I first discovered this band from Tim Henderson (Warlord/Mr Bishops Fist) one night as we were talking about obscure Christian bands from the past. Body and Soul was a one-off solo project from Daniel Amos keyboardist Rob Watson. Body and Soul released only one 7″ in 1983, and never did anything else.
Side A featured “Something’s Going On Here,” which is a good song, but is more typical of 80s new wave/pop. It sounds like a track you’d hear in an 80s action comedy film, something akin to Adventures in Babysitting. Side B, however, is something altogether different. While it’s still in the new wave genre, it’s sparse, minimal, dark and brooding. It’s difficult to describe how good the track is, despite the low fidelity of the recording.
The track describes a person’s journey of death (or at least a dream about it), as they are passing through from one side to the other:
I was there, in a tunnel in my dream
I arose, the light was drawing me – Oh No…
Leaving life behind, seek and ye shall find
Looking for you, waiting for me
Looking for you, waiting for me
I was there, in the Graylands of my dream
They were there, they did not look at me – Oh No…
Standing on a hill, crying in the dark
Out on the sand there was no sun
Out on the sand there was no sun
I was there, on the outer rim of life
I hung on, to let go was to die – Oh No…
Trusting in the Word, flying in the dark
Looking for you, waiting for me
Looking for you, waiting for me
The original vinyl release is notoriously difficult to find (I’ve had one in my want list for nearly 2 years without an available copy even popping up anywhere), but fortunately Watson released a full-length solo album in 2019, with “The Graylands” as the title track. What I don’t know (and can’t find online) is whether the album is a compilation of old recordings, or newly recorded material.
His album was a Kickstarter campaign and the songs are a mixture of old and new. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/anthropy/the-graylands