soft machine, “hope for happiness,”
from: soft machine, 1968
“I can tell like the ring of a bell
A chime that is clear and true
But if a crack, the sound is flat
Like happiness that’s become untrue
Out of the East, the sun flew West
Trailing its golden spray
My heart burns, when fortune turns
The trail to light my way
Days go by, I watch the sky
My eyes forever quest
The sun returns, though my hope yearns
Forever things point the rest
Sun heart burns, moon glow turns
Stars will trade hope for happiness
Hope for happiness, happiness, happiness
Flowers grow wild, just for the child
Sniff this sprinkling bloom
When you grow up, hope colours up
The things that cause us gloom
Tell can you now how fun is made?
It’s how happiness is really found
Look for advice, be told more than twice
By people all around
Sun heart burns, moon glow turns
Stars will trade hope for happiness
Hope for happiness, happiness, happiness”
UK avant-garde/jazz fusion band named after Willian Burroughs novel, still creating original music according to linver notes from this first album “intending to put the mind ona journey of cerebral stimulation.”
The cover was what first attracted me. It had moving parts with circular cut-outs in the cleeve revealing rotating pictures of the band members on a clockwork image card insert. Hard to describe but it was truly awesome. Purchased in Boston Filenes Basement in 1969, it sent me on a musical journey far from my usual listening experience.
-Linda Freedman-