“Before the Sirens” is a different kind of love song, a song of longing after a loved one has been taken away either by political events or oppression…
It was inspired by the political events in South Africa and Latin America during the 1980’s and focused and brought forth after seeing “The Handmaids Tale” about a totalitarian society in the future. This song is still applies today wherever political dissidents speak out against oppression.
Although in my mind I hear it being sung at some point by a woman, in a world where women increasingly are serving in the military and speaking out against injustice, it certainly could be a man who has been left behind, “after the sirens”…
At the time of writing this song, I was heavily influenced by the music of Bruce Cockburn as well as the ideas of a radical left wing Methodist minister by the name of Schuyler Rhodes… it doesn’t take much of a search on google or any stock photo service when typing in the key word: “Political Unrest” or “political protest” to find people all over the world speaking out against injustice today.
Please click the arrow to play:
Before The Sirens
Song# 147 | 8/31/1990 | CD: TBD
I dreamed I saw your face again
Before the sirens came
And though they’ve taken everything
My Love for you remains
Before they took your hands
You used to play guitar
You used to touch me in the night
The way clouds brush the stars
Before the sirens
Before the sirens came
Before the sirens
Before the sirens came
I miss your face in my mirror
Your toothbrush in its place
I miss the way you’d sing to me
and the way you would say Grace
I miss you like the shadows
Mis the candlelight
I miss you like the children
Miss their blankets at night
Before the sirens
Before the sirens came
Before the sirens
Before the sirens came
You were the hope I had
That the world was not all pain
But when they took you
They took so much of me
That now I barely remain
Before the sirens
Before the sirens came
Before the sirens
Before the sirens came
I dreamed I saw your face again
Before the sirens came
And though they’ve taken everything
My Love for you remains
Copyright 1990-2015 by Mark Shepard. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.