Fifth anniversary puzzle solving…
Fifth anniversary puzzle solving…
“With the flames that go higher and higher and higher and higher and higher and higherrrrr”
I originally wrote the following in January, 2016 as a “Why I Love…” piece for the blog. Little has changed in my feeling for this song. It’s bloody fab! I share the demo version of the song because it is the one stuck in my head today more than the album version. Enjoy!
***** It’s the rhythm of it to begin with. Very reminiscent of David Bowie’s Station To Station. It reminds me of it, but is far enough removed not to sound a pastiche.
A great bassline once again from “Big Dan”. And Charlie uses the guitar effects for a nice screeching sound. Maybe it’s just reverb. I can’t claim to understand what I hear, but I know I like it!
Absolutely one of the best set of lyrics Jim has ever written. They are very image laced. I see the pictures in my head when he sings them “I see a land, as we crawl by night /I see a face on the window in front” – I love those lines so much! And possibly my favourite lines from ANY SM song…ever “these stations are useful / these stations we love them” when it wasn’t very “de rigueur” to claim to “love” things like that. I’m assuming because of such, Jim is very much saying it tongue-in-cheek, which I love. (No pun intended!)
The demo version has different lyrics. He sounds like he’s ad libbing a bit. The song’s musical structure is there…and some of the final lyrics are there (including the “these stations” ones) but there are some lines that don’t gel. He did a wonderful job refining and trimming. The demos can make you appreciate the final cut so much more…
And, of course, the song ends with the sound of a train.
It just does a great job of letting you feel that train journey experience. Foreign lands…people behaving shifty…cloak and dagger…it’s like Strangers On A Train. Simple Minds do Hitchcock and borrow a *tiny* bit from Bowie and do a stellar job.
This song…I love it! 😜😊 *****
P.S. The artwork is a really early days one. An oldie but a goodie. Jim liked it. Halcyon days 😌
Love Song
Because it is on my mind so much right now…it only seemed right to work on something…
Well, this is the first little thing I’ve done in over two months. Might as well try and get the eye in again, and try and get back to something. Hope the muse returns. Try to push it into coming back. It may lead nowhere…I may come back with full flourish…OR BETTER! (Geez, I hope.) This felt…tentatively good. I have certainly missed the therapeutic distraction side of it!
The inspiration can strike at the oddest times of the day…and with maximum spontaneity…(actually completed at 2.45am)
HELL YES! This is why I didn’t post Barrowland Star to the SMO wall! LOOK AT THAT! 🙂
Geez I love being able to use my own photos! Still wish I could have taken my pro cam to just ONE gig though 🙁