Pok: We Know You Well

We Know You Well is the latest track to be completed and added to the growing Anthology album from Pok the Bard. Despite an unprecedented amount of delays caused by the various trials and tribulations of moving to a different country and rebuilding and repairing everything more-or-less from scratch. we are happy with the overall sound of the finished song. This has been the longest period Wud Records has gone between releases since before our new website was launched in 2008.

We Know You Well was originally created by Mark Drower and evolved when he and Pok were in the band Beyond the Pale. Their performance of We Know You Well, at The King’s School, Ottery St Mary, is the stuff of legend. We hope that this version does that one, from 1983, some kind of justice. Sadly there are no recordings in existence of Beyond the Pale, as far as we know.

We Know You Well was also jammed by Now, but not really developed any further until the seminal Cander recording by Laughing Sun, in the long summer of 1985. This version owes a great deal to the Cander version.

Laughing Sun performed We Know You Well at their first ever live performance, which was at Exeter College in 1985. Unfortunately the song was curtailed and the final three minutes or so were never played because the drama hall was needed and the band had run over time. Flump.

Maxx on bass normally tunes B-E-A-D. He says that E simply isn’t low enough these days. For this song he drops his B down to an A, properly low! Sven’s bashings and tappings are as immaculate as always. What a rhythm section.

Pok‘s electric and acoustic rhythm tracks are panned to the right. The acoustic rhythm track is played on the Tanglewood, which is also used for the echo guitars in the teacher-talk mashup and the weird psychedelic section. The electric rhythm guitar is played on Broken Horn. Broken Horn is also the instrument for the widdly-diddliness from about 11:19. The particulalry dirty tremolo guitar in the verses is Betty the Bastard.

The rhythm guitar parts played by Fedax are panned to the left. He plays the acoustic parts on an Encore that cost £11 including delivery from eBay. It is the same guitar that Pok used to play the main line in Cordelia Dreams as well. The electric parts were played on the Ice Maiden, even the filthy dirty rhythm at the end.

The weird section after the third verse that starts at about 8:56 owes its existence to the Cander version of We Know You Well. We made this section by taking Nicodemus (panned to the right) and playing loose notes whilst retuning the strings, then playing the whole thing backwards so that by the end Nicodemus sounds in tune. To the left we hear some whammy wangage on Marsha, or perhaps the Ice Maiden, but not Betty as the sequencer claims.

The violining and the fiercely panned beams of guitar sweeping from side to side in the intro section were performed on by Pok on Betty, with Marsha adding extra wobbliness and phasing in phases two and three.

Pok‘s deliciously classic solo from 6:57 was played on Betty and his amazing acoustic virtuosity showcased in the solo from 9:58 was played on a borrowed semi-acoustic.

Fedax plays three solos on the Ice Maiden. The first is a short outburst of wibbliness between verses one and two and the third a further ouburst of wibbulation in the slowdown right at the end from 11:55.

The second and main solo from Fedax at 10:24 was recorded first take without any prior warm-up. Although he was not keen on it at first and left it there to mark that one should exist, Pok loved it and convinced him to go with it.

We Know You Well is a subversive song about teachers, school, the misuse of power and control, oppression, the standardisation and homogenisation and eradication of individuals and their unique talents within the uk education system, the similarities and differences between the roles of teachers and pupils, ego, and teachers’ fears and uncertainties. Perhaps it can be considered a cousin of Pink Floyd’s song Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2).

This song is 37 years old at the time of its release. It is a song we have always loved and dearly wanted to make a decent version of someday. We hope you enjoy our attempt to do so.

If you would like to listen to We Know You Well, please click here and press play in the new tab that opens.

If you would like to read the lyrics and song information regarding We Know You Well, please click here and a new tab will open to the relevant page at Explicit Music.

If you wish to listen to or download Pok’s entire Anthology album as it stands right now, please click here.