It is particularly poignant when so many young guitarists fall victim to heroin that Bert should do a song like this. Heroin is a pernicious drug. I can’t help thinking that a lot of the problem with drugs has been created by the way society has dealt with things. I would have thought that the experience of Prohibition in the States would have clearly demonstrated that banning things does not work. More alcohol was bought and consumed during Prohibition than at any other time. All it did was put money in the pockets of gangsters which then went to finance more crime and corruption. Sounds similar to the drugs trade to me.
I think that the drug situation is a health issue, not a criminal issue. It is the illegality that makes it attractive to rebellious youth, means the strength and quality is unregulated and puts money into the hands of unscrupulous people. Lose lose lose.
This is an incredibly sad song and one that we see all to often.
Needle of Death
When sadness fills your heart
And sorrow hides the longing to be free
When things go wrong each day
You fix your mind to ‘scape your misery
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
How strange, your happy words
Have ceased to bring a smile from everyone
How tears have filled the eyes
Of friends that you once had walked among
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
One grain of pure white snow
Dissolved in blood spread quickly to your brain
In peace your mind withdraws
Your death’s so near your soul can’t feel no pain
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
Your mother stands a’cryin’
While to the earth your body’s slowly cast
Your father stands in silence
Caressing every young dream of the past
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
Through ages, man’s desires
To free his mind, to release his very soul
Has proved to all who live
That death itself is freedom for evermore
And your troubled young life
Will make you turn
To a needle of death
I love his music! Great songs and genius, creative guitar approach. Thank you!! –Paul
Bert was a gem. I loved him from that first album in 1965. He was different to anything I’d heard. Such passion.
Bert Jansch, his music his words are the work of a fine musician, trying to get his point across to a world that does not listen… sadly.
There’s a lot of us who loved all his stuff. Some people are listening. We’ve got to build that better zeitgeist!