You're Mine

Episode #170: You’re Mine  (sSong starts at 2:25) Song #112, You’re Mine, was written 1988. That sounds like a long time ago. I remember a time when 1988 was the future. When I was an exchange student in the USA in 1984, Michael J Fox was starring in Back To The Future, the first of those brilliant movies. Now it seems I’ve had a quick trip in a DeLorean to find myself in 2023 – the years have whizzed by. I’ve just found an old cassette tape of a live gig by my songwriting buddy and great friend Paul Dredge and myself. I see we recorded this on the night of 8th July, 1992. Almost 31 years ago to the day. 3rd song up: You’re Mine. It was a great gig, as it most often was with Paul. I’m at the baby grand, singing. Paul’s playing guitar and harmonising. Welcome to our gig. Having found this old version of You’re Mine on this tape, I decided to feature it on this episode… And now, welcome back now to 1998 – for a while – when I wrote this song. I’d just come back into town after 3 months away at a gig at a ski resort. I got offered a place to stay, sharing a house with a nurse friend of mine. There was someone else in town who thought perhaps it could’ve been her, I was moving in with.<br /> But I was far to young for that – just a pup. So this song began as effort to sort of smooth things over, reassure, etc. that was the starting point. Then the lyrics sort of become more expansive – and inclusive – as I take a step back. So initially, I invite the listener in, saying: ‘Look, this was what was happening in this relationship to me’ and then I look at the bigger picture – sort of a ‘couldn’t this apply to us all – this experience, these feelings…’ sort of an angle. My friend, the nurse, moved out and Paul Dredge then moved in. Brilliant: 4 nights a week gigging in a rock band, with darts afterwards til all hours. Daytimes spent writing quiet songs & learning to record together, with a 4 track recorder of Paul’s. Formative times, looking back. We were learning on the gig – and we were learning at home: we were learning to write songs. So, sitting at the piano, I had the lyrics in front of me. Scanning through, I realised they could become mawkish very quickly, so I decided a medium tempo sort a song was in order. The live version (1992), which you’ll get to hear on this episode, is a work in progress. You knock some edges off songs when you play them love. They fall into shape. That’s why gigs are so, so important. – there’s an opportunity for new songs to get some ‘air’. We were lucky, if you like. Our songs fitted in with Paul Simon’s, Elton John’s, Mark Knopfler’s, etc, at the gig. Actually, we were brave, more like it. I’m still ‘brave’ now, in 2023: after my recent performance at the Mornington Winter Music Festival, I ended up being asked to play a set of songs for a theatre group (a bunch of creatives – play writers, etc). It was fun & well received. But then I found myself playing the character of a play, having a live read through a script with other actors – a bit outside my comfort zone, but brilliant! Also, I took a phone call early on in the recording of this episode. It was the guitarist/vocalist I met at the same music festival. He’s asked me to play a gig with him this Friday. So history is repeating itself: He and I will be playing each other’s songs, playing background music – just like Paul and I did for so many nights, all those years ago. I love moments like this, especially when they happen live on the podcast. There’s a phrase I came up with in the moment on this episode: ‘purely playing’. That’s songwriting. You have your theory & your ‘chops’. In the moment, you’re totally improvising, offering something up into the air and -out of the ether- it’s seems. You’re met, somehow. The muse? Whatever you want to call it, it’s the best feeling. You have f