It is cold and grey. She stands on a pier looking down at the starfish stuck onto the pylons, just below the surface. Sea Lions doze on dinghies and small fishing boats. Piano, electric guitar, harp, drums, horns and organ reflect the gentle swells of water as her pain builds to the climax. Her thoughts begin to repeat and swirl around each other in a canon, like broken off branches of sea kelp slowly tangling themselves around her heart. And suddenly they release.
When I first heard Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” I viewed the ocean and waves with completely new eyes (even as a child I preferred his ending to the Disney one). I would stand with my ankles in the water and feel the sea foam, wanting to believe that it was made of dissolved mermaids. The rolling motion of the surf is mesmerising and I’ve always loved gazing out over the surface of the water - especially on cold, foggy days, at sea kelp slowly rising and falling with each gentle roll. It can be much like thoughts repeating themselves over and over in our minds in seemingly endless waves. The beautiful kelp forests off the California coast are a treasure and somehow the melodic movements of A Prince seemed to wash up from them, out and onto the sand.
lyrics
Dragon-slayer, a soothe-sayer, A sailor man or a carpenter?
I was never wary enough, I was too naive.
Sharpened layers, a fool player, A hornets nest for a treasure chest!
She was never part of the plan, She came after me.
Who do you think you are to break my heart? Who do you think you are to break my heart?
Dragon-slayer, a soothe-sayer, A sailorman or a carpenter?
I was never wary enough, I was too naive.
Who do you think you are to break my heart?
A prince - no less, no more.
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