THE SKATERS

This is a prose poem from the book ‘Still Another Pelican in the Breadbasket' by the late Kenneth Patchen, a great American writer, and a huge influence upon me. (His masterpiece – ‘The Journal of Albion Moonlight'.) I hear it as a twisted confession to murder by a man who is slipping away from sanity even as he speaks. As far as I'm aware, Patchen never qualified this piece of writing, so this is only my dark take on it. When I sent it to Johnny, he wrote back – ‘it's gonna be hard'. For me it's just a stunning performance and one of the best things to ever come on to my records.