Lyrics
October skies don’t bother me
I watch the raincloud and it sets me free
We sit together while the dusk crawls up the sky
Dreams unfurl their wings, and lift off into the gloom
This girl could be my saviour or this night could seal my doom
We’ve got to get it together… together
We’ve got to get it together get it together
And I’ve got no business for being here
And a thousand reasons for leaving now
…but I look the look of her stuff
And in the night she comes to me
Rests her glass against the hem stretched across her knee
Leans to whispers words – and secrets I can keep
Darkness beckons us and hand in hand we go
She lifts her arms and lets her dress slip to the floor
We’ve got to get it together… together
We’ve got to get it together get it together
And I’ve got no business for being here
And a thousand reasons for leaving now
…but I look the taste of her stuff
Now that we’ve got it together
Turns out the weather don’t really mean that much to me
Now that we’ve got it together
It’s clear that she never
Actually meant that much to me
She turns over… but snoozes on
I close the door and then I’m gone
Cos I’ve…. Had enough of her stuff…
Thoughts
Like Marty McFly side – this is an oldie… at least it’s an oldie where I come from. I’ve got a CD with a very shoddy live version of this from 2003, when I still had a hairline and a band. Back then, it lacked a proper lyric and the bassist was never really happy playing this kind of music, so it slipped off the radar and was swiftly forgotten by everyone except me.
In fact, I’m not even sure what’s made me disinter it, other than the fact that I’ve got a list of around 134 songs that I’ve written over the years and this sort of leapt out at me in an “oh yes!” moment. With the second album pretty much in the bag, this looks like being part of a third album of songs that will sit in this sort of sonic space – kind of soft, relaxed blues with maybe a country edge.
As a song, I’ve always loved the feel and the general construction of this – and it’s been a real treat to work on the layering of guitar parts (two acoustic parts, a slide, 2 electric parts). While for the most part it treads the usual kind of chord changes you get in this sort of genre, there are a couple of twists. The opening chord change is from G to Gmin7, which is not a change I’m really aware of much in pop and lends the verses a sort of ‘sighing’ quality (especially when the slide comes in on verse 2). And then there’s the quiet breaks after each chorus, which I probably modelled on the chords of the Beatles’ Blackbird (The Beatles, 1968) and that is actually more jazz than anything else. So although the song is longer than I normally like to have them, I think there’s just about enough variety in the arrangement to sustain it.
I wrote the guitar solo a long time ago two. If you think you hear a little bit of Hendrix’s Little Wing in there then you can go to the top of the class and have a lollipop.
The vocals and lyrics are, as always, the weakest thing for me. I’ve come to realise that I’m never going to like my voice and can sort of accept that now, but I find the lyrics kind of clunky in places and might revisit them at some point. For now though, this is on the pile for the third album. Splendid.