A song with a sad story
In 1989 some friends and I watched in amazement as the Ceausescu regime in Romania suddenly collapsed and he was tried and executed. We somewhat ignorantly breathed a sigh of relief that such evil had been vanquished.
Like many others I guess, we were thus totally unprepared for the horror later revealed in the state of the Romanian ophanages. Two friends of mine were particularly hard hit, as they had lost children in the past and for various reasons knew they could never have more.
Between them (and a third friend) they wrote a song for these orphans, and when it was near completion asked me to help with some musical accompaniment. Together we created 'Corridors Of Shame' and I have to tell you that, for many years, I was unable to sing past the first verse.
We had hoped to get the song recorded so that the proceeds could go to the charities trying to help these children, but with no idea how to go about this, totally failed to get any backing. Eventually with great sadness we abandoned the project, but being the squirrel I am, I kept the rough tape we made. Shortly after this Bob moved and we lost contact with him.
Several years later Chris died, and for some reason, while trying to give Terry some support 'Corridors' got mentioned. He told me just how much it had hurt her that we hadn't been able to get this aired. After losing Chris, Terry rather lost his sense of purpose. He withdrew from his friends, and kept moving - I suspect he had cash and rent problems. The contacts from him got fewer and longer apart, and I now have heard nothing since 1997. I don't know if he is still alive, but if so he must be in his 90s.
In 2005 this was all brought back to me forcibly when film was shown on TV secretly taken by a team of journalists in Romania. I was shocked to see that virtually nothing had changed. As if that was not enough, in December of that year the tape turned up again while I was sorting though stuff in the attic.
In 2007 I transcribed and slightly revised the lyrics from the tape, and recorded the melody with a light accompaniment. Now, finally, I have made a full recording which is in a new section of my site called simply 'Dedications'. The lyrics are here.