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'ENGLISH BOY WONDERS' LYRICS
For 'English Boy Wonders' lyrics click here
ABOUT 'ENGLISH BOY WONDERS'
In July 1993, in the middle of recording 'Goodbye To The Age Of Steam', I spent a lot of time between takes developing the chord sequence for a new song called 'Albion Perfide'. Albion got close to being ready to record for Age of Steam but instead it was held back for the next album English Boy Wonders which, in the end, would not be released for another four years.
Despite the presence of a track from Age of Steam days, English Boy Wonders marked a change in direction for Big Big Train. The album was an attempt to loosen up our music, giving greater space for improvised passages. At the same time, the polished production of the previous album gave way to a more direct sound influenced by RADIOHEAD's 'The Bends'.
As usual, we produced a full working demo of the album and this was completed by the beginning of 1995. However, unlike Age of Steam, the album, when finally released in 1997, had very little in common with its originating demo. Many new tracks were added to the album in the intervening period and others, such as Brushed Aside and Mr Boxgrove Man, were largely re-written. One track, the 10 minute Big Empty Church, was abandoned only to make a re-appearance as part of For Winter on the later Bard album. Another track on the demo but not on the album was a new version of Lincoln Green, which had been originally released on the Infant Hercules demo tape.
So, what happened? Well, we had decided to record the album over a period of a few months rather than the short sessions for Age Of Steam. The extended recording gave the chance for newer tracks to emerge which then had to be fitted into the recording schedule. This in turn had the effect of further delaying things. At times, the whole process felt a bit chaotic and disjointed.
Time, now, to mention the individual tracks on the album. I'll start with those that survived from the original demo, even though some arrangements were changed.
Big Empty Skies was inspired by a Twilight Zone moment, a UFO sighting seen by a friend and, indeed, about half of the population in the midlands region. I wondered, if we did get a visitation, what they would make of our miserable political and religious leaders. The track's working title was 'Take Me To Your Leader', which Steve amended to 'Take My Hand Lord Jesus'. Big Empty Skies segues into Brushed Aside, a song about Scott of the Antarctic. Brushed Aside dissolves into a jammed drum and piano section, played by Steve and new keyboard player, Tony Muller.
Tony is a classically trained pianist and there is a lot of piano playing on the album. In fact we blew a lot of the budget on booking an expensive studio in London equipped to record grand piano. Listening back to the album, it was worth it; Tony's performances are strong, and the piano sounds very good. A Giddy Thing, the next track was originally intended to be on classical guitar but the chords were handed to Tony at the very end of the piano recording session and his first interpretation made the album. The instrumental passage at the start of Giddy is a fast and tricky piece of music, with a strong performance by Steve. The guitar solo was improvised and was lifted straight from the original 8-track home demo. Lyrically, the song is a ballad, influenced by 'Much Ado About Nothing'.
28 Years was a Martin Read composition which I arranged for two 12-string guitars. Martin Orford guests on flute. Pretty Mom was also based around 12-strings, but was an out and out pop song, influenced by PREFAB SPROUT.
The mood of the album then darkens, with the very heavy introduction to Out Of It. This track again contains some strong drumming over a challenging instrumental passage in 15/8 time.
Two more songs made it from the original demo - the afforementioned and, in terms of composition, slightly out of place Albion Perfide and Mr Boxgroveman. Albion Perfide was a strange hybrid of pop song and progressive music which is a bit of a curate's egg. Mr Boxgroveman was an almost completely different track from the earlier version. Indeed, Mr Boxgroveman in its new incarnation was one of three tracks from a suite of newer compositions which closed the album. These dark epics were bookended by two shorter songs, and we think that all five of these tracks are amongst our best work.
First of the longer closing pieces was The Shipping Forecast. This lengthy track was debuted in February 1997, prior to the album release, at the Astoria, London. Next up was Mr Boxgroveman which was also debuted at the same gig. The song's closing section begins with a noisy piece of guitar feedback. To obtain this, Rob Aubrey, the band's recording engineer, had to turn up the enormous studio monitors onto full volume. For about 10 seconds Rob sat within inches of the monitors as the feedback grew to a scream. At its end, Rob seemed to have been visibly aged by the experience!
Reaching For John Downland was based on the experiences of the victim of a road traffic accident who was known to the band. The victim suffered from the temporary effects of a serious head injury and whilst drifting in and out of consciousness was able to describe his surreal and bizarre dreams to his then wife. Much of the imagery in the song was taken straight from those dreams.
As for the shorter 'bookend' pieces, Right To The End Of The World is a two minute song which successfully covers a lot of territory whilst Fell Asleep closed the album on a poignant note, a song about childhood and about things that might have been.
Another three tracks were recorded for the album, one of which, Cloudless & Starry & Still made it on to the CD whilst the other two didn't; Two Poets Meet, which was a fusion instrumental (later released on the Japanese version of Age of Steam) and Full Bodied I Said, a ballad which has not yet seen the light of day.
English Boy Wonders was released in Autumn 1997.
Gregory Spawton
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