Mor-Than-Words

Copperhead Road – Steve Earle For me Steve Earle was the 80s version of Johnny Cash , great Country artist but singing songs with a purpose and a conscious. This song is epic, the way it starts so slowly and simply, then bit by bit it builds. Then suddenly there's an explosion of sound and the whole thing takes off. The use of bagpipes is amazing, so atmospheric. The guitar sound on this is so heavy and it rocks. I love the story telling in the words, you can just picture all the characters and almost taste the moonshine. The reference to Vietnam, again is Steve bringing in subjects other artists would run a mile from. I heard this song on a number of Country compilations we had, always thought it was a bit out of place, more of a rock song than pure Country. But I've a couple of other memories of it, I did a tour of New Zealand as a part of a Contiki holiday. This was for young single travels, I met a bunch of strangers from all around the globe and set off on a two week coac

Dirty Diana – Michael Jackson I’ve been going for a daily walk during lockdown, it’s been amazing to see the amount of houses with skips outside where the stuck at homers have been having huge clear outs. There’s been all manner of stuff sticking out of these skips, but I’m fascinated by the amount of CDs, cassettes and VHS tapes I’ve seen just slug in with all the other rubbish. One skip had what must have been someone’s once pride and joy entire CD collection. Floating at the top of a huge pile was Michael Jackson 's Bad album. This was an iconic album in 1987 and sort of represents the culture of the time. This was Jackson going Pop, he was moving away from his roots and starting to break musical barriers using the latest technology. There are some amazing songs on Bad, I was never the biggest of Jackson fans, but totally got his genius and innovation, for all the controversy that his legacy created he definitely changed the musical landscape. I picked this track Dirty Diana ju

 Streets of London – Ralph McTell I first became aware of this song at school, but I can’t remember if we just sang it in assembly or supposedly learnt to play it in our music lessons. I guess it’s a perfect song for kids, totally non offensive with a powerful social message about homelessness and life not being fair for everyone. It’s a funny song for its time, not exactly glam rock, lots of well crafted story lyrics with each verse telling a sorry tale. It was also one of the first songs I learnt to play on the guitar and only then did I associate it with Ralph McTell . I knew him from my childhood, he present the oddly named Tickle On The Tum kids TV show. Ralph used to sit on a stool just singing songs and telling stories. I can recall be enchanted by the program, it probably helped my love of storytelling without me even knowing it. This song came into my mind the other day on a songwriting co-write, my fellow musician was finger picking his way through a lovely melody and his vo

Son of a Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield I share a surname with Dusty . Her real name was Mary O’Brien, she had some amazing songs over the years. There used to be best of album in our house on LP or cassette, always loved songs like ' You Don't Have to Say You Love Me ' and ' I Only Want To Be With You ' . Then as I got more into music I realised how amazing songs like ' Goin' Back ' are, real deep and meaningful stuff.  This song got stuck in my head when it was used as part of the 1994 Pulp Fiction movie soundtrack. A random collection of songs that Quentin Tarantino 's selected for his mad film. I think Dusty's song is amazing, it’s such a story song, you can tell it’s going to be a sad tale from the first few bars. Sounds to me like she really liked this guy.  The backing is so smooth, her voice is so clear and expressive, all together it’s a very sophisticated sound. Such a strange thing that such a British singer could conjure up such a

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine – Laurel & Hardy The film ' Stan and Ollie ' is on TV tonight. It tells the tale of when Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, the brilliant vintage comedy duo did a tour of Ireland and the UK in their later years. It's actually a very poignant film showing the usual anti climax of all the big stars of yesterday careers, they fall out of favour and are often cast adrift. Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly performances as the comedy legends are remarkable. I love the real Laurel and Hardy , they make me laugh, their slap stick antics are my sense of humour. The great expressions and banter between them is perfection, even as a kid I loved watching their black and white short films which used to be shown on TV during the kids school holidays. Then there is this song, randomly featured in their movie, ' Way Out West '. It's part of the plot that our heroes end up in a bar where a bunch of cowboys start singing this tune. Laurel and Hardy

Let Me Be Your Fantasy – Baby D This one's straight out of my clubbing days. It was a huge tune back in it's day, Baby D appeared at a club we were at one night, they turned up mimed along to the track and then moved onto the next club. Clever stuff, but I have to say I always thought it was a banging song. All be it I was obsessed with singing "let me be your four by three' instead of fantasy, why I'm not sure. I used to have some windmill dance moves and always seemed to make space on the dance floor, I think the other dancers were scared of getting a black eye or similar. It's a wanna be love song wrapped up in serious beats, the intro makes me think were in some sort of ice palace, then the whispering draws you in. Then it's the best ringtone going until the beat kicks in and were off. Just the right tempo to dance to, positive messages as the lyric starts. Clever simple rhythms and a great song title, everyone has a fantasy. The way the energy drops d

The One and Only – Chesney Hawkes This is another one of those songs. To everyone else it’s that Saturday night sing along one hit wonder. Brilliant song, very catchy, simple title and message. Bit of self promotion never did anyone any harm. The sliding intro is very odd, then to be honest the whole song is a cliche of a 60's meets the 90's, but can't argue with the guitar solo. For me when I hear it, I’m back sat in the cinema watching the movie it was the theme of. A film called Buddy’s Song , Chesney Hawks played the lead character, a young lad who wanted his music to make him famous. His dad was played by The Who ’s Roger Daltry , so this film had some traction in the music world, it was called Buddy’s Song as the dad was obsessed by Buddy Holly . It was the usual boy meets girl she messes him around and all that goes with it. It sadly never really launched Chesney onto global stardom, it seems only into one hit wonder wonderland. Also the movie didn't win any Osc

Wild Horses – Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers Five years ago this week I was working at a London design agency, I'd been there fourteen years, then suddenly I was told it was going into liquidation. Never went back to even clear my desk, very abrupt end, I look back now and think of all the things I gained from the experience. The biggest of which was I met some brilliant friends, and many of them helped me expand to my musical tastes. One of these came from Anna, she added another step in my musical journey. I was a big fan of bands like The Byrds and The Eagles , all that Southern Rock era, but I was also a huge Rolling Stones fan, seen as Rock gods. But at that point I couldn't draw a link between them, Anna asked do you like ' Gram Parsons ', never heard of him I said. She told me about this guy who was basically seen as a Country music ghost, another one of those artists that only musical historians have heard of, but he joined the dots between so

Stop! In The Name of Love – The Supremes We lost Mary Wilson this week, she was one of the founders of the Motown hit group The Supremes . Diane Ross probably being the most famous of the three members. They were huge in the 1960s and had some monster hits, I could have picked any of their songs, but this one is a big favourite. The 'Stop!' is such a strong hook, once heard it ain't leaving your brain. And how long is the 'ooovveerr', that's how you write catchy songs. The backing is so simple, it's like a kid clinking a coke bottle. The backing vocals keep the whole lyric rounded out throughout, three voices blending and contradicting  each other adds so much texture. The clever rhythms make the whole song so catchy and you don't get tripped up until suddenly your told to 'Stop!' The message of the song is a cry for help, please don't break my heart. Think twice before you cheat on me. I don't deserve to be treated like this, talk abou

  Take On Me – a-ha Recently saw Morten Harket, lead singer of a-ha on the UK version of the Masked Singer . He even sang his own song and still the judges didn't guess him.  I hadn't heard this song in a while, I suddenly remembered it was another one that had a big impact on me. Well the truth is, it was more the video than the song itself, the video is very iconic. It starts off with static drawings featuring the band, we cut to a girl in a cafe and rather weirdly a hand pops out of the comic she's reading and pulls her into the drawn world. The band then appear inside and outside a drawn mirror while a strange plot unfolds. Real Alice Through The Looking Glass stuff, the pencil drawings of the action were amazing. There's even a sinister twist as two baddies try to kill off our leading man, all rather odd but very clever stuff for it's time. The a-ha video was crazy and so well executed, maybe it was as simple as a filter was used over the real action footage t

     Sunshine Of Your Love – Cream When I was at secondary school some of my friends decided to start a band as there was an end of year talent show coming up. It just so happened one of the guys called Dylan had always played lead guitar, another Dylan learnt to play the drums in boys brigade and Simon had started to learn bass guitar. Perfect combination apart from none of them wanted to be the singer. I still think it’s strange I had two Dylan’s in my class, both you’d have to guess were named after the great man himself, and I’ve not met another Dylan since. Anyway the band asked the music teacher if they could borrow the music room at lunchtimes to rehearse a few songs. The drum kit and amps were set up and I used to tag along at lunch break to hear them fumble their way through a few guitar classics. To be fair it didn’t take them long to get really good and the show was fast approaching. At one point they even asked if I would sing with them but I told them I didn’t want to get

    Real Gone Kid – Deacon Blue Now we're in the 80's, the musical decade that should have defined my youth, my teenage years, but instead I was discovering the 50's and 60's music of my parents. There were exceptions, I did listen to the Top 40 and watched Top Of The Tops every week. Like most kids then, I recorded songs off the radio, certain songs from those tapes broke through and have stayed in my head ever since. This being one such song, it's so full of energy it's just infectious. The intro is just a build up to an explosion of sound, the chanting and shouting starts us off. The piano riff keeps going like a train in the background, the song jumps about to keep us interested. It's clever, it starts, it stops, the guitars kick in and take us somewhere else, always pounding along. The male and female vocals dance around one another. The words are so expressive, I'm guessing it's a bit like me listening to those old 45s. Then as I grew up and d

I Left My Heart in San Francisco – Tony Bennett I’ve been to San Francisco a couple of times, it’s a very vibrant city. I can completely see why this song was written, it’s one of those places you feel at home as soon as you arrive. Not sure if I left my heart there but have great memories of that city. The steep hills and odd layout make it an interesting place to explore. The cable cars add that bit of Hollywood magic, then the Golden Gate Bridge is just iconic set in the beautiful harbor. We all know the images so it's easy to picture what the singer is trying to tell us. Add all that feeling into a song, it's starts by comparing San Francisco to other supposed lovely cities, but no where else lives up to his home town. Love the way they've worked the landmarks into the words, it’s like taking a city tour. Tony Bennett ’s voice just sets the mood, talk about laid back, what a singer. The orchestral backing is so majestic, it sounds like twinkling lights. The lovely pian

    Walk This Way – RUN DMC ft. Aerosmith This was another turning point. Rap came into my life. Loved Aerosmith and then they ran into Run DMC , the iconic start to this tune changed our music landscape again. The scratching of the record was such a strange thing to hear, we had all been so careful not to scratch our vinyl all those years, now these dudes were making music doing it. The way the different elements and instruments get brought in then dropped makes this song so dramatic. It's so angry sounding but some how non threatening, the guitar riff keeps me going throughout. The beat is so constant, it's the start of songs being created over repetitive loops. The lyrics are very clever, pretty simple but perfect for what is basically a duet, all be it between two whole bands rather than the normal two singers. It's a song aimed at the teenage boy audience who is trying to be cool through school. Adopt a walk and be noticed. The whole new style of 'rapping' ly