I See The Hosts of Mohammed Coming

The music doesn’t suit…but the lyrics? Oh my…

Across the western world
The lights are going down
The gypsy armies of the evening
Have lit their fires across
The nether side of town
They will not pass this way again

So here in the night
Leave your home it’s time for running
Out of the light
I see the hosts of Mohammed coming

The Holy Sister bars her doors against the East
Her house has stood too long divided
The uninvited guests are breaking up the feast
She may not bid them leave again

So here in the night
Leave your home it’s time for running
Out of the light
I see the hosts of Mohammed coming

I dreamed I stood like this before
And I’m sure the words that I heard then
Were much the same
It’s just an old Greek tragedy they’re acting here
Held over by popular acclaim

So here in the night
Leave your home it’s time for running
Out of the light
I see the hosts of Mohammed coming

11 thoughts on “I See The Hosts of Mohammed Coming

  1. It’s astonishing that mainstream rock music hasn’t followed it’s natural trajectory of freedom seeking by endorsing the counter jihad. There are some very pallid young men raging against anything but.

      • I object to your blanket statement. My oldest son is/was an accomplished musician. Led a band called The Hogwaller Ramblers for about three decades. My youngest son reads music, plays the 12 string guitar and piano. Does great modern stuff and back to the 1930s. Oh, and because there was no one else available, he learned to play the organ well enough at age 11 or so to lead our church congregation in singing. I did think he might erupt some day when yet another l.o.l. asked him to play “Rock of Ages”. Again. But he’s mellowed since then.
        ———————————–
        In additon the Baron was a landscape artist for decades, fitting that in with being the mom. We had the only 2 y.o. who knew what magenta was…As soon as I can get a round tuit I’m going to send off his hundreds of slides to be digitized and put up on their own page (and I owe Col. Bunny immense thanks for helping me sort out what to do)…Many of his works are, to my eye, magnificent. As many people (regular folks, not art mavens) have said, when you live with one of his paintings it changes the way you see. His style is kind of like Pissaro and a Japanese brush stroke – i.e., once he put the brush to canvas each stroke had to ‘fit’; there wasn’t any way to fix mistakes.

        I hope I haven’t bitten off more than the Baron can chew there: originally he’d said, ‘well, you’re on your own there since my sight is so damaged…but now I can see the wheels turning as he contemplates dust-free digital images to play with…we’ll see. I thought to have had it done already but many days I can’t get out of my own way…

        What makes me get back up and try again is that attention must be paid, as Eugene O’Neill said. And as the B said in another context, it must be SEEN to be paid. Yeah, posterity is no doubt waiting in the wings for him to kick off so it can begin making him famous.

  2. Excellent song. I don’t think that the music is bad at all, though I think that Zeppelin or some of the new heavy metal bands could have crafted a compelling treatment.

    You are probably aware of Zeppelin’s “The Immigrant Song”. Brilliant. 200 years of English history distilled into a 2 minute song. I’m thinking something like this or “No Quarter”. But at least we have a few rock and rollers who are historically literate.

  3. Peter Sarstedt he most definitely is not! I booked both of them at my folk club in the 70s and Sarstedt just played for Sarstedt. He was terrible. Al on the other hand was brilliant and left the stage to a standing ovation.

    The way things have been going on GoV lately, it was only a matter of time before you got around to this one. A very clever song and still relevant today. I even called the chapter in my book on Pakistan “The Hosts of Mohammed.” Still working on it though.

  4. I love the music.

    “24 Carrots” is one of my favorite Al albums. It’s a perfect blend of pop, rock, folk and brilliant lyrics.

    It’s also the only full studio album with his backup band Shot In The Dark, who were excellent. I wish they had done a dozen albums together.

    The song “Paint By Numbers” has great rock guitar work and a SPIFFY keyboard bit!

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