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MP3 Blake - Carruthers Gets Bashed
15 MP3 Songs
POP: Beatles-pop, ROCK: Acoustic
Details:
This is my fourth album (if you include Karmatruffle’s What You Do Comes Back To You) and, possibly, my last. Simply because I’ve nearly run out of songs! Good ones, at any rate. I still had some left after Final Whistle that I was going to let die, but for some reason they kept niggling away at me. After an enforced break from all things musical during the latter part of 2006, the New Year arrived with fresh inspiration and I decided to give some of these discarded orphans a chance. I originally intended to record a single called Blake’s 7 inch. This turned into an EP, Blake’s 7 inch (extended), and, after I’d recorded six or seven songs, I realised it was going to be a fully fledged LP.
When I was in Karmatruffle, we’d toyed with the idea of calling our album ‘Carruthers Gets Bashed’ – can’t remember why exactly, but it was something to do with Paul’s experiences at Cheltenham Boys College. The tune itself was originally from a song called ‘Dirty Old Man’ which was rejected by the band mainly because of its ridiculous lyrics. It reminded me of the Grange Hill theme – in a ‘Ripping Yarns’ kind of way – so I thought it worked well.
‘You Could Be Part Of My Dreams’ was the last song to be written. I went to see Duke Special play in Bristol the other day and it’s kind of inspired by him. The chorus I dreamed. I was onstage singing it with, I think, Linda Ronstadt. I was Van Morrison!
‘She’s Not All That’ and ‘A Better Way’ were both recorded by Karmatruffle for our single release on the Ectomusic label. Unfortunately, after we fell out with the company we had no access to the sound recordings and we couldn’t be bothered to record them again for our album (having spent over six months working on them in the first place). I re-recorded them based on the original demos I had made on my Tascam four track. I kept Magda’s original bass line from the tape for A Better Way and built the song around that. I discarded the record company’s alterations to ‘She’s Not All That’ and enjoyed recording it as I originally intended.
‘Marketing Man’ was a song that never went further than a demo but I was desperate to record it as I could hear the cowbell part and I’d always wanted to have a song with one on! Perversely, I don’t even own a cowbell so I had to settle for a frying pan. ‘Make Up Your Mind’ is a song that after I’d finished writing it I was convinced it would be a huge hit for Robbie Williams and my fortune would be assured. How wrong I was.
Café Retro I recorded in 2002 and I simply added some reverb to the original four track recording. (Apologies to John Barry.) ‘Man of 1000 Years’ I wrote about and for Danny Kirwan. It’s pieced together with the names of his songs and it’s just about my favourite thing I’ve written. ‘Bluest Eyes’ I actually recorded for Final Whistle but it didn’t make the cut. However, on re-listening I realised it was a lot better than I remembered and I thought it slotted in well amongst the mainly noisy stuff I’d been recording for Carruthers.
‘Sick and Tired’ is a song I’d never even demoed. I’m not sure I really share the singer’s perspective. It’s clearly influenced by Elliott Smith. ‘Breathe’ is about some heavy stuff that Sarah and I have been going through lately. I just felt it was time to do a CSNY thing. I sacrificed a song called ‘Sevens & Nines’ to make room – it was inspired by Goldfrapp and had an eschatological bent, but I didn’t really like the idea of an electronic blues.
‘Give It To You’ was a song Karmatruffle turned their noses up at. I wrote it in France at the same time as ‘Beautiful Star’. ‘Wishing On A Star’ is probably my most autobiographical song – I was really pleased with the way this one turned out.
Bernard Blake
March 2007
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