12/22/2025
From Bill MacCormick:
Back in the summer of 2024 when, during a Zoom meeting, the members of Quiet Sun agreed to record a follow-up album to 1975’s Mainstream, we also agreed to each write a new piece of music. The idea was that these would form half of the new album, the rest being covered by outtakes and demos from back in 1970-1 and 74-5. As it turned out, we found we had more than enough new or unrecorded material to fill an entire new album… and then some.
A short time after the Zoom meeting, I was contacted by Dulwich College, where Mr Manzanera and I first met back in 1962. They wanted to put on an exhibition and a Q&A event about the musicians who attended Dulwich in the 60s and 70s. Whilst digging out material I discovered a collection of old music scores. Back in the day, and being pretentious buggers, we used to write our material ‘proper-like’, with sharps and flats, crotchets and quavers – and lots of odd time signatures, anything from 5/4 to 17/8, so seriously were we up ourselves.
Amongst the manuscripts were four pieces written by the brothers MacCormick – one by my late bro, Ian, and three by me – none of which the band had ever played. So, I sent the scores to David Jarrett, who can, and always could, read music, and he converted them into Logic sessions and, when the album is released next year, they will all appear, adorned with all sorts of extra musicians – brass, strings, woodwinds, you name it (hey, look, there’s dulcimer!) - and all sounding jolly spiffy. I think.
Convenient as this was, this still left me to write a new piece. So, newly equipped with a MacBook and Logic (neither of which I like much), but with little residual musical ability, I wrote something. It is simple. It is angry. And, through its lyrics, it seeks to express my feelings about the modern world. It has gone through three titles: Dark Triad
You’ve got a fascist in the Big House and a N**i in his truck
And racists and misogynists and no-one gives a f*ck
About the idiots they tricked into voting for this s**t
Cos they’re poor and they are powerless and all they do is sit
And swallow bulls**t from the TV and bulls**t from their priests
Who spew hate and greed and arrogance while their palms are being greased
By the dollars and the dimes they use to pimp their house and ride
And while their prophet preaches love they just wallow in their pride
They will never make things great again. They will never make things great again.
No they will never make things great again. They just lied and lied and lied.
They tell you who’s your enemy and tell you they’re to blame
For anything that troubles you, cos ‘those people aren’t the same’
He’ll be black, she’ll be brown, they’ll have different coloured skin
Or they’ll love someone they don’t think’s right and their bible says its sin
For him and him or her and her to love and share a life
They will tell you they’re a threat to you, your children and your wife
They never troubled you before. They never troubled you before
No, they never troubled you before, until they told you it was wrong
They take what they want, they don’t care what you need
As far as they’re concerned you’re just a number on a balance sheet
The Tech Kings in the valley and the hedge fund CEOs
They have got you by the bo****ks and as everybody knows
They don’t care about the people, they don’t care about the earth
They know the price of everything but never what it’s worth
And their lackeys in the big house do exactly what they’re told
To keep you nice and docile cos you know you’re bought and sold
You know there’s no way out of here. You know there’s no way out of here,
You know there’s no way out of here, until you take the bastards on.
© 2025 Bill MacCormick. All rights reserved.
Send a message to learn more
