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"Martin Eden"
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I chose the name MARTIN EDEN for my 'SELF' at age forty. The name has its origins as the title of a book written by Jack London, a turn of the C19th American Writer, who, it is believed, based the book on his own life. The association for me goes back to pre-birth, when my mother was pregnant with me and happened upon reading this particular book. It occurred to her that 'Martin' would be a good 'English' name for a son born in AUSTRALIA to POLISH parents (my father from POZNAN, WIELKOPOLSKA; my mother from WARSAW, MAZOWIECKIE), as the Polish equivalent simply requires changing the 't' to a 'c' where it becomes 'Marcin' (pronounced Marchin').
At birth she gave me that name.
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For the first eleven years of my life I was groomed to lead my father's life, the one he lost somewhere during the course of World War II. My 'SELF' rebelled, spurred by the advent of Beatlemania and in particular The Rolling Stones, and I began wagging his sponsored Violin Lessons. However, I must say at this point that he, and my mother, albeit each in their own way, introduced me to music (more about this later). I had decided I wanted to play guitar. My father opposed this to the nth degree, so I covertly arranged for my mother to buy me a guitar for my, then, upcoming twelfth birthday. My father was presented with a fait accompli.
Around this time I also decided that I wanted to become a Writer, following an assignment at Primary School requiring me to write and design an extra chapter for one of our English text books. Working on this assignment struck an inspirational chord deep within me, which hither I knew not to be there.
And so began my creative life.
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In Jack London's book his main character 'Martin Eden' suicides aged around the age of forty (coincidentally Jack London died of an illness around the same age). So it came to be that when I turned forty my creative self took on the whole name of this fictional character, who represented Jack London, in a bid to extend and develop further that life of creative energy, obsession, intensive learning, individualism, conviction and sometime despair.
... Martin Eden ...
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The 'Underworld Series' of Albums
These essentially describe a near lifelong 'musical & songwriting' preparatory journey - an Odyssey.
[Each Album's track list can be viewed and some tracks can be previewed, via left-clicking on: A Life Of Songs >.]
         
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