Councilhouse in Gaborone

LYRICS:
Rahman says woman gets by beauty —
Man gets by his head — you can’t deny it
No man, I say. I think I want it –
Against the law of the kingdom
A rat runs across the muddy path. Good beef, he says.
At the casino we drink blue liquor
Our spirits high, he leads me by the hand
It’s all a dream of Easter Island, or Parchman Farm
Like a god of the river, a son of the field
He speaks of his wife – she lives in Franceville
And their twelve-month old child
And the things that they’ve got
And the old chaps he works for – they watch him a lot
At the kiosk, transistors blaring
Soldiers in berets, glaring,
Staring through me
The rainy windows
People’s faces, calling to me
Mercedes at the cinema
Guards slip through gates
Machine guns, beggars reach through grates
Your woman she likes you, you walk through town
You promise her lime trees, you’ll settle down
Her name is Frida, she’s strong and quiet
The black light blinds the blood of countless riots
It’s not done here, so the old chaps say
Sitting in their shops along the way
Man stays with his wife when he goes home
In his council-house in Gaborone

When I awake on a lonely morning
I am constrained to keep my silence
Powers that be, intruding ever
Voices that were shouting Never
I want to tell my story
Put that stuff beside me
First you commend me
Then you deny me
I looked you up to make my amends
I led you on — your American friend
It’s not done here, English ladies say
Dining in their balcony buffet
In his spirit each man sleeps alone
In his council-house in Gaborone

words and music by Mike Craver
©Sapsucker Publishing BMI

I recorded this song for my first album FISHING FOR AMOUR. For more information: https://mikecraver.com/fishing.html

I hatched and executed all the images in this video except for the Guinness is Good for you poster, 1968 Sierra Leone which is from wiki commons. The Pepsi: wiki commons Pepsi Challenge.jpg. My model for his wife in Franceville was a photo of a woman and child attending the launch of a program to provide free medical care to pregnant and breastfeeding women and to children under five, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in April 2010, by Nazia Parvez/Associated Press. My model for the cinema was a photo of a vintage Portuguese movie theatre in Namibe Province, Angola. And, of course, I used as my inspiration and model for the line your American Friend a poster of the 1977 movie THE AMERICAN FRIEND directed by Wem Wenders, featuring Bruno Ganz and Dennis Hopper.

Finally they say the meaning of the name Frida is peace!