The Last Chance
A very long song, which departs from the usual template by incorporating lengthy sections of spoken narrative. The song began life in 1982, written in reaction to Isreal's attack on Lebanon, but has its roots long before, during the period 1958-9, when Leon had spent a year in Israel. The body of the song is a series of bad-tempered conversations between the characters Sam and Meier, in which they thrash out various views on Israel's position and history. These figures are based on actual people, in a real place called The Last Chance, encountered during a period when the State of Israel was relatively young.
In 1982, Leon was still developing a view on the Israeli situation and this, his first song to broach the subject, is non-committal. Years later his views (and songs) would crystallise, although "The Last Chance" remained relevant and later became the title track of a CD EP containing songs about the Isreal-Palestine issue.
Leon later named the song as one of his personal favourite compositions, "because it breaks all the rules".
In 1982, Leon was still developing a view on the Israeli situation and this, his first song to broach the subject, is non-committal. Years later his views (and songs) would crystallise, although "The Last Chance" remained relevant and later became the title track of a CD EP containing songs about the Isreal-Palestine issue.
Leon later named the song as one of his personal favourite compositions, "because it breaks all the rules".
"The Last Chance was a real place. It was in Beersheva and was run by a French woman who'd planted bombs on behalf of the Stern Gang during the last years of the British Mandate and an American who spent his time - when he wasn't listening to records of Mahalia Jackson - scavenging for strangely-shaped stones and pieces of driftwood. Many shipwrecked characters like Meier and Sam clung to the place, and the views expressed in the story/song reflect those I heard in Israel during the year I spent there in 1958-9." - LR, original note to the 1983 album, Temporary Loss of Vision (re-quoted in the sleevenotes to Perspectives)
"I've absorbed different influences, experimented with different forms, different song structures, playing with the song form to discover how much weight it can take, even, as in 'The Last Chance', breaking the song form altogether." - LR (introduction to Bringing the News From Nowhere (songbook), 1992)
"I wrote this after Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. But long before that it had become obvious that Jews like Sam had lost the argument. I suppose it was inevitable given the circumstances of the founding of the State of Israel. But in those far-off unreal innocent days of sunlight and young love and warm winds and the scent of orange blossom, it seemed that things might turn out differently." - LR (sleevenotes to Perspectives, 1997)
“When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 in order to destroy the PLO, I wrote my first song about the conflict, ‘The Last Chance,’ a story in which one of the characters, Sam, asks: ‘We are Jews. Why should our children turn into Israelis?’ To which Meier replies: ‘History loves a winner.’” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p53)
* for further discourse on the place and context, see Leon's 2023 book, Where Are The Elephants?, p64-66
"I've absorbed different influences, experimented with different forms, different song structures, playing with the song form to discover how much weight it can take, even, as in 'The Last Chance', breaking the song form altogether." - LR (introduction to Bringing the News From Nowhere (songbook), 1992)
"I wrote this after Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. But long before that it had become obvious that Jews like Sam had lost the argument. I suppose it was inevitable given the circumstances of the founding of the State of Israel. But in those far-off unreal innocent days of sunlight and young love and warm winds and the scent of orange blossom, it seemed that things might turn out differently." - LR (sleevenotes to Perspectives, 1997)
“When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 in order to destroy the PLO, I wrote my first song about the conflict, ‘The Last Chance,’ a story in which one of the characters, Sam, asks: ‘We are Jews. Why should our children turn into Israelis?’ To which Meier replies: ‘History loves a winner.’” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p53)
* for further discourse on the place and context, see Leon's 2023 book, Where Are The Elephants?, p64-66
Recordings
Version 1 (1983)
- Temporary Loss of Vision
- Perspectives
- The Last Chance (EP)
- The Last Chance (Extended EP)