I have worked on this song – words and music – since yesterday. It sprang from seeing that day’s news reports about the banning of bullfighting in Barcelona, Spain. The incident recalled a repeated discovery of prominent figures in confronting the Sathya Sai Organization. Namely, that when you fight a hard cause, you essentially have to fight it pretty well alone.
The crowds may cheer or give thumbs down. But one has to focus on the proper work, and not the pro or anti roars of crowds. Nor, indeed, waste time lamenting on many people’s disappearance from the action, from whom one might have wished to see better.
Whether one believes in bullfighting or this or that cause or not, the true pain and joy – those great inseparables – are in the deed, and in facing it no less than the worthy matador or bull OR active opponent of bullfighting. Those who dare are too few, and would dare regularly if only they knew the sheer satisfaction of making a stand.
My supposition is that the prime activists in the fight for animal rights have far more in common with the matadors than what the madding crowds would like to admit. Both matadors and activists risk their lives (as do, not to forget, the bulls).
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They’ve Banned the Bulls At Barcelona. By Barry Pittard. 28 September 2011
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They’ve banned the bulls at Barcelona
The bold matadors have had their day
Had their day
Had their day …..
Their capes they’ve tossed to the sun’s corona
Carried by the crowds, they vanish away
Vanish away …..
As they vanish away
The crowd cries out: ‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’
‘Freedom’, and ‘Ole’
‘Freedom’, and ‘Ole’
The blood-sand, there, fades to pallid yellow
No man, no bull, no crowd in the stands
No crowd in the stands
In the Plaza de Toros
No sword, no horn, no clash, no bellow
The wind whips away the blood and the sand
The blood and the sand
The blood and the sand
As the crowd cries out: ‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’
‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’
‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’
When they banned the bulls at Barcelona
The red-eyed crowds how they wept all day!
Wept all day!
Wept all day!
But who faces the bull is no crowd but a loner
Alone with the bull
Alone with the bull …..
It’s only the crowd chants ‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’
‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’
‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’ …..
Thinks the bull: I’ve no time for the crowds in the bleachers
With their lily yellow livers, they are takers, never givers
Takers, never givers!
Takers, never givers! …..
Thinks the bull: I’ve no time for the crowds in the bleachers
The lily livered crowds that make no stand
That make no stand!
That make no stand!
That only glow red when they suck me like leeches
And pour none of their blood gushing into the sand
They have no sand!
They have no sand! …..
It’s only the crowd that chants ‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’
‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’
‘Freedom’ and ‘Ole’ …..
When they banned the bulls at Barcelona
A new crowd cheered and leapt all day
Leapt all day!
Leapt all day!
But they too followed some gutsy loner
Who stood their ground, and kept death at bay
Death at bay!
Death at bay!
The matador and the activist are alike, you could say
Though this the bold crowds dare never say
Dare never say!
Never say!….
Thinks the bull: I’ve no time for pallid crowds in the bleachers
With their lily yellow livers, they are takers, never givers
They’ve banned the bulls at Barcelona
My bold matadors have had their day …..
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Select Barry Pittard poems/lyrics expressive of themes relating to crimes and spiritual betrayals by Sathya Sai Baba and his international Sathya Sai Organization.
‘Little Fly’. A Ballad of ‘Rock Spiders’ and Sexual Abuse of the Young
Beth Rude. Ballad of a Child Protectrice. By Barry Pittard
Sathya Sai Baba – The Man Who Would Be ‘King of Kings’
Note: Barry Pittard’s songs are copyright protected by The Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA). Contact: barpittard@gmail.com
The Public PetitionInformation on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
About the Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition): Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
