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Laying Waste
'Think I'll Lay Waste to Myself Tonight' (Quartet) - a drinking song. Some of the chord progression is stolen from Stevie Wonder's 'Isn't She Lovely' and it also reminds me (bizarrely) of 'Christopher Robin is saying his Prayers'. - Gerry
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Going Out
'Going Out' (Trio) - This is a minor blues, based on the changes of a 1962 Mel Tormé hit, 'Coming Home Baby'. It is dedicated it to all the subsequent England World Cup squads that have failed to emulate the successful team of 1966. This is very much in the tradition of 1960s Soul Jazz, with a familiar chord progression and funky straight 8s based groove. - Gerry
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Global Village Idiot
'Global Village Idiot' (Big Idea) - This is one of the more ambitious compositions on the album - a suite of four tunes that employ a number of different and complex chord progressions. It's dedicated to George Bush the current US president and is an attempt at programme music. I wrote it when the current tragic debacle in Iraq was just beginning. The first section seeks to evoke tension and time running out as the troops mass for embarkation. The second section is a half tempo funky march - troops getting into position. The third section develops and reprises the tension/time themes - 'war is 95% waiting/boredom and 5% terror'. The fourth section is meant to evoke resignation in the face of death and destruction and the fifth section is slower and represents peace/reflection after battle. There is then a reprise of the two first sections as the whole terrible process starts up again. - Gerry
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Getting There
'Getting There' (Quartet) - One of the two non-originals on the album, this is a song by the great Mose Alison who wrote it for me although he doesn't know that!
People ask me questions 'bout the way I've spent my life,
Thirty years in show business, only had one wife,
Of limousines and swimming pools, I didn't get my share,
But I'm not downhearted, I am not downhearted,
But I'm getting there!
In fact he probably wrote it for all musicians of a certain age for whom the limousine/swimming pool experience is kind of an infrequent occurrence. - Gerry
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Blues For Big Red
'Blues for Big Red' (Big Idea). This is a feature for Rod Sinclair on guitar and is an intentional replication of and homage to 1970s Blaxploitation movie soundtracks/and TV cop-show themes. - Gerry
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