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Soap Bubble [single]

by Hallam London

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1.
Soap Bubble 06:19
A soap bubble was blown so long ago The wide-eyed, Wonderland-oblivious toddler of humanity blew clumsily through the loop Gripped in one chubby fist Billions of people Billions, billions (Billions of people will die) Will die And the soap film hesitantly bulged out Powered by bronze, steel, the horse collar, crop rotation, sailing ships and steam engines Smoothed into the fragile sphere As were pickaxes, dynamite, production-lines, industrial farming, the Haber Process, internal combustion engines, and the fractional distillation of crude oil, fast-breeder reactors Embedded in the almost imaginary skin of this bubble we blew This quintessentially breakable world we knew through all our lives And implicitly assumed was real Billions (Billions, billions of people) Of People (Billion of people) Billions, billions (Billions of people will start to die) Will die When it turns out it is not We built a civilisation on stuff we borrowed We assumed that fossil fuel in the ground was a permanent state: a natural condition forever. We thought fertile topsoil was a given And clean water another gift, temperate climate, fish-filled oceans, the very air Billions (Billions, billions of people) Of People (Billion of people) Billions, billions (Billions of people are starting to die) Will die As our assumptions start to crack along fine lines And this is a bubble in the purest economic sense Because it actually worked through all the time during which it seemed to work Until one day Suddenly Boom! It’s always been a lie If this island earth were a spaceship Power failing, the food limited, life support pumping dodgy air We’d get all of engineering there And have a meeting to decide Who can be stuffed in lifeboats Who can be stuffed in freezers, and who – because engineers are nothing if not completely realistic – Won’t reach their destination. Now you can try to get that one before the United Nations Now good luck with that And not to be a bore, but Billions (Billions, billions of people) Of People (Billion of people) Billions, billions (Billions of people will die) Will die And I don’t trust that lot to do much about it Although, also, I, with my slightly less than human head on – because I have one of those – I say: OK, billions will die, it is hard to overestimate the size of disaster facing us But it’s not the end of the world It’s just the end of the world as we know it And as long as we don’t completely blow it And as long as we weather the change, ride the tsunami Take what life remains us As and where we find it And not go end-of-days-fucking-crazy With a Mad Max style weapons stash and supercharger On everybody’s Christmas list, then For the billions Who by chance Do not die Do not die Do not die (For the billions who by chance do not die) There will be some loss of privileges We won’t be eating meat we won’t be mining bitcoin May not be driving personal cars But we can hope still to be here in some form We haven’t been attempting the impossible It’s not that a planet cannot support an apical species with a silly headcount It’s just that we didn’t do our homework We don’t have all the required tech Have not closed the carbon curve Balanced the energy budget Or worked out what happens when ageing plastics want to retire Not produced a society that can keep its calm on pressure-cooker starship Earth But it can be done Still, not a comfortable thought And it’s going to take some time During which Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions Billions Billions (Billions of people) Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions Billions Billions (Will die) Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions Billions Billions (Billions of people) Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions Billions Billions (Will die) It’s not the end of the world It’s just a soap bubble It’s the end of the world as we know it Pop
2.
A soap bubble was blown so long ago The wide-eyed, Wonderland-oblivious toddler of humanity blew clumsily through the loop Gripped in one chubby fist Billions of people Billions, billions (Billions of people will die) Will die And the soap film hesitantly bulged out Powered by bronze, steel, the horse collar, crop rotation, sailing ships and steam engines Smoothed into the fragile sphere As were pickaxes, dynamite, production-lines, industrial farming, the Haber Process, internal combustion engines, and the fractional distillation of crude oil, fast-breeder reactors Embedded in the almost imaginary skin of this bubble we blew This quintessentially breakable world we knew through all our lives And implicitly assumed was real Billions (Billions, billions of people) Of People (Billion of people) Billions, billions (Billions of people will start to die) Will die When it turns out it is not We built a civilisation on stuff we borrowed We assumed that fossil fuel in the ground was a permanent state: a natural condition forever. We thought fertile topsoil was a given And clean water another gift, temperate climate, fish-filled oceans, the very air Billions (Billions, billions of people) Of People (Billion of people) Billions, billions (Billions of people are starting to die) Will die As our assumptions start to crack along fine lines And this is a bubble in the purest economic sense Because it actually worked through all the time during which it seemed to work Until one day Suddenly Boom! It’s always been a lie If this island earth were a spaceship Power failing, the food limited, life support pumping dodgy air We’d get all of engineering there And have a meeting to decide Who can be stuffed in lifeboats Who can be stuffed in freezers, and who – because engineers are nothing if not completely realistic – Won’t reach their destination. Now you can try to get that one before the United Nations Now good luck with that And not to be a bore, but Billions (Billions, billions of people) Of People (Billion of people) Billions, billions (Billions of people will die) Will die And I don’t trust that lot to do much about it Although, also, I, with my slightly less than human head on – because I have one of those – I say: OK, billions will die, it is hard to overestimate the size of disaster facing us But it’s not the end of the world It’s just the end of the world as we know it And as long as we don’t completely blow it And as long as we weather the change, ride the tsunami Take what life remains us As and where we find it And not go end-of-days-fucking-crazy With a Mad Max style weapons stash and supercharger On everybody’s Christmas list, then For the billions Who by chance Do not die Do not die Do not die (For the billions who by chance do not die) There will be some loss of privileges We won’t be eating meat we won’t be mining bitcoin May not be driving personal cars But we can hope still to be here in some form We haven’t been attempting the impossible It’s not that a planet cannot support an apical species with a silly headcount It’s just that we didn’t do our homework We don’t have all the required tech Have not closed the carbon curve Balanced the energy budget Or worked out what happens when ageing plastics want to retire Not produced a society that can keep its calm on pressure-cooker starship Earth But it can be done Still, not a comfortable thought And it’s going to take some time During which Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions Billions Billions (Billions of people) Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions Billions Billions (Will die) Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions Billions Billions (Billions of people) Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions, billions, billions, billions Billions Billions Billions (Will die) It’s not the end of the world It’s just a soap bubble It’s the end of the world as we know it Pop

about

A poem by Ian Badcoe about the bubbles on bubbles that humanity has been blowing over the centuries: system on system built on all too finite natural resources, but acting as if they would last forever. Bubbles in the economic sense, working fine while they stumble along, but hollow if you look too close, and building up huge ecological and social impacts for when they fail. This issue has been of great importance to me for a long time and so I have taken up the challenge and set the poem to music; creating a haunting and tragic message that many won't find comfortable, but which no-one can really ignore.

credits

released November 27, 2020

poem A Soap Bubble written by Ian Badcoe
music written by Hallam London
mixed and mastered by Dave Sanderson

cover photo by Arka Gope
cover artwork by Hallam London

release: 27 November 2020
on 3F ° fortunefavoursfools records

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about

Hallam London Dresden, Germany

PostPunkIndieRock // Performer + Composer // Rock’n’Roll Club + Theatre Stage // queer and pround

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