So. Here is a song. What I done written for you. It’s monumentally simple. A daft song, in many ways. Have a listen (it’s less than 3 minutes. Go on. You can do this) then read the words, then I’ll talk you through it – even though there’s nowt much to to say.
Lyrics
I got pills to pick me up
I got red ones, white ones, blue ones,
Brain ones, six a day to fuck me up ones
But the doctors said they’ll fix me up
I got drinks to ease to pain
I got whiskey, vodka, gin and beer,
If I drink enough I lose all fear
And Monday morning start again
But there’s one thing that I’m short of
And that’s the one thing that I need
I need to feel your skin on mine
To have you next to me
I know we’ve got our problems
But it’s time to face the facts
Like Laurel and Hardy,
Fish and the sea,
Gin and tonic
Biscuits and cheese
I need you and baby you need me
I got too much time to kil006C
I’ve got seconds, minutes, hours and days,
Got weeks, got months, got a whole decade
It’s too much time for me to kill
I need a friend to pull me through
A short one, a tall one, a fat one,
A skinny one, frankly right now I’ll take anyone
I need a friend to pull me through
Like Burt and Sally
Marley and me
Florence and Dougal
Biscuits and tea
I need you and baby you need me
Like Laurel and Hardy
Tarzan and Jane
Tory MPs and worms in the brain
Whiskey and soda
Jam and cheese
Laurel and Hardy
Fish in the sea
Baby I need you – and you need me
Thoughts
Sometimes you can overthink things can’t you? A lot of my songs are labours of love that take weeks… months… even years to reach fruition.
But sometimes you can just create a fun little number off the top of your head in what feels like minutes. Musically there’s hardly anything to report: it’s a I IV V progression in A (“watch me for the changes and try to keep up, OK?”) which leans heavily into the obvious blues/country vibe suggested by the riff.
When recording a song this simple, I like to try and keep things moving in some way that there are differences along the way. It’s not like it suddenly leaps into another key or time signature, so it’s all just in little layers. The second verse has harmonies, and then another (stupidly high) harmony line. The stop/start motif ends after the first verse and a half until it’s playing fairly consistently.
Hopefully all that helps to propel the song along and give it a sense of some sort of climax: ending with an extra repetition of the refrain.
It’s another song where the addition of extra musicians has given it some extra zip as well. My original recording had the kind of ploddingly predictable bassline that I specialise in, but I handed it over to my mate who made the whole track shift dramatically with a truly excellent extemporised groove. A country-ish guitar solo from mi old mate Den and job’s a good ‘un. Nothing clever or complicated. Just a bouncy little tune.
Lyrically, it’s a straightforward love song. When you’ve been in a relationship for as long as I have, you tend to become an indissolvable unit. Like gin and tonic or fish and the sea. It’s a nice symbiosis and something I don’t often celebrate, as love songs are generally sappy, tedious affairs.
And that’s pretty much all there is to say about things. Catch you later – with what I hope will be a really aggressive waltz about cheating politicians!