I wanted to get back into making some experimental electronic music again. I had pretty much forgotten how to use either of my DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstation) – Propellerheads Reason or Ableton Live. I’ve got some studying and revision to do. After a bit of non-productive time in LIVE, I moved over to REASON and pulled up a plugin I was unfamiliar with: SKYWAVE. I produced this little ditty you hear now. It’s a start! I’ve since watched a tutorial video for the plugin so I may have another look in the coming week. The SKYWAVE plugin came free with another plugin called Scaper costing £30. So it’s pretty good at the price. They are both aimed at producing soundscapes but in an entirely different way. Skywave features four programmable analogue synths. There are some effects and an arpeggiator on one of the synths. The plugin is meant to encourage experimentation and serendipitous output. As I mixed the short track an atmospheric image was posted on a Consett Facebook group. I thought the two elements could work well together and here they are.
SMOKING NOTES
A recent conversation sparked memories of my working with record producer, Gus Dudgeon. Over the years I worked with Gus many times. In any studio session, I would always be there as the songwriter. But also on Gus’s sessions I’ve been at different times: Guitarist, bass player or keyboard player. All of which I’m crap at but with Gus in the producer’s chair, I never was crap. He made me rise above my limitations. I learned a lot from his approach.
As a track unfolded he would make tiny scribbled notes for ideas he wanted to progress. On one session somewhere he lost his “session notes”. He became panicky, worried that he’d lost his train of thought. Eventually, his notes were located and he heaved a sigh of relief. And then he regaled us with a tale of losing his session notes on an Elton John session (E.J., as he referred to him) And the same scenario unfolded: panicky searching around. No result. Panic rising. Desperation setting in. Someone in the studio pulled a “roach” from the ashtray. To the uninitiated, a roach is a kind of homemade “filter” inserted at the end of a marijuana “joint”. It is usually made of light card (often a torn cigarette packet). It is folded and rolled to form the desired piece of paraphernalia.
The member of the entourage for some reason unfurled the roach and there was a piece of card, singed at the edges and mostly still visible: Gus’s session notes! Gus concluded the tale by stating – for rock ‘n’ roll historians – that on that Elton John session, he had actually “smoked his session notes”.
Flow River Flow
Someone asked me where I find my inspiration for writing songs. I mean, at 72 I can’t be writing about girls and cars. So here’s the story. I let my mind wander and I conjure up a picture. A still picture or a moving picture. I call the technique “Cinematic Writing”. I don’t know if that’s a thing or if I just made it up. Anyway I imagined a person standing on a hillside. So the first line in the lyric is “Standing on a hillside”. The image in this post is not what I saw, it’s just something from the interweb to demonstrate. And then the story flows from that line and I have long lifetime of experiences good and bad to draw upon in the telling of the story.
I pictured this person is looking down the hill at a river. I don’t actually say that in the lyric but I think it’s implied. I also imagined him unable to continue the journey. I don’t actually say so but again, I think it’s implied. The story continues over several verses and reveals the person to be full of remorse and self doubt. Some of this is from my imagination and some of it may actually be me. It’s never literal, only implied. This is the beauty of lyric writing or poetry. You don’t have to give a blow by blow account. You just paint enough of the picture for the listener/reader to add their own brush strokes to the story.
You can hear my rough demo of the song (warts and all) below the image. Then there are the lyrics.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zi9FtZUyyU479fgUBlSMbNFeARbq9u6L/view?usp=sharing
Flow River Flow
standing on a hillside
taking in the sun
seems the journey ended
before it had begun
Looking to the distance
Towards the great unknown
One thing is for certain
I’m never goin’ home
Flow river flow
down to the sea
don’t you pay no mind
to little ol’ me
Flow River Flow
rollin’ on
you’ll still be rollin’
long after I am gone
Wrote you a letter
while you were asleep
shared with you a secret
I hope that you will keep
Told you my intentions
I know it’s only fair
You should know the reason
When you wake and I’m not there
Flow river flow
down to the sea
don’t you pay no mind
to little ol’ me
Flow River Flow
rollin’ on
you’ll still be rollin’
long after I am gone
My intended purpose
Was as clear as day
Now impending darkness
Takes my confidence away
Maybe there’s an answer
Come the morning light
For now i need to find a place
To lay my head tonight
Flow river flow
down to the sea
don’t you pay no mind
to little ol’ me
Flow River Flow
rollin’ on
you’ll still be rollin’
long after I am gone
So many turnings
A man can take
Wish I had a penny
For every mistake
Some things get broken
Way beyond repair
If broken dreams we’re banknotes
I’d be a millionaire
Flow river flow
down to the sea
don’t you pay no mind
to little ol’ me
Flow River Flow
rollin’ on
you’ll still be rollin’
long after I am gone
DISTANT PRODUCTION of DISTANT DESTINATION:
Around 2019 I was gigging a full 6-piece electric band. Lockdown put an end to that. During lockdown, my writing naturally became more contemplative. This song is one of those. There’s some deeply personal stuff buried in that lyric. Recording it had to be done differently too. All the parts had to be recorded remotely and I had production meetings with Jen and the other performers in Zoom. (inc Richard Naisbett & Steve Dolder) The final piece was my added bass gtr at Harbourmaster Productions with me and Martin Francis Trollope wearing masks as the lockdown was tentatively lifted. It became the title track from my album DISTANT DESTINATION https://steve-thompson.org.uk/product/distant-destination/
THE SINGER ON MY LEFT IS ER……………
This song “Guy Walks Into A Bar” is our show opener. It’s a more recent composition and, whilst I’ve dissed the naivety of my lyrics I’m quite pleased with the cinematic story of this one. So I’m a bit unhappy that I found myself forgetting the words to the second half of verse 2. But worse was to come. I forgot who the fuck Jen was. Nurse !!!
BOP BOP SHE WAH
Like I say, I was mostly a backroom boy during my music career, never in the limelight. But now I’ve accidentally ended up centre stage. I get a bit embarrassed announcing hit song after hit song. Those pop songs with naive lyrics written by my younger self.
So it’s a breath of fresh air to do this one. It’s a real song about real life with real emotions. Here is the inspiration for this one. I was walking down the street in Whitley Bay clutching a movie I had rented on VHS. (remember those?) I was also carrying a pizza in a box and two cans of special brew. I was planning a big night in. I started humming a tune – then it hit me – “A VIDEO A PIZZA AND COUPLE O CANS ”. This is a hit, I thought. Sadly I was wrong. Baffles me, the most honest song I ever wrote. The story culminates with one of my best lines “WHOO WHOO, BOP BOP SHE WAH “. Beat that Mr Zimmerman!
TWO SONGS – THREE HITS
Here, from our recent Two By Two Brewery, show is a couplet of songs responsible for a lot of record sales. Hurry Home, a top 20 hit for Wavelength was in the UK charts for three months. Sarah Brightman also recorded Hurry Home and it appeared on a bonus CD (Rare Tracks) coupled with her album Fly II. Details here https://bit.ly/flyII
Please Don’t Sympathise was released by Sheena Easton for her “Madness Money And Music” album which went top 20 around the world and in particular went Gold in Canada.
A young Canadian (Celine Dion) picked up on the song and recorded it in French for her album “Les Chemins De Ma Maison”. Celine also released the song as a single and was a massive hit, going Gold and winning an award for the highest-selling single in Canada of 1984. The album sold shedloads in Canada and France.
Cherry Red Records recently re-released a Deluxe edition CD of Sheena’s Madness Money and Music as well as a version on green vinyl. The liner notes on this re-release refer to me as “The Godfather of the North East NWOBHM”.
Diva #2
I promised you another diva video from our Two By Two Brewery show and this time it’s Jen Normandale with her version of a song I wrote for Elkie Brooks. Elkie had already decided to record another of my songs “One Of A Kind” but she asked if I could come up with a single for the forthcoming album.
And this is it “The Last Teardrop”. She released it as a single and an album track on “Pearls 3”. The album was later re-released under the title “The Last Teardrop”.
You can probably still get this album but you can hear Jen’s (superior) version on my own album “The Long Fade” https://steve-thompson.org.uk/thelongfade/
Jen is running the Great North Run today. Long may you run Jen.
Diva #1
I promised you some Diva toons from our recent Two By Two show. Here’s the first from Kirsty Forster tomorrow I’ll post another from Diva Jen Normandale. Lots more to come Mark Mylchreest shot the whole show. Round about now some of you may be thinking, “shit why did I not go to that show”? If that’s you, atone in the comments.
FOLLOW THE DIVAS
Another live one from our 24/08 Two By Two Brewery show. Let me tell you a little about this song and how it feels to sing it. Don’t get me wrong, I ain’t no Stevie Caruso but do I try my best. This is a song Tommy Morrison and I wrote for Elkie Brooks. It features on her album “Pearls 3” and was also a single in Germany and other parts of Europe (but not the UK)
As I introduced the song I realised my mistake. It was preceded by a song featuring Jen and that was preceded by one featuring Kirsty and now I had to do a fairly demanding song myself. In other words, I had to follow the Divas. When I say “demanding” I mean this: I’m playing very little guitar. Barry is not playing most of the time. And Richard is leaving loads of space too (I think he does it on purpose). So it is a very exposed vocal. As I say, it may not be Caruso but a year ago I couldn’t even have imagined myself doing this let alone singing a full set of my songs. Oh, and by the way: I do get a buzz, when it gets to what I think is one of Tommy’s best lines (rest his soul): “Moving in circles, dealing in dreams”.
So having followed the Divas, I’ll let them follow me. Next, I’ll post Kirsty and Jen’s featured songs. Lots more to come boys and girls. Video Mark Mylchreest
A Whitley Bay Song.
This here is a Whitley Bay song. Inspired by a poster in the infamous Ship Inn whilst I quaffed ale with my publishing mentor Brian Oliver. I worked on the concept for the song on the train journey home. Eventually, I reached home, a bedsit attached to the Burgundy Cobbler nightclub in Whitley Bay. First I rolled a joint with fresh leaves from the plant on my window sill looking down on the dark rain South Parade below. Suitably mellow I picked up my battered acoustic guitar and I put together the song Paris By Air. A month or so later I moved out of the Cobbler a short distance to Cambridge Avenue to share a house with the Tygers Of Pan Tang. This was a Whitley Bay rock n roll house but as yet no blue plaque. At the request of John Sykes as to what I had been up to in the studio that day, I played the boys my new demo of Paris By Air. The rest is history – hit single, top 20 album. You can hear the Tygers do their own version in their Whitley Bay Playhouse show on Nov 9th. It will probs be a bit louder than this acoustic version with my team of Funsters at our Two By Two Brewery show – a Saturday Party People production from Martin Thompson (Nepotism at its best) Video by Mark Myschreest with more to come.
The Bank Manager and a Hit Song
This is a story about my bank manager. I posted it on Facebook a week ago and it has got 600 likes so far. Several people remember the man with fondness. Read the full story below.
I had been tidying up my email and came across a message from 2 years ago that I had missed. It took me back 45 years and is quite a story. Around 1981 I was newly married. I was instructed to toddle off to the bank and acquire a mortgage with which to buy ourselves a house. So off I went to my bank: Lloyds in Tynemouth (pictured above) and had a cosy chat with the manager. I remember his very words. He said he “would be doing me (a struggling songwriter) no favours to saddle me with a mortgage”. So what’s a struggling songwriter to do: come up with a hit that’s what. And that’s what happened, a massive top twenty hit. And that opened a whole series of doors and shed loads of my songs got recorded and released. And then the royalties started to flow and I was suddenly on first name terms with the bank manager. We got the Mortgage and “Ray” gave me a whole heap of help and advice. Eventually, he retired and I moved on but I’ve never forgotten his kindness.
So back to the email. It was from the son-in-law of the former manager of Lloyds bank in Tynemouth who had died some years ago. Now that his wife had also passed away this son in law was disposing of their belongings. Amongst the bank manager’s things he found a cassette tape and a note from me. This has now been returned to me and the note is below
I’m touched to learn that he kept the note and the cassette all those years right up to the end of his life.
As you can say the cassette and the note (above) have been returned to me.