"We're going to take you through the looking glass"

The Speed Of Sound playing Checkered Land - Live

"We're, going to take you through the looking glass..." the Rickenbacker 12-string chimes and sparks the notes from A-minor as the trip begins, hurtling through the mirror, into Lewis Carroll and John Tenniel's superbly imagined Looking Glass World. 

Aside from the absence of The Cheshire Cat; Alice Through The Looking Glass and What She Found There beats its more famous sister Wonderland. It's far darker and creepier. Written on a Hofner Senator six string (the same type of guitar that Jeff Beck trashes when the amp buzzes too much in Antonioni's 60's classic Blow Up), the chess board fields gave the title to this homage to Looking Glass World. Checkered Land was first released on the 1989 EP and has always been in the live set. This version was recorded in 2013. 
Click here to listen.

Checkered Land:

Step through the mirror in your living room

And enter the gardens that you can not leave

those rooted voices are calling your name

Will you ever see your little Dinah again

Will you ever come to understand

You've cried those tears before but they're made of sand

Now you see in red and white

You shall be queen before the fall of night

As you pass from square to square and as you move from here to there 

You hear of a man who is in the cells

You will find out you have met him before

He's guilty now but he has done no wrong

You could join him there before too long

You could be the one who is judging him 

What is this place that you are in

And where's the queen has she changed to you?

Don't you think you'll be changing too?

As you pass from square to square and as you move from here to there

From the narrow wall things are explained

Now its your move so its off to war

The feuding mascots drum you away

:Like the leaders of the day

You were taken prisoner on your way

The white night came and rode away

You take the queen, you shake and shake

She purrs so loud until you awake

As you pass from square to square and as you move from here to there

As you pass from square to square and as you move from here to there

Armstrong/Foster April 1987

The lyric on this one was co-written with Steve Foster, lead singer in The Droogs (1987-1988)

Hi Steve; wherever you are, not seen you since early 1989...