Remembrance Sunday : REQUESTED: BEFORE Peter put on his base-ball cap
and bling, his recording of the Peter Kayne war poem, 'No White Peaks'
existed as a solum recording, accompanied by appropriate piano . . The
Rap version, as we posted in our previous post today, never quite sat
comfortably with Kayne, and as for Peter Cushing he was happy to assist,
even though the recording of his vocals had been made at his home in
Whitstable months before. ABOVE, This is the original recording and maybe more
fitting ..
NO WHITE PEAKS by Peter Kayne
No white peaks on mountains high
For there is no snow left in the sky
No children going out to play
Upon a sunny summer’s day
No lovers to kiss or caress in the park
And when the sun’s bright, it still seems dark
The will-‘o-the-wisp of a spider’s web
The soldiers too busy to bury their dead
The pall of smoke where a house used to stand
A mother and child lie hand in hand
And in the air where birds once flew
There’s the screeching sounds of something new
Shells explode with the thunder of war
And somebody dies or maybe more
For they seem to lose count and they’re not really sure
Of how many people have died in that war
Oh there must be a reason why men fight
For both sides think that they’re right
The dead can’t speak but of this I’m sure
If they could they’d say “No more.
No more killing. No more hate.
No more war before it’s too late.”
Too late for those who’ve died in vain
And those with bodies racked in pain
Too late for those who’ve gone through Hell
With their limbs torn loose from the blast of a shell
Are we so blind we cannot see
That this will be our destiny?
No white peaks on mountains high
For there is no snow left in the sky.
—Peter Kayne
ABOVE: AFTER THE RELEASE of #PeterCushing's reading of Peter Kayne's poem 'No White Peaks' as a charity record, the recording embraced re-mixing of the vocal into #DanceMix! At 78 years of age on 11 November 1991, Peter Cushing released the recording, made a promo video and appeared live on the UK tv show, #RichardandJudy'
in an interview to help give the release a push! It's true Peter never
considered himself a singer . . hence the 'only speaking the lyrics in
the song in my performance on the #MorecambeandWise
Show'!' ..and thought 'Rapping' was 'Something you got round a parcel'.
Here is the entire interview! Owing to traffic problems, Peter arrived
late, but the live show waited moving items, until he arrived. In this
interview we also get to see some clips from the very rarely seen promo
video. Peter does well and uses his still considerable charm on
co-presenter Judy Finnegan.
ABOVE: AS RECENT AS 2012, another remix of Peter Cushing's reading landed on YOUTUBE, this time with a emotive 'Battle Hymn of Republic' playing! One thing for sure, come Remembrance Day or Veterans Day you usually see one of these three versions appearing somewhere. It's great that Cushing's reading still gets interesting and exposure. . .
