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  • CD album
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    'Travels from your armchair' is the first album by The Bookshop Band. It contains all the songs written for Season One of the author events at Mr Bs Emporium of Reading Delights. The songs were all inspired by folk tales from around the world.

    The limited edition bespoke case is designed by the band, is numbered, and printed on an old letterpress in Oxford.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Travels from your armchair via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

This Japanese tale is about a poor stonecutter, who leads a good honest life and who is happy with his lot. Until that is one day the spirit who lived in the cave offers him a wish. He asks to be wealthy and immediately becomes so, and is now even happier with his lot. After some time however, he complains that himself, and all the other rich people are still blinded by the sun, so to be the sun must be greater than a rich man indeed. His wish is granted and he becomes the sun, and shines his light on all the rich people. Then he notices that the rain clouds sometime obscure his light. To be a cloud must be a greater indeed than to be the sun if the clouds can block the sun. His wish is granted again and he becomes the clouds and rain on the earth, constantly washing all the poor and rich people away in floods, and obscuring the sun. After a particularly ferocious flood he looks down and is surprised to see a large rock, still in the ground. The rock indeed can defeat the clouds, he muses, surely to be a rock, solid and eternal forever is greater than to be a transient cloud? His wish is granted and he becomes a solid rock in the ground. He is extremely happy now, believing to have finally become the most eternal thing in the universe. Until that is one day a poor stonecutter starts to chip away at his rock face. Oh the mortification! Indeed, all along, to be the humble stonecutter was indeed the greatest thing, and so, his final wish is granted and the man returns to his old life as a poor stonecutter, and is exceedingly happy for the rest of his life.

This song was written and performed when Edmund De Waal came into Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights to talk about his book 'The Hare With The Amber Eyes', as part of Japan Night during the shops Season One of events.

lyrics

Shame that I will live modestly
A poor stonecutter eternally
Grant you a wish now, who would you be?
I’ll be a rich man, then I’ll be happy.

After one year, how does wealth go?
The sun still blinds me, rain wets my clothes.
So I’ll be the sun now, and I’ll be the clouds.
But all outlived by the rock in the ground.
(Endless life I’ve found).

But soon by your rock face you see
A poor man’s hammer breaks off a piece.
Grant you a wish now, who will you be?
Be who you are and then you’ll be happy.

credits

from Travels from your armchair, released December 1, 2011
Written and recorded by The Bookshop Band
Mixed by Marco Migliari

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The Bookshop Band Bath, UK

The Bookshop Band write songs inspired by books and play them in bookshops. They started as a collaboration between a group of musicians in Bath and their local independent bookshop, Mr B's Emporium. Now they are about to go on tour, sponsored by Vintage Books and Independent Booksellers Week, around other bookshops and lit fests. Catch them if you can. Details at www.thebookshopband.co.uk ... more

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