Lucky Jim Is The name Under Which Gordon Grahame Records Writes And Performs
Agent stevebackman@primary.uk.com
Influences
The influences are Music- Van Morrison Lou Reed Jaques Brel Elliot Smith Bob Dylan Serge Gainsbourg Tom Waits The Rolling Stones The Beatles Al Green David Bowie Big Star The Doors Hank Williams Townes Van Zandt Jerry Lee Lewis Miles Davis John Coltrane Charles Mingus Joni Mitchell Neil Young Kris Kristofferson Leonard Cohen AC/DC Elvis John Lee Hooker Gram Parsons Rush Genesis Ludwig Van Beethoven Schubert Bach Mozart Chopin and the Pixies ...Writers - Celine Genet Burroughs Kerouak Bukowski Blake Ginsberg Swedenbourg Bauderaire Rimbaud Anaconas Crowley Gurdieff Ouspenski Jung Moore Nietzche Graves Yeats Shakespeare Geothe Lorca ...Directors- Pasolini Cassavettes Herzog... Real people - Sandyman Tommy Brown Chris Dunn Gazza Scott D'arcy Jeff Buckley Rufus Wainwright Billy Jones Mike and Brian Hall Tristan Egolf Grant Walker Jimmie Grahame...
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Lucky Jim:
www.allmybands.de/bands/Lucky Jim
This was in an interview a while back
I was born in Edinburgh but I actually grew up in a
place called Penicuik about 10 miles away . It was
quite pretty in parts but had a small town mentality
and could be very rough.
I first got into bands at about the age of 15. most of
my friends were in the Latin class which meant that
they were very bright , I was in the lowest classes
most of the time but shared a common interest in music
with most of them.
I actually hated school with a passion. I felt like I
was running the gauntlet every day I went .
My parents were very into music when they were
younger , older stuff like Sinatra and Johnny Mathis
and West Side Story and Jesus Christ superstar would
be played around the house a lot . But once I got
serious about music you didn't tend to hear them play
it a lot.
I always had this effect on people because I was so
willful about music it tended to use up everybody
elses space.
It probably didn't help that I wasn't very good for ages and
completely oblivious.
My first real musical influence (consciously) would
have to be Lou Reed . Until then i had no sense of
direction or where i wanted to be but after I bought
1969 live - attracted to the cover picture of a womans
rear but then blown away by the inside shot of Lou
with his Gretch guitar and his leather jacket- I knew
exactly what I wanted to be. This was what I had been
waiting for. His lyrics especially seemed to wash away everything that
came before.Not as you might think because of the provocative nature of
his songs but because of the directness and simplicity of them.Lou Reed
ruled for about 3 years!
I was in the lost Soul Band for about 6 years ( I
think). We started out as a kind of Waterboys Van
Morrison thing but our first release was a country
rock album called Friday the Thirteenth and
Everything's Rosie.
It was very well received and quite ahead of it's time
as there was no real Alt Scene at that time but we
didn't sell shit and i lost focus because of smoking
hash all day.We did three albums - all in different
styles which didn't help our careers and were dropped
after about two and a half years.
Looking back I can see that i haven't changed really,
I would be just as happy doing an electro album as an
acoustic album as long as it works, as long as it has
... substance.
We continued after we were dropped ( by silvertone
records ) for about a year and a half but I was blind
to the indifference of the industry around me . The
Scottish music scene tends to want to forget very
quickly any "embarrassments" in it's history books.
It was a very depressing time . I couldn't get any
gigs- I couldn't get arrested.
After this I went traveling with my girlfriend to
Amsterdam and then Paris then Andalucia and finally
back to Paris. In Amsterdam I played on the street and
in Paris I played in the bars and in spain I worked in
Captain Jumbo's washing dishes.
We returned to Edinburgh and finding out that we were
about to have a new arrival ( a son ) took a place in
Glasgow for two very hard years .
at the end of this time we moved back to Edinburgh.
About two months later i went for three months to New
York.
This was a very important time for me. There are a
thousand reasons why.
I had not been involved in the music scene for years
and thought it was all over . I just wanted a chance
to do some thing that might stir things up ( deep
things )in me.
I thought I would begin by playing the open mikes and
see where it would take me.
How could I afford this ? I took rent payments -
housing payments from the government and bought a
ticket. My partner knew I had to do it - I was ready
to jump out of a window.
I had taken a room on in which someone was going out
of the country for a while and needed the rent covered
. It was completely random I had no idea who i would
be living with .
I arrived in New york In the Snow on the 30th December
2000. I called the apartment and spoke to Matt , whom
I would be sharing with and said " Hi this is Gordon
I'm the room mate I've just arrived!"
"Well you better get over here quick cause I'm going
out"
This could be a bad start i thought as I rushed across
town with my rucksack and guitar but when the door
opened and i saw that on the wall was hung three
guitars i knew I was in luck.
I had know idea who i would be sharing with and here i
had landed in a flat with another musician!
He completely changed his attitude when he saw my
guitar and invited me out to a party.
As I sat in the back of his jeep and he ran out to get
some booze for the evening his girlfriend who i had
just met turned round to me from the front seat " so
gordon what are you doing in New York"
" I'm just gonna check out the open mikes and see what
happens"
" you should talk to Matt about that-he's the king of
the open mikes!"
What Luck!
The songs are either written from a melody or words
first.
>from a melody is harder 'cause you have to fit the
words around the tune . But then again so is finding a
tune for pre written words.
I write from what i know - or think I know . Songs are
almost always personal. for example i was on the train
on a solo tour recently and an old drunk guy fell
asleep next to me and was leaning against me . At
first I felt trapped but the as I sensed his weariness
and lifes toll I felt like mothering him . I took out
my book and wrote
lay down , rest your tired soul
If there are no diamonds , there might be coal.
I had become interested in Don Quixote after hearing
Jacques Brel singing La Reve from the musical.
Especially his relationship with the harlot Dulcinea.
I was thinking for a long time about doing something
with this idea and after a few months I picked up a
news paper about the novel where the words " Don
Quixote has a vision of Dulcinae as Mother Mary"
I don't know why but I wept and then i wrote the song.
I didn't really know what it was about but I knew it
was deeply personal to me .
I let my girlfriend hear it and she said she didn't
like it especially the ending part about " One day
I'll show you that i am no fool"
She had never been so critical before'
She left me a few days later.
We had been together 13 years.
I use the language that i am familiar with .
I read a lot of old books - I read the bible I read
mysticism i am not writing for today i am writing
forever . sometimes .
It was always Brel for me and only now have I spent
any time listening to Scott Walker . But there is
nothing you can find a song like Ash - dynamically -
that you cannot find in Jacques Brel
If the Americans want it they can have it
I would love to break my music over there and tour
But it is really up to them ie Sony in America
To shine a light into the dark and to give form to
what was ugly is the job of an artist
To return everything to beauty
And to remove what is dead
Songwriting is a process
My songs are not thought sad by people who are sad ,
they often lift the spirits and give comfort
Music is a healer
Am I sad person?
No I don't thinks so
I have a lust for life
Sophia is my wife
The song is about our life together , that we will
have our dreams and come to dust so don't hide your
light or your passion from me for life is too short
My career is already a success
Since i mastered playing a song - by my standards- I
didn't need the approval of other people.
Playing to six people in a bar in Paris i reached
heights I may never reach again in performance and
nobody saw!
How can I fail?
I would love to wake up and think
"Everything is alright
You don't have to fight again today"
I would like to meet Bowie or Lou Reed but I can be
very shy and might just go red.
Lucky Jim is an old expression for the guy that gets
the girl or has an easy time of life or who gets money
without having to work for it
A lot of people think I'm lucky but that's only cause
I keep smiling
My next goal is to record another album that I have
written and when I get the chance to finish a concept
piece which I have written about living in Paris and
which is very long then comes the electo album...
Cheers friend, an honour having you here, be well, and do enjoy the library/blog's contents, here's hoping that it'll inspire you, as your creative spirit has inspired mine, sweet dreams then...
hey you lucky jim! thank you for uploading Let it come Down, I..ve been listening to this song quite a while ago and I liked it very very much but could not remember what the title was - now I know and I picked it as my new profile song because it matches so well with my current mood. how are you? and what about uploading Sail on? I am thankful that you are in the world. kind regards, katharina*
