#music, #songwriting

She Said.

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Screenshot of the original She Said chords.

Back in The XCerts days, ‘She Said’ was a melody that our band were quite taken with. I wrote the song alongside the other two XCerts guys. My brother Kev (Zero Summers) and the guitarist Dave Pepper. We were about 2/3rds of the way through the XCerts musical story. We were writing for fun. Out of the dozens of our self written songs, I absolutely loved this one. Yet I only have a rough as rough as rough cassette copy of She said. Listen below.

My guitarist brother, Steve, at that time, loved ‘She Said’ after he heard it too. So much so that he played it live at gigs with his own band called Alibi. His band were total heavy rock, so I was surprised he wanted to play the song in his set. Unfortunately, I never heard his live gig version of it though. We were both so busy gigging in our own bands heavy schedules that we never got to each others’ gigs.

Team 23…….Gray Summers, that’ll be me, is front row, second in from the right. Jim, is here too. He went on to play in the band King. He was our guitarist, and sitting next to me. Jerome, Team 23 vocalist, was top right. Brad, The Specials’ drummer is top left. Other people here are from the band Night Doctor. I believe we were playing that night at the Marquee.

Here’s the thing! I am now in the process of getting ideas together to record both new and a few favourite old songs, at home. As touched upon in recent blogs themes. I have been chewing over thoughts of which musical considerations to include recently. It would be good now to immediately focus on getting four to five songs worked on. To be completed over the next few months. My brother Steve has been back, alongside myself, and we are playing music together again. We started our first band back in the mid 1970s and played pubs and clubs together. We did part ways in 1977. I wanted to get into playing earthy punk. He wanted to continue playing heavier rock. I don’t think he had a love for those basic punk thrash vibes. Or the safety pins! Ironically……..We never did safety pins.

Just a rock and roll band basically. An example from the write ups.

A few years later in 1981, my own direction changed from Punk/New Wave songwriting love to a Soul based influenced songwriting vibe. Tamla, Stax, Atlantic and Northern Soul sounds provided the influence to write songs to. I revisited those beautiful songs from my early listenings in the mid 1960s. I played alongside John Hewitt (drummer) in a band called Team 23, back in the early 1980s. We toured with The Specials, played with Dexys Midnight Runners and Madness. After we split the band, John and our guitarist Jim went on to play in the band ‘King’. They were pretty successful to say the least. I became a potter. As you do. Then eventually, after many experiences, a staff nurse. Now! Full circle to okay music again.

Team 23. Whatever Moves You.

Out of all the dozens of songs written over the years by myself alone or with others alongside, (Dave, Kev, and Jerome), I have about five firm favourites. One of these is, as said up top, ‘She Said’.

After the initial 40 seconds mess about with seeking how to use the ‘Mac Home Studio’ set up, I would love to focus on a couple of songs and do them properly. A new one, to be decided from a few I am getting to grips with. And a revisited much loved treasure. I passionately want to do ‘She Said’.

A GENTLE AND TENTATIVE PLAY BELOW ON MY BASS, WITH EXPLORING NERVY VOCAL, CHECKING HOW IT MAY SOUND FOR A CONSIDERED UPDATED REVISIT.

A few months back I revisited the bass line briefly and sang a little recall vocal to the tune. See above. Again, this is me once again warbling whimsy. I never sang the original main vocal. Only harmony in the chorus. Dave took the verse reigns. I would love to give it a new total new sound vibe. Now? I want Steve to revisit the song on lead guitar and John to hit the drum skins to it. Get a female vocal inclusion alongside too. It is called She Said after all. Myself to play bass and sing the verses. Kev, my brother, played drums on the original. As a few of you know, he died at 21 years old. It would be perfect to record this again in his memory.

This is one that will be a really nice blog theme project over the coming weeks. Maybe month or two. How ‘She Said’ the song once was back then and how it can be developed from the late 1970s to arrive in the new modern day here and now nearly 45 years later.

18 thoughts on “She Said.”

    1. Cheers Shep. It’s been an interesting journey all this. Gets a bit overwhelming at times. I read into how to develop by either internet advice or YouTube videos. I was reading about ‘nervous’ reactions on pushing the red record button yesterday.

      Alongside? Finding info about which type of mic works best…dynamic cardioid or condenser. And found that there are adapters for my old 1970s Shure SM58 USA mic to use with this new set up. So ordered an interface and new XLR lead to fit. How to stop reverb on condenser mics that bring in everything around you. On that little ditty from the other day, I got car sounds, window pane bounce back causing echo and reverb, and the mouse clicks for on and off sounding loud at end of each recorded single track. Ended up a bunch of chattering mouse clinks. Hence fading end of the ditty song. So….Looked at mic isolation screens made of foam. Shoving your head inside a foam lined box with the mic. Where to hang curtains or blankets for soaking up sound, etc.

      But yeah, the music experience itself is such that it doesn’t faze and put me off. Be nice to share though. Someone actually sitting alongside, playing and singing too. Just sharing the investigating and contributing in making the music. It is hard to keep self motivating really. The guys are too far away. Like that old song….by Duane Eddy I think. I’ll tweak the title to 140 miles of bad, bad road. I’ve never really done a loner thing before re: proper recording stuff. Sorry Shep. I’ve spouted on a bit. Hope your own musical recording journey is getting along nicely. Looking forward to hearing that harp of yours.

      All the best.

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    1. It’s nice you recognised me Sheila. I can’t even recognise myself from those days. If someone showed me a picture they’d taken of me from those days, I’d say ‘Who’s that!’ 😊 As I typed to Shep for answer to his beautiful comment, this is all such a fast and challenging learning curve. I don’t know your experience when pushing ‘record’ and then start singing. How the ‘nervous’ button is switched on suddenly. Thank heavens for the technological current day ability to just delete quickly and start again. As said to Shep, finding motivation and drive are the current difficulties. Introvert nature and social interactive mix and balance is a necessity. I do love the She Said song. John, our drummer, said he remembered the XCerts playing it live. I wrote this bass pattern as I wanted an open repetitive ‘tune’ after hearing Sting’s bass style. It was a bit of an eye opener that I found singing and playing bass like these patterns at the same time, not to be too difficult. I really like Kev’s drum playing on She Said too. Cheers Sheila.

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      1. Ah, we like Sting’s bass style too, Gray. And yes, I agree about Kev’s drumming. I always wanted to learn the drums but never did.
        It is fascinating that you don’t recognize yourself in older photos. Perhaps your soul knows we are each so much more than a fleshy body?
        About the nerves thing and recording, typically even if I feel a bit nervous it never shows and the first recording is best even if we do multiple takes. Ha!

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      2. If I were recording for fun and messing about only, I would chill. But this is something I want to get to a certain level. I’m no fan of my own voice anyway. But, it’s an essential that I can bring the voice to a reasonable level for the melodies I write. Thing is, the key was higher back then. And I want to bring more warmth and tone to songs. So need to find a way to get there. It’s great you can relax when singing. That shows in the voice.

        I have no visual link to my past face, but in reality I would know it was me on a photograph. 😆

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    1. He’s taken your recording to The Beatles place. Probably doing a Paul Weller new album vibe of strings overlays down on top of your harp Shep. Paul’s 66 album looks like it’ll be a corker. As yours will too. Glad you didn’t fall asleep whilst reading my reply. Cheers Shep. Looking forward to your song with 🎻🪈 and many others too. Have they got a harp emoji? 🤔 If not, why not! 😊

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      1. Funny you mentioned Paul’s new album. I’ve had a quick run through to see if there was any toons with the pocket harp – couldn’t find any. Bit of a fan and this album is a corker. As for an emoji harmonica you have to make your own – should be one as it’s the most owned instrument in the world. Thanks for your interest with the follow up single Gray and all the best with your album. SD

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      2. Cheers Shep. I loved Paul et al. in The Jam days, but fell off a bit collecting his work. Got all The Jam vinyl albums and the first Style Council album. Very remiss of me not keeping up. So 66 is a new relook, and it sounds like a real keeper like you say. The harp emoji is a cruel omission. Start a petition. 😉.

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  4. She Said is a very good song. Obvious why your brother choose to include it in his bands line up. A regular blog updating the progress of the classic She Said to the contemporary version would be a great story, worth telling.

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    1. Cheers Danny. It was great to play this recently with Steve, my guitarist brother and John, the drummer. When the three of us met up about 2 months ago in a rehearsal room, we played She Said, Satisfied and Here’s the Weekend. So we already have an idea of how they sound. All very decent. The biggest thinking on my mind presently Danny, is getting to grips with this Apple studio technology. Making the songs sound okay when recording and mixing. And flying solo in seeking out all this and getting decent results is a bit daunting presently. It’ll get there, but I have to tread softly. Thanks for your positive comments Danny. They are priceless. And give a lift to get this project realised.

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    1. Thanks Destiny. Just going through lots re: learning currently. And seeing those past levels of recordings being so simple, it gives a bit of an opportunity now to get things done that will hopefully sound clear and have more dynamics. Cheers Destiny.

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    1. Made me smile. But you’re right. It is a bitching song cookie. Seriously, it is in my top fave XCerts songs. The fast paced Satisfied is there too. It’s a shame I never had the original recordings to use nowadays. Just these awful copies of copies of copies. And mainly on multiple recorded over cassette tapes too. We couldn’t afford to buy multiple blank cassettes back then. We must have all our songs on the original four track tape recordings still. But unfortunately I can never see being able to access them again. I believe they are with the ZAMA publishing crew who we were with at that time. So who knows where they are! In some cardboard box in an attic.

      Hope your own song writing is going well. Decide your own timeline on all this cookie. Weeks, months, years. Like November, the Stereo and You…….it was thought of and played 20 years ago! Then just forgotten. I will now revisit, write extra bits onto it and record it all anew. So writing songs? They certainly do have their own time lines. Cheers cookie.

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