Name: VP 10 Vicarious Pleasures
Channel: Martin Stirrup
Description: Free MP3 download. A hymn-like acoustic song, based around some lines by Lucretius as translated by Dryden, which are inscribed around Mussenden Temple above Castlerock in Northern Ireland.

VP 10 Vicarious Pleasures

martin stirrup

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Free download

A hymn-like acoustic song, based around some lines by Lucretius as translated by Dryden, which are inscribed around Mussenden Temple above Castlerock in Northern Ireland.

reality virtual vicarious secondhand

martin stirrup

Singer-songwriter, arranger and producer: acoustic contemporary folk but ranging into rock/blues/country/jazz/humour...all very eclectic, I'm afraid!

Martin Stirrup Singer/songwriter An old folkie who got back into it... These days I sing and play guitar(s) and other stringed instruments, then score and orchestrate where appropriate. My taste becomes increasingly eclectic ranging from finger-picked folk through country to soft rock mixed in with a few more alternative and eccentric numbers, including the odd novelty foxtrot...

Song Info

Genre

Acoustic • Acoustic General

Charts

Peak #43

Peak in subgenre #14

Author

Martin Stirrup

Rights

Martin Stirrup

Uploaded

May 05, 2020

Track Files

MP3

MP3 9.9 MB • 320 kbps • 4:18

Lossless

WAV 43.4 MB

Story behind the song

Mussenden temple, formerly the Earl-Bishop Of Derry's summer Library, overlooks the wild seas of Downhill strand, perched precariously on the cliff edge after centuries of erosion. The inscription around the building reads: 
"Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis 
e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem." 
"Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore 
The troubled sailor, and hear the tempests roar." 
which is a translation by Dryden of a stanza from Lucretius' Nature of Things Book 2.
I've tried to bring it up to date and widen the theme...

Lyrics

Vicarious Pleasures

      C      F         C
Tis pleasant safely to behold from shore *
        F          C    G G6 G7   Am
The rolling ship and the tempest's roar
        Em         Am             Em          Am
The lashing waves and howling wind
            F                        G
When you are safely tethered in    
         Em             Am      G G6 G7   Am
But would you dare to step aboard
    C                        G
If courage to the test was called?

And sitting in your comfy chair
Illuminated by the glare
Of laser weapons searing space
The thrill is there: but could you face
An enemy in combat real?
Different emotions you would feel.

To read of passion sears the soul
So love for some must be the goal
But having read of dangers there
Of broken heart or life of care
Why stand so haughtily above
The one who fears he cannot love.
                  Am         F          C       G
Vicarious pleasures  Can sap the will to active life
Vicarious pleasuresMay keep you safe from pain and strife
Vicarious pleasuresWill wrap you in an armoured shell
           Em          Am                  Em          Am
Then bind you tight     From frightening light
         G           G G6 G7   Am
Preserve you in your    cell
F     G     Am
Vicarious pleasures
 F     G     C
Vicarious pleasures

To live life full some risks must run
We all get burnt who face the sun
And when our measured chances take
We stand or fall as luck will break
So sometimes love must risk it all
To soar to heights or sadly fall

*Verse 1 from Lucretius Nature of Things book 2 translated by Dryden, as seen on Mussenden Temple

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