Total run time: 62:02:10
Music and lyrics: © RBR/The Retro Beat Repository/J Guilbault 2024
Created using UDIO
Hey music lovers and dear friends! Here it is-the result of a true labour of love and an exhausting but rewarding experience: DRYSTAN, the album. No spoiler here, but as with any other "concept album", DRYSTAN needs to be listened to as a whole to get its real flavor. It would require a double album, with a total running time of 62 minutes (1:02:10).
It's an opus influenced by Pink Floyd, a few years beyond "The Mind Trap" sound. If the previous album could have been an imaginary 1974 project, this one would probably have been recorded after "The Wall" and released in 1980.
"Drystan" was constructed as a short movie,I dream of teaming up with people who could transform the album into a soundtrack. Who knows? "Drystan" follows the life of a 72 years old Welsh-born, WWII veteran, and social outcast.
1- "They Don't Know Me" (0:00) is about how old Drystan feels judged, mocked, and frowned upon by people who have no idea who he is, how "normal" he used to be, and the Hell he went through...for them.
2- "How Far the Days" (07:04) is an ode to innocence, family, roots, nature, stability, and simplicity. Old Drystan looks back on the happiest time of his life, a lost paradise.
3- "She" (14:17) is all about discovering love and its promises. It is an ode to true love, pure and innocent, as he idealizes the girl he dreamed of for the rest of his life. They were young and full of dreams, waiting for the "bridalope" (wedding) to consummate their desire-a wedding that would never come.
4- "The Wooden Box" (19:15) is an anti-war song that exposes the banality of warmongering and propaganda, making "common people on each side, awaiting each other's death." Radio was an important propaganda tool on all sides before World War II, and today is no different as television, movies, and "podcasts" have taken over. Men will never learn.
5- "Madness" (24:25) is explicit: man turns into a beast because he is told to. At the end of the day, every casualty is some mother's son or some wife's husband. There is no way out of it. War is pointless. I struggled with the idea of shortening the transition sound effects, but I believe that leaving those terrifying noises that long conveys the message as it should: war is demonic and horrifying.
6- "Scarred" (31:37) starts with bells celebrating "victory," but is there any victory at all for Drystan? He feels guilt as he returns home while all his companions did not, and those he personally killed never will. He reflects on how hard it is to "switch" back to normality and fears that the beast he discovered within himself might never leave. It ends with a ghostly grotesque fanfare.
7- "Unseen" (38:37) is about the frustration of having given everything for "the country" and receiving disdain instead of recognition and gratitude. Not only is he not celebrated as a hero, but he becomes just a "number" in a dull factory where he is now a perfect employee, with no love whatsoever for his repetitive task. (Easter egg for the hardcore Beatles fans)
8- "The Robot and the Ghost" (45:06) is a retrospective of what he has become. Drystan, now an old man, is laid off, knowing they got rid of him because of his personality. He gave everything to the company and lived like some kind of robot, leaving his soul in his tiny house. He kept his sanity by continually staring at a picture of the love of his life, feeling her presence, not knowing where she is or if she's even around anymore. Her ghostly voice is heard as a transition.
9- "The Fight" (50:01) He realizes that his world has fallen apart to the point where there is nothing left of his beloved endless green meadows: the city, once miles away from his tiny childhood house, is now a block away. Asphalt eats grass. He wants to join those who organize to fight back, but they dismiss him! (huge Kinks Easter egg)! As he reflects on his sad life, he is brutally stopped.
10- "Drystan" (54:23) is a conclusion. He opens his eyes, lost in some kind of mental fog. He is lying in a hospital bed and believes for a moment that the woman standing beside him is his long-lost love. She hasn't aged a day. He surprises the woman by calling out her mother's name. She tells him that she passed away years ago and that her only family is her older brother...Drystan. The man cries, smiles, and slowly welcomes death, knowing that his love never forgot him. He slowly enters death hearing ...
The whole album was emotionally very exhausting as I invested many personal thoughts and experiences into this, hence the time of production. If you do, please comment. And PLEASE share and subscribe. Thanks again for your support.
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