"Shadows of Belgrade" genre: Folk Rock
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	Describes conditions in war-torn Serbia a few months after the NATO airstrikes.
	CD: Shadows of Belgrade   Label: Self-released in Hong Kong (pm productions) Credits: written, arranged, recorded and performed by Paul Meredith. Djembe: Peter Suart / Les Fong. Production assistance in HK from Simon Hui
	Story Behind the Song This song came from a guitar riff I liked so much I couldn't stop playing. It's probably influenced by a Bruce Cockburn song I can't remember. It was November 1999 and I'd just arrived at a posting to work on some relief projects in Belgrade a few months after the NATO airstrikes. I wanted to place some of the hardships and horrors of war torn Serbia in a song where I try to reflect, again imperfectly, not only the sadness of what happened there, but also the beauty of the country and people, despite the dark and hopeless times in which they were living. I try to be hopeful myself in the song... at the time, though, it was not easy to feel that way. Lyrics SHADOWS OF BELGRADE 1. November, first snowfall, white kaleidoscope spin swirls over Belgrade. You look at a map and wonder why it ever gets so cold in Serbia, far to the south of Europe, but the Adriatic air tunnels through winding mountain corridors and bursts on the city in icy sheets. The snow and early darkness almost hide the damage from the NATO strikes of '99 spring, but you can still find post cards and bull's eye tshirts everywhere to show you what was lost. And what's lost is what Belgrade's all about, this city of artists, builders, dreamers, once the center of an extraordinary nation, its dream now... to be normal again. Starin' in the dark see the arc of a cruise missile crossin' the Belgrade sky Headin' up north to Novi Sad, like watchin' some giant alien fire fly... So called surgical air strikes devastated the infrastructure, now repairs to roads, bridges and the power grid stumble ahead in advance of another Balkan winter freeze. In the wake of a revolution diplomats and internationals start to return in larger numbers, and the foreigner is welcomed back with kindness, wit, and warmth, even though a lot of Serbs do feel misunderstood by the rest of the world, it's complex... and yet casual conversation with a people so exhausted by four wars and a decade of isolation, is... restrained. But the smiles and sincerity are real -- "If you could see what this city was, what this country was," they'll say... "if only you could see." Once, standing together, a nation unafraid Differences united but politics betrayed Somewhere in the sadness, lost in the madness we all made You hear the echoes of the springtime, in the shadows of Belgrade 2. Holy men on all sides in the Balkans pray for peace amidst ruins of mosques, churches, monasteries; the call for spiritual healing is for some the only hope, for others, unthinkable -- forgiveness is hard... You can see the legacy of ethnic cleansing all over the Greater Serbia that never was, where peacekeepers and relief agencies practically outnumber the minorities they came to protect -- and then there's Kosovo, where the forced removal of ethnic Albanians was reversed only through something like an International Police Force -- crude, but effective, many would say... Meanwhile the tragedy of racial separation persists, now in reverse; half a million Serb refugees from Bosnia, Croatia, and internally displaced Serbs and Gypsies from Kosovo wait, exiled in an alien homeland, and watch a dictator fall... and wonder if any revolution could take them home again... And you can see it on the news whenever wherever tragedies unfold Comin' through your satellite master, whenever disaster can be sold Never-ending parade charade cascade of misery, and the human heart pounds the sound of a battleground searchin' for a way to set us all free Out of control, aching for transcendence... and call it what you will, a new age continues to unfold as one millenium bleeds into another... Peace will come to the Balkans, and to the world at large; uneasy forced cessations of hostilities will yield in time to a most great, golden age of peace. You can see the dawn of peace right here; the oneness of mankind painfully clear, never never never so painfully clear Once, standing together, peoples unafraid Differences united but politics betrayed Somewhere in the silence, lost in the violence we all made You hear the echoes of the springtime, in the shadows of Belgrade c) Paul Meredith, 2000

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