“The Song of the Sea Goat” by Koldo Barroso

This is probably the first illustration I ever did for “Words and Vision”: the book I am working on that will compile a collection of illustrations inspired by songs from different renowned musicians and lyricists. When I did this illustration, back in 1990, the project wasn’t in existence yet. I just did it because I felt like it, but in a way it would become the beginning of this project because I liked the experience of portraying the way I sense some of my favorite songs and I kept doing more work of this kind.

“The Song of the Seagoat” is based on a poem/song by Pete Sinfield, which was originally released in his solo album from 1973 “Still”. I love both the music and the poem. Pete Sinfield’s lyrics and poems had been one of my biggest influences in my life and art, including his work with King Crimson as well as other lyrics for progressive rock bands such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Premiata Forneria Marconi. He has ben credited as one of the finest rock lyricist and poets in the history of rock music and his solo album “Still” is in my list of top favorite albums.

During the late 80’s, I used to carry a bag with me everywhere I would go and inside there was a copy of the Spanish edition of his 1979 book “Under The Sky” my good friend Alicia Ramos gave me as a gift and I still bless her for it. So, every time I would sit in a park or at my friends place I would sit and read some Pete Sinfield’s poems from this little book. The book actually got so wasted from carrying it all around and I ended up getting it re-binded. You can see a picture of my “refurnished” book, and a page with one of the beautiful illustrations by Julia Fryer, who also did the sleeve art for Premiata Forneria Marconi’s album “Photos of Ghosts”.

Pete Sinfield’s “Under The Sky”

So the visionary poetry of Pete Sinfield was a big influence on my work and still is. I can’t tell why I decided to use this particular poem, but I can remember that when I did it I was researching a lot about micro-organisms and lighting forms of life. I thought it would be wonderful to mix this micro-universe with the world of stellar bodies in a scenery that could be located in the sky and the underwater world at the same time. When I do these kind of illustrations based on music and lyrics I don’t try to reproduce all the words say but to capture the general feeling. For this particular piece, I used some images from the poem, such as “aquarium runes” and the “L-shaped goat” figure. But I also got inspired a lot by the music, which was based on Vivaldís’s “Concerto in D” and I pictured the goat directing the concerto in the middle of this dreamy world.

For me, the most important was to capture the overall atmosphere and especially the character of the Sea Goat, who is aware of something about a reality that the human mortals don’t. So, I portrayed this kind and sad figure that still remains me of the mother Earth suffering from men’s lack of consciousness. I did this illustration as a mix of techniques, including pencil drawing, aircraft, and acrylics. I can’t tell why I decided to do it in black and white but I’m pretty sure that it has to do a lot with the feeling that I got from the colors of the music itself.

If you like this illustration I invite you to listen to Pete Sinfield’s album “Still” and seat to enjoy the lyrics and spend a few minutes in the world of the Sea Goat “to touch the earth and to see the birth, the smile, the style down an unspun mile of life.”

Detail of “The song of the sea Goat”

The Song of the Sea Goat

The sea goat casts Aquarian runes through beads of mirrored tears,
Suave pirates words of apricot crawl out of your veneer
Anoint your eyes with Midas’ oil and make it still appear
Alladin’s lamp is glowing bright transmuting panacea;
To fill your souls with sugared holes.
“Oh can’t you hear” sang the sea goat “the nonsense makes me numb.”
“It’s near it’s clear” sang the sea goat “we live to overcome,
The madman’s voice and his nowhere choice,
The pain that drains like an endless day of rain.”

The sea goat reads the flight of birds and writes upon the sand;
Gold waterfalls of autumn wheat slip through a pointing hand
Whose fingers stiff with sentences still beckon to the band
To play the “Best Foot Forward March” and deafen all the land.
With hollow words, it’s so absurd!
“Take your stand” sang the sea goat “the night goes on and on.”
“Unwrap your plans” sang the sea goat “tell everyone you’ve gone
To touch the earth and to see the birth
The smile, the style down an unspun mile of life.”

It fills the air! It fills the air!
The song of the sea goat shaking in the domes
The song of the sea goat as endlessly he roams,
Between the sunset’s crimson veil
On smooth grey streets where the drunkard spins his tale.

The sea goat sips and hurls his glass along the smoke-filled road
Where shuttered snakes of brakeless trains run aching with their load
Of spring-eyed, tonguetied, wooldyed lads who kiss the L-shaped goat
Which soon will smear their uniforms with blood, whitewash & woad.
Damn iron minded, gold braid blinded, officers and gentlemen!
“God!” sang the sea goat “is always on both sides.”
“Change” sang the sea goat “is constant as the tides
“And this play” sang the sea goat “is strangely synthesised
When your part of a cast where the first comes last
Where the east goes west and the sun is burning out

And your part of a cast where the first comes last
Where the east goes west and the sun is burning out”

Lyrics © copyright Pete Sinfield 1973.