The backgound story to “I Turn Away” comes from while we were in London recording our album, I noticed the how many beggers and homeless people there were, it shocked me and shamed me.
I can understand how people faced with these sights became hardened to them. I am glad that I do not live in London or for that matter any big city, it is bad enough seeing the few who haunt Salisbury, but the plight of these people is too much to take.
Verse 1
All around me people cry in pain,
I feel ashamed, I know I walk away.
I give some money just to ease the pain,
but it ain’t enough, to make it go away.
I ain’t a saint, I ain’t made that way.
I feel so bad, I’ve got to turn away.
Verse 2
I see the beggers out on the street,
how we close our eyes, we say they don’t exist.
We walk our streets with our eyes cast down,
we protect ourselves, with a wall of lies.
There’s too much pain, there’s just too much to take.
I feel so bad, I’ve got to walk away.
Chorus
Oh I turn away, I turn away,
but the guilt, it burns inside of me.
Oh I turn away, I turn away,
oh I turn away.
Verse 3
Children starving in another world,
well we’ve seen it all, it never goes away.
Do we harden with the pass of time?
Ignore our crimes, knowing we survive.
There’s too much pain, there’s just too much to take.
I feel so bad, I’ve got to walk away.
Chorus
Oh I turn away, I turn away,
but the guilt, it burns inside of me.
Oh I turn away, I turn away,
oh I turn away.
(c) 1989 Words & Music John Robert Hunter
RECORDING NOTES
This song is going to be on my next release, the song differs from orgiinal 404 version which was recorded between the recording and mixing sessions of our album Foreign Land with Rupert Hine. I have slowed the beat down and went for a more bluesy tone.
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