approaching storm, Little Cove, Noosa
When Clouds first starts you hear percussion, accordion, and then a classical guitar melody in octaves. This guitar was in fact the melody until I found myself singing a counterpoint, and so what started as an instrumental morphed into a song, as sometimes happens. But I kept the original lead guitar in as a sort of greek chorus to the vocal. And once again I thought I might be able to sing this myself, but then imagined how much better if Joe Camilleri sang it instead. Joe and I go way back to the late 70′s when I joined Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons after returning from a spell in the UK. I could imagine him singing this song in his gravelly Dr. John voice, and contacted him about it, with some little trepidation as he is always so busy. But he generously agreed to give it a listen, and then to have a stab at it. We supplied the backing track and also my vocal as a guide, and he worked on it himself at his own studio. Some little time followed, with up-date messages from Joe as to the projects interrupted progress… but when the result finally came through I felt sure that the time taken was a result of Joe’s typical dedication to his craft; that he made sure he did the best version that he could possibly do. Certainly his interpretation and performance speaks for itself.
Rather than the ‘gravelly’ voice, Joe chose what I think of as his Elvis Costello voice (references to other singers is my way of describing, but all these ‘voices’ are unmistakably Joe’s own), rich with tremolo. And he departed from my melody and phrasing to put his own take on the song, even leaving out a line towards the climax, preferring to leave the slide guitar to express the emotion I was trying to sing in my version.
This slide guitar, coupled with some rare shredding and power chords, represent a guitar voice that I don’t use on my records very much. It’s funny really, but the sound of my wailing SG Gibson special that I’ve been playing since 1968 and which has been my trademark throughout my career I can’t seem to find a place for very often in my current work. It’s not that I don’t want to, its just that I find that the classic distorted guitar often sounds cliched to me, and even, dare I say it… just a bit naff!
But I think it works here though, coming in with the rhythm section just as the accordion line turns intro strings for the second verse. As usual I have steel acoustic guitars playing the chords, one on either side. A word here as well to compliment Craig Pilkington at Audrey Studio for getting such a great sound on Tony Floyd’s drums, as well as the excellent mix, and to Bruce Haymes at Parkside Studios for the parts he recorded. Tony Floyd with Steve Hadley… who could ask for a better rhythm section? The organ and synth strings I recorded at home.
The lyric starts off a bit randomly. I sang these words spontaneously when I first got the idea of putting the vocal on. Many times I tried to come up with something else that had a bit more meaning to it, but nothing seemed to sound as good, so I kept the first verse as is. Then finally I found a second verse that seemed to suggest something, without coming right out and saying it, and I took it from there. My message is that we all stand at a crossroads. Although we didn’t ask to be put in this position, unless we rise to the current challenge our lovely world is doomed. Climate change is an issue we all have to deal with, but to state the case directly sounds a bit preachy in a pop song. Instead, I’ve just tried to hint at what I’m trying to say, and to express musically what I find difficult to put into words. That is; don’t drive the clouds away…