Laika by BIBBY

In August 2014, I was on board a bulk carrier with twenty two Indians, and a Scot. We had loaded Iron Ore at a remote Island in Western Australia, which meant that I wouldn't set foot on land for 5 weeks.

On our way up to China, I was gazing up at the stars, when I noticed a dim spot hurtling across the sky at a seemingly lower altitude than the rest of the stars and planets. I thought to myself "Maybe that's the international space station?" - and thought of the people up there in desolation, away from their loved ones, missing their homes, very much in the same vein as me, being on a bulk carrier with 23 foreigners. I then thought that maybe what I'd seen was Laika in her capsule. My mind expanded, thinking of many scenarios of how she ended up being the first dog in space. I decided I'd write a song on my Ukulele about Laika.

Fuelled by Oranjeboom, I put pen to paper, and with the help of my Encarta encyclopaedia I wrote the song Laika. It's a mixture of fact, fiction, political reference, and using incorrect cities (Laika was found in Russia before her trip, not Belgrade, which was, at the time part of the soviet union- so it's not beyond the realms of impossible)

It's written from her brothers perspective, who is on his death bed, and he is reminiscing about his sister. If only he knew the truth.



I hope you enjoy it, as much as I enjoyed writing and recording it.

BIBBY is a songwriter from The Wirral.
"Start the day with a voice that pleases, herald the dawn with a sense of music that gives pleasure, and tackle the foes who ground our mental health down with wave after wave of new songs that spur the imagination and refuse to let us begrudge the past, only add to it, give it texture and flavour that gives the day a sense of the hopeful eternal"

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