It wasn’t quite what I’d expected when I took a new song along to a practice with Brother Wright last night. The song is barely a week old. I’d dreamt up the chorus and really liked it, and had some melodic ideas for verses but was daunted by the amount of writing I’d have to do to ‘fill’ it. One morning I sat for ten minutes writing every possible line that might fit the concept, (I can only achieve this by resolutely not bothering about rhyme) and, by whittling that down I had two prototype verses, but only a vague idea of the verse melody. I’d lived quite intensely with it, singing it quietly to myself every time I was driving, every time I had the house to myself, every time I was walking down the street but, until I got to Nelson’s, hadn’t actually worked it out in guitar chords. I brought it along hoping we’d both overcome our natural reticence and ‘niceness’ and hammer it into something that might be workable. After practising the songs we needed to practise I ran through what seemed to be the chords, then played the song to Nelson. I was shocked to discover it seemed to have its own life from the first run-through; Nelson: ‘That’s it, don’t change anything!’ And I had to admit, with some relief, that it was pretty much there, never mind about rhyme. It’s a quiet and subtle song, a European rather than American melody, and seemed to create an atmosphere around it, enhanced by some lovely guitar additions from Nelson. Of course it won’t really live until it’s met an audience but that will most likely be at the next Wright Brothers performance (Sunday 15th at the Listening Room, folks). It’s called The Last Man (no, it’s romantic fiction, not science fiction).
