian identity was somehow forged in the battlefields of war, and;
  • my mid to late teens discourse about war and nationalism, particularly during the Vietnam War protests, and the debate over compulsory conscription.

 

However, as the 2^nd of April 2019 progressed and I revisited the Anzac Cove landing and its aftermath, I also felt an opportunity to bring these internal conflicts together and allow for my own reconciliation within.

 

I found two Dylan song titles useful as I looked at some key concepts – ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’ and ‘Masters Of War’ – and, in that time honoured folksong tradition, I have melded those song titles into the lyrics.

 

Over the course of the next 2 days, and with some research (e.g. ‘how many Australians died at Gallipoli?’ and ‘what does the beach landing site at Gallipoli look like?’), I crafted the 4 verses, including the ‘fell, fell, fell’ outro to each verse. The original ‘them sands’ I changed to ‘Distant Sand’.

 

By the end of 4 April 2019, I was pleased with this latest addition to my songwriting anthology. As my songwriting diary records: ‘Although it only took me 2½ days of dedicated effort to write the song, it has taken me 50 years to write ‘this’ song’.

 

Distant Sand

 

By the time the sun set they were 8000 dead

 

And the dirty brown sand had turned bloody red

 

As the old navy generals discussed what went wrong

 

To send to the slaughter so many young

 

As they fell, fell, fell on distant sand

 

They fell, fell, fell on distant sand

 

 

They were pawns in the game to the masters of war

 

Who failed to see what the other side saw

 

They were young like lambs sacrificed for what good

 

Surely not to die for our nationhood

 

As they fell, fell, fell on distant sand

 

They fell, fell, fell on distant sand

 

 

The pawns become heroes, so we are told

 

Frozen in time, to never grow old

 

And we pray that we never have to witness again

 

The death of so many pawns in one game

 

As they fell, fell, fell on distant sand

 

They fell, fell, fell on distant sand

 

 

Their names are etched across the land

 

To honour the fallen on distant sand

 

The last post is played, the flag at half-mast

 

As the shadows of 8000 souls march past

 

And they fell, fell, fell on distant sand

 

They fell, fell, fell on distant sand ¬¬¬ on distant sand

 

 

With all my songwriting, once I have enough material for an ‘imaginary’ album, I will find a way to get the songs recorded – just me, my voice and guitar and one take. In 2019, there was a guy named Mark who lived nearby with a studio in his backyard – he charged $200 for a half-day. His job was to set up the mics, sit behind the desk in the control booth, nod his head to signal that I could begin the song and then say ‘cool’ once he knew the song was complete. Here is the unplugged, one take, 23 April 2019 recording of ‘Distant Sand’.

 

 

 

 

More from Karl Dubravs Here.

 

 

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