'Urbane' track by track - 08_'Velma'...

Probably the only conventionally structured and definitely the sole pre-written song on this collection, this one has been around for quite some time. It mutated out of a very, very old song called 'My wheelchair' which was an exceptionally callow attempt at dealing with a very difficult and sensitive subject. The first draft of this song was called 'Carry on', which I always thought was the obvious but still a very weak title. The idea of using the 'Velma' conceit as a title came very late on. There are earlier versions with an arrangement very close to Simon & Garfunkel's 'The only living boy in New York' which had a lovely feel but were, in terms of tempo and sound quality, always all over the place. This last version is perhaps the most polished piece of work I've ever done, but hopefully that won't distract too much from the song's wheelchair-using narrator. A very long time ago I read a book - More than human - by a guy called Theodore Sturgeon. It's about a sort of homo superior group who have a gestalt consciousness. One of the characters is unable to communicate externally but is a happy and functional part of the gestalt. It's been fundamental in shaping my view of some disabilities. Just because it can't be made evident to us, we should not assume that there is not a vivid and rich interior life being experienced. This has always seemed self-evident to me as so much of the creative process is an internal summoning up of material that, ultimately, only the iceberg tip of which will become manifest to others. I feel very strongly about our societal hypocrisy toward the disabled. You can probably be put in prison nowadays - or at least nationally shamed by Sky TV, which is perhaps an even worse fate as you won't be guaranteed a steady supply of illegal stimulants to help you through it - for making a joke at their expense. But to know what we really think of them as a society, you just need to look at the London tube map - those sporadic, grudging little wheelchair symbols and imagine trying to plot a journey to your intended destination around those. Or look at footage of the police manhandling them when they protest about having their benefits slashed so that the wealthiest 1 percent can pay even less tax than they already do. Or read people like Richard Dawkins who would without hesitation or quibble of conscience (I'm assuming here that the man does have one) condemn any foetus he considered marginally beneath his self-formulated threshold of 'normality' or 'viability' to be terminated with extreme prejudice. The hegemony of the humourless was never going to be a barrel of laughs, ws it? But sadly we live increasingly in a world in which what you say has far greater heft than what you do. Talk the right talk and you can literally get away with murder. But I'm pleased with this one because I think it makes it's point sensitively and the key line of the song (for me) - 'and what do you care Tony Blair - or whatever your name is' - came quite naturally and its import crept up even on me, rather than feeling like a contrivance. I think it broadens out the song and makes the metaphor of disability as powerlessness a much more trenchant observation on the relationship between all of us and those by whom we are governed. So, basically, it's track 07 rephrased with perhaps a little more subtlety.