ANOTHER MUSIC/SONG COMPARISON PIECE.
MY LITTLE SOLO SINGING EFFORT IN THE AUDIO BAR BELOW. AND BELOW THAT, A LINK TO DAVE’S RECENT VERSION OF THE SAME SONG UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE. I DON’T HAVE A DECENT XCERTS ORIGINAL VERSION OF VELVET SUITS TO SHOW YOU. DAVE RECORDED TGE YOUTUBE VERSION BELOW WITH A COUPLE OF MUSICIAN MATES. I RATHER LIKE IT. IT IS VERY CLOSE TO HIW THE ORIGINAL SOUNDED.
Back in 1978 I wrote and brought a song called ‘Faded Velvet Suits’ (FVS) to the band. A three piece of Guitar, Bass and Drums. The XCerts. It was originally to be a song of homelessness. But I then wrote it about being a musician on the road and just playing endless gigs until the early hours in many cases.
We’d arrive back at base after gigs shoving equipment back into a basement rehearsal room at 02.00 am or later after discussing the good/bad reactions with people who stuck around after gigs and simply wanted to chat. I remember the police manhandling us because they thought we were breaking into the business property of where we rehearsed. I had a hand around my throat whilst being pushed back into the building. It happened whilst putting amplifiers and speakers ‘back’ into the room from out of the van. The police thought it was a reverse procedure. That we were stealing from the business premises and loading ‘into’ the van. Easy mistake! After it was all sorted, we had a police presence at rehearsals and gigs for quite a while. We made tea for them at rehearsals and they ‘dug us’. It was very amicable.
It was the nature of connecting with the audience, and police, who wanted to be close up to and with us as friends in the band that made gigging worthwhile. We obliged in fair exchange very willingly. Dozens upon dozens of faces existed in and out of our lives in the scenario of that time over a couple of years.
Inherent in my lyrics within the FVS song is a cruel observation. ‘Look at you, oh so dull. Painted faces, party dolls. Four grey walls are not security. That’s no life, it’s obscurity’. It actually wasn’t about our audience in reality. It was my awful cynical nature on observing life and how escaping the mundane existence within life back then involved pretence. Even though we all dressed up to get out and enjoy ourselves, we still retained dullness in life’s offerings of the 9 ‘til 5 of work reality. Finishing the daily drudge and going home to a mundane claustrophobic lifestyle. Getting out to nightclubs or live music gigs was our way of escaping. The lyrics were trying to be too clever by half…which failed miserably in context. On reflection I now accept the warts and all observations of my poor lyric writing content. However. It’s how I felt at that time. Myself and my mates dressing up to get out and dream a different reality. To escape. I believe in impactful instances in life. How profound feelings generate responses in attitudes. Good or bad.
Here below is my weird acoustic recent version of FVS. I wanted to check if it may work for the new XCerts reform back together project. It is my ‘Sing into the iPad’ rendition. Pretty basic push record and sing and play guitar into the iPad inherent microphone. Why? Recording and listening is a great way to check out if it is a useful song still. Still not decided…..
In this warts and all solo effort from a few months back, there is nowhere to hide. Be gentle.
YouTube Dave Pepper version link below. Dave’s (The XCerts guitarist) modern interpretation of the song I wrote back in 1977. He re-recorded it in Spain with his two mates a few years back. Check it out by hitting the link below…..
Gray Summers 