Song Number 34: Ballad of a Slow Man

With apologies to Dylan fans everywhere...

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As you know, I've been trying to write lyrics away from the studio, which is something I've struggled with for a while.  I'm getting better, though - Me and The Morning and Fallen Down were both written before the music, and I'm quite pleased with both of them.  This time I thought I'd try something that lends itself particularly well to blurring the poetry/music divide: the folk ballad. 

Wanna buy some mandies, Bob?

So here it is, my attempt at an early Bob Dylan-type ballad.  I wanted to tell some kind of a story, but couldn't really think of anything that grabbed me.  In the meantime, I played around with the all-important first line.  Once I'd got that, the story (or rather the situation of an old man waiting for a lift - literally) presented itself readily. 

Recorded in one take, with the vocals through a Rode NTK and the guitar through an SM57 - it doesn't sound half bad, especially when you consider the strings are the self-same strings I boiled for Track 6!

Song Number 19: A19 Revisited

Ridiculous hog-rocker, with a well timed title.

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A few years ago, I was driving up north past ICI Wilton (the inspiration behind the opening shots of Blade Runner, as you can probably see from the link) and thought A19 Revisited would be a good title for a Northern answer to Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited.  I've harboured the thought for years, and when I came out with that bland blues/rock riff (totally wasting that lovely beat!) I figured it might just be time to get that driving song out of my head.

Average speed check in operation

Now, I quite like that drive up North from London to my home town of Hartlepool.  M1 -> M18 -> A1(M) -> A19 and home.  It's pretty straightforward (though I did sit for 2 hours in a jam at Junction 23, during which time Cars by Gary Numan came on - the irony wasn't lost on me), and the sight of Leake Church is always a pleasure.  There's something comforting about hitting the A19 near Thirsk, knowing that I'm near the end of my journey.  The song's about a guy heading back home (on his motorbike) to Station Town, a village just north of Hartlepool.  It's a pretty godforsaken place, to be honest, but it's a great name - really evocative. 

There are plenty of local references, and a few horrendously bland blues-rock clichés thrown in for good measure.

It was only when I finished the song that I remembered it was Bob Dylan's birthday the other day, and also that this would be Song 19!  Oh, the hilarity.

If you're wondering about the picture, it's dark so you can only see the biker's headlamp.  Nothing at all with me being incapable of drawing a man on a motorbike, you understand.