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Soldiers' Lives

from DOWN IN THE VALLEY by The Gatekeepers

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I used to watch The World at War and The Unknown War (about the Soviet side of things). On one of them an ex Wermacht officer said that while Russia fell as easily as Western Europe had the further they advanced into the country the more the thrill of each victory would diminish as the next day there was just more of the interminable land to conquer. It seemed endless, a futile campaign.

The statement haunts me to this day and at the time it really spooked me. I tried to imagine being a soldier with that kind of lifelong defeat meeting him every morning. Soon a vague horror or sci fi tone appeared and he was given the choice between infinity or fighting the vengeful native army. Burning the stage might mean a kind of scorched earth suicide or something more abstract. I liked the idea of keeping it open.

While my cassette of playing this is of me playing the home organ at my parents' place I suspect that it was made in 1980 as its aesthetic is a step beyond the guitary power pop I was attempting earlier. There was a middle eight for it but listening back it doesn't make a lot of sense musically and might have just been me noodling until something suggested itself.

While I probably had a Doors/Stranglers/Gary Numan sound in mind I've kept it organ sounding for both purity reasons and because I liked the sound on the cassette recording. There were no lyrics on the recording but la-la-ed vocals and ideas for backs. The words were written sometime in the following year. I've neatened them here and there.

Also on this a 1978 Korg MS-20 synth!

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from DOWN IN THE VALLEY, released December 12, 2013
Words and music Peter Jetnikoff 1980.

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The Gatekeepers Melbourne, Australia

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