Music – Page 4 – David Bradley

Broken keys and ticking clocks

TL:DR – I asked ChatGPT to help me write my latest song, although I ignored all of its suggestions in the end. You can stream or download the song here.

You may have noticed, I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT a little this month. If you carefully craft a prompt it can give you some quite remarkable responses, I got it to write a new article based on my writing style, for instance. I also had it mess around with some of my lyrics. To be honest, I wouldn’t use anything that it’s come up with without massively editing, but it does trigger new thoughts and ideas when it bounces back a response.

I thought it might be worth trying it for inspiration for the chord progression to help me develop the melody to go with those new lyrics. I’d originally had a simple chord progression that shuttled between FM7 and Gm7 for the verse, but needed something to take the lyrics elsewhere melodically speaking. I could easily think of a new set of chords myself, but I’ve done that hundreds of times, this is a first for me and AI.

If you craft an appropriate response you can get the bot to respond as if it is a certain kind of person So, here are my prompts in italics, with the bots answers after each:

I want you to act as a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter working on their latest masterpiece, you’re going to give me the most evocative and emotional chord progression for the verses, a bridge that builds on that, and then the most powerful and uplifting progression for the chorus. You can choose the key but it must work well on guitar.

For the verses, a chord progression that evokes a sense of longing and introspection could be Am – F – C – G. The Am and F chords create a sense of tension, while the C and G chords bring a sense of resolution.

For the bridge, a progression that builds on the emotions of the verses could be C – G – Am – F. This progression takes the listener on a journey, starting with a sense of resolution and then building back up to the tension of the verses.

For the chorus, a powerful and uplifting progression could be D – G – Bm – A. The D and G chords create a sense of energy and triumph, while the Bm and A chords bring a sense of emotional release.

All of these chords work well on the guitar, and this progression is in D major.

That’s almost perfect, now give me some jazzy inversions and substitutions of the verse chords to add colour to verse 2.

For a jazzy inversion of the Am chord, you could try using an A minor 7th chord in first inversion. This adds a bit of colour to the chord and creates a smoother transition to the F chord. Another option would be to use an A minor 6th chord in second inversion.

For the F chord, a jazzy substitution could be an F7 chord which adds a bit of tension and dissonance to the progression. Another option would be to use an Fmaj7 chord which adds a bit of complexity and richness to the sound.

For the C chord, a jazzy substitution could be a C9 chord which adds a bit of dissonance and tension, but also a sense of resolution. Another option would be to use a Cmaj7 chord which adds a bit of colour to the chord and creates a smoother transition to the G chord.

For the G chord, a jazzy substitution could be a G6 chord which adds a bit of complexity and richness to the sound. Another option would be to use a G9 chord which adds a bit of dissonance and tension, but also a sense of resolution.

These chord substitutions and inversions would add more depth, complexity and jazzy flavour to your verse progression.

Okay, so I need more inversions for verse 3 that would give the overall feel a bit more of a progressive rock vibe side-stepping the jazz but perhaps even more sophisticated chords.

For a more progressive rock feel in the verse, you could try using some more complex chord voicings and inversions. Here are a few options:

For the Am chord, you could try using an Am11 chord in second inversion . This adds a lot of dissonance and tension to the chord, giving it a more progressive rock feel.

For the F chord, you could try using an Fmaj9 chord in first inversion. This adds a lot of colour to the chord and creates a more complex and sophisticated sound.

For the C chord, you could try using a Cmaj13 chord in second inversion. This adds a lot of dissonance and tension to the chord, giving it a more progressive rock feel.

For the G chord, you could try using a G9sus4 chord in first inversion. This adds a lot of dissonance and tension to the chord, giving it a more progressive rock feel.

These chord voicings and inversions would give your verse progression a more progressive rock feel and add a more sophisticated and complex sound.

So, now that we’ve got all those substitutions and inversions do we need to add some colour to the chorus or can it stay as it is to bring us back to the hook?

The chorus is typically the most memorable and catchy part of a song, so it’s important to make sure it stands out and has a strong impact. While the original chord progression you provided (D – G – Bm – A) is strong and works well to create a sense of energy and triumph, you could consider adding some colour and variation to the chorus to make it even more powerful and impactful.

Here are a few options for adding colour to the chorus:

Use a different inversion of the chords. For example, instead of playing a D chord in root position, play it in first inversion. This adds a different flavour to the chord and makes it stand out more.

Add an extension or alteration to the chords. For example, you could add a 9th or 11th to the D chord, or add a b5 note to the G chord. This adds dissonance and tension to the chords, making them more interesting and impactful.

Play around with the rhythm of the chords. For example, instead of strumming the chords in a regular pattern, try using syncopated rhythms or arpeggiating the chords. This adds a different feel to the chords and makes them stand out more.

Overall, the chorus chord progression you’ve got is solid, and with a little bit of colour and variation, it could be made even more powerful and impactful.

What’s this song with all these powerful and evocative chords going to be about?

As a language model AI, I don’t have personal experiences or emotions, so I can’t write a song from my own perspective. However, the chords and progressions I’ve provided are quite versatile and could be used in a variety of different types of songs and contexts. They evoke feelings of longing, introspection, triumph, and resolution, so the lyrics could be about a wide range of topics and emotions, such as overcoming a difficult challenge, the longing for a lost loved one, or the journey of self-discovery.

The song could be about a person that has been through a lot of struggles and is on a journey to find hope, redemption and happiness. The verses could be about the struggles and the pain, with the bridge representing a turning point, an epiphany or a moment of realization that leads to a change in the protagonist’s perspective. The chorus could be the uplifting and triumphant moment where the person finds the light at the end of the tunnel and the hope that things will get better.

Ultimately, the message and theme of the song would depend on the lyrics and the story you want to tell. The chords and progressions provide a foundation for the emotion of the song, but the lyrics and melody would bring the story to life.

Your suggestions tie in with some lyrics I have in my own repertoire about a young woman returning to an abusive childhood home after her parents have died and coping with her pain and memories.

Those chords and progressions I provided earlier would work well with lyrics about a young woman returning to her childhood home after her parents have passed away and coping with her pain and memories. The verses could focus on the pain and struggles she experiences as she revisits her past and the memories of the abuse she endured. The bridge could represent a turning point in her journey, where she starts to come to terms with her past and begins to find the strength to move forward. The chorus could be about her finding hope and redemption as she begins to heal and move on from her past.

The song could be about how the protagonist overcomes the pain and trauma of her past and finds the strength to move forward. The verses could be about the struggles and the pain, with the bridge representing a turning point, an epiphany or a moment of realization that leads to a change in the protagonist’s perspective. The chorus could be the uplifting and triumphant moment where the person finds the light at the end of the tunnel and the hope that things will get better.

It’s a very emotional and personal topic and the lyrics and melody you would use would be very important in making the song relatable and impactful. It’s important to remember that this type of songs are to be written with care and sensitivity and with the intention of being helpful for people that went through similar experiences.

Okay, so now give me the title for this award-winning song. The lyrics contain references to ticking clocks, time passing, shocks, keys and locks.

“Ticking Clocks, Shocks, and Keys”
“Time’s Locks and Shocks”
“Unlocking Memories”
“Echoes of Yesterday”
“The Sound of Time Passing”
“Locked in Time”
“Shocked by Time”
“The Ticking of the Clock”
“Broken Keys, Broken Time”
“The echoes of Yesterday’s Locks”

These are just a few ideas for a song title that incorporates the themes of ticking clocks, time passing, shocks, keys, and locks. The title should ideally be evocative and reflective of the emotional journey of the protagonist as she revisits her past and copes with her pain and memories. Ultimately, the title should be something that resonates with you and feels like the perfect fit for your song.

None of your suggestions for titles grab me, so I’ve come up with “Broken keys and ticking clocks”.

“Broken Keys and Ticking Clocks” is a great title for your song. It evokes a sense of both nostalgia and pain, reflecting the protagonist’s journey of revisiting her past and coping with her memories. It also hints at the themes of time passing and the struggles of unlocking the past. The image of broken keys suggests that the protagonist’s journey will not be easy and the ticking clocks suggest that time is of the essence. It’s a strong and powerful title that encapsulates the themes and emotions of your song.

—

So, the next thing to do, which AI can’t quite manage yet (although it is getting there!) would have been for me to record a demo with my lyrics, building a melody, using the bot’s chord progressions as the basis.

However, when I picked up a guitar, I realised the bot’s progressions were just variations on the four-chord trick, which has been used in thousands of songs, and is a well-trodden musical path. I went back to my original progression, which with the melody I’d originally had in mind was much stronger than just using the four-chord trick again. The refrain departs from my two-chord shuttle and adds some colour as well as rounding back into the verses quite nicely.

So, now that I think about it, all the AI did for me in this whole process is reinforce the original ideas I had myself by showing me alternatives that were not quite as strong.

I’ve done a very rough demo, so I have a record of what I am thinking musically with this song, but it needs a lot of work.

Lyrically, it’s a bit tragic, actually it’s more than a bit tragic. It doesn’t sound like The Beatles but lyrically it’s almost as if She’s leaving home were the prequel to Suzanne Vega’s Luka and this is the follow-up. If you read between the lines, you can imagine the tale does not have a positive outcome…but that might change, I could easily make it uplifting at the end instead of depressing…we’ll see…especially if Suzanne would like to collaborate on it!

Broken keys and ticking clocks

The key turns in the lock
she pushed the door wide open with her suitcase
It’s a shock
to find herself back here once again

She locked the secrets deep inside
Unanswered prayers her woe betide

She finds the clocks
They stopped the day she stepped away
From the cruellest of hard knocks
and all the fears that it revealed

The silent screams, the sound that mocks
Those echoes drowned by ticking clocks

No need to knock
She grasps the letters from the floor
You know she’s taking stock.
And gasps to know the secrets hold her no more

The key’s inside the box.
She didn’t need to worry
It’s time to face the shocks
There’s always time to hurry

She locked the secrets deep inside
Unanswered prayers her woe betide

She winds the clocks
And knows the secrets can’t hold her
The cruellest of hard knocks
and all the fears gone forever more

Dave Bradley’s Greatest Hits

TL:DR – It’s 21:12 on Friday the 13th…it’s time for some music. My most popular ten songs, according to my BandCamp statistics.

Regular readers know by now that I occasionally post stuff about my music, the music I write and record, the music I perform with my band C5 and the TyrannoChorus, and even occasionally about the am dram pit band with whom I play once a year for their Xmas show.

I’ve got a lot of demos on BandCamp and SoundCloud and occasionally look at the very embarrassing stats they give on how many listens I get. Some of my older material is on a BandCamp account I originally called Sciencebass instead of Sciencebase, haha. Here’s the all-time top ten of my songs on that account that people actually listened to back in the day…my more recent material (a decade of music in ten albums can be found here).

Golden Light – Enlightenment in the desert
Love’s Offline – No more cybersex
Winter Warmer – A seasonal perspective on addiction
Gravity’s Rainbow – Always under pressure
Security High – Learn about leaks
Dawn Chorus – The sequel to Daft Punk’s Get Lucky
Wishful Thinking – What if?
Collateral Damage – War and peace
In Deep Water – The tide is turning…
Radio Love (Radio Edit) – Should’ve been a number one

Ticking Clocks – She’s coming home

TL:DR – Notes on writing my latest song, which you can stream or download here.

I had a little chord progression that got me thinking…nothing complicated just some interesting inversions on BM7, FM7 Gm7 and C7 that came up on a social media site. Sounded nice, but I ditched the BM7 and the C7 and just oscillated between the other two to sing an ad lib lyric…and then to break away into a chorus based on Dm7 Am, and Gm7.

Thing is, I thought I came up with something neat lyrically, a kind of riposte to The Beatles’ song She’s Leaving Home, whereby we find the protagonist returning to her childhood home after her parents have died, there always was the implication of a less than happy childhood for her, but what if it had been worse, what if it were a miserable childhood, one in which one or both parents were abusive in some way? That was my train of thought when I came up with this little lot…

Ticking Clocks

The key turns in the lock, she shoves the door wide open with her suitcase
It’s a shock, to find herself back here once again.

CHORUS
She locked her secret deep inside
Unanswered prayers her woe betide
Now silent screams, the sound that mocks
Those echoes drowned by ticking clocks

INSTRUMENTAL BREAK

No need to knock, she clutches letters from the floor
She’s taking stock. Of secrets she holds, no time to worry more

CHORUS

She winds the clocks That stopped the day she stepped away
From darning socks and all the hazards that entailed

Finding keys and picking locks. She didn’t need to hurry
There’s always time to worry

CHORUS to fade…

Of course, I couldn’t leave it there, especially seeing as I haven’t even started thinking about recording the actual song, so I thought I’d give ChatGPT a chance to review and revise my lyrics. I prompted the bot by telling it that it is a “world-renowned singer-songwriter with a string of grammy-award winning songs” and asking it to redraft my lyrics to make them award-winning too. This is what it came up with:

She turns the key and pushes open the door
With a suitcase in hand, she’s back once more.
It’s a surprise, to find herself in this place,
Memories flood in, as she sees her old space.

CHORUS:
She locked her emotions deep inside,
Unanswered prayers and broken ties.
Now, silent screams echo in her mind,
As she tries to leave the past behind.

No need to knock, she picks up letters from the ground,
Sifting through the words, that once brought her down.
She takes stock of all the secrets she holds,
No time to dwell, on the stories she’s told.

CHORUS

BRIDGE
She winds the clocks, that stopped the day she left
Leaving behind the mundanity, with no regret.
Finding keys and picking locks, she takes her time,
To leave behind the memories, that once were her crime.

CHORUS

OUTRO
With a new sense of freedom, she steps out the door,
No more looking back, as she’s ready to soar.
She’s finally free from the past and all its weight,
And can embrace a brighter future, with no more hate.

Of course, I won’t use the ChatGPT output as my lyric, but I might redraft my own once more before I record to see if I can make them more evocative…

It’s not only rock and roll

TL:DR – How consumers are duped into upgrading, again and again.

We were quite content with vinyl. Indeed, aside from the occasional warped record and friends who didn’t hold them properly by the edges, we loved our US import 45s, our double gatefold sleeve live rock albums and our picture discs. We put up with the crackles and pops and built our bedroom collections. We lent our vinyl to friends, despite their not understanding about sleeve liner orientation and they lent us theirs. We recorded them on to cassette when we couldn’t the latest and greatest and we made mixtapes, the playlisting of a Generation X. They even tried to stop us by telling us that “Home taping is killing music”…we replied vehemently that “Home taping is skill in music”!

It was all going so well, but they wanted more of our hard-earned cash. More than that, they wanted us to pay again for what we already had and so was born the CD. This little disc apparently couldn’t be scratched, it was pure digital sound, there was no warping…and for many no warmth. Although at the time we were yet to recognise this limitation. So, we bought the new-fangled CD players and collected, at much greater expense, all the CDs of the albums we already had on vinyl, filling already full shelves with yet more bejewelled plastic discs.

This would be it. The ultimate Hi-Fi. The last word in sound quality. Of course, it wasn’t. There were more jobs to be done and it was Jobs who did us! If we could be re-sold the digital version then we could almost certainly be resold a virtual version too and perhaps even just access rather than possession of that digital copy in the form of streaming. For the companies yet another financial bonanza, despite Napster and Kazaa and Bit Torrents, and so we thought we wouldn’t get fooled again, but we most certainly were.

But, where is the love, where is the warmth? The ease of endless streams of over-saturated, over-compressed sound files was, like a much-loved mixtape from the 1970s beginning to wear thin. We hankered after the warmth of the old analog world. We may have grown into digital men and women, but at heart we were always analog kids…and so we went hunting as we once did back in digital pre-history, seeking out black discs of PVC, polyvinyl chloride, VINYL! We wouldn’t be islands in their streaming river, we’d be 20th century boys and girls and proud of it.

It’s only rock and roll, but I like it, again and again, and again, deeper and down…

Part Two: Let there be light! How we were resold the warmth of the incandescent bulb by way of the fluorescent tube, the halogen bulb, the compact fluorescent tube, the LED lamp, and back to the squirrel-cage!

Singing with THE gospel choir

Earlier this year, our choir got invited to sing (again) with The London Community Gospel Choir, you know, the choir led by the Reverend Bazil Meade that are on the original Tender by Blur and have also worked with Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Gorillaz, and Kylie Minogue. Amazing, yes? What an opportunity. Big crowd too as we would see.

Anyway, there was a powercut during soundcheck, so we didn’t get as much of a chance to run through our supporting set before the show as we’d hoped. No matter. It would be fun, we’d have to wing it, and the crowd were there for the LCGC not us. We also had to run through the two songs we’d be singing with the choir itself during their set – a gospel classic and a Meade original.

The members of the choir, all very friendly, pulled us into their fold, told us to huddle among the numerous stage mics, to not be shy, to sing out loud, sing out proud, sing out strong. One of the soloists, a guy who towered over me by at least a foot and a half, nudge me forward during the soundcheck, basically pushed the mic into my face, “This is you, go for it!” So, I did…like I do…

Well, all rolled off stage, and headed to the “green room” as it was, realised it was all too hot and sweaty in there and wended our way on to the lawned area behind the venue. It was not quite the 2022 heatwave at this point, but that was fast approaching. It was well above 30 degrees on stage when we ran our support set…which went down well. We do an ironic mashup of Blur’s Tender with the Oasis song Champagne Supernova, arranged by our pianist, the inimitable Tim Lihoreau. Meade but on a good show of being impressed, even if it was his song and the Blue-Oasis tension may well have passed him by at the time anyway.

So far, so good. Always enjoy applause and plaudits even if there was one negative comment about the red flower in my black felt hat for the Harry Styles number we did.

Okay, so proper showtime…we’re in the audience at this point, enjoying the LCGC show proper. We’ll get a nod to head backstage towards the end to join them for Oh, Happy Day and then the Meade song as finale. Fun AND games.

We shuffle on, trying to look impressive, but paling into insignificance among the mighty LCGC. I take my place, but Mr Tall Guy isn’t giving any leeway on that mic, it’s up to his head height and I’m down below. Ah, well. It’s his show, just meant I had to sing louder, which I did. I’m not in a choir called bigMouth for nothing, after all.

Cambridge Folk Festival 2022

The annual Cambridge Folk Festival was on hiatus thanks to the pandemic and so a lot of people had missed out on their musical fix at Cherry Hinton Hall for three years…us?

Mrs Sciencebase and myself had not been back since 1991 having attended three years on the trot from 1989 when I first went up to Cambridge (working, not as a student, haha). Mrs Sciencebase wasn’t Mrs at the time, and Sciencebase itself was still a few years away yet.

We were excited to see all the new bands and performers and checked the lineup: Clannad and Suzanne Vega among others…interesting…they were on last time we attended too! Both gave ripping performances this time around.

The Young'uns Trio — The brilliant Young’uns on the main stage at Cambridge Folk Festival 2022

As did (in no particular order): The Young’uns, Spiers and Boden, Show of Hands, The Spooky Men’s Chorale, St Paul and the Broken Bones, Magpie Arc, Billy Bragg, The Gipsy Kings, Seasick Steve, Findlay, Passenger, Afro Celt Sound System, O’Hooley and Tidow, Chico Trujillo, Brooks Williams, Davina and The Vagabonds, N’Famady Kouyate, The Copper Family, VRï, Beans on Toast, Black Fen Folk Club, the “Irish pub”, Orchestra Baobab, Janice Burns & Jon Duran, Tapestri, Mishra…I may have missed a few of the acts we saw, will fill the gaps as and when. So many acts we missed…always the way with festivals.

David Eagle from The Young'uns — David Eagle from The Young’uns

There were lots of highlights: meeting The Young’uns and Jon Boden, taking part in two singing workshops (with Nancy Kerr from Magpie Arc and The Spooky Men, as well as observing a melody workshop with John Spiers). Trying out some lovely (expensive) guitars, having a cajon jam with Adam from C5 the band, lots of surprise meet-ups with friends, and eating and drinking some lovely food and drink with Mrs Sciencebase and great weather (it poured and was cold last time). We camped from the Thursday night onwards, but had to decamp late Sunday evening. It was a relief to get home to have a shower, but I’d love to be back at another festival next week, and I’d take a guitar next time to sit in on some of the jams.

Spiers & Boden, the incredibly talented founders of Bellowhead

The Gipsy Kings — The amazing Gipsy Kings

Moya out of off of the legendary Clannad

The Spooky Men's Chorale — A bassy bit of The Spooky Men’s Chorale

Afro Celt Sound System, eclectic and energetic

Ford Collier from Mishra, mixing English folk and Indian style

Essex boy Beans on Toast from Braintree, innit?

The unbelievably energetic Chico Trujillo

The Spooky Men's Chorale singing workshop — The Spooky Men’s Chorale singing workshop

Yours truly with fanned-fret guitar worth about three grand

Mrs and Mr Sciencebase - #CamFolkFest22 Survivors — Mrs and Mr Sciencebase – #CamFolkFest22 Survivors

I took most of the photos on pocket Lumix camera (a DMC-TZ35). Those with no logo or with an angled dB/ logo I snapped with my phone camera and processed in SnapSeed. The photo of yours truly taken by Mrs Sciencebase with her phone.

Dustbowl – Pseudo Americana

A little bit of pseudo-Americana about a hobo with delusions of grandeur hopping from town to town, state to state, narrowly avoiding being grabbed by the railroad bulls. It’s the Great Depression of the 1930s. He panders to his addictions and his dependencies, gambling, drinking, partaking of them unholy angels, until he comes to the end of the line.

You can listen to the piano-led piece on SoundCloud or BandCamp as usual, it’s the 8th addition to my Lifelines mini-album there.

The artwork is somewhat incongrous, it’s a modern, but old-style windpump at Wicken Fen. It’s not dissimilar to the windpumps you might have seen in Western movies set in New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas, the heartlands of the dustbowl. It’s the kind that would spin and creak as the stranger finally leaves town. The photo treatment is also incongruous, a faked daguerrotype that was popular 100 years before the dustbowl of the 1930s.

Originally, I’d thought of writing a song about the old hobos on the railroads and then bringing it up to date with reference to the derailed railways now being tourist hiking trails. I came up with the basicss with no tune to hand and then once again worked with @LillBirdToldMe to hone the lyrics to something apparently meaningful and stronger than what I started with by a country mile. I then pieced together a piano arrangement over which I could lay my vocal.

Just for the record, I’ve travelled in 23 of the 50 US states, worked in West Virginia, and although I’ve never hopped a freight train, I’ve driven along dusty blue highways, I know they’re roads and not railroads. It’s poetic licence…or should that be license?

Dustbowl

Kicking up the railroad dirt, I ride these metal wheels
There’s plenty of times those dozy bulls come snapping at my heels
They’ve got to let it go when I hop that old freight train
Never going to mess with me in this old town again

Some unholy angel going to fix me up alright
Heading for the county line making good time tonight
I’m riding high in the lowdown, you know I’m on a roll?
’cause kicking back is easy on the blue highways of the dustbowl

Nickel and dime the journeys you can ride from stay to stay
Cross that bridge when it gets here, just hopping on that plate
The rolling stock’s for rolling as the years turn by and by
No tears are shed for the lonely who find no place to die

Nickel and dime the journeys you can ride from state to state
Cross that bridge when it gets here, just hopping off that plate
The rolling stock’s for rolling as the years turn by and by
No tears are shared for the lonely who find a place to die

The times they ain’t for changing, my fortune’s on the wind
Can’t make no money doing nothing, for that’d be a sin
I’m rattled by the railroad track from dusk to break of day
I’ve no Bible, just a bottle to ease my soul away

Riding high in the lowdown, know I’m on a roll!
’cause kicking back is easy on the blue highways
out of the dustbowl, of the dustbowl

Nickel and dime the journeys you can ride from stay to stay
Cross that bridge when it gets here, just hopping off that plate
The rolling stock’s for rolling as the years turn by and by
No tears are shared for the lonely. The final place to die

Classic Chords #26 – Prince’s Kiss

It’s been a while since I posted anything in my Classic Chords series, a selection of (in)famous guitar chords from the world of rock and pop that stand out from the crowd and seem iconic of the artist that used them whether Rush’s Alex Lifeson, Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour, or this one, a B-minor (add 4) [B-D-F#-E). If it had an A in it you could call it a D6/9 as one chording website does, but I don’t think it does so a Bm(add4) it is or an E7-sus2.

This little box of a chord is archetypal Prince funk featuring in the classic…Kiss.

Here’s how it sounds on my Telecaster. I just want your extra time and your…chord:

More Classic Chords here.

Panto time again? Oh, yes it is!

We had to skip our annual panto in 2020, but this year we’re bigger, bolder, and brassier than ever with Treasure Island! Oh yes we are! Here are a few of my snaps (in no particular order) from the orchestra pit where I’m playing guitar, as usual. Find out more about Cottenham Theatre Workshop.

Pit band (photo by Darren White) — Pit Band (L-R) – Dave, Rob, Barbara, Adam, Christian (not pictured understudy drummer John and clarinet understudy Tanara

Tricia Bradley as Mrs Battersby (left) and Helen McCallum as WI member

Natalia Thorn Coe is Seadog Sam (left) and Nikki Kerss is Seaweed Willy

Ben Shimmens is Gizzard Slitter (4th from left)

Silver's other bird — Silver’s other bird

Where would the world be without spotted dick?

Lyrical analysis of No Footprints

You may have noticed I wrote and recorded yet another song – it was originally entitled Footprints in the Sand. It was angst-ridden and full of random allusions and imagery, as is my wont. I added the word “No” to the title having used a photo of beach on which there were no footprints and I thought that would make it even more angst ridden, suggesting that the song’s protagonists were hankering after the beach but unable to be there for whatever reason.

As I mentioned earlier, the song started off in my usual way, simple chord progression over which I ad libbed a few words…I tightened the words up after I laid down a quick demo so I wouldn’t forget the tune I’d come up with. It started out as being about coping with grief following the death of a loved one. But, it somehow morphed into thinking about the kind of grief that migrants suffer in leaving their homeland in search of a better, safer life. Their attempts to reach foreign shores and to land on beaches from flimsy boats. There is also a kind of allusion to regrets migrants might feel in reaching that foreign shore.

Anyway, let me spell out what I think I thought I meant in the song, I’m reverse engineering it really, as many of the words arose spontaneously and from my subconscious.

The days are colder and the nights drawn in
No barricades of comfort, now the aching will begin

After the clocks go back in October, my mother would often remark on how quickly it seemed “the nights are drawing in”. I made the phrase a finite point, the nights are “drawn in”, in perpetuity, you might say, it’s always going to be dark from now on. The warmth of the summer, a kind of psychological barricade definitely long gone and the pain of the cold, dark days now starting.

I'm running down an unlit corridor
The pain can chase me, but I head out through an open door

This was a nightmare image of the fear of death, I think, and the possibility of somehow getting away from that pain and emerging into the light.

And you won't find a clearer path today
If you turn your back on the future, try to run away

Basically, don’t dwell on the past, try to look to the future, but also live in the present, which brings us to the next couplet

And, there are times when you can plan your day
But the tide will turn and wash your wishes away

Moving through grief it seems very hard to think of getting on with normal stuff, but you have to, but it’s worth remembering that your romantic dreams written with sticks and stones on the memory of a beach are always washed away by the rising tide.

But I can see the warning signs ahead
They don't deter me, they draw me on instead

This sounds like being well aware of the psychological damage that might occur in the wake of trauma but being pulled along by it instead of finding a safe haven.

And I should say that we can choose a tougher path
The path of least resistance was never going to last

I think this line in the pre-chorus is where the notion of it being about my grief morphed into something broader about migrants and people escaping. Always easier to stick to the well-worn track, but even they don’t offer an escape a tougher route has to be forged in some circumstances.

Now, we’re at the chorus:

Walk with me, I'll take you by the hand
Can't promise anything like a promised land
But, I’ll give you love, though nothing's planned
Walk with me, leave just our footprints in the sand

Offering a helping hand, partnership, promising something but not necessarily the dream, maybe just a chance to walk in the sand, which would be a bit of a dream at the moment, to be honest.

The summer comes around and the days are long
I thought I'd moved on but something feels so wrong

What if time isn’t a healer, what if there’s still pain long after the dark winter days when the summer clicks into view again? That was me worrying for my future self, I think.

And there you're kneeling with your head in your hands
Still can't believe we found ourselves in this foreign land

An allusion to the despair felt by those hoping for a better life reaching that new world, but struggling when the reality is not what they thought they had promised themselves.

Like I said, angst-ridden and grim. But, else would you expect, I’ve written and recorded dozens of songs over the last few years and they’re almost always a bit depressing lyrically even if the tunes sometimes get a bit funky. Any questions? No? Good. I’ll let you have a listen to the song (also on Bandcamp) and you can comment at me on Twitter.

Incidentally, it struck me after recording that at least two of those lyrics are half-borrowed from a couple of other songs. “I can feel the warning signs” is in Half the World Away by Oasis, while “eyes cast down on the path of least resistance” is in A Farewell to Kings by Rush. You can check out this page for a very incomplete list of what I’d call my musical influences.