In early January of 2022, a day or so before the playwright Tenzing Scott Brown fell under a bus on Chase Side on his way to Potters Bar, he recorded on his phone, himself reciting the words to the song Past Present & Future, as in the song originally recorded by The Shangri-Las in 1966.

It is not known why he, a man in his later years in the early 2020s, might be motivated to recite these words, written to express the emotions of a teenage girl in the mid 1960s.

But...

It has to be assumed it might relate to the fact, that one of the last known plays he wrote, may have had the title Past, Present & Future. That said the subject matter of the play had nothing to do with the subject matter of the song.

Recently on listening to this recording...

Members of The Penkiln Burn Players, who had just completed their recorded performances of ‘the incomplete works of Tenzing Scott Brown’, decided to take this primitively recorded recitation of these words, and create their own impressionistic backdrop to it, using their voices and a minimal piano part.

Tracey Moberly then decided to use this new, if somewhat abstract, recording as the soundtrack to the short film YOUR, she had made of a local artist painting on his wall under Spaghetti Junction.

What follows is some ‘research’ into what might have motivated Tenzing Scott Brown recording himself reciting the words to Past Present & Future.

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in 1770, in what is now called Germany.
Ludwig Van Beethoven wrote his Piano Sonata No. 14 in 1801 at the age of 31.
It was inspired by and dedicated to his pupil Julie Guicciardi (born 23rd of November 1784).
Julie Guicciardi was 16 when Beethoven wrote Piano Sonata No. 14.
After Beethoven died, Piano Sonata No. 14 became known as The Moonlight Sonata.

In 1933, the Nazi Party in Germany adopted the music of Beethoven for their political purposes.
In 1933, the songwriter Jerry Lieber was born.
Jerry Lieber’s parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland.
In September 1939 the Nazi tanks rolled into Poland.

In June 1940 the Nazi’s sent the first Jews to Auschwitz in Poland

In November 1940 the Nazi Luftwaffe blitzkrieg-ed the city of Coventry in the UK. Hitler named this blitzkrieg-ing of Coventry his Moonlight Sonata.
In the 1950s Coventry was rebuilt using immigrant labour.
The immigrant labour built the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.
The Belgrade Theatre opened in 1958.
The Belgrade Theatre opened with the play Chicken Soup with Barley.
Chicken Soup with Barley is by Arnold Wesker.
Chicken Soup with Barley is the first of The Wesker Trilogy
Chicken Soup with Barley is a play about working class East End Jews fighting Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts in 1936.
Arnold Wesker (1932 – 2016) was the son of Jewish immigrants.
In 1964, Jerry Lieber co-wrote the song Past, Present & Future.
It was inspired by and dedicated to Mary Weiss, the lead singer of the girl group The Shangri-Las.
Mary Weiss was 16 when Jerry Lieber co-wrote Past, Present & Future.
Jerry Lieber was 31 when he co-wrote Past, Present & Future for Mary Weis.
Past, Present & Future uses Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata as its musical backdrop.
Past, Present & Future was released by The Shangri-Las in 1966 on Jerry Lieber’s Red Bird record label.
In 1972 Bill Drummond took all his clothes off in a public place as a statement.
Bill Drummond did not know what the statement he was making.
Bill Drummond has never known what the statement he was, is or will be making.
Also...
In 1972 Bill Drummond heard a record called Clean Up Woman by a singer called Betty Wright (1953 – 2020).
Bill Drummond thought this was the best record he had heard since the beginning of the 1970s.
In 1972, John Tyndall (1934 – 2005), the then leader of the National Front, met up with Colin Jordan (1923 – 2009) the leader of the White Defence League, to encourage him to join the National Front.
This meeting took place in Coventry. It was understood by both men that they could enlist the young supporters of Coventry City Football Club to their cause.
In November 1974, Bill Drummond was invited by Bill Butt to move to Coventry and work with him building stage sets at the Belgrade Theatre.
Bill Butt and Bill Drummond both worked with the playwright Edward Bond.
Bill Butt and Bill Drummond built the stage set for Edward Bond’s play Saved.
If you have not seen the play Saved you should see it – now more than ever.
Edward Bond (1934) was a friend of Arnold Wesker.
Bill Drummond asked Edward Bond ‘How do you write a play?’
Edward Bond said to Bill Drummond ‘You remember the worst thing that ever happened to you and then you write a play about it.’
In 1940, both Bond and Wesker were little boys, living in working class London while the Luftwaffe began to drop bombs on them.
Bill Drummond went to the Coventry Locarno Ballroom to watch and listen to Betty Wright sing Clean Up Woman live on stage.
When Bill Drummond got to the Locarno, the Ballroom was empty.
The Disc Jockey played a strange record to the empty Ballroom.
Bill Drummond was blown away by the record.
Bill Drummond went and asked the Disc Jockey ‘What was that record you just played?’
The Disc Jockey said ‘Past, Present & Future by The Shangri-Las’.
Bill Drummond asked the Disc Jockey ‘What is your name?’
The Disc Jockey said ‘Pete Waterman’.
Then the Locarno Ballroom filled up and Betty Wright came on stage and sang Clean Up Woman. She was great.

That night when walking back to his digs in Coventry, Bill Drummond looked up into the darkness and imagined the bombs falling from the sky and landing all around him. And while he imagined this, he thought he could hear an old man reciting the words to the Past, Present & Future record by The Shangri-Las and Beethoven playing Moonlight Serenade to Julie Guicciardi (born 23rd of November 1784). And Julie Gaicciardi telling Beethoven he must never touch her again. And then Bill Drummond passed some Coventry City Football Supporters and Bill Drummond wondered if they would ever join the National Front. Then he thought they wouldn’t.

And then Bill Drummond passed some teenage girls and wondered if they had ever heard the song Past, Present & Future by The Shangri-Las, but he didn’t think it his place to ask them.

Then Bill Drummond passed an old man with a flat cap walking back to wherever his home was.

And Bill Drummond wondered if the old man was here when the bombs were falling.

And Bill Drummond wondered if the old man had ever heard Past, Present & Future by The Shangri-Las. And the old man nodded at Bill Drummond.

And Bill Drummond nodded at the old man. And Bill Drummond wondered if it was this old man that he had imagined performing Past, Present & Future.

And then Bill Drummond wondered if he ever lived long enough to become an old man he should perform a version of Past, Present & Future. He then thought that maybe one day he might try and write a play called Past, Present & Future, even if he did not go for a walk along the beach or cared to dance.

And when Bill Drummond got back to his digs, he lay in bed imagining the bombs falling while he hummed the tune to Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14. Then he fell asleep and dreamt about standing fully clothed in the middle of the Penkiln Burn in Galloway.

In November 2013, the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry staged a play called The Moonlight Sonata – One Night in November.

All of the above is very much the type of information that Tenzing Scott Brown would have known about and may have both prompted him to write his last play using the title Past Present & Future, even though this play had nothing to do with the subject matter contained within the song of the same name. This also might have prompted him to want to record himself reciting the words to song as his last creative act, before falling under a bus on Chase Side while on his way to Potter’s Bar, in the early days of January 2022.

In honour of Tenzing Scott Brown this play was staged by members of The Penkiln Burn Players while standing in the flowing waters of the Penkiln Burn in the Spring of 2022.

...THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN