After long years appearing on Xarabank, Vince Fabri became a household face, though not in the same category as his boss, Peppi Azzopardi, of course.

The two had met, along with other activists, in the Zghazagh tan-Numri in the last years of the Labour government in the 1980s. Then they strengthened their alliance on Xarabank over the years from the late 1980s to the 2010s when Xarabank was discontinued.

This slim book contains many of the lyrics (35 to be exact) that Fabri composed and sang on Xarabank. As the title of this review says, this is a collection of the words, without the music that accompanied them. As such, the collection is truncated for many of the ditties have remained famous.

It is nevertheless useful to read the words of the lyrics for they mainly expressed what people were thinking at the time.

There is, above all, a preoccupation and an aversion to war. Even today, in the midst of the Russia-Ukraine war and the Hamas-Israel war, we struggle to remember the wars of those times.

In the background, there also emerges the political confrontation in the country which peaks at election times. Time and again, the author appeals for peace and concord in the country.

Then there was the EU membership referendum which had families divided. This is how the author saw it:

Ghax ma fhimtx is-sitwazzjoni,

Jien dmiri f'dil-kwistjoni

li nivvota fl-elezzjoni,

immur xi dimostrazzjoni.

Minn din l-isbah unjoni

irrid konsolazzjoni.

Kif se nwassal ...

kif se nwassal sal-pensjoni.

Kuljum naqla' ...

Kuljum naqla' citazzjoni

The EU referendum came and was won, but we still worry about the pension, the latest gimmick to soothe our worries was to get in as many people so that they would pay our pensions for us.

Time and again you still get people, and sometimes newspaper editorials, missing Xarabank and its sometimes raucous debates. It may have had many faults and defects but it was many times better than the sound of silence or government spin which we have today. And even the timid doggerels are infinitely better than the sound of silence.

A critical analysis and an interview by Terence Portelli complete the book.