DESCRIPTION:
Hi. Dave wrote this song a day or two after the Rainbow Warrior got scuttled in the Auckland Harbour, New Zealand, near midnight on July 10, 1985.

He felt enraged that fellow planetary citizens, financed and operating under a Government aegis ( i.e . taxpayer funded where're), could be SO antitheistically motivated as to 1, repeatedly explode radioactivity underground, undersea, in the name of sanity, and, right in the middle of what Caucasians legendarily view as a "tropical paradise" (like a "tropical hurricane")
and, to 2, wreak even more creative destruction upon Greenpeace International's worthiness.

STRAIGHT off the top his concern was expressed in the opening line "Didn't I see you on the R/W?", which tells you that he no longer trusts YOU, or anyone, and the sleaze just keeps on coming;- from the over-bombastic opening theme (using a C flattened 5th modulating to the C major triad), and the self-concious use of the old "french letter" gag in the message, to the gorgeous reggae-tinged tale of an obsession and an obsequy.

HE says: -

My band at the time was me on rhythm guitar and vocals, Peter Pharazyn on lead guitar and vocals, Lindo Hansen on bass, and Dr. John Jukes on drums, and we played this song on stage that very Saturday night and thereafter somewhere in New Zealand. The band's name was 'Fifty Bills'.

In 1988, I performed and recorded this version in Alan and Janet Muggeridge's 4 track analogue-equipped Rowan Studio, Sth. Taranaki, NZ, with Peter Reid on the drums, and Serge Bernier on the bass. This recording here, engineered by Alan, is of a live studio performance, and to which I then overdubbed my stupendous harmony vocal and soulful mouthharp.

THE "video" is made up of various shots shot on a handicam, zero budget and with no video-editing software, but it does feature the Whangarei Town Basin Marina where the 2 frog-people, submergeable agents francais, defenders of liberty, ze jolly prestidigitateurs-internationales-qui- rit were apprehended by the ever-vigilant NZ Police.
THE agent's names were given as Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur, and we presume that they and their confreres have gone on to have happy and fulfilling lives. One body died on "The Rainbow Warrior" that night, known as Fernando Pereira, a photographer for Greenpeace International.





I know the sound could be clearer, but, in getting the song from cassette tape to CD to YouTube, I ran out of resources ( i.e. money).



Didn't I see you, on the Rainbow Warrior? Your hair was a diff'rnt colour.
And in your pocket, was that a french letter, or was it an american bomb?

Now, there's a hell of a lot of water from the East Coast to the Mururoa Atoll.
And just a few brave ships go sailing there, to represent the people.
But the French they just don't care, they think that it doesn't matter,
Our people don't want to fade away to nuclear pitter-patter.

Anything is possible in this age of technological profusion.
Hell,we've got missiles that can TALK, and wonder drugs to clear up any confusion. Greenpeace must've had it's share when she slipped in to the Auckland harbour. Did I
See you standing there, one hand in the air when she went down?

Now, nothing comes for free, and "liberty" is nameless, so says I.
And even in the light of the headline news there's often more than meets the eye,
(but this is) destruction pure and simple, there's a murder in the name of the King.
A policy of distraction, a policy of not saying a lot that means a lot to
Any one or thing.

CHORUS..............