Haiti has been the news lately because the big quake there was a year ago.
The Duvalier song (on Reha album) was written about Haitian history. Jean Claude

“The former ruler left Haiti in 1986 after a 15-year rule plagued by corruption and a crumbling economy.” After the quake Duvalier bizarrely pledged $8 million to the Red Cross.

He now lives in Paris and best estimates of his fortune are in the hundreds of millions – all suspected of being dishonestly obtained from the nation. Song lyrics for Duvalier are below with a player so you can listen to this song.

You took the money from my people
You took the bell from the steeple
You took my only hope away
Jean Claude Duvalier

And if greed were a virtue
I know that nothing would hurt you
If corruption were quaint
You’d be some kind of living saint

Duvalier Duvalier
you took the money and you ran away
Duvalier Duvalier
you took the money and you ran

Who was that beautiful lady
The one by your side
The one O so well dressed
The one you had to hide

Who was that beautiful lady
The queen of every shopping spree
Live a life of luxury back in gay Paree

Duvalier Duvalier
you took the money and you ran away
Duvalier Duvalier
You took it back to France

Now that suffering has come to you
And you’re scraping for a franc or two
When you know just what to do
I guess you’ll turn around

You took the money from my people
You took the bell from the steeple
You took my only hope away
Jean Claude Duvalier

Jean Claude Duvalier
Jean Claude Duvalier

For more background on Duvalier go here.

Reha is now available for download on iTunes.

Originally released in 1994 Reha was produced by Norwegian  Jan Bille. Players are

Luke Hurley :  12 string ovation/vocal

James Wilkinson : bass/backing vocals

Jan Bille :  electric guitar/e bow

Mathew Lawrence : percussion

All songs  by Luke Hurley

The word Reha means the realisation that we have eternal life

Who would not want to know this state of being? Sometimes I think we all have it. Its like eternity is planted in our hearts.

The album was recorded  one week at KATS Christchurch and post production was done in the weeks following

I just laid down the guitar and vocal and Jan and James did the rest

I never had the resources to promote this album.  It’s a bit of a sleeper. It doesn’t just have my  sound. It also has Jan’s signature. His production work is unique. I hope to work with him again soon.

Without Jann Hurley’s help Reha would never have materialised. She suggested I work with Jan Bille & made it possible to go down to Christchurch . Everything To Me was written for her

Not Easy To We think we understand things. We know very little.Life’s a miracle and a mystery!

to be continued

Duvalier about the Haitian dictator was a memorable song from this album.

“Duvalier .. Duvalier- you took the money and you ran away.”

The new artwork is by  Elena Panaita  based on a  photo by Dave Mann .

At last the Make Room album from 1986 is now on iTunes (NZ link also on other iTunes versions but link may be slightly different.) Screenshots are below.

Buy a single song or the whole album. Make Room includes the now famous tracks Mona Lisa & Fait Accompli but you should listen to Gandhi’s Rag and MacDougalls Blues which haven’t been out there for 24 years now!

It would be great if regular iTunes users could add some reviews there and share this update on Facebook and elsewhere like Amazon.

Thanks everyone.

Use the widget on the homepage to listen to all songs off both Limited Liability and Make Room.

( Safari or Chrome browsers seem to work better than Firefox for that widget.)

PS. It was Lukes birthday on August 31. Feel free to buy this album of the Live album released last week to celebrate with him.

In time this Make Room album will be on Amazon and other digital stores. This link should search on Luke Hurley at Amazon. Amazon have a new service called Amazon on Demand and we are hoping to use that as it allows for individual CD’s to be completed and delivered on demand. It will only be for selected albums at this point.

This 9 song live album was recorded at Ponsonby Baptist Church in ’07. Phil Yule of Voicebox did the honours.

You can buy individual tracks on iTunes now or the whole album which is called Limited Liability (Live)

1. New York To Paris
2. Its Not Easy To
3. Kings Cross
4. Greenfields
5. Follow Me
6. Not A Machine
7. Limited Liability
8. The Sound /live /church/07
9. Mona Lisa /live/church 07

All songs written and performed by Luke Hurley
Recorded/produced by Phil Yule :www.voicebox.co.nz

The lyrics for Limited Liability (Live) are available on pdf here. Listen to the album below. Hover over the right side to pick a track and then play.

Listen to Limited Liability (Live) album over on Napster

Here is the cover of the new album – Brother Sun Sister Moon. Click on the cover to view full size.

All songs written and performed by Luke Hurley – no bling- blang, overdubs or gimmicks.
Produced by Luke Hurley and Simon Gooding.
Assistant engineers Justin Maudsley & Ben Mayer.
Mastering Engineer Chris Winchcombe.
Special thanks to:
James Allan for the design,
and Jeremy at York St Studios.

Track Listing
1. Mechanical – 7.42
2. Only love – 3.30
3. Limited Liability – 4.30
4. Wanna Be Good – 2.49
5. The Bridge – 5.57
6.  The Sound – 3.21
7.  Nothing In Return – 3.28
8.  River – 4.20
9.  Alien – 3.49
10. Tree – 4.24
11. Brother Sun Sister Moon – 3.49

(Scroll to the bottom of this page to read song notes by Luke.)

I’m in love with the Mona Lisa
Through plate glass they let me see her
Winning smile millions feed her
I’m in love with the Mona Lisa

Take your plastic money your color T.V.
Sell it with your house if you want to go see
A Leonardo Da Vinci
Well that’s good enough for me

Sold my house sold my car
I even sold my Martin guitar
Sold my house sold my car
I even sold my Stratocaster
I was going to get to see a Leonardo Da Vinci
It’s good enough for me if it’s good enough for you

Cruising high in a 747
Cruising high feeling like I’m in 7th Heaven
Air Hostess pours a G & T I’m feeling right friendly
But you’re not (the) Madonna

Got to Paris took a taxi to the Louvre
Feeling jet lag (but just like Madonna I’m in the groove)
And there’s Japanese Cantonese Lebanese
Vietnamese Taiwanese Siagonese Ceylonese
Turning into Sri Lankese Kiwis & god damn Yankees
They’re not singing my song they’re singing Paul Simon . . . They’re singing

I got a Nikon camera
Gotta take a photograph
Momma don’t take my Kodachrome away . . . cause

When I got to see that picture
cut those social financial strictures
When I got to see her
She was just a . . . Like that national TV Commercial
With a crack in the plate glass
But she’s got no arse . . .

. . . I’m in love with the Mona Lisa
I’m in love with a Leo Nardo Da’Vinci
I’m in love with a British Airways Hostess
Who’s nice to me
I’m in love with Madonna
In the groove
Jet lagged dirty yeah
See you later

Up until now my knowledge of Europe is based on childhood memories of holidays in Rome mixed with memories of movies seen since….”Mona Lisa” was inspired by Eli’s comments about The Louvre and how visitors seem to virtually ignore the variety of its great works in preference for the most famous ones and in this song you’ve got the whole cast of snake oil merchants trying to sell us anything and everything…………

“Do you want to buy a watch or a dee wee dee”. The last line of the song which I didn’t add in this recording goes “And now they’re trying to tell me that its the old boy himself in drag”.

My understanding of Leonardo is that he made his fortunes inventing weapons of war  (be great to get some information from readers about thoughts on Leonardo).

The “Big OE” is something that is a part of our culture here (NZ) being that we are so isolated. Why do we have to have an OE (again it would be cool to get some ideas on this issue). Write a comment below.

———————
Listen to the song here.

And here is the slide show version of Mona Lisa.

( mp3 file 7.4mb in size.)