In 1993 David Sylvian and Robert Fripp released a single- Jean The Birdman- across two CDs with different B-sides on the pair. CD Two came with Endgame, a beautiful, understated acoustic song, and the ten minute and fourteen second wonder that is Earthbound/ Starblind. Effectively, it's two songs stuck together. The first half is David singing over acoustic guitar, close and melodic with lyrics about magic and nature and a woman who is 'giving me questions and quizzical looks/ She tears up my papers and burns all my books', someone who has 'been through this world before'. At four minutes seventeen seconds the second half starts, six minutes of Frippertronics, the conjuring of ambient guitar soundscapes. The first half is earthbound I guess and the second half is starblind.
earthbound/starblind - sung in Damage (spine-chilling performance of both)Sylvian could make millions but chooses the artistic and sadly mostly instrumental route most of the time....Saw him live twice (1988 and 2001)Maybe the eighties fan hysteria scared him....
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