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A Slow Waltz For Chile
Steve Skaith / Mike Jones
Lyrics
Last night I heard of the death of a stranger to me
‘Though I’ve known many more of her kind
Scattered in bed-sits and in ‘hard-to-let’ flats
And anywhere else they could find
Half a world distant for half a life here
With the certainty at the day’s end
Still they’d have to return
While something remains to defend
There’s a slow waltz for Chile
All down through the years
Of Pinochet, murder and dread
With no quick step solution
Just the will to resist
‘Til the last decent Chilean is dead
All the stencils and the arguments, the smoking and the damp
These were things that I came to resent
Until a, “Who’s going to miss me if I miss now and again?”
Soon came to mean that I never went
But, drinking, I’d be there, with my fist in the air
‘To consolidate we must advance’
Now a cold wind from Chile has frozen this fool
In suffering there just is no romance.
Last night I heard of the death of a stranger to me
And I didn’t ask how she died
Because the way that she lived was all that we need to know
While we’ve still got time to decide
Song Description
A song about the work of the solidarity campaigns for Chile, first for the Socialist Government of Allende, and then, from 1973, against the dictatorship of Pinochet.
To consolidate we must advance: was the catchword of the radical Left before the putsch in September 1973, whereas the temperate Left pleaded for an alliance with other political currents, that Allende also strived for. Quick step: A fast dance, here used as a contrast to the slow waltz.
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