h o m e : Cliff Barnes & the
Fear of Winning
It wasn’t that long ago and i don’t think the girls were prettier than
they are now, but there was something in the air, something on the breeze
that made a difference, something unforgettable like a sunset in the desert,
like the sound of a minor chord on a sad song. And it made sense, songs
about love, songs about hate and retribution, songs about villains and
heroes, and losers making it through the twilight zone into the safety
of their dreams. We played for you and we played for ourselves, we wanted
to take you further than your average pop group, into a world where right
and wrong are not black and white but lots of gray, where men are sometimes
men but often wimps, full of shit and sadness, it was more like the “down
side” instead of the “wild side”, but it rocked like hell!
You see your self in the mirror and it could be a stranger but it’s not,
it’s the same ugly face from yesterday, the same sneer, the same unadulterated
belief in better times and suddenly you realize that somewhere in a dark
dungeon on the other side of time, somewhere in a parallel dimension where
hope is heroin, gods are at work and you dear reader are just like me,
just another bird on the horizon, just another wave at sea, just another
“could have been”; ”would have been”, “may have been”, but never will.......and
then you realize that everything is about being alive and free to make
the choice, and the gods at work pause and smile briefly and then return
to business and we are still under the illusion that we are important!
5.November 2001
