Track 03
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Misti
No, not about Sheila but the volcano behind her - which looms above Arequipe in Peru.
This song has a curious history. It started with a twiddle on the bass string that developed into a verse and then grew a bridge in early December 09. As no words came to mind I started to put bits of it together on my laptop so I wouldn’t forget the tune (which I sometimes do if I have no words to hang it on) – and for a while it looked like it would stay an instrumental. Then flipping through my file of unused lyrics I came across Misti – written in Peru in 2005 – and found an almost perfect match.
So far so good, but it needed a laid back instrumental break. Fortunately Jon Garvey – my successor as President of the Cambridge University Folk Club way back – has recently added the saxophone to his repertoire and was up for a bit on online collaboration. A superb addition and the first of many, I hope
Misti
words and music by Martin Stirrup 2010
Em9 Em9 Cmaj7 Em9 Bm4/Am7 Em9 main bit
G A G A C D C D
G A G A C Bm
She’s beautiful when peaceful though brooding and imposing
She’s mistress of her secrets and you hope there’s no disclosing
For deep inside the pressure builds
Remorselessly for good or ill
She’s magnetic to your vision you know there’s no ignoring
She’s blind to your decisions and deaf to your imploring
And when she blows you’ll never know
The magic or the thrill
She’ll wake you forsake you - she’ll turn your whole world upside down
She’ll shake you break you
Destroy you- make your walls come tumbling down
She’s depths you can’t imagine a powerhouse within
She’s driven on by fires too chaotic to define
You’re only waiting for the day you know you just can’t win
She’s misti…