Volume VIII Side A

Volume VIII Side A of the Band of Georges.

These are songs composed by George between September 1986 and December 1986. They were recorded in his bedroom at 31 Cowick Lane, Exeter, in 1986 and 1987. Some were recorded in his flat at 19 Haldon Road, Exeter, in 1987. Some were recorded in his next flat at 96 Union Road, Exeter in 1987 and 1988.

We did not wish to fiddle with these recordings too much. The audio was lifted straight from cassette and simply normalised to 0 dB. We even left the clicks at the beginning, where there were some.

Having written these songs more than four decades ago, and having not heard these recordings for at least the last three, we asked George to make a comment on each of the songs.

Here is what he had to say regarding Volume VIII Side A of the Band of Georges.

“We used to listen to a lot of music on vinyl albums at this time. A whole vinyl album would – nearly always – fit onto a single side of a 90-minute cassette. When you were recording it, you’d flip the record over at the end of Side 1 then carry on with Side 2. I always thought of these cassettes as being like one whole album per side, rather than being a double album. The first half or so of the tape would be Side 1 of the LP, so that would begin right here.”

Never Going Back to School Again

Aha, 80s rock! Time to grow another mullet! The subversive element I like, but this song is just a collection of cliches. Not very good at all. I wonder what inspired it or where it came from? No memory of that at all.

The guitar part is fun to play and some of the chords are tasty. However, never heard by the general public until now, and never performed by a band. Probably better that way.

This song was written on the same day as The Warning and Gotta Getaway, from the previous tape. I have a feeling that Gotta Getaway was first, then The Warning, and this one was last.

As prophecies go, this one turned out to be pretty shabby. I went back to school many times – both as a music teacher and to help speakers of other languages with their English! “Passing on the light,” as Mark Drower once said.

Dangerous

This one is much better. There’s some content! A couple of the lyrics are quite interesting, including one I borrowed from an ex. The tempo seems to fluctuate, although really things are doubling or halving. Somewhere in the back of the mix, the EDP Wasp is growling away to fatten up the bottom end.

The key seems to change as well. The song starts in E major with that slow, heavy riff. Then much of the rest of it is in G# minor. My vocal isn’t too awful and the harmonies are ok as well. The end is decent. It seems to end on a peculiar wistful question mark in E major.

We were going to try to play this in The Subterraineans. I remember teaching Dean the second guitar part. He practised it for a while and then he got it! It was a great moment. I was thrilled for him, and he was chuffed with himself as well. It might have been the hardest guitar part he ever learned.

Unfortunately The Subterraineans didn’t stay together long enough to integrate this into the set. Dean never did a lot of music after The Subterraineans. He was so damaged by everything that had happened to him. He killed himself in the end, poor Dean. He was such a lovely man. I wonder what he would have achieved with his music if he could have held it together?

After The Subterraineans had morphed into Rough Terrain, we didn’t continue with this song. It’s possible that Jerry might have struggled to play this. He might have felt that the bass part was too guitary. Dangerous would have been a decent addition to their set, in hindsight.

This song is about a love triangle, which I later learned had more than just the three sides.

Autumn

I remember writing this song, on my Dad’s beautiful nylon string classical guitar. You can hear it! There’s a lot about this that I like, but a couple of lyrics are pretty cheesy. My vocal isn’t too bad, surprisingly.

One thing I always liked about this was the way the C minor key is explored on the guitar. That phrase with the Cm7 to Ab maj7, then Bbm7 to Gb maj7. Sweet. It’s a bit bluesy, a bit jazzy, a bit latin somehow. Never performed by a band. Never heard by anyone until now!

Autumn was written quite early in the morning. I’d had a few wild days and nights and I probably fell asleep stupidly early the night before, then woke up at about four in the morning. As the lyric says, it most certainly was still dark outside and the city was sleeping.

This song doesn’t actually touch what was going on exactly, but it was certainly an unforgetable and very exciting time in life.

Guilty Secrets

This was a song I would have liked to have performed in Rough Terrain, but we never got around to it. I rather like the riff. Not many lyrics are cringeworthy, even if they are a bit… insubstantial. They could have been stronger. I’m not convinced about the acoustic guitar having a place in this, another electric might have been better.

So when I wrote this, life was about as mad as mad can be. I was involved in a love triangle with another guy’s girlfriend, as was he with mine, and the two girls with each other. As I am not in the least bit bisexual, the other bloke and me were the only two not doing something together.

Once I saw the photos, I felt a whole lot better about the situation. So Guilty Secrets was probably written before I saw the photos and before I fully understood what was going on. It was madness!

“This would end Side 1 of the vinyl LP Volume VIII Side A of the Band of Georges, and Side 2 would begin from here.”

Jack of Shadows

Yeah. I don’t think much of this, to be honest. It’s a bit light, and it’s childlike and dreamy, but not in a good way. More in a half-baked not-quite-awake-yet sort of way.

There are one or two musical twists which raise the level a bit, but overall this one doesn’t do it for me at all. It sounds like I was in a rush to record the rhythm guitar, judging by the ghastly blort near the start.

This might have been intended to be part of a series of songs to tell a story, and I think none of the others were ever written. Might be wrong, on both counts. Too many decades!

So who was this Jack of Shadows character? Was it me? Dean? Simon? Graham? Marc? Jack the Frag? I doubt it was him. Some combination of all – or none – of us? No idea. Really. None.

Get on the Road

Oh, this is The Subterraineans. I didn’t actually record this as a demo on my own, unfortunately. Either to save time or I was just too lazy, ha! It’s not a terrible version, although it sounds like there was a bit of cassette degradation during the start.

So this was a song I wrote about my frustrations at languishing in exeter when I really wanted to move to London and try to forge a music career there. London was the place to be for young musicians in the mid 1980s and I wanted a piece of that. It did happen, but not for a couple more years and I needed to be patient.

We played Get on the Road in Rough Terrain as well, after The Subterraineans folded and turned into Rough Terrain. It was performed live a lot. It uses a capot on the fifth fret for the clean guitar. Andy played that part in Rough Terrain. I quite like the capot/no capot guitars in this.

It’s Just the Same Again

Aaargh! A Christmas song! I can’t bear them, apart from the one by Slade perhaps. Why did I have to ruin this with Christmas lyrics? Terrible!

The guitar is pleasant and the lyrics are not completely appalling in the verses, I suppose. It could have certainly been much worse. But if it had been an instrumental, it would have been better!

When Ken and myself used to play at the Topsham Folk Club, there was a guy who sang a song… “Living, dying, laughing, crying, the waves call my name.” It was D sus to D, then C. I think some of the idea for the guitar in It’s Just the Same Again came from his song. We probably went there about four or five times.

Who on earth were Blind Sam and Deaf Harry? I must have made them up. I had an uncle called Harry who was a bit deaf, but no idea about Blind Sam. He sounds like a blues guy.

My Uncle Harry had a wooden leg. He once annoyed somebody on a train so much that the other guy gave Uncle Harry a hard, sharp kick to the shin.

“Ha, didn’t hurt,” said Harry to the surprised bloke, and rolled up his trouser leg. I think the guy who did the kicking must have felt mortified that he’d kicked a man’s wooden leg!

Light My Fire

This song was never performed by a band and has not been heard until now. I wrote it for a girlfriend, and told her I had a surprise for her. When I refused to say what it was, she became very grumpy. From that point onwards I tried to avoid telling her about surprises. I don’t think she ever heard this in the end.

A few days after I wrote Light My Fire, it was well and truly lit. The fire quickly grew into a huge uncontrollable blaze that burned down my house, but such is the way of things!

I’d be inclined to say that this song wasn’t done very well, although there might be a few crumbs of potential in there somewhere.

That ends Volume VIII Side A of the Band of Georges.
Volume VIII Side B is next.