PJ Harvey and Egyptian recording artist Ramy Essam have come together to write and record ‘The Camp’, released digitally Friday 9 June 2017. Harvey and Essam recorded the track in Bristol with Harvey’s long-time collaborator John Parish, who produced and mixed the track. The artists will donate all net profits from the track to Beyond Association, a national Lebanese NGO which provides access to education, healthcare, and psycho-social support for displaced children in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon.
Go BackThe Camp
Record Tracklist
-
The Camp
The Camp
I saw children through a fence,
standing by blue canvas tents,
I called to them, they moved like ghosts,
gliding, silent and remote.A girl, whose mouth was a straight line,
looked like a creature out of time.
A grey boy, burnt by cigarettes,
pushed his scarred hands through the fence.He tried to smile at me and said,
In my place you would have commit
suicide from what I’ve seen.
I found it difficult to breathe.He said his school became a jail
and armed men tore out fingernails
of children tied with cord and wire.
His face grew old before my eyes.And when I turned and tried to run
I saw ten-thousand children
were laid in lines, wrapped in white sheets
along a godforsaken street.I prayed an angel from the clouds
would free the children from their shrouds.
I prayed and waited for an age
I waited but no angel came.