A partial song which is a bit like the “You’ve lost your faith” – perhaps I should join them together.
It’s nothing more than a verse and then me playing guitar with an octaver type effect.
Another one where I like the tune though, and I especially liked the backward cymbal crash that I recorded forwards and then reversed to bring the drums in.
I see it in my own way I see the lights are on I won’t ever believe it wasn’t you
I see you sit beside me I never run and hide Just in case you hold the answer deep in side
I wrote this song in a bedsit just before buying my bigger recording equipment, which explains why it’s finished (no toys to distract me).
One of the songs that we used to play at gigs in the band, but I recorded this at Bobs. I like the key change towards the end which lifts it.
You can’t love no one else except me Lets put some time between us When all is said and done we’re never free We need some time between us Love between my eyes
Seems like we go round this sun and down, and down
I can’t remember much so sue me I’ll write a book about it I’ll tell you all my lies if you’ll tell me There is no doubt about it Straight between my eyes
Seems like we go round this sun and down, and down Seems like we go round this sun and down, and down
Love is a segregation, of what you seem to need It’s not any revelation, it’s animal instinct to me
The forests from the moon, are evergreen That’s what it seems like to me Is she in my heart, or in my dreams What will be is what will be Acid in the skies
Seems like we go round this sun and down, and down Seems like we go round this sun and down, and down and down, and down
Another unfinished song, but with at least a passable verse. I liked the sound of the guitars, but the riff at the start sounds annoyingly like the Friends theme tune. I was aiming for something more like Beatles paperback writer I think.
My mate Kevin is singing the backing vocals with me. Chris programmed the drums and Eric played bass (very Beatly at the end). Should have been one to finish and play with a live sound instead of just doing it at home, but I never loved the chorus or wrote any more than a first verse. The crackle at the start is deliberate and is a bit of a french radio station, but you can hardly hear any talking.
The recording is really bad in places because I mastered it to tape and then the tape got eaten by the machine – I had to pull it all out with a pencil and then played it into a CD.
We can make, a new revolution We can take, a sound for life We can fake, our own constitution We can love the mad intrusion outside
Don’t you ever want to be ignored If you can’t take everything I know as true Don’t you ever want me back I know you’ll understand If you don’t I’ll never be there again
Unusually a completed song. This one had me dragging out my dads BBC sound effects again, but instead of train sounds I went for rain.
The ice blades are falling down, seasons turning again You can see the morning through the rain The snow line is melting down, through the rivers away You can see the colours move away
Oh oh don’t be surprised, say what you’re running for Oh oh don’t be surprised, say what you’re running for Don’t be afraid no more, what are you running for
Oh oh don’t be surprised, say what you’re running for Oh oh don’t be surprised, say what you’re running for Don’t be afraid no more, what are you running for
This is probably the most arranged and polished thing I’ve ever recorded. Done at my mate Bobs house I unusually completed the entire song first before going anywhere near the recording equipment. So I had all of the words and chords. We programmed the drum machine and actually took care to have some syncopation in it. All done on my PC with guitars, one synth, tambourines and hand claps.
This wasn’t long after getting my Yamaha 1080 so all of the string and horn sounds were novel toys to play with. Because I liked the strings in the song I wrote the little peace at the start to try to make it sound like a string band imagining them playing in one of those old English park band stands. The King and Queen are fanciful and I always imagined this song as sort of a back drop to an animation.
Listen out for the hand claps and harmonica, as Bob and I spent ages getting them right. I had the line “Travelling players, sack the dark” written on a scrap of paper from a poem I’d written at school and liked the image of travelling minstrels getting rid of the darkness by playing happy songs.
It was Sunday, the King and the Queen were outside listening to phonographs Suddenly he sings her a song about a girl he used to know And in her head a feeling broke for a moment in the light like they were imaginary lovers, in someone elses song
It was evening, the garden fills up gently with friends they used to know There’s wine on the table and dancers on the lawn, a band with a steel guitar and the King and the Queen with a grace unseen spin gently in the moonlight like a merry-go-round While the circle of friends look on
Travelling players, sack the dark and whistle while they play A song that they sing for them now The King smiles at her, tells the band it doesn’t matter if they make a few mistakes The Queen and her lover dance on
She was laughing, the King whispered ‘nonsense rhymes’ in the style of Edward Lear Suddenly, he sings her a song about a girl he used to know And in the last remains, of the party games, a feeling broke, because she knows that girl and knows they’ll go on dancing The band plays a new refrain
Travelling players, sack the dark and whistle while they play A song that they sing for them now The King smiles at her, tells the band it doesn’t matter if they make a few mistakes
The Queen and her lover dance on
Travelling players, sack the dark and whistle while they play A song that they sing for them now The King smiles at her, tells the band it doesn’t matter if they make a few mistakes The Queen and her lover dance on, dance on
Dance On
Travelling players, sack the dark and whistle while they play A song that they sing for them now The King smiles at her, tells the band it doesn’t matter if they make a few mistakes The Queen and her lover dance on The Queen and her lover dance on, dance on
I think I recorded this because my folks wanted to hear something I’d recorded and Christmas was coming up. So I tried to do a sort of Mike Oldfield thing to it.
Not sure why the bit on the end is on there, I think I had a left over bit of bass line I’d been playing and decided to put some vocals and drums on it.
God rest ye merry, Gentlemen, Let nothing you dismay, Remember Christ our Saviour Was born upon this Day. To save poor souls from Satan’s power, Which long time had gone astray. Which brings tidings of comfort and joy.
Another shortish song with no words, but I still like it.
This one came about because of the string samples that let me play stabbing violin chords which reminded me of ELO. So this is an ELOish type track with pumping chords and then a middle bit which includes a muted trumpet and a climbing bass line that I liked. Again the song was out of reach once I got stuck into all the piano, bass and other strings.
A mate of mine Merve Green came round to do some recording and had a rhythm track and some great jazzy chords that he’d been working on. We struggled with it and then accidentally turned it down to half the tempo and liked it better. I wrote some words and tune and Merves mate Sally came round to sing it. Never completely finished but we liked the radio vocals all though they’ve been done to death now.
This is not your problem This is no ideal I can’t imagine how you feel I was indecision and pacing on the floor The lights of reason don’t crowd me any more
Dont step outside and ask me why – Your dangerous eyes You’re dangerous (repeat)
I could not deceive you Playing from afar All my answers Tell me who you are All was indiscretion The games we want to play I learnt the reasons for the things I heard you say
Another tiny snippet with no words. I recorded this because I liked the drum sample.
Then when I put the guitar on and the breathy vocals in the background I thought it sounded pretty catchy. I didn’t know what to do with it, it’s one of those times where if I spend too long on the first few bars and like them, then it’s really hard to see it as a full track and put words or a structure to it. It’s too late by then, it’s already baked.
This wasn’t too long after I got my new PRS guitar so I really liked the squeeky sounds I could get out of it with a shark fin pick.
An old band favorite 25 years ago, and recorded with Mike Brady on vocals, Chris Rees on drums and Eric Richards on bass in my spare bedroom in Calne. Still pretty basic stuff and a 4 track cassette tape being used to record everything.
Mike and I wrote this in the passage out to the garden and liked the fact that the verse was in seven four timing. We recorded this years later in a proper studio but the drums never sounded as good as they did here. Eric and Chris spent a day cellotaping microphones to the ceiling because we had no mike stands to record the drums, and some of the microphones were so sensitive that we put them under a pillow in the next room.
I wrote this and recorded it with my mate Mike Brady. I wish we’d recorded it better but it’s still quite atmospheric.
I like the tune and the chords – I should redo it one day.
Last night the moon was shining on a sleepy wood
Last night the moon would have been a lovely place to go
I have said:
Something you know too well to go No one in all the world must know
They say in time their deeds will show
Something we’ll never know
Late at night when the coven is there you can hear the words fly
All alone in the middle of the night
Bare foot running in the crispy cold grass coz you heard a childs cry
All alone we sigh
I accidentally stumbled on the A7 slide on the 4th bar when my fingers went to the wrong fret Dm7 C Bb A7 slide up and down
I tried hard on the lyrics but ended up singing it with a cold.
Smears in the mirror, where nobody goes
Nights to remember, star crusted snows
I should have known, it’s too far to go
Where theyre nodding in starlight and bows
Lip salted smiles make the scenery blurred, she whispers things that you wish you had heard
Can’t find the words to express that embrace
but the sun shines on starlight and bows
[Guitar bit]
Kisses in boxes I hope they will last
Stare out the window to meadows like glass
Half of me wants all the doors to close
But Im treading on Starlight and Bows
Recorded over 25 years ago now when I was wee. Well wee’ish – still at school. Recorded on my old Tascam 4 track.
I used my dads BBC sound effects record for the sound of the trains, and I bounced and bounced to layer the guitars on.
Blods.com 