This song was the first song I recorded totally live, and it changed the way I approach making music. And to be fair, some are just the dumb kid at the back of the room, but they, too, need love. So let's look at this in the spirit of "no song left behind". But I'd like to - and if you care to read - give a song by song paragraph or two of details I recall about the song, the recording, the reasons for my choices. Some I'm really proud of, some make me cringe. So many of these songs were recorded as part of album sessions, some I have tried several times without nailing them to my tastes, some are bedroom demos. I wanted to be a serious artist, but still one that could find a big enough audience without watering down the good stuff. Vague as that sounds.īeing signed to major labels does (or "did" for me) mean certain compromises, and I can literally hear a line being drawn in the sand by my shaky hand as I tried to mark out the territory I thought I was fighting for. The truth is all decisions are made in the best way at the time, hopefully for the right reasons, most of them artistic. Why did I write certain songs, why did I do them in a certain way, and why did I leave some of them off albums. Some of the songs make me smile now I've heard them again after a few years, and some of the leave me frankly bemused. Songs that fell through the gaps, or never made the grade, or songs I simply didn't love enough, or fight for hard enough, or more often - simply refused to let them be massaged into the mainstream by my various record labels. Putting together a collection like this, of songs that by their nature were deemed not A-side material (and good luck explaining this concept to your grand children) is slightly strange. Some of my former record labels would literally have had me wearing a chicken suit if it would have meant more sales, but there was always a line somewhere I couldn't cross. Especially a version dressed up in clothes that didn't fit. I just wanted to do the best by the song, and more often than not that meant admitting defeat and letting the song disappear, to be recycled at some future date, rather than release a bad version. I have never fully known how to present a coherent image to the outside world, and my music has always been about an experiment with taste, if not more. Has it really been ten years? Some of these tracks need a lot more than youth to excuse them, and unfortunately - being 30 when I released my first album - I don't really have that. Well, putting together this B-side and Rarities compilation has been like that. Ever pulled a photo album from the shelf and looked in horror - fingers over your eyes - at the way you dressed in the '80s.
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