A fun track with two drummers, Serginho and Rui, playing spontaneously in sync. Most of this was all played live in the studio - a great 'vibe', just like you'd imagine it in the movies, party time on record.
What's My Name
I'd lust finished reading a book called Six Records of a Floating Life by Fu Shen so again I was getting help from a book with fantastic imagery - lyrics such as 'The Great Cave of Burning Clouds'. Musically, it's ancient China meets Amazonian Brazil. I liked this mixture of oriental and South American Indian styles - Junior, who played just about all the percussion at the beginning, was later nominated for an Oscar for his soundtrack to Emerald Forest.
I'm pleased to say this is the album at its most radical; we weren't using sequencers - this was all played by hand!
Stone mirror mountain rises from a low stream
The scent of flowers like an ocean of weeds
I take a boat formed like a long handled sword
The Heavens are vast and the sea is broad
What's my name...
We find the great cave of burning clouds
The water horses come flickering down
A gap in consciousness, a picture takes shape
I hear a thundering
A tidal wave breaks
What's my name...
Matilda Smith-Williams Home For The Aged
When a samba rhythm meets an Englishman's lyric based on a Caribbean old folks' home it sounds like this.
And, yes, we have made some alterations to the original mix
Maltilda Smith-Williams Home For The Aged
Bingo and buggy rides
Wheelchairs and early night
Maltilda Smith-Williams Home For The Aged
And if you smuggle in
Another drop of gin
We'll take your hearing aid
They never hear what you say
Maltilda Smith-Williams Home For The Aged
A second childhood
But only if you're good
I hear Maltilda passed away
Her spirit's still with us today
She watches over us
And those who make a fuss
You've never had it so good
They'd run away if they could
Let Me Count The Ways (For Uncle Charlie)
If you listen very closely you can hear the drummer, Rui Mota, counting in the number in Portuguese.
A slow blues, long overdue at the time as I'd grown up listening & playing so many twelve-bars - long live the blues!
Let me count the ways I love you babe
You don't know what you do
I'm a mess without your love baby blue
You were the only one I ever loved
You know I owe you every time
You were the first one to believe in me
And that's before I had a dime
I'm a mess without your love baby blue
As I walk by along the waterfront
With all my clothes soaked wet through
Let me count the ways I love you babe
You don't know what you do
I'm a mess without your love baby blue
A Doll That's Made In Japan
Rhythmically called a Baiao, this was actually recorded in England after everything else, but spot the influence.
Again, I liked this idea of oriental & South American styles coming together - still do! I've got my Koto working!
An honourable man picks a slender orchid
And crushed it between his hands
The sacred knife of a Samurai
Serves up Sushi in a sandwich bar
A doll that's made in Japan
Is made for every man
A doll that's made in Japan
Is made for every man
Tigerlily with eyes of jade
Takes you to a carnival of toy balloons
See a kite floating by with the face of a Chinese mandarin
It's such a different world it's hard to remember
Which land you're in
I seem to recall a milk white hand
Painted with blood red fingernails
A doll that's made in Japan
Is made for every man
A doll that's made in Japan
Is made for every man
A tiny girl with empty hands
Walks the streets of Tokyo
A doll that's made in Japan
Is made for every man
A doll that's made in Japan
Is made for every man
As you fly through a city of empty souls
You feel that the wind is whispering
Duel (Based on the film of the same name)
A straight shuffle with an E-bow driven guitar - the Gizmo makes a guest appearance
doubling as a starting motor at the top, followed by Nick's impression of a truck starting up
There's a ten ton truck
Coming down the road
No matter how fast I drive
No matter where I go
Don't turn back
It keeps coming near
Don't turn back
Don't let it come near
Just when you think you're safe
And you're in control
You see an open road
Not another soul
Don't turn back
It keeps coming near
Don't turn back
It keeps coming near
Can't stop shaking and your blood runs cold
Fuel injection that runs way too slow
Will this killer win and run you off the road
Don't turn back
It keeps coming near
Don't turn back
It keeps coming near
Myopia
A Mr Magoo lyric with driving bass line courtesy of Mr Magnus.
The song blunders into a brief snatch of one of the Brandenburg concertos -
it's not my fault if I'm short sighted & got the two mixed up!
I can't see, I can't sleep
I can't swim, I can't talk
Can't write, I can't count
I can't fly, can't play today
Take your things and run away
Grab yourself a holiday
Fix your nose and change your name
Thyroid eyes they diagnose
Myopia...
A red light, stomach ache
Relax but don't be late
It's too loud I've disappeared
I can't drink, I can't tell the time
Epic hero Gilgamesh
Battling with a lioness
One man war against the odds
Spectacles that break because
Myopia...
I don't think I can afford ya
You make me ugly anyhow
I think I see a car before me
Or maybe I've just hit a cow
I don't think I can afford ya
You make me ugly anyhow
I think I see a car before me
Or maybe I've just hit a cow
Myopia...
Taking The Easy Way Out
A drifting off to sleep song, very laid back and eventually out for the count
Another night I've drunk my fill
Perhaps it's time to dim the light
And while the hours the sandman comes
Stumbling round like a bowery bum
Maybe I'll dream an Egyptian scene
Taking the easy way out
Taking the easy way out again
Maybe we'll meet in paradise
Where far beyond the shores of trust
A boat on sea can travel the land
We set sail for a castle of sand
The desert wind
Can darken your skin
Taking the easy way out
Taking the easy way out again
Taking the easy way out
I'm taking the easy way out again
The Gulf
This was recorded back in 86/87. We reworked some of the drum tracks originally intended for 'Faces'. I was thinking of the hostage crisis when two men (Jimmy Carter and the Ayatollah Khomeini) were both talking to 'God' and coming up with completely separate answers! The title was symbolic of the chasm or distance between man and his maker and is no way intended to refer to the recent war of that name, so help me!
Stadiums Of The Damned
Again, recorded in 87 and influenced by Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment where the killer is forgiven by the victim's niece who eventually becomes his 'redemption'. 'Stadiums' finds a football hooligan with a changing set of values due to a similarly positive female figure - I'm sorry I can't explain it any simpler, folks! Ah, the love of a good woman!
When You Wish Upon A Star
This is my little homage to a favourite Disney cartoon played - or rather parodied - on Nick's old analogue synths. That's all folks!