"This Side Of Paradise" genre: AAA/Adult Alternative
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	The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in a nutshell. This Side Of Paradise was written between 1993-1994 about a series of encounters with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during my first few visits to their country. This song is a live recording from the Black Dog Coffee Bar, St. Paul, MN, 16 January 1999.
	MP3.com CD: This Side Of Paradise - buy it! CD: This Side Of Paradise   Label: Independent Credits: Words and music by Nigel Parry; Vocals and guitar by Nigel Parry; Additional percussion by Peter Thomas.
	Story Behind the Song Each verse is a diary entry from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whose front line I visited and lived on from 1989 to 1998. The first, to an experience in Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, 1989, when our UN bus inadvertantly turned the corner on an Israeli soldier about to shoot an 8-year-old on a deserted street.The second, to a story told to me by one of my first Palestinian friends in 1993, about his friend Birzeit University student Hazem Mohammed 'Eid, who "hung himself" in an Israeli jail cell where the only place to tie anything to was just 1.5 meters above the floor. The third, a visit in Jabaliya in 1993 to the families of a young Palestinian shot by Israeli troops. The fourth, relates to an experience at a conference at Birzeit University in 1993. The fifth, is about when I came to live in the Palestinian West Bank in 1994 and began to be exposed to such things on a regular basis. The last verse refers to the phenomonon of suicide attacks, which were still a relatively recent phonomenon at the point when I went to live in the country in 1994. Lyrics no one ever asks, "how are you feeling?" no one ever really asks, "how are you feeling?" la ahada yeselu, "keifa tushhur?" la ahada yeselu haqan, "keifa tushhur?" well today i feel i want to die i saw a man point his gun at a child and i wondered how it could be this way and i wanted so much to make him pay. a friend just told me how his friend was killed in a prison cell in an israeli jail and how they had planned to paint his kitchen one day until his friend was arrested and summer never came. well today i feel i want to kill someone as a mother's tears fall at the death of her son and i hear of how some soldier wouldn't let her see him one last time before they buried his body. i went to a conference in a west bank town and we all stood up and people's heads bowed down. i asked emma if this was for a national anthem and she smiled and said yes as a minute's silence began. well I'm feeling like i've seen everything that's under the sun and i live each day as if it's my last one and i pray one day that all of this will end and i've had enough of too many false friends. well today i'm going down to tel aviv - i've got some pain inside that i want to relieve 'cause i've seen too many of my people die to let it rest, this side of paradise. holy holy holy lord. god of power and might. heaven and earth are full of your glory. hosanna. hosanna in the highest. 1993, London; 1994, Ramallah, Palestinian West Bank

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