SotD - The Waterboys

Taken from the forthcoming album Good Luck, Seeker, which is out later this month, The Waterboys have released a new song Postcard From The Celtic Dreamtime...

Press Release

The hauntingly atmospheric ‘Postcard From The Celtic Dreamtime’ showcases the spoken word nature of the second half of new album Good Luck, Seeker, the lyrics describe an elemental land and seascape.“It’s a poem I discovered in a box of old writings,” explains Scott. “The first line is “The storm that has howled for four days has blown itself out.” It describes the world I found at the end of Ireland, where I went to escape the pressures of the modern world and finish ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ thirty years ago.”

The track, underpinned by a shimmering beat and shapeshifting musical soundtrack, unites The Waterboys’ past and present and is accompanied by a beautiful aerial video tracing the spectacular coastline of the Aran Islands which are mentioned in the lyric. The aerial footage was shot by band member Steve Wickham and edited with his son Tom Wickham.

‘Postcard From The Celtic Dreamtime’ follows the recent release of the band’s current upbeat pop single ‘The Soul Singer’, the mysterious ‘Low Down In The Broom’ and the epic ‘My Wanderings In The Weary Land’, all of which preview one of the most remarkable albums in The Waterboys’ career.

Here's the lyrics for those interested in the poetry of the song:

The storm that has howled for four days
has blown itself out
and the wheels of the world
have begun again to turn

From my window I watch far waves
crashing on the bay
white spray against black sea
distance compressing their dance into slow motion
On the Clare coast I see silver rounded hills
with scarped terraces
a martello tower, a ruined fort
four, maybe five headlands fading south
while westwards the Aran Islands wait for me
dark smoke-like shadows on the horizon

Pantheons of clouds move across the Atlantic sky
like ships, white galleons
chariots or cavalcade of noble kingpins
and patient, lofty queens
slow procession of old gods passing by

Below my house kaleidoscope of stone walls
and huddled rooftops
small haphazard fields, wild, untended
a witch-faced woman walking cows uphill
whacking their arses with a long branch
suddenly smiling when she sees me
a rough arm waving

The clamour of voices in my mind
the woman who wonders about me
the men who want me to deliver their dreams
has faded
I can almost no longer hear them

The storm that has howled for four days
has blown itself out
Nothing disturbs the calm
but the rattle of my typewriter

I stop

in the silence the ever-present past
and the ever-passing present
blend with the landscape
to make a flavoured immensity
an atmosphere so strong
that when I step outside
I feel it beat against my skin
and cluster headily round me
as I walk through it
as I breathe it
as I become it


‘GOOD LUCK, SEEKER’ is released on August 21st via Cooking Vinyl on CD, Deluxe CD, Standard Vinyl, Deluxe Vinyl and digital formats

Photo credit: Barry McCall