Jaz Coleman:It's not a song about Paul Raven, it's about Raven's anger and things he felt passionately about. It's a song for Englishmen. It starts — "the raven has flown and left the tower / and Albion feels all abandoned / a desecrated cenotaph, surveillance state and waning choices / guided by warriors we knew, guided by ancestral voices". And then there is Raven's belief in the original idea of anarchy — "let flags of black and red unfurl / echoes of distant laughter / confederation of the dispossessed / fearing neither god nor master". Raven was a street guy. He believed in a confederation of like-minded individuals, so we tried to be as true to his ideas as we could. The last thing Raven said to me when he left Prague was "carpe nocturno", which is the last line. It touched me when I sang it and heard it back, and I was lost for words.
Jaz Coleman:It's not a song about Paul Raven, it's about Raven's anger and things he felt passionately about. It's a song for Englishmen. It starts — "the raven has flown and left the tower / and Albion feels all abandoned / a desecrated cenotaph, surveillance state and waning choices / guided by warriors we knew, guided by ancestral voices". And then there is Raven's belief in the original idea of anarchy — "let flags of black and red unfurl / echoes of distant laughter / confederation of the dispossessed / fearing neither god nor master". Raven was a street guy. He believed in a confederation of like-minded individuals, so we tried to be as true to his ideas as we could. The last thing Raven said to me when he left Prague was "carpe nocturno", which is the last line. It touched me when I sang it and heard it back, and I was lost for words.