Across The Milky Way lyrics

Across the Milky Way

wake up, the day is just beginning
get up, smell the air
wake up, you've got to stop your drifting
away without a care

trouble and worries all around you
get up, it's okay
you know, that love will soon surround you,
mm mm mm

across the milky way
a satellite is calling, we could sail away
so leave the world behind
and step into the vista
there are bells among the haystacks
if you'd only care to listen

save the world! save the world! from this grotesque exhibition....

Before starting any album I like to change some aspect of the writing process. A lot of "The Young Picnickers" was written at the piano "like a songwriter" if you get my meaning. "The Strange Underworld Of The Tall Poppies" album was demoed a lot - quite sophisticated sixteen track recordings - and the sound and song ideas were honed in that way. This time I went back to how a lot of my Chewy Raccoon songs were done. I bought a Tascam 424 Portastudio - a four track cassette multi tracker (I used to have the original 244). Portastudios were state of the art for home demos in the early 80s but have since been usurped by hard disk computer systems which allow incredible editing and processing so you can make fantastic sounding tracks in your bedroom, but for all that I always liked the ramshackle nature of cassette portastudios - there's little point in getting bogged down with the sound because you're at the mercy of tape hiss and the relatively primitive technology so you can just get ideas down quickly and actually use the limitations to your advantage. I was going into my music room and improvising keyboard riffs, chord patterns and melodies - adding bits of arrangement here and there until the shape of a song started to emerge.

"Across The Milky Way" was very simple - I think the verse lyric was more or less written first thing in the morning when I was "waking up" and just carried on from there - one of those talking to yourself songs (a lot of songwriting is like thinking out loud). The theme of escape is very prevalent in my work and I honestly don't know why, but this is one of my very favourite examples. The metaphor of "bells among the haystacks" is pretty obvious but that line feels very inside and true for me. My favourite lyric of all time is "Someone left a cake out in the rain" (Jimmy Webb - "MacArthur Park" ) - I¹m not comparing myself to Jimmy - but one is always striving for a poetic or unusual way to express a feeling.

I like the combination of banjo and whistling after the first chorus - I put together a touring show called "Mondo Morricone" with Duglas T Stewart in 2000 and you can see the influence in this arrangement - Morricone puts banjo next to operatic singing next to electric guitar next to synths and so on. There's a touch of Wings too in the quiet third chorus. I'm a magpie - sorry.

New Stars

will you listen to my story?
it's been a while since I felt like talking
it's been a trial
I've been on planet me
don't know if my life's perfection
or is it just a dumb confection
how do I know?
how do I see?

if I'm talking round in circles
I just want to let you know
we shouldn't be so mean

but I can't make a good connection
constantly in the wrong direction
following you, following me

will you listen to my story?
it's been a while and I feel you know me
will you be there? will you help me out of here?
'cause there are new stars for the riding
out in the pines I see them shining
following you, following me

I should keep my mouth shut and there's things I shouldn't do
but when I'm feeling fucked up
well there's no one else I wanna tell but you

will you listen to my story?
it's been a while since I felt like talking
it's been a trial
I've been on planet me
but there are new stars for the riding
out in the pines I see them shining
following you, following me

This follows the theme of "Across The Milky Way" really. "New Stars" started out very folksy - acoustic 12 string guitar and lots of harmonies but I could see an obvious opportunity to try and outjangle anything on the planet. It was very difficult to get the basic track down, in fact this is the second version of the song and it took most of a long session to nail (I usually get bored and panicky after three takes) because there are so many pushes and pulls in the rhythm and they need to be just right. Mick Slaven plays the two electric guitars which open here and he created a beautiful tough edge to the thing. Mick is the most unique guitar player I¹ve ever heard and his sound is unmistakable - that's about the best thing you could say about any musician. The bass is a Roland Juno 106 synth. One of my favourite LPs is Brian Wilson's "The Beach Boys Love You" (1977) and that's where I fell in love with synth bass. The stupidity of it is staggering and wonderful. You'll also hear Q Chord on this track, as played by part time Pearlfisher Midori Terasawa - it's like an electronic autoharp where you hold down a chord symbol while strumming a "Logan's Run" style silver strip and hey presto - angels are singing!

I Was a Cowboy

I was a cowboy in my neighbourhood
spinning along the hedgerows
strawberry sherbert and gum were the tools of my trade
thought I'd grow handsome, funny and free
boys in the first grade
could never hold a candle to me
I was a cowboy

my mother took me in late '69
to the school of saint francis xaviour
pretty miss hollis was waiting to lead me away
her breasts were tender and, I confess,
I cried the whole day
hiding my face in the folds of her dress
I was a cowboy

soon I was grown and my branches were strong
and the halo of spring was round me
spilling my youth out in tissues on warm afternoons
I met some sweet girls, acted unkind
down by the sand dunes
striking the truth of life from my mind
I was a cowboy

"I Was A Cowboy" is pretty much autobiographical. A musician friend of mine, Tom Clelland, often says to me "Oh, I've got a really nice pick to let you hear", which in his parlance means a little finger picking guitar figure on which he'll build a song. "I Was A Cowboy" started off as a "pick" which remains the basis for the arrangement. I was sitting about playing this theme for ages before realising it might be a song. Starting out a bit like "Strawberries In The Snow" it goes through a few key changes before coming back round to the start. I was thinking that each section sounded like a vignette so I ended up writing a few episodes from childhood through to adolescence. There are a few obvious references in the song. "Strawberry Sherbert" is a sweet that you can buy loose from plastic tubs and the "gum" is Bazooka Joe. Like other kids I used to collect the wrappers in the hope of eventually having enough to claim a set of "X-Ray Specs" or Itching Powder - all those useless toys they tried to flog. Cowboys in the Wild West would ride through dusty frontiers and camp out amid danger of attack from Red Indians. Cowboys, aged five, from Falkirk had to make do hiding behind prettily sculpted hedges and garden sheds. Verse 2 is a straight recollection of my first day at school in 1969 and it's fairly obvious what Verse 3 is all about.

The version on the album is the first recording of the song, cut at home on the Portastudio.

Steady With You

spent so many years just running
hiding out inside myself
I'll forget this in a moment
if you let me

and though the world is cold and crooked
I know we'll make it to the end
precious moments don't mean nothing
they just leave you sick and restless

looking for the time, time, time
to believe in what we're doing
well I need time, time, time
to be steady with you
I won't fall behind
I won't need a new religion
I need time, time, time
to be steady with you

to be steady with you is so hard
do you honestly expect me to believe?
I'll forget this in a moment
if you let me

"Steady With You" started out as a joke. I was asked to do a pastiche of Kraftwerk for a comedy show (didn't quite happen)and came up with the drum machine and synth bass that go all the way through the verse. There was no melody as such (they were going to have a computer voice over) and no structure either - just bits of verses and choruses that felt really good. I started thinking it could turn into a song so I had to work out a new structure, mix it in sections and then load it all into pro tools and reorganise the track into a coherent template. Once that was done we could add all the bits of guitar, the string section and of course the vocals. It's strange to me that a song which started out as something pretty dumb and throwaway ended up being one of the more nakedly emotional things on the album - it's like intensity by stealth.

Sweet William

someday I'll send this stupid song, sweet william
you're a complicated girl
it's a complicated world
you've got to take your chances
because your chances won't take you
and you could lose tomorrow
before you know it, your life is through

lai lai lai lai
lai lai lai lai
sweet william, it's a complicated world

someday I'll right this stupid wrong, sweet william
what on earth am I to do?
what on earth am I to say?
maybe this sweet romance is
a silly way to make it through
and all the days you borrow
to just imagine your soul renewed

lai lai lai lai
lai lai lai lai
sweet william, it's a complicated world

and if I ever get it right, sweet william
will you wake up?
find a way for us to make up
and if I ever get it wrong
there's still a beacon on the backstreets
among the foxes and the factories

we've got to take our chances
because our chances won't take us
and we could lose tomorrow
before we know it, our life is through

lai lai lai lai
lai lai lai lai
sweet william, it's a complicated world

It's difficult to comment on something like "Sweet William" because it all seems quite clear in the lyric - sometimes life can seem a little bit of a struggle and one is grasping at straws to feel okay, that's all. The music track and melody are explicitly warm and lush - I wanted to make a comforting sound. Banjo and String Quartet are beautiful together. One thing in the lyric - "among the foxes and the factories" - sometimes a poetic image is sort of thrown at you out of thin air. Where I live, there are flats and houses backing onto a canal on one side and a street on the other. There¹s a factory warehouse between the flats and the main street and, coming home late one night, I saw a pillar box red fox standing on top of the rubbish bins looking right at me as bold as brass. It just casually swaggered away without looking back.

The Vampires of Camelon

Instrumental

Along with the intro to "Is It Any Wonder?" this started out as music for a play. I've made lots of music for Birds Of Paradise theatre company over the last few years (the most recent being "Merman" 2000) and I always feel inspired by their projects. The show was titled "Playing For Keeps" and the main musical theme was the first half of what became "The Vampires..." Around the time I was writing this I moved back to live in Camelon, near Falkirk. I was brought up there and the first month or two walking about was really strange. There were lots of small memories coming up and a few ghosts too. I suppose that's where the title and mood of the thing came from. It¹s a really simple arrangement thing to have the top line melody played by alternating instruments - you can draw attention to tiny nuances in the tune - the colour change when a banjo takes over from a flute or the effect at the end of this where the melody is being played in unison by trumpet, flugel horn, flute, banjo and whistling.

We'll Be The Summer

I missed you in the chill of winter
all the white frosty roads stretched before me
but springtime came and I began to feel alive
I could see the good times coming

then you came by and I was the summer
kicked my shoes into the clouds
you came by and I was born again

as seasons change so do lovers
we're just leaves on the breeze like so many others
precious love will wash away with all the rain
and then return with the sun

then you'll come back and we'll be the summer
kick my shoes into the clouds
you'll come back and we'll be born again

The point of this song is obvious. Life changes and moves on and it's easy to see the world in the same way, always changing, dragging us along with it. I tried to explain that feeling in the melody line - it swoops and dives, sometimes disappearing into the string part and then bursting out strong in the chorus. Instrumentation is mainly nylon strung guitar (played beautifully by Johnny Cameron), drums, bass and strings. The session for the album's string quartet tracks took more or less a whole day so we recorded the real tough ones like "Sweet William" first and then broke for lunch. I got them all a tiny bit drunk on red wine before cutting the songs that would benefit from a bit more looseness in the playing. It's hilarious to me how flamboyant the string players are on this one - that's my arranger's tip - get the strings squiffy. The vocal is triple tracked - one of them recorded slow then speeded up to give a younger colour to the sound. I was thinking a bit about "Suicide Is Painless" and how much I love that vocal style where it's very held back with no fake emoting. Groups like Harpers Bizarre and The Association were the kings of soft vocals.

Snow On The Pines

snow on the pines
snow on the pines
would you tell me where my life has gone
would you tell me where it all goes wrong

snow on the pines
snow on the pines
there's a message and it's waiting there
through the trees and the salty air

this could be the magic that I've waited for
this could be the magic that I've waited for and never comes
this could be the magic that I'm hoping for
this could be the magic
throw me overboard, I'll take the train

there's a funny little story that I've told before
'bout a little boy and girl who never see the sun

As children we were sometimes taken to Aviemore on holiday. Aviemore sits among the Cairngorm Hills in the highlands of Scotland and in the early Seventies was a curious combination of stunning natural beauty and tacky leisure centre. I really loved it and remember the banks of pines rising up over the hotels, ice rink and the go-cart circuit. Looking back now I can remember a feeling of looking over to the pine trees from my vantage point amongst the tat and thinking "that¹s a different world out there". That was in my mind when I made this song up first thing in the morning. The vocal is the original take and when I mixed the track I had to get rid of all these ridiculous coughs and splutters. This is like a couple of early Chewy Raccoon things - built on an unusual electric piano sound with overdubs to create an atmosphere as much as anything else - in those days I would just make things up on the spot and the long outro on "Snow On The Pines" happened just like that - I had the chords and was making up the whistling tune as I recorded it on two tracks of the portastudio. I improvised the last few lines at the end when I was overdubbing the acoustic guitar. They just seem to make sense in the song.

Paint on a Smile

if you're feeling worried, if you're in a mess
when the sum of your life amounts to something less
and you're looking out for something to make it all seem clear
just try to be, try to be patient, my dear

and when you're feeling broken, when you're feeling down
just put on your make up and take a trip to town
slip away in streetlight, polythene and pearls
and paint it on, paint it on, paint on a smile for the world

there's so many people who think they've got it made
grabbed the first offer that anybody gave
but you deserve much better and it'll come, it's true
you know I can't, you know I can't, be patient for you

and the hesitation you feel is natural, I guess
scared of wanting more and you're scared of getting less
but there¹s no use in hiding - it won't find you girl
so paint it on, paint it on, paint on a smile for the world

and when your world turns round
and you're on the way, girl
and when your world turns round
what am I to do when everything is right
there's nothing left for me to say

and when your world turns round
it'll be a new day
and when your world turns round
what am I to do when everything is right
there's nothing left for me to say

There was a great children's television programme when I was growing up based on "The Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe". I think it was in black and white. The music was totally amazing and one of the themes running through it was a very elegant melody - quite classical in flavour - backed by the most lunatic drumming and organ playing. That was the first reference for the rhythm track on "Paint On A Smile" which is played by Jim Gash (drums) and Lindsay Cooper (upright bass). I wrote the song at home and made a demo where I was playing the piano part and singing dum dum dum words with the occasional line coming through - particularly the line "paint on a smile for the world". This is a phrase I¹ve heard a few women friends using. I guess it means put on your lipstick and you'll look good and happy whatever you might be feeling inside. Duglas T Stewart finished the lyric for me and I added a few extra bits too. There's a line about shopping therapy too - "slip away in streetlights, polythene and pearls" - meaning polythene bags full of goodies. Duglas was approaching the song as someone giving advice to a friend and worrying that soon his advice wouldn't be needed. The woodwinds on this are all played by Allon Beauvoisin - listen out for bass clarinet which is a really great sound.

Everything Works Out

everything works out
everything works out
and I know why I'm so blue
yeah I know why I'm so blue
isn't any wonder

This was recorded on an old Dannemann upright piano which I use on most of my tracks, but this time I took the front off the piano and got two microphones really close to the strings. You can hear all the clicks and creaks coming through the notes. I was unsure about this until I played it for Stephen Pastel while we were mixing the recent Bill Wells album - at the time the piano track was all I had but Stephen was so enthusiastic about the actual sound that it had to stay - I wouldn¹t argue with him. I wanted to write something with almost no words - so often you're striving for colour and imagery and meaning and end up with mush. Dennis Wilson could write simple things and sing and orchestrate them with beautiful feeling. Check out "Pacific Ocean Blue" - just buy it and if you don't like it I'll buy it back from you. At the end of the track the upright piano melts into a Wurlitzer, changing the colour with the help of violins, contrabass, bass clarinet and flute.

Shine it Out

springtime, walking around with you
trying to step into the sun
thinking we're old enough
thinking we've only begun

but then sometimes
the world is so grey and old
everything seems such a bind
people are cold and unkind
makes you want to run

if we want to live
we've got to shine it out
we've got to be strong if we want to belong
if we want to bring about a change
if we want to sail
we've got to row the boat away
while we're young

feeling, everything could be right
good days are just round the bend
life will be easy
and we'll never need to pretend

but believing
is easier said than done
nothing could be such a breeze
so many people to please
makes you want to run

This was the last thing recorded for "Across The Milky Way" when I felt the need to say something really positive and encouraging. Songwriters are always singing to themselves (self help or egomania) and this song is like a pep talk - don't sit around waiting for good things, try to make them happen - but there's a lot of doubt too and I suppose that comes through in the words. Most of the tracks on the album have synths and "real" instruments juxtaposed and I guess "Shine It Out" is the most obvious example with real strings emerging out of big synthesiser pads and the drums - played by Derek Star using just three mic's - cooking alongside a drum machine pattern.

When the Highway Ends

miles and miles of road won't take this pain away
there's a line to be drawn in the sand
but you know I'll never draw it while you're still upon the earth
I will hold on to a moment for what it might be worth

and time and time again I tuck my soul away
there's a line to be drawn in the sand
but you know I'll never draw it while there's still a breath in me
I will hold on to a nightmare if it tries to set me free

and when the highway ends I'll still be running
when the morning comes I'll still be dreaming
and when my arms are old they will still bind you
when my eyes are blind they will find you

I heard Glow Worm's version of The Cure's "Monday I'm In Love" which is much better than the original, with a backing track heavily dominated by chimes and bells, like Lou Reed's "Sunday Morning". Any songs about days need a lot of bells. "When The Highway Ends" started out as an instrumental recorded at home just with a stupid drum beat, a kind of sub bass noise, chimes and keyboard strings. The master is practically identical but with mostly "real" sounds. The sound was quite hypnotic and suggested a very inside lyric which is obviously about obsession and fear of letting go. In the past I would have probably burst my lungs singing this but as time goes on I feel you can reach a deeper feeling by holding back and just stating the words and melody. I like the effect at the end where the strings (a quartet doubled up) go up the octave, the drums kick a bit harder and the synthesiser starts spraying out notes while the singing remains quiet and soft - I was trying to express a feeling of resignation and peace.

Is It Any Wonder?

is it any wonder we can't survive?
when everything we're under weighs a ton
makes us into vagabonds
lost in the woods
hiding in the deepest trees
under the darkest sun

and that is why we're living away from each other
hiding away from it all
but if we hold on, you never know

and it's the strangest journey
that lasts a million miles
it's hard to find an answer
it's hard to take
when every time I turn around I see your face
on every street, in every town
papers and magazines

tell me why we're living away from each other
hiding away from it all
'cause if we hold on, you never know

if I could stop it all spinning round and round
and never let you down
I'd work out why it all goes wrong
each time we make a start
the landscape of a heart's a mystery to me

so baby, we must discover
a way we can live with each other
we've got to hold on, hold on

"Is It Any Wonder?" comes from the same writing session as "The Vampires Of Camelon", and the intro - played on trumpet and flugel horn by Colin Steele - was one of my themes for "Playing For Keeps". At the time that short phrase was all I had, but on the recording date for the play's backing track I got an idea and gave the musicians a break while I quickly worked it up into something resembling what you hear on this album. We didn't record the extended version that day but I returned later and made it into "Is It Any Wonder?". The song has very big chords - not the usual simple triad, but major sevenths, suspensions and so on. Anyone who grows up loving The Carpenters, Bacharach, etc tends to develop a taste for chords that express a lot of feeling. I've said before that often the harmony will dictate where the lyric goes and it's only later you look back and see the obvious lineage of an idea. There is a sort of desperation in the lyric and I wanted to express that in the arrangement. The long outro features three different themes which alternate and then all play together - I suppose I was thinking about having different emotional feelings all at the same time. The last thing to be overdubbed was Mick Slaven's electric guitar - he played an old Harmony semi acoustic through a WEM valve combo - and what he did brilliantly was to introduce a much darker colour to the track as well as coming up with the fantastic lick at the end - just searing notes. Jon Beales, first violin, is the guy you hear cutting loose in the last seconds of the track. I worked with more musicians on this album than any other and their contributions (especially Jim Gash on drums) were fantastic and generous. Thanks and love to all of them.