- FUN IN THE SUN
- Following the Eztravaganza
album, I bought a Tascam 4 track analogue, portastudio, tape machine on which I
recorded a home demo Christmas EP for pleasure and practice,
ridiculously entitled Ezkimo,
which I distributed around a few friends and family members. The main reason I
bought the home studio, which is referred to as The Ezecutive Suite, was to demo new
songs at home as I wrote them. On one occasion, our Sam (Sam Johnson) and I took the tape machine to Andy
Glossop's at AMG, where I had recorded Eztravaganza, and we recorded several demos,
including Fun In The Sun and Mama's Goin' To The Ball
Tonight. We were in absolute hysterics recording these, and I have great
memories of the sessions.
- Fun In The Sun later became the first
song that I recorded with
Paul Adshead
at Stable Music, and it subsequently gave me the idea for the album. I
met Paul through Sam whilst I was recording the Ezkimo home demo, and he was very helpful with microphones and
effects boxes. Sam played him the Fun In The Sun demo, and he loved
it, and said I had to record it with him. This was a really satisfying song for
me, as it felt like the first really professional sounding recording I had made at that
point. I was also particularly ezcited about working with the saxophonist Phil
Chapman. Phil was a session musician for The Drifters, and their 1970's single
You're More Than A Number In My Little Red Book was the first pop
record that I ever bought.
- Fun In The Sun started out as
a rewrite to a song I wrote at school, Live To Die. I decided it was
all too depressing at the time, ditched the lyrics, but kept the basis of the
melody, livened it up and wrote happy lyrics. The title is one of those clichés
that
I always believed to be crying out for a song. I wanted to capture several
elements of my childhood, family holiday memories of a beautiful Dorset coastal
town, Swanage. It has always been like a home from home to our family, and I
find it romantic and inspiring. It inspired me to write this song, plus
Otiose, Summers Of My Life and Angry Skies
to name only a few.
- This is a song with an immediate
sing-a-long hook that I can imagine being sung by drunken rabble in bars all
over Europe. I also wanted to include references to some of my favourite rock and roll
stars, capturing a fifties feel, mixed with a seventies glam rock feel. The
opening line "the sun is out, the sky is blue" is borrowed from Buddy
Holly's "Raining In My Heart". Elvis gets a mention with reference to
"Slicin' Sand" from the movie Blue Hawaii, and Cliff
Richard's On The Beach is also mentioned, as is Sir Cliff himself.
- People continually approach me and say
"that Fun In The Sun song could be a mammoth worldwide hit. Why don't you
release it as a single in the charts." !!!!???? Any major record companies
reading this?????!!!!!
-
- THE ONE IN YOUR LIFE
- Whoops, the young and innocent guy
from the previous song has fallen in love. This song began life as Obbligato,
an acoustic, up tempo rock and roll song, but I amended it to The One In
Your Life as it is certainly more commercially acceptable and less
pretentious. I had started to record a pop version of this at AMG whilst working
on Eztravaganza, but never completed it, but Ju and I did record
an acoustic home demo, which Ju prefers. However, I am happy with this pure pop version, with great sax from Phil again.
-
- HALF THE WORLD
- I originally wrote this song at school,
during a lesson that I must have been bored with. Although I was happy with the
chorus, the verses and middle 8 did not impress me. Then about four or five
years ago, Ju suggested to me that I should rewrite the song. The result being
Ju's favourite of my own songs. I played the home demo to Paul, as he was
searching for a new song for a young female singer he was working with at the
time, and he loved it, so they cut a demo of it for "A Song For
Europe". It sank without trace, however! This song is third on the
"Summers" CD because the guy in the song has now been rejected as
"just a good friend".
-
- MASTERS OF OUR DESTINY
- Another 1990's rewrite of an old school song of
mine, which was originally written on Friday 20/03/87. I had to draw the line somewhere with this subject after getting carried
away, and therefore had to omit four or five verses. We are the mastez of our
own deztiny to a certain eztent, as we make choices, but in turn those choices
have an effect on other people's lives, as theirs do on our own. Then, of
course, there's circumstance; being in a particular place at a particular time.
Ezcetera ezcetera!!!!!
-
- ANGRY SKIES
- I would ezpect this song to be viewed as
the most unpopular, most deprezsing, and most misunderstood of all my songs.
Fair enough, but songwriters have to go with their thoughts, feelings and views,
and flush out their ideas. I am very proud of this song. It is ezsentially a
folk song. The lyrics are not dressed up with imagery, but are purposely direct
for effect. The guy in these songs was analytical in "Masters", and is
so again here, but he also now reminiscez of his childhood. With age, all that
is wrong with the world becomes dreadfully apparent. I wrote this song imagining
what the world may become in the future. The sound of the rain at the end of the
song is meant as a bit of a joke, because where I live it hardly ever stops
raining.
-
- MAMA'S GOIN' TO THE BALL TONIGHT
- Written for my mum after she attended a
Chairman's Ball with my pappy, and purposely written as a duet for our Sam and
I, this is a song about how children take their parents for granted. What a
laugh we had recording this, and the original demo at AMG. Our Sam is such a
nutter, but a great singer! Our cousin Anthony also appears briefly on
harmonica. I still laugh now when I listen to this, and whenever we sing it in
concert it is always difficult to refrain from breaking into fits of laughter. A
nice change in mood from the previous song. It has become quite a feature of our
live shows, as has.....
-
- NO MORE A FOOL
- Sam and I wrote this whilst he was the
lead singer of the band Diversion Ends, and I was at school. I've always liked
the song. The band generated great energy at their gigs with this, and I always
wanted to record it myself. I perform it live as a duet with Sam, but he is only
present on brass on this studio version. Sometime we will cut a new version as a
duet. A very special song for the pair of us.
-
- OTIOSE
- The summer theme is ever present in this
song, previously recorded for "Eztravaganza". It was ezsential to me
to include it on this album, but rather than record a full arrangement similar
to the previous version, I opted for an acoustic version, as I always love
strumming this song at home. It suits the song, as the guy in the song is simply
chilling out, away from all of life's confusion, and feels as though he is
drifting on the open seas.
-
- UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES
- The guy has now divorced, leaving behind
children. He is back temporarily with his parents, trying to rebuild his life,
reflecting on the past. A simple melody and harmonica part, but very effective.
A mention to my friend Howard Platt for his input into the writing of this song.
I wrote the lyrics on Monday 20th February 1989, but we wrote the melody
together in recent years.
-
- SUMMERS OF MY LIFE
- Reflecting on life and lost love again,
but at the same coastal town as in "Fun In The Sun." The guy is
looking back on summers of his life, recognising how the holiday town has
changed over the years. A beautiful acoustic guitar solo from Paul. I used the
sound of waves as an intro to the recording to set the scene; an idea influenced
by Diversion Ends on a home demo of a song entitled "A Walk On The
Beach".
- Ez (EJE) January 2002
