Bitter Realities

- - -The collected lyrics to Paul Murphy’s 1997 album, Bitter Realities , this book presents the 17 searing protest/social commentary songs that made up that album.This Expanded Hardback edition contains not only the 2 new pieces written especially for the paperback first release, but debuts 3 additional thematic works, including ‘ Your Contempt Does Not Impress Me ’ , an anti-prejudice excoriation written in 1989 and discovered amongst the cache of lost lyrics that made up the Shadows Behind Soft Words Of Love collection, presented here for the first time.Also included here is the Internet-hit ‘ The Sentence Starts On Judgement Day ‘, written the very day that this work was due to go to publication; a condemnation commentary on the Emmett Till racist murder, and subsequent travesty of justice, that shows that neither Paul's fire nor his ire, against corruption, inequality, and social injustice, has ever dimmed.The material in Bitter Realities – harrowing works all – tackles subject matter such as, drug addiction; exploited teenage runaways; domestic and familial abuse; moral and financial corruption; bigotry, misogyny and misandry. All examined with Paul’s unique turns of phrase and alliteration.Brought into a new era to a new audience following the internet profiling of the excoriating title track, it is a sobering thought that these works are – sadly – as appropriate and relevant today, as they were when they were created.In addition to the song lyrics, Paul’s exclusive new essay – Where It Rained Tears – detailing the background to the songs, the societal situation that birthed them, and his own troubled childhood and homeless years, where he witnessed first-hand many of the events he would chronicle in these works, has been updated to cover the new material.Accompanying the majestic words, this Expanded Hardback is rounded out by the inclusion of some unseen promotional artworks from the YouTube videos, and photographs of some of the original handwritten manuscripts.Bitter Realities – Hardback – is released on 01 May 2023. 9798393012069. 122 pages.