Everything Turns was the final record that Peel played on the 10/1/93 edition of John Peel's Music on BFBS. He may have thought that the woozily, dreamy guitar work of its final 45 seconds would have made for a suitable sign off for the programme. Unfortunately, the intention was sabotaged by BFBS going to the news a few minutes into the track. All these years later, the squaddies’ loss is our gain.
Recorded by New York band, Cell for their debut album, Slo*Blo, Everything Turns starts and ends in contemplative mood and lyrically it maintains a philosophical stance by discussing the way that moods and ideas can change with the passing of time or be swept away like a tide. The way that revolutionary zeal can be dulled the passing of time and the gaining of experience, in this setting, feels like Bob Dylan’s My Back Pages as seen through the eyes of Dinosaur Jr.
If the song takes evolution of ideas as its main theme, it's likely that it does so from a political as well as personal viewpoint, especially given many of the political upheavals of recent years which were still settling down by 1992/93. However, at nearly 30 years remove, it's striking how ambiguous the song feels about the process of change and the latter section of the song seems incredibly far sighted about a lot of the discourse that has motivated many of the upheavals we have seen in the last decade. What music plays in the heads of Trumpists/Brexiteers/phobists? Could it be:
Ideas move, like they're on fire.
Everything turns.
Tell me why?
When you spark a town
Then you let it burn.
Everything returns back.
And when they've ranted themselves to a standstill, and you venture to ask why they were so angry, all they have is:
Everything changed so quick.
I got lost in it.
Oh Cell...how we could have done with you to act as a bridge these last 14 years.
Video courtesy of groscacachat.
All lyrics are copyright of their authors.
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