This New Wave, independent single was the third release by Sydney band, the Agents. Recorded and released in 1982, it has never been reissued ‘til now and has only been available in its original forms: a limited edition, 7 inch vinyl 45, and as part of the Agents 1983 12 inch vinyl EP, No Adjustment To The Face. So it’s with great pleasure that we can at last make the song available in this re-mastered, digital edition.
Personnel:
- James Griffin, vocals
- Kydric Shaw, guitar, synthesizer, organ, backing vocal
- Kim Knight, bass
- Phillip Hrywka, drums
Recorded on analogue 8-Track somewhere in Sydney, 1982
Produced by Kydric Shaw & James Griffin
Cover design, Greg Hill
“Another great piece of new wave music composition and guitar playing from Kydric Shaw; Kim Knight and Philip Hrywka played bass and drums; and I sang my latest lyric/poem evoking the as-usual/as-ever disturbing geopolitical landscape. We recorded this very quickly and released it not long after, on the Agents newly created independent record label, Venice Beach.
“Let’s think of the song as a universal prayer for deliverance: from the usual destruction threatened by the usual men in suits….or uniforms….or whatever the relevant cultural power-dressing symbols might be. Here is the third and final section of the lyric:
Seven riders on the hill
Seven riders standing still
Silhouetted on the sky
Ride the Seven Samurai
Deliver me Deliver me
Deliver me Deliver me
Deliver me Deliver me
You Seven Samurai...
“When I wrote this, as a response to the ongoing threat of nuclear war/nuclear testing, I was also thinking about that classic, groundbreaking movie, Seven Samurai, directed and co-written by the great Akira Kurasawa.
“Kurasawa’s tale of disenfranchised, dislocated samurai hired to defend a village from bandits redefined and reset the cinema of heroic quests. It also established the modern template for hero dramas in which a diverse heroic team, (often made up of rebels and misfits) is assembled to challenge an immoral, murderous, self-seeking, unprincipled enemy. And, really, who wouldn’t sometimes long for a gang of warriors who could stop the world from being laid to waste?
“And although I could talk here about how the late ‘70s/early ‘80s was a particularly troubling and volatile time geopolitically: high suspicion/tension levels between the USSR and the USA – and between the USSR and the NATO countries of Europe; the cold war continuing; the Berlin wall still eight years from coming down; great anxiety among citizens about nuclear threat and cruise missile deployment; French nuclear testing in the southern Pacific Ocean - are things, globally speaking, all that different now? Maybe not so much. The flashpoints and battlegrounds change, but not the threat of war - so I’m not ready to consign this song to the past just yet:
Executive decisions
Airports in the rain
Panoramic vistas
Of vigilance in vain
Visible achievements
A new guerilla war
Take me to your leader
We’ve never met before
Visibility zero
Heroes from Japan
The whole world is watching
Riders in the rain
Deliverance in chain mail
Tattooed to the sky
Deliver me deliver me
You seven samurai
Seven riders on the hill
Seven riders standing still
Silhouetted on the sky
Ride the Seven Samurai
Deliver me Deliver me
Deliver me Deliver me
Deliver me Deliver me
You Seven Samurai...
Seven Samurais is available from James's Store.
All tracks available digitally from Apple Music, Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Deezer, Pandora, YouTube Music, Tidal, Groove Music (Microsoft) from Sept 1st 2017.