Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

From left: David, Joseph, Natasha and Della Manley at the launch of the 'Manley Memoirs' book at Jamaica House in Kingston last Sunday.- Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Ashes on the Windowsill, the title track of Della Manley's debut album, was written at a time of not only political tension but also personal change.

It was written in 1983, not the height of the Cold War between them ideological opponents the United States of America and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics when missiles were trundled through Red Square, bunkers were built in American backyards and preparations for missile bases were spotted in Cuba.

cryptic ballad

Instead, it was in the aftermath of Jamaica's 1980 undeclared 'civil war', when guns rattled on Jamaica's streets where only sabres rattled between the world's superpowers. And after it had been started, the US invasion of Grenada became an additional context for a haunting and somewhat cryptic ballad, released on album 15 years after it was penned.

After all, it does say in the refrain "ashes on the windowsill/this generation's uncomfortably still/the eagle's landed".

"That's the very first song I wrote," Della Manley told The Sunday Gleaner.

"It started when I came back from Cuba and, at that time, I was living with my father-in-law and he was married to Beverley Manley," Della said.

words of advice

Of course, that 'father-in-law' was Leader of the Opposition Michael Manley. The elder Manley's had words of advice, though not words in Ashes on the Windowsill itself.

"I had the first verse and they said I should finish it," Della said. "I would run verses by them and they would say go back to the drawing board. I did a couple edits and I finally finished it."

Although the version that is on the 1998 album is stripped down to Della Manley's acoustic guitar, Peter Ashbourne's violin and a few chops from Mikey Fletcher, Ashes on the Windowsill went through various incarnations. The first was with the Fabulous Five Incorporated. There was also one with Native, known for Black Tracks. Attempts were made to shop the song without success, said Della Manley, chuckling, as she remarked that it must have been difficult to market a pregnant woman with one song.

'the eagle's landed'

"Obviously 'the eagle's landed', at the time, was saying how ridiculous they were to invade such a small country," she said. The reference to 'steel grey' implies war and guns.

Della pointed out that one verse of Ashes on the Windowsill refers to the environment.

"I definitely know I would not write a song like that now," she said. "You get older, you change. My songs tend to be more personal now."

Of all the versions, Della said her favourite is the one which came on the album. "It is so stark, it is the most haunting. It has a timelessness to it," she said.

Curiously enough, at first the song had another title, as Della said it was called Prophecy and that is actually the name registered abroad.

She said her early songs were about the terrible state of the world and injustice. Now, though, "I don't see the world as divided between East and West. It is past that now."

Della Manley, writer snd singer of 'Ashes on the Windowsill'.- File