Randy Newman, Flaming Carrot, Tom Waits, Don Draper, Bacharach and David, Superman, The Shangri-Las, Philip J Fry, your Gershwins and Porters and Rodgers and Hartses, Stephen Merrit and too many more to mention
JOHN DOG IS PUTTING UP A NEWLY RECORDED SONG EVERY MONTH IN 2009. WHY? BECAUSE YOU KNOW THE WAY MICHAEL MYERS KEEPS GETTING UP AND STUFF, EVEN AFTER YOU KILL HIM A BUNCH OF TIMES? YEAH? WELL, JOHN DOG IS JUST LIKE THAT. EXCEPT, Y'KNOW, WITH MUSIC(All songs are written and performed by John Dog except where indicated)
30/09/09 - WHEN THERE WAS A WORLD OUTSIDE - I've always been a sucker for a "last man on earth" story, and here, for Halloween, is my stab at the genre. It's a few years since I wrote this, so I'm afraid I don't know why I set a goofy end of the world/heart break song to a Latin beat (Apocalypso?) but there it is.
30/09/09 - LEAVE MY BONES ALONE - Please be upstanding for the return of Paul Harvey, who basically arranges this song and delivers some outstanding marimba, thumb piano and cello playing - all I had to do this month was stand back and dodge the sparks coming out of the Shabby Road laboratory area. The song itself was written a while back, when I first learned about Silly Season. This is the period in the summer when newspapermen go on holiday, and the papers physically shrink in size because of an apparently coincidental lack of news. However, sometimes editors get lucky and something terrible happens. Also, this track obviously doffs a battered hat to Tom Waits, who trashed a very successful early career many years ago, just because he thought he could do better. Fifteen years later he got a Grammy and worldwide acclaim, but, y'know: fifteen years later. Fair play, sir. .
29/08/09 - IN AN HOUR OR SO - Please welcome Steve Daley, ace mandolin player, instrument maker and Ordinance-Survey-certified fixture of the London trad session circuit, who adds a touch of eloquence to this amoral drinking song. Well, I say "drinking song" - it's a song about drinking, which I guess isn't necessarily the same thing. It was written some years ago, not long after I got a collection of George Jones songs, and attempts also to keep the mighty Patsy Cline in mind. Cheers!
29/07/09 - THE WAKING DREAM EP...has vanished. Sapphire and Steel are investigating.
30/06/09 - WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE NOW? - Please welcome back Paul Harvey, who here fashions a terrific string section out of a lone cello. No mean feat, children. The song itself dates back to 2002, and was a turning point of sorts for me, in that I attempted to apply lessons learned from countless listens to Bacharach and David. The lesson being, in this case, how to tackle what might be considered a "heavy" topic in a "light" kind of way. If that sounds simplistic, it's just because it's difficult to express how good Hal David is at what he does. Listen to Do You Know The Way To San Jose or Alfie again if you don't believe me. So delicate is David's craft that even Bacharach, who's been effectively married to these songs since their inception, said he didn't get some of the lyrics til many years after first hearing them. (DISCLAIMER: This song is clearly not - as if - in that league: it's just what I was aiming for)
28/05/09 - THE MOON ON A STICK is an English expression I heard a couple of months ago. As I understand it, it's to be directed at someone who's asking for too much, eg "I suppose you'll want the moon on a stick next!" This month's song is especially dedicated to the first person who heard it.
29/04/09 - A MAN IN LOVE: Some songs take ages, and some come fast. After my 100 years in the business, I've concluded it's best not to ponder that fact. A Man In Love came fast, at the tail end of what might best be defined as a "testing" romantic interlude. Around the time of writing it, I had a dream where a woodpecker was perched on my forehead, pecking away at some speed, which may well be all, if not more than, you need to know.
29/03/09 - A GHOST CALLED CHARLIE: The title emanated from Paul, he of the marimba and cello heard elsewhere, though he claims not to remember saying it. I wrote it on a whiteboard here in Shabby Road Studios during a bender at least a year ago, and there it remained, for ages. One night, while taking a break from a marathon DVD rewatch of Mad Men, it caught my eye and suggested a story. 98% of "interesting" phrases I write down in this manner result in nothing, but I'm prepared to go so far as to say I got lucky this time.
28/02/09 - I KNOW THAT PLACE: Phew! Made it to the second song of this frankly ludicrous "song every month" project. Two down, only ten to go. What the hell was I thinking? Actually, I was all set to finish early this month, til I was laid low by a dirty little cold bug of some sort. Hence, I had to wait as long as possible to do the vocals. I would've liked to have waited a little longer, but that's arbitrary deadlines for you. So - enjoy.
31/01/09 - ROCK AND ROLL WON'T SAVE YOU NOW: A tale inspired by a girl who shared a taxi with me and a few friends when we were coming back from seeing Tom Waits in East Berlin some years ago. She was an illustrator, and while not as harsh as the girl in the song, she seemed at best bemused by our tales of excess, and did say we were like cartoons - that we'd be "easy to draw." Structurally, the song is a total lift from two Elvis Costello songs, "45" and "Almost Ideal Eyes". Hope you like it.
2008: THE RIGHT TO KNOW is immeasurably improved by Paul Harvey's contribution of a two-part cello part. NEWFLASH: The newspaper proprietor I had in mind when I wrote this song has since been roundly humiliated in a farcical court battle. I'm not proud of this sentiment, but; Yay!
Online Now!