Paul Jarvis writes of the lyrics to Hushed Prayers
Hushed Prayers , and it really does read like a spoken prayer ... inspired most definately by Henry Moore's sketches of people sleeping in Tube stations during the Blitz . I went to an exhibition of them which made me write the lyric , although I updated it for our times : "radiation-clear" . Google Image them - they're incredibly haunting - chrysallid people with no faces in some kind of dark underground hell ...
I just read that some Tube stations did receive direct hits from bombs - Marble Arch , Balham and Bank saw many people die but Bethnal Green saw the biggest loss of life when there was a stampede and 173 people were crushed to death . So that would explain the cold , eerie feeling that station has then ! To bring the lyric up to date , I edited a documentary once about the 2nd Iraq war called The Fight For Baghdad . That war opened with the infamous Shock And Awe night bombing of Baghdad . The iconic images of Saddam's Palace going up in a fireball were actually filmed by a BBC reporter from his hotel window . I got to see the unedited rushes ( may have been Brian Barron , can't remember ) and they made me feel sick to the pit of my stomach - just the almost evil beauty in the way the missiles hit buildings in clusters of flame ... you could see civilians running for their lives down the street , and cars careering off the road in blind panic ... they weren't hitting military targets that's for sure as at least a couple of blocks of flats nearby went up . It was murder , pure and simple . So Hushed Prayers is for any race creed or colour at any time , trying to survive and keep calm in the onslaught of murderous bombing . I think I have to say Amen now ...
I just read that some Tube stations did receive direct hits from bombs - Marble Arch , Balham and Bank saw many people die but Bethnal Green saw the biggest loss of life when there was a stampede and 173 people were crushed to death . So that would explain the cold , eerie feeling that station has then ! To bring the lyric up to date , I edited a documentary once about the 2nd Iraq war called The Fight For Baghdad . That war opened with the infamous Shock And Awe night bombing of Baghdad . The iconic images of Saddam's Palace going up in a fireball were actually filmed by a BBC reporter from his hotel window . I got to see the unedited rushes ( may have been Brian Barron , can't remember ) and they made me feel sick to the pit of my stomach - just the almost evil beauty in the way the missiles hit buildings in clusters of flame ... you could see civilians running for their lives down the street , and cars careering off the road in blind panic ... they weren't hitting military targets that's for sure as at least a couple of blocks of flats nearby went up . It was murder , pure and simple . So Hushed Prayers is for any race creed or colour at any time , trying to survive and keep calm in the onslaught of murderous bombing . I think I have to say Amen now ...
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