The Saturday List #130 - Ten Songs for Ten different years

The False Dots

I thought I'd do a list with a difference. Tonight, my band, The False Dots play at The North Finchley Festival. The venue will be the Bohemia, it's free entry and we're on at 10pm. Please come down and say hi!

I've written and co-written many songs, over the years. Here are ten written in different years, which I think sum up the year in my life.

1981 - Mr Natural - I wrote this about a gig promoter, who put us on at gig for CND and then nicked all the money and went to Greece with his girlfriend. The oldest song in the set. I played it to Allen oin 1985 and he thought it was about him! He rewrote the verses and added two extra verses (abandoning my third verse, which he thought was libellous and not very nice). Like many songs I write, it sat in my note book for a long, long time.  Allen describes it as "Our Laughing Gnome".

1982 - Action Shock - our set closer, a real theatrical epic, based on the experiences of a friend of mine who was a Royal Marine in the  Falklands. It is not an anti war song, it is a song affirming how we all want to survive in adversity.

1983 - Heal Me - I started writing this as a song about hangovers, which were a big part of my life in 1983.  Allen took it in 1985 and made it into a love song (the soppy old sausage). (Note: he's just told me it's about unemployment, so it shows how much I listen when I play guitar - I'm not actually sure which bit of the lyrics he wrote and which bits are the original, so I guess now it's about being unemployed with a hangover).

1984 - Maybe Once More  - A soppy romantic pop song, mourning the breakup of a long term relationship,  Perhaps one of the better Pop songs I wrote

1985 - Winter in Your Heart - An Allen Ashley Special, a great pop song. I wrote the music, which I think is one of my finest musical compositions! It summed up my miserable mood in 1985, before I met the missus!

2010 - In a Silent Place - I started writing this song as a wry observation on people who hook up with ex's on Facebook and it all goes wrong. Allen took it and made it far darker in 2013

2012 - Saturday - I always wanted to write a song about being a football fan and the trials and tribulaitions. Allen finished it off masterfully, with a great middle rant (or is that middle 8). 

2014 - Please Myself. Allen wrote the lyrics, which are great and a rant about society today. I wrote the music, which is a cross between a Bo Diddley groove and a T Rex Pop song. I love this track, it moves

2015 - They've cleared out your desk. Allen wrote the lyrics, it is my homage to the Specials musically. A bit of Ska feel with a chorus reminicent of the Specials at their raucous best

2016 - St Pauls - My rant about how St Pauls is not what it should be. Allen finshed it off lyrically. The feel is very much 1960's Pop in the key of D7 with a bit of D7 Sus 4 in there. I love it.