In yesterday's blog, I'd said that 'Dance Like The First Time' is the only song I've performed live in public, just playing piano and singing along. True but not the whole story.
The song was created as part of the Songwriting Skills module on the MA Songwriting Course. Brainstorming a love song lyrically, the first demo was a moody, atmospheric, electro-keys and drum machine piece, echoing 'In Every Dream Home A Heartache' with a dance/disco final chorus channeling the unlikely trio of Roxy Music, David Byrne and Jimmy Somerville.
I then played it as a solo acoustic, just guitar and me (in various keys with differing results) at various Open Mics, some solo acoustic gigs and at the legendary Nunney Acoustic Cafe. In that vein it developed into a full band version which we then worked up during the Higher Lovers album sessions. It had by then moved on to a Tom Petty-ish and, dare I say it, Lynyrd Skynyrd-y feel. Unlikely bedfellows all.
And for a long while, that was where it remained. It was probably one genre too far for an already eclectic mix of styles that went into the 'Higher Lovers' album. It was scheduled to be included in a later EP, but was overtaken by events. And then came the third lockdown and I thought, 'let's do another video'. So, here it is in all its glory. Shortly to be found on YouTube (via the following link https://youtu.be/ccCSg2EFPrk) and on the videos page of this website.
The lyrics are all about the joy and romance still to be found in a long term relationship. Inside we're still the same people as those who fell in love in the first place. So as well as some performance elements and bringing it right up to date and injecting some fun from Debdo Adventures, it's a photograph album of memories from earlier times.
Going through the video, the stills start in the USA where I spent the summer of 1980 and the house we rented overlooking a Wrigley chewing gum factory. I went out to California and worked in a burger bar under the rollercoaster of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (where they later filmed 'The Lost Boys'). It moves on to Debbie in our council flat in Hulme, Manchester (with the Pretenders poster on the wall, 1983) a street festival in Little Italy, New York (1980), Debbie again on a hammock in our garden in the last house we lived in before where we are now (1989), me in a petrol station under an NCP car park in Cardiff (1980), those shining eyes and smile going out to dinner on a boat in Ibiza (1985), the Twin Towers, me drinking coffee at a Dennys in New York (both 1980), Led Zeppelin at Knebworth, August 11 1979, me in Swansea where I grew up (complete with Strat and sparkly jacket - the tie was obligatory in Post-Punk New Wave Britain, 1980), Debbie with one of our cats (Noodles) when she was tiny (Stockport 1984), the Watergate Hotel, Washington DC and a free Elton John concert in Central Park New York (both 1980). There were many others, mostly of Santa Cruz which didn't make the cut for the video. Sadly many of those wonderful old buildings didn't survive a 1991 earthquake. We went back then to find the Beach Boardwalk still there, but not much else from those days. Thankfully at the time of writing, we're still standing.
And finally, what about those boots? That's before we even mention the suit (thank you ASOS in better times when they sold celebration and party clothing)! A closing irony, the spirit of Hank Williams embodied by someone who isn't the biggest fan of country music by any means and on what is essentially a piano ballad by someone who can't play piano.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the song, the video and the story behind it.
Comments