My history, interspersed with links to songs
Chapter 1 – 1957 to 1966 London
Chapter 2 – 1966 to 1973
Chapter 3 – 1973 to 1977 Dalston
Chapter 4 – 1977 to 1983
Chapter 5 – 1983 to 1985 Broken leg, Germany
Chapter 6 – 1985 to 1986 London
Chapter 7 – 1986 to 1987
Chapter 8 – 1987 to 1992 Glasgow
Chapter 9 – 1992 to 2023 High Wycombe
Chapter 1 – 1957 to 1966 London
My songwriting began in 1957 when I made up a song called Mule Train. To get to my school in London I used to take the tube from Southgate to Chancery Lane. One day, I was watching the automatic doors closing and something made me sing to myself ‘Close them doors, close them doors, close them doors on the old mule train . . .’ in the style of Lonnie Donegan. This was long before I learned about guitar chords, yet the tune dictates an unusually slick switch from minor to major and back to minor again. For my 1984 songbook, I changed the title to Midnight Train, and gave the song an outrageous story line. A motto I had invented for myself was ‘Don’t follow the tail of the sheep in front’ and this helped me write songs which are outrageous and unconventional, such as I Need A Woman, King Of Charleston.
During my childhood, friends would ask for my earliest memory and I used to boast that I can remember something from when I was 2. I saw our landlady (Mrs. Richards) on the stairs, adjusting her false teeth and saying ‘Ah, that’s better.’ Even earlier, I had a dream of an old lady waving her finger at me from up in the sky. Years later I twigged that this was when my mum was out shopping with me in my pram. Passers-by would say what a lovely baby and typically these ladies would say ‘Kootchy Kootchy Koo’ and wave a finger to get a smile from the baby. That baby was me, and I saw a lady in the sky. Did I smile? Don’t remember!
During O-levels and A-levels 1959 to 1961, I was busy studying, and appreciating Buddy Holly, The Platters and the Everly Brothers, as well as going to the local youth club, and running my own club. I’ve Only Got One Heart is a Platters-type song, and the Everly Brothers Song speaks for itself. This was the true age of rock and roll, as Be-bop-a-lula Hop reveals. At parties and club nights we were bopping and jiving Round And Around. Even though I won a jiving contest, my jiving was sedate compared to the experts, who could do the Lindy Hop, the Razzle Dazzle and the Time Step.
In 1960 I joined the Cherry-Tones Singing Group, which was started by Jill Coward at the youth club, singing at old peoples’ homes. The old people liked the old songs such as Yes Sir That’s My Baby, Alexander’s Ragtime Band and Don’t Bring Lulu, and these kind of songs were an influence on my songwriting. That’s why some of my songs are so gloriously “old hat”.
In the 1960’s, the Cherry-Tones included two of my songs in their repertoire, I Married A Cowboy and Beautiful Serenade (no two songs could be more different). In the first one I got an idea for the joke about ‘milking the cows in the dairy’ when I was bending down to pump up my bicycle tyres, which is just like milking a cow! The second one also involved my bike. I was riding home thinking about my girlfriend Marilyn, and the first line just popped into my head ‘Beautiful, you’re beautiful.’ As soon as I got home I found the chords that fitted the tune I’d made up. The Cherry-Tones developed over the years to such things as masonics, ladies’ nights, Hilton Hotel in the days of “Bunny Girls”, and the Royal Festival Hall. We did more up-to-date stuff like Burt Bacharach and Henry Mancini.
I copied the style of the early Beatles hits with songs like Hey Yeah, Don’t Turn Around, Loving You Loving Me, and Hold On. In their later psychedelic style, I did Now You See Me, Now You Don’t, which plays around with our perception of time.
In 1964 I got engaged, but Marilyn broke it off and went back to her ex-boyfriend John Wilson. This is similar to the situation in The Story That You Told Me. Losing Marilyn was a shock, and I told myself it would take at least 3 months to get over it. One of my unfinished songs attempted to describe this situation, and said “if you find you’ve changed your mind and want to come back to me, don’t leave it too long, or I may be gone, to find a girl that’s free, to love me, like you used to do.” After almost exactly 3 months, I was told (through an intermediary) that she did want to come back to me, and I should go and see her. I remember sitting on her settee, she leant her head on my shoulder and I didn’t respond – I just froze. It was an automatic reaction, perhaps to avoid getting hurt again.
In later years, I loosened up a bit, with songs like Eric Or Me and Mountain Song. I have often wondered what would have happened had I given her a chance that day she put her head on my shoulder. That may be what prompted me to write my “Let’s start again” songs like Senorita, When I See You Again, I’ll Be There, When I Look Out Of My Window and Thinking It Over. Another song (Go Away) could also be a reflection of the Marilyn story.
One evening it was nearly midnight, and I said I was supposed to be having an early night. This led to My Early Night which shows how a song can come from a good title. This song has been admired, and uses some slightly jazzy chords, as does It Gets You That Way and So Alone.
I wrote Take This Letter in about 1962. A man is telling his son that he is leaving home because his wife has been unfaithful. He asks his son to give her the letter saying he has gone. What a scenario! Where did I get that from, at the ripe old age of 19?
In 1967 I met a girl called Linda Kerry at a party in Hampstead She had written some lyrics, which I adapted and created a Tamla Motown song Master Key. A virtuous folk song, My Brothers And I, was also one of hers.
Since I first joined the Cherry-Tones I’d been hooked on harmony singing – see Harmony Examples in the Contents, such as “Exodus” and “Send In The Clowns.”
In 1965 I had a 4-person harmony act called “The Highlights,” 3 boys and a girl singer, Linda Clarke. I found Linda by going round at a big dance event in Edmonton asking everyone “Do you know a girl singer?” Someone said he did, and asked me a lot of questions, before revealing it was his sister. She’d had a record deal, but it fell through when Dusty Springfield went solo. The Highlights were myself, Linda Clarke, Paul Kelly from the Cherry-Tones, and Dave Purry, who was recruited by asking around at a youth club in Palmers Green. We were talent-spotted in a British Legion club in Hatfield in 1966, by Dave Gordon, the brother of Cat Stevens. He signed Linda up as a solo artiste. This led to the song Tearaway.
I think Linda Clarke was involved in a hit record called ‘Doctor Kiss-Kiss’ in the 1970’s. (I’ve looked this up on Google. She was the lead singer and reached number 8 in the charts in August 1976)
My mum had once observed that Linda sounded like Vera Lynn who was famous for We’ll Meet Again and The White Cliffs Of Dover. But could Vera Lynn have sung Dr. Kiss-Kiss?
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